Retro Sixth Boro 58

February 2013 saw Patrick Sky still working in the boro. 

The walkway still flanked the west side of the Bayonne Bridge, which allowed images like the ones that follow. Sun Right and Suez Canal Bridge were regulars. Since then the 1993 Sun Right has been scrapped.  The 2002 Suez Canal Bridge continues to work under the name Suez Canal.   Container capacity for the two vessels comes in at 2205 and 5610, respectively. 

Winter 2013 saw these pipelines getting staged and buried across Bergen Point.  I believe they were these for natural gas, somewhat controversial at the time.  If so, it’s interesting to note the message here on “natural gas” compared with a shift in attitude that seems to be gaining traction.

It was the view of vessels rounding Bergen Point in the morning light I enjoyed the most back then. 

Let’s follow Sun Right around, here assisted by Ellen McAllister and Marjorie B. McAllister. Out below, that’s Shooters Island, Port Ivory, and Elizabethport in the distance.

 

The benefit of the lower bridge was 

proximity to the vessel and 

crew.  Obviously, that proximity was also its drawback; the global fleet increased in size and air draft with the obvious impediment to container ship traffic in the boro.  

I recall the crew below seemed eager to have their photos taken.  I wonder where these guys are, a decade on.   See the whole series differently here. 

All photos in early February 2013. 

Retro Sixth Boro 10

In only ten years, a lot of changes have happened in the sixth boro.  I wish I’d started this blog 30 years ago to document even more, but 1988 predated blogs, the internet, and digital photography.  Wow . . . how did people relate back then?

Joking aside, let’s see some that have moved on.  On January 11, 2009 Kristin Poling, the 1934 tanker, still operated.

January 12.  Sun Right, built 1993 and already dead, moved westbound in the KVK escorted by Eileen McAllister.  What’s remarkable to me is how large the tug looks in compared to the ship in contrast to tugs today looking miniature on the stern of a ULCV.

Five minutes later . . . Odin.  Indeed I was smitten by this unusual vessel, which has since moved to the South and lost her ability to rise up as if on hind legs.  I’ve no sense of what it was like to work on her.

January 15.  Never did I imagine then that this Dean Reinauer would be replaced by this Dean.

January 18  The boro’s big story of January 2009, of course, was the plane crash in the Hudson.  Here the efforts to lift the USAir Flight 1549 out of the water have just begun.  Thomas stands by Weeks 533.

January 29  NYC DEP’s Red Hook had just arrived in the harbor, and it seemed she was escorted everywhere by James Turecamo. Sine then, NYC DEP has added a  whole new generation of sludge tankers aka honey boats.

January 31  Taurus has become Joker, another intriguingly named tugboat operated not in NYC but Philadelphia area by Hays Tug and Launch, with fleet mate names like Purple Hays, High Roller, Grape Ape, and more.

Let’s leave it there.  Happy new year’s greetings still ring in my ears, leaving me with an ongoing inexplicable smile and desire to treat all with respect.  Go out of your way to smile at someone today.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, whose smile gets hidden by a respirator whenever he goes into the archives on Tugster Tower.

 

Random Tugs 100

I’ve held off moving from 99 to 100 because 100 suggested I do something special, but ultimately, I decided that random means random, so here it is.  Guess the location if not the tug?  It IS sixth boro. Answer at the end of the post.

Almost 30-year-old Franklin Reinauer  entered the Narrows light as Sun Right departed the other day.

Less than an hour earlier, Emerald Coast (1973) overtook the same Sun Right at the turn around Bergen Point.   I’ve seen Sun Round recently (although I didn’t take a foto) here but not Sun Road.  Are there more in this Manila-registered series?

Note the small tug assisting with Energy 11105 barge  . . .

pushed by (?) Liberty Service.  It’s Freddie K Miller, which I first met as Stapleton Service, even though that was not the first identity for this 1966 built tug.

Susan Miller (1981) meets Akinada Bridge –named for a Hiroshima bridge–at the Narrows recently.

Coho lighters G. Agamemnon.  Has repainting started on any of the ex-Penn boats?

Comet (1977) heads under the Bayonne Bridge, while (?) Brian Nicholas following.

Atlantic Salvor (1976) followed Atlantic Coast (2007) into the sixth boro the other day.

Resolute (1975) escorted in  Americas Spirit.

Finally . . . that first foto . . . it’s Diane B southbound in Eastchester Bay (til now a tugster-neglect portion of the sixth boro) with Throg’s Neck Bridge in the background.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Unrelated:  Does anyone know if and when Athena was scrapped?

Touchdown

The body language is clear:  “Touchdown.”  The surroundings and uniform, however, are way wrong.

Pull back a little and

. .. yup . . . definitely not football or rugby.  It’s Sun Right leaving town for the Panama Canal around 11:30 today.

Watch her make the swing at Bergen Point leveraged by Ellen McAllister at the bow and Marjorie B McAllister near the stern.

She ran the distance from the goal posts at Bayonne Bridge to those at the Narrows in about 55 minutes, and after that

no potential tacklers had

any chance of catching her.  Now it’s a straight shot . . . about 2000 nautical miles, translating to about four days.

All fotos this morning by Will Van Dorp, who has no intention of breaking a consistent record of watching a grand total of zero superbowls since 1967.

Random Ships 6

A half year has sped past since the previous installment of random ships here.   I went today looking for ice fotos, but found nothing chunky in the sixth boro;  I might though when I get upriver this weekend.  Not to say it was warm;  my fingers froze as I took this shot of –what–Nordic Helsinki, the very sound threatens hypothermia.

With relief, I found vessels with warmer names as well, like NCC Hijaz, named for the high desert,

African Joy (actually in the harbor Christmas Day), and

Sun Right. And if I had to choose a ship’s name to conjure up hot, sweaty thoughts, it’d be

Sun Right (ex-Ever Right), of course.

But in spite of such a warm name, my fingers could still barely push the shutter button.  More ice soon.  Take special care the rest of this week.

If you really like ice, you might head up to the Knickerbocker Ice Festival.

Photos, WVD.

Convergence 3

Meetings always bring promise, but too many promising convergences disappoint and potential dissipates, and pairs unpair. Paths diverge.

The sea is so large and its pull so compelling. Some head for the light…

…and others for darkness.

Tomorrow . . . more on this dark ship and (lol) why it may be skulking away.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.