Sixth Boro Details 16

It’s not the best photo maybe, although–hey– it was the golden hour when B. E. Lindholm came into the boro recently.  They’ve been working along the east side of Sandy Hook.

Some small craft traffic the boro all seasons of the year.  I suspect this is going out fishing, but I’m not sure.

Daisy Mae here southbound along Newport . . .  in a clash of horizontal lines. 

This morning had Meaghan Marie, Eastern Dawn, and Evening Mist rafted up in Red Hook.

I’ve often seen David Auld Scudder on AIS, but not until the other day had I seen the boat,

diminutive beside Pegasus Star.

As have appeared here before, Millers Launch has a lot of small workboats like Erin Miller. 

Discovery Coast has been working a fair amount in the boro in recent weeks. 

Too distant to tell, but Twin Tube here is lifting new life rafts onto Nordic Harrier. 

Hayward dates from 1974, when the drift collection vessel came out of a Boston shipyard.

And there we’ll leave it.  All photos and any errors, WVD.

Retro Sixth Boro 49A

Let’s jump back to May 2012.  Over along the Manhattan side of the East River then, I caught this scene.  Since then, there’s been some movement:   Peking to Germany,  Marion M to the Chesapeake,  Helen McAllister to  . . . rebirth as new steel.

Cheyenne has migrated to the Lake Michigan for now.

Twin Tube is still around but sans the boom.

Ellen McAllister is also still hard at work in the sixth boro, but I don’t see her doing much indirect towing as here.

Mark Moran was just passing through from the shipyard to Charleston.

Swan, built in 1981 and showing as her last movement three and a half years ago in China, has likely gone to rebirth as new steel.

But a decade ago in May 2012, she was here to move some used tugboats over to West Africa. Here she’s already down and BFT No. 38 with a crew boat strapped on has already been loaded, while

McAllