Retro Sixth Boro 14

I hope you all are enjoying these glances back a decade as much as I enjoy putting them together.  If you weren’t paying attention back then, this hints at how much the traffic in the harbor has changed, just as it has on the roads.  If you were watching back in spring 2009, you might have this same appreciation at the changes;  In addition, you might be amazed how quickly time has passed.  Maybe you’ve forgotten about some of these boats.

Pegasus, quo vadis?  I’ve heard some ominous scuttlebutt, the kind you’d hear about any 112-year-old vessel. Your project site is still up.  Here she was in front of the Hoboken Terminal, which opened the same year–1907–as Peg was launched.

 

Starboard view and port .  . it’s the 1968 McAllister Girls . . . if she’s still around, I’ve not seen her in quite some time. In the background over near the Jersey City river’s edge, Clipper City and Pioneer sail toward each other.

Ditto the 1977 Sisters.

Ellen (1967) and Amy C (1976) are still active in the harbor, but it’s been years since APL Cyprine has called here.

The 1978 Mary Gellatly has been sold up down east, and last I knew, working as Alice Winslow for Winslow Marine Inc.  out of Southport Maine.

The K-Sea fleet in the sixth boro in 2009 was quite large.  Norwegian Sea was a workhorse on the Hudson;  now she’s Miss Rui operating for Smith Maritime. 

Houma (1970) has been scrapped.

Taurus (1979) recently reappeared here as Joker.

Onrust was launched into the Mohawk River in May 2009, and I believe she will again be sailing out of Essex CT.  Her splash up and over the riverbank trees was quite spectacular.

All photos a short 10 years ago by Will Van Dorp.

 

Retro Sixth Boro 11

My rules for this series:  all photos need to have come from the month in focus but exactly 10 years earlier.  It’s a good way to notice change.

Take Capt. Log.  I used to love seeing that boat, now long scrapped.  I have photos of her as a heap of scrap pieces and have never posted them.  I’m guessing the Chandra B crew are happy to have that new boat, but Capt. Log was such a unique sight.

Baltic Sea . . .   I’d love to see a current photo of her from Nigeria.  See more of her departed K-Sea fleet mates here.  Sunny Express is now Minerva Lydia, and still working, I think.

Taurus has moved to the Delaware River and has some splotches of purple a la Hays.

Volunteer has been scrapped.

The orange June K is now the blue Sarah Ann . . . .   I still miss that color….

Charles Oxman is no longer in service . . .  I last saw her here in 2016.

APL Egypt used to be a regular here, and of course John B. Caddell . . .had only a few years left at this point before getting cut up.  For a “what’s left . . .” of John B., click here and scroll.

I’m not saying everything is gone or has changed.  Walker and Salvor still work here and –to the untrained eye–look exactly as they did a decade ago, even though these days from any distance, I  can’t tell the distance between Atlantic Salvor and Atlantic Enterprise.  And those crewing on these two vessels, I can’t tell if anyone working then on each boat still does. For Walker, it’s very likely it’s an entirely new crew.

I hope you enjoyed this glance back.

All photos in February 2009 by Will Van Dorp.

 

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.

 

Really Random Tugs 33 and More

I’m trying to catch up with the photos you all have been good enough to share on tugster.  The first five here come from some salts up on the Caloosahatchee Canal in Florida.  John Parrish was westbound here, but a week later it showed up in the sixth boro, and by publication of this post, it’s already back to Norfolk.   That’s some sea miles.  Here are some of my previous photos of John Parrish.

Also, westbound in that Canal, it’s Brittany Beyel.  She’s Beyel Brothers equipment, who have a dramatic photo on that link.

This one’s eastbound on the Canal with a crane.  I can’t quite make out the name, but the the steersman has great visibility.

Boomalong was getting hauled out.  Her fine lines made me think she has a storied past, and it turns out she does.  She began life in 1944 in Owen Sound, ON as HMCS Neville, HMCS being Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship.   She’s a Russel Brothers boat that has been around, currently quite far from

Sault Ste. Marie.

Thanks to Jed, who previously contributed many photos, here’s a photo and text:  “it’s Stephanie S (1986) returning to Port Canaveral after escorting the bulk carrier VENTURE out of the port.”

photo date 11 MARCH 2016

From Birk Thomas, it’s Barents Sea, now over in Port Newark, having moved for the first time in at least five years.  She looks rough, but I’m hoping there’s a make-over in the works for her.   If she moves again, I’d love to see some photos.

 

Here’s my photo of W. O. Decker, docked at Caddell Dry Dock, being worked on  . . . or waiting for Wavertree to make her promenade back to South Street.

From Jason LaDue, here’s a good view of the underbelly of Grouper, frequently referred to in this blog.  Such belly will be visible until the pool level of the Erie Canal is brought back up for the start of the season.  Jason’s also a frequent contributor.

Now here’s an oldie but goodie from the other JED.  It shows Labrador Sea and Taurus, significant because now that Taurus is being phased out, Labrador Sea–which had worked on the Mississippi and Gulf for the past few years, has moved back up here into Taurus‘ place, I’m told.   And they’re in K-Sea colors.

And I said “and more” in the title?  Here’s the more, a new dock book from Tony Acabono.  If it’s your business to know where berth 60 is in Port Elizabeth in relation to berth 61 in Port Newark, you might want to check it out.

