Really Random Tugs 5

In case you worried that Patty Nolan‘s figurefigure would go unrefurbished, check this out . .  and just in time for the holiday.  The 1931 vessel is updated, state-of-the-art, and decent!  More Patty soon.    If you don’t get the “figurefigure” reference, well, this is a “headless” and limbless figurehead.

If you’re really coordinated with screen controls, you can tour 1939 Hudson, the only pre-war sea tug museum in the Netherlands.

Here’s Hudson posing with Elisabeth, Netherlands 2011 tug of the year.  Click here to tour Hudson‘s engine room and see the Burmeister & Wain engine.

Ellen McAllister –that nose packs a terrific punch–rafts up with Nathan E. Stewart –now in the Pacific Northwest?–after the 2009 Hudson River tug race;  the 2011 race will happen in LESS THAN two months.

Barbara McAllister (1969, ex-Bouchard Boys, ex- T. J. Sheridan)  here pushes Bouchard No. 282 out of Port Jefferson.

And back in the sixth boro, here’sOSG Horizon and barge OSG 351 on possibly their first foray in these waters.  Assist tug is Elizabeth McAllister (1967).  Horizon is the twin of

OSG Vision.  Another of the design is planned.  Any guesses on the name?

Credits here go to David Williams, Fred Trooster, moi-meme for Ellen and Nathan, Justin Zizes, and John Watson.

And an announcement, this blog leaves on a gallivant tomorrow and may be silent for the better part of a week.  We hope to surface in Jacksonville, Miami, Key West, and Dry Totugas.    Cheers.

Whole Lotta Dredgin’ 4

Digging requires claws.  Claws inspire primal dread.  Dredge machines seem beclawed in groteque ways.  And they’re huge, like the ape that scrambled up the Empire State building.  I waited long but in vain to line up these talons and the tower in the distance, but I’m sure you can visualize the effect.  Imagine the headline:  dredge machine grapples its way as the large ape did first in 1933.  Please keep those climbing beasts sequested in the southern Upper Bay of the sixth boro … or farther.

Call it ooze, mud, or fluff … no matter.  Ick!  Dispose of it please,  Captain D.

It spatters when it ends its route from bottom of the harbor to bottom of the scow.

I’d be very nervous walking there.  I know it’s safe, but irrational fears–like ones that make you run in the dark or for me swim quick in dark, deep water–would surface with me cause me to look up.

How many cubic miles of bottom  have been removed in the

past century of pantagruelish bottom removal?

Some years back I wrote about a dredger off Jones Beach here, which I was reminded of when I heard the dredger Vespucci was troubled by pirates off Cameroon (my home from 1975–7, last of my Peace Corps years). See another article here.   How dare these pirates . . . I guess they don’t have my dredgerphobias.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who understands the efficacy, sometimes,  of  claws and other grotesqueries.

Really Random Tugs 2

The “really random” posts are just that.  I believe what follows, is.

Thanks to Jeff Schurr and Dave Boone, behold Bloxom in her better days, in this case during her life as a Pennsylvania RailRoad tug.  Bloxom has been on this blog here and here and other places.  Anyone else know Bloxom PRR fotos?

Also thanks to Jeff and Dave, Ned Moran below in work mode compared with a foto of the vessel (scroll down to the last one)  I took a few months back.   I have to say there’s so little left of the vessel now that it’s hard to corroborate their being the same vessel.

Mighty Joe (ex-Maria) in the Hughes Marine portion of Erie Basin yesterday.

This is my first ever sighting of Marquette’s  Layla Renee, defying a current trend as a Gulf boat working up here.

When I last posted a foto of  a Marquette boat, I also included one of Colleen McAllister.  Yesterday she looked powerful pulling a deepladen dredge scow.

Last three fotos here taken by Will Van Dorp, last week.  The next two come from Cheryl, an important friend from way back.  Both were taken in Holland, Michigan.  First, it’s James Harris, one of 10 Army STs built in the first half of 1943 in Sturgeon Bay, WI; and

Haskal, about which I can find no info.  The design of  Haskal looks older than that of  James Harris.  Anyone help out?

Again, thanks to Cheryl, Jeff, and Dave for contributing fotos.

Unrelated:  I’ve added a new link to my “resources”   a list of all (maybe) US-flag operators of tug and tow boats.

Random Tugs 56

Carfloat, front heavy,  moving from Jersey to

Brooklyn under the powers of Charles D. McAllister.    Remember that double click enlarges most fotos.  Notice the graffittoed railcars and the immaculate tug and barge.

