A to P 11: Cranes

Our pilot identified Titan, located in Gamboa,  as “Herman the German.”  Any idea why?

She’s a floating crane, docked along the Canal but still in service.  She was one of four built in Germany for the Kriegsmarine in 1941.  From 1946 until 1994, she worked in Long Beach as YD-171.  And in 1997 she was moved to the Panama Canal.  According to this technical site (with good photos) she has lifting capacity of 350 tons.

Near the Balboa train station  I saw Bucyrus steam railway crane, No. 64, one of the originals from the 100+ year ago construction.

I took this photo from a bus while passing land side of the Balboa container port.

 

At several of the locks, Ohio cranes stand at the ready.  Maintenance on gates and valves is performed while traffic is passing; hence the crane on the lock.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Random Tugs 173

Let’s pick it up in Toledo, OH and the century-old GL tug Mississippi.

“Dieselized” 41 years after its launch, it still steers with a brass tiller in the wheelhouse, as demonstrated here by Captain Stabler.

Keep good paint and in repair, and a 1929 tug like  Nebraska still has lots of life left.  Compare that boat to its terrestrial counterpart, a 1929 Mack truck.

Mighty John III is a 1962 tugboat. The bands in the water distinguish sunlight from shadow in the Maumee silt water.

 

Sea Eagle II is Louisiana built but now flagged Edmonton, AB.

 

Pioneerland dates from 1943.

Titan, here in the River Rouge, dates from 1940.

Sheila Kaye is 65′ loa built in 1943.  Was it originally a government boat?

Here in the St. Clair River is a small unit about which I know nothing.  That’s Canada on the far bank.

Karen Andrie dates from 1965.

And finally, from my sister in Frankfort MI, it’s the 1956 Kurt R. Luedtke.

The last photo comes from my sister;  all others by Will Van Dorp.

 

Port of Cienfuegos

Here are many previous posts in this series.  If you have photos of a port I’ve not yet featured, please send them along.

Today’s port might be one you’ve not heard of.  To tell the truth, neither had I until I had the opportunity to sail into it.  Faro Luna marks the east end of the entrance to the port.  The first classic car I saw–a bright aqua 1953 Ford–sped along a road behind the lighthouse.

After a winding entrance of several miles, the large bay opens up, showing in the east the foothills of the Escambray Mountains.

Bustein is a small aggregate carrier that shuttles between southern Cuba and the Caymans.

5 de Septiembre was the first tugboat I saw, not long after anchoring.

Here is XII Festival pushing oil barge PT 400 Z.

A light tanker Kalikratis waited at anchor.

Several small craft skittered across the bay, this one for passengers and

these probably headed outside to fish.

Nearer the port was a scrapyard

and some older tugs (l to r) Titan and II Frente Oriental.  If I read this right, Titan was built east of Moscow on a tributary of the Volga River.  II Frente Oriental is also Russian built.

Perla del Sur is Cuban built from 2007,

whereas Tormenta 1, 2004, comes from Romania.

Here both Perla del Sur and Tormenta 1 head out at dusk for an assist.

And with this post, chugster has returned to the tugster label, and in the next post, intends to return to the sixth boro.

Random Tugs 119

First . . . this foto by Bob Dahringer of Katherine (1979 in Louisiana).  As of this writing, Bob is back upriver playing with Hudson River ice cubes.

Next . . . this foto from Key West, thanks to my sister, who’s gotten a camera upgrade.  Yay!  A few years ago, I was snorkeling–sans camera–off a Key West beach and came up to notice two tugboats that looked a lot like these.  My first thought then was–wow!  K-Sea tugs in the Conch Republic.  My second thought was . . . I have no camera and therefore no one will ever believe me.  I’m now pretty sure I saw Titan (1974 in Long Beach, CA) and Ocean Atlas (1964 in San Diego, California).

Brian DeForest took this foto of Marjorie B. McAllister (1974 in Louisiana) last week of a very icy sixth boro.

And recently . . . in a springy waterboro of NYC, Brendan Turecamo (1975 in Louisiana) assisted a tanker on its way out to sea,

Doris Moran (1982 in Louisiana) assisted a chemical tanker into port, and

Miss Niz  (2003 from Alabama) moved some dredging equipment around.  Note the survey boat–Michele Jeanne–reading the bottom contours over on the Bayonne side.

Thanks much to Bob, Maraki, and Brian for use of their fotos.