Many thanks to the secrets salts and the not-so-secret ones for sending along these photos.

 

Awareness 2

Here are some photos from last year’s October breast cancer awareness campaign.

The idea of an annual breast cancer awareness month dates back to 1985.  Since at least last year, some US tugboat companies have also joined in the effort to promote mammography and all else for early detection.

I hope you are as impressed as I am.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Random Traffic August 2015

For as multipurpose as sixth boro waterways are in summertime, my perception is that safety prevails.  RORO, barge on a short wire, and canoe stay well apart.

Ditto here with spacing.

PWCs . .  I’ll never be a fan.

Foreshortening masks the fact that from a vantage point like Fort Wadsworth . . . I can see over 10 miles.

The traditional ship here was launched in 1997;  the tug beyond  . . . in 2001.

My only question is where that classy yellow sand is going.  TZ Bridge?

All photos recently by Will Van Dorp.

 

Port of Belfast, ME

Belfast probably has fewer people than does my block in Queens, but it jam packed with character.  In fact, I wanted to move there after spending a single weekend there two years ago.  Here and here are some posts I did from there.

Many thanks to Tom Mann for these photos, taken in July 2015. Notable among vessels in port, the exquisite Cangarda.  Here’s a post I did on it five years ago. Click here for the truly unique Cangarda, built in 1901 and almost lost several times.

This is their 400-ton crane.

From l. to r., it’s Fournier Tractor and Taurus.  In case you didn’t click on all the links above, click here to see a photo I took of the Fournier Tractor a few years back, as well as a warning sign in case anyone thinks about usurping a parking spot in front of the Fournier Towing and Ship Service office.

Notice that the blue here matches the blue on the tug below, which happens to be the 1944 Capt. Mackintire of Eastport Port Authority.

I’m not sure who the current owner of Fort Point is.  She’s the 1970 YTB-809.

Cape Race is a frequent fixture of Atlantic Basin in Brooklyn.  Does anyone know what’s current with Wanderbird, which came into Long Island Sound about two weeks ago.  Wanderbird is a similar repurposed North Sea trawler . . . as an expedition yacht.

I can’t sign off without another photo of the steam yacht Cangarda, built at Pusey & Jones in 1901, originally for a lumber magnate in Manistee, Michigan, named Charles J. Canfield.

Again, many thanks to Tom Mann for these photos.

 

Change 3

Here was 2.

So let’s remember how Viking looked in 2011, and

how she looked this past week.

Ditto . . . here was Annabelle V. Roehrig is early 2008, which

looked like this in 2009.  Notice the pins in the modified bow.

And here she was this weekend, departing Bayonne with

assistance from Taurus, which itself

has changed from this in 2009 to

this today.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who along with the rest of us . . . never changes.  Ha!

Random Tugs 109 Plus

All fotos here from yesterday . ..

Liberty Service as you may never have seen her.  Here (third foto in this link) she was four years ago.

Ditto Huron Service.  Repainting on Huron seems farther along than that on Liberty.   Here’s how Huron Service looked a year and a half ago.   Get ready for Genesis Energy. 

In the past year, this Pegasus has sprouted an upper wheelhouse;  compare with here.

Welcome to the waters around Houston.  Well . ..  I do mean the 118,000-barrel barge married to Linda Moran.  Uh . . . do tugs and barges ever get divorced?

Trucks on the water pushed by Shawn Miller.

I realized only later that–had my conveyance lingered here–I would have seen Catherine C. Miller push past with FIVE trailers/tractors on a barge.  See her in the distance there beyond the bow of  RTC 83.

Reinauer Twins waits alongside RTC 104 with a faux lighthouse in the background.

Lucy Reinauer–earlier Texaco Diesel Chief built in Oyster Bay NY–is the push behind RTC 83.

DBL 29 pushed (ok, will. . .  open eyes.  thanks for the correction.)  moved alongside by Taurus.  See some of my previous Taurus fotos here and here.

And thanks to wide-eyed bowsprite, a vessel I’ve not seen before pushing stone.  It’s Patricia.  She reminds me of a vessel I spotted along the road a few years back . . . Hoss.

So, this is the “plus” in the title, the group-sourcing request portion of this post:  what company is operating Patricia?

And another question . . . from an eagle-eyed upriver captain.  Notice the weather instruments on this channel marker just off Bannerman’s Island (I am planning to do another post on this unique location north of West Point.) And . . .

here are more weather instruments on this federally-maintained channel marker off the Rondout.  Questions:  who’s responsible for these and is there a website where  the data collected can be monitored?

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, except for the last three, which come from bowsprite and Capt. Thalassa.

Speaking of bowsprite, today she’s running Radio Lilac and I’ll be there tending bar.  Here’s something of the inspiration.  Come on by if you have the time.  Teleport in if you’re otherwise out of range.

Taurus Heads Upriver

I had no idea why Fred Johannsen (47′ loa x 18′ and launched 1971) showed up at the east end of the KVK, westbound.

But a few hours later, she reappeared  . . . with a dead ship.

Taurus, identified on the VHF as a dead ship?!  !@#@!!

Up to Kingston she goes, and at 3 kts fighting the flood, it’s

going to be a long ride.

Click here for a post of almost five years ago when Taurus herself moved another dead ship.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.