Another shot of the mighty Brangus tending to the teeth of Florida, with more to come soon.

Treasure Coast pushing

uh . .  cement.

Meagan Ann noses along a barge of crushed

cars that may until recently have traveled along those roads.

Tarpon moves asphalt barge (?) Potomac up toward the Buttermilk.

Thomas D. dispatches more cars to the scrappers.

Pegasus the younger sports new primer paint.

Susan Miller and

Dorothy J (?) move spud barges.  Rae seems to be along for the ride.

And can anyone tell me the name of this small Reinauer tanker?

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Two Hours of the Hudson 3

Thirteen months ago I last used this title;  it seems summer appropriate.  Look carefully at the foto below and the one that follows.

Same or different?  Barbara McAllister gives portside assist.

The huge orange Eagle Beaumont is in both fotos, but the 40′ Coast Guard boats . . . look at the numbers on the bow, one ending in 50 and the other 81.

Dolphin III had a group of divers over the side.  That’s Sea Raven in the background.

Seeing a cutter suction head emerge from the water might make me afraid to dive, but dredge vessel Florida

only raised it to have some dental

work performed by the crew on the barge attached to Brangus.  More Brangus soon, since there seems to be some new equipment mounted to the visor (hard to see)  that reminds me of sport at Pamplona.

Hoegh Pusan hangs on the hook as

Laura K heads out to meet an assist.

I can’t recall seeing the crew boat Alert before yesterday, or

Little Giant.

Parting shot of Heron.

I really am back.  More sixth boro fotos tomorrow.

All fotos taken Wednesday morning by Will Van Dorp.

Really Random Tugs

Thanks to Amy Bucciferro for the first two fotos here taken in San Francisco in early May.  From left to right here, Japanese training barque Kaiwo Maru II, unidentified AmNav tugs, and SFFD fireboat Guardian.  The AmNav tugs are either  Independence (farther) and Patricia Ann (nearer).

Below is 1914 tug Eppleton Hall, seaworthy enough in 1970 to travel from the North Sea to San Francisco via the Panama Canal.  For a foto of “Eppie” under way, click here.   (I love the “save the Eppie” art, for the aesthetic of the late 1960s.  Anyone know of a larger, more detailed version?)

Crowley Valor is bow escort for Vancouver Express into Seattle.

Foss Pacific Star awaits the signal to ease Cosco Antwerp off the pier, bound for sea.

Andrew Foss glides northbound toward bulker Tian Yu Feng.

Log bronc Skillful finds haven on Lake Union near Center for Wooden Boats’ Northwest Seaport.

Truckable tug Lynx stands by in Newcastle harbor.

In Bremerton and behind a fence, it’s YTB 828 Catahecassa.  Read the sign on the fence?  Catahecassa was a Shawanee chief.

Also behind the fence is YTB 779 Manhattan.  When I thought to try to get a closer, unobstructed foto, I

saw another sign, clearly, that reiterated what I couldn’t quite read on that other sign.

First two fotos by Amy Bucciferro;  all others by Will Van Dorp.

Not random but unrelated:  at PortSide NewYork in Atlantic Basin on July 22 (830 pm), the movie Random Lunacy will be shown, featuring a transAtlantic crossing by Poppa Neutrino aboard Son of Town Hall.  Read about Bonnie’s encounter on Jamaica Bay this weekend with a vessel made with parts of Son of Town Hall.

Salish Sea 1

Salish Sea is an inclusive term like the sixth boro, where on day 1, I’ve walked nearly a dozen miles.  Special thanks to Meryll and Tom, and their newly launched Coot, sporting colors inspired by W. O. Decker.  New Yorkers . . . we have much to learn on waterfront coexistence from Seattle.

Just a listing for now:  Andrew Foss (1982, 4000 hp) over by the stern of Katie Ann and Pier 90.  Thea Foss, founder of this company,   . . .   now there’s a story of a determined mail-order bride, the original Tugboat Annie.

Alaska Titan moors in the Ship Canal in Ballard.

Pacific Star, wearing Foss colors, docks right across the Canal from Titan.

K-Sea’s footprint is just to the west is marked by  Pacific Pride and Sirius.

Out on Lake Washington, it’s Sea Prince pushing a spud barge.

And Lake Union, just in from the Ship Canal, has lots of houseboats and tugboats converted into yachts, like Owl.

Or maybe in the process of being converted, like Pathfinder.

Lake Union is home to Lake Union Drydock Company, where  Cape Flattery waits and Crowley’s Wisconsin-built Coastal Reliance (2003, 9280 hp) is high and dry.

More boats along the Lake include Triton and

Newt.  I’m curious about this name for a tug:  nature or Shakespeare?

Final shots for now . . . air harbor?

Check out these flying boats at Kenmore on the north end of Lake Washington.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, now too eager to see more of the Salish Sea to further research any of these fotos.  Research . . .  that’s for rainy, cold, stormy weather . . . not today.

Special thanks again to Meryll and Tom.

Unrelated . . .  check out GMG Joey’s homie float and Moveable Bridge Brian’s report on the 234th 7/4 in Gloucester!

More Delaware Tugs Etc

Not a tug . . .  Blount-built Sailor (1977) delivers lubricants to suezmax crude carrier  Cape Bowen. A sixth-boro Blount boat is Twin Tube.  Sailor and Twin Tube–now that’s an evocative set of names– have similar hulls but houses at opposite ends.  But have you guessed the answer to the ponderable at the end of the post a few days back?

Also not a tug:  fragile lightship Barnegat, here on the mud in North Camden.

Still not a tug:  SS United States.  Don’t the lines suggest the throat pleats of a rorqual?  Got some names of tug companies common in the Delaware but not depicted here the past few days?

Bouchard is one.  Morton IV is a regular in the sixth boro, here approaching the Commodore Barry Bridge.

K-Sea is another.  I’m not sure why Coral Sea lies beside Arthur W Radford here in the Navy Yard.

And then there’s Penn Maritime . . .  here’s Amberjack.  Penn specializes in transporting heated asphalt.

But Vane Brothers is ubiquitous.  Here’s Pokomoke, and

Patuxent,

Bohemia,

Charles Hughes, and

Roanoke.  Two other Vane boats lay in the Schuykill, but too close to Sunoco to risk taking a foto.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, but again special thanks to Jeff Schurr and John Curdy.

You might wonder what’s happening in the sixth boro.  Me too.  I need to have a look, although I’ve really enjoyed Pelican Passage‘s  shots these weeks.  See some  fireworks here.  As for me, it’s prime gallivant season the next few weeks.  See you on the go.

News flash:  unrelated . . . is it true that a duck nursery has been located inside Cornell‘s bow pudding?  Don’t you feel cooled just looking at this January foto?

Delaware River Tugs

Over on the port side of the upbound  Jag Leela, name that tug.  Answer follows at the end of the post.  Doubleclick enlarges.

Jack Holland (ex-Phyllis and Papoose, 1984). I think.

Left to right:  Purple Hays (Bludworth-built, 1966)  and Timothy McAllister (ex-Osprey and Barbara McAllister, 1966)

stern of Grape Ape (1951), Big Daddy (1954 RTC-built), High Roller (1969 Jakobson-built) , and (again) Purple Hays.

Madeline (Gladding-Hearn, 2008), one of the Wilmington Tug vessels.

Lucky D (1970).

Neill McAllister (ex-Puerto Nuevo, 1964) over on the Gloucester City, NJ, side with the Walt Whitman Bridge behind.

Teresa McAllister (1961) and floating office.

B M Thomas (1926).

Bart J Turecamo (1968).

Helen D. Coppedge (?)  There’s a Coppedge in Portsmouth, NH,  also.  What is the Coppedge history?  Here’s an older but interesting Portsmouth article.

Texan (scroll thru) matched with specialty barge Ponciana, here out of the notch.

Grace Moran (left of foto and Jakobson, 1967) and Valentine Moran (the mystery tug of the first foto in this post and ex-Coastal Jacksonville, 1977) spin Jag Leela.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.  Special thanks to Jeff Schurr and John Curdy.

Here’s a ponderable:  which companies, very common to this part of the Delaware River, have been omitted?  Answer tomorrow.

Kenny G

Monday of this week I saw Kenny G for only the second time.  Scroll through here for a foto from my first sighting.

Kenny G was docked halfway up Newtown Creek with a deck barge on the nose.

No summertime blues here.

Please go back to yesterday’s post and suggest a caption there so that a few more options can be added to the contest poll.

All Kenny G fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Anyone have more info on the sweet summertime lapis blue tug raising spirits in one of the most contaminated waterways in the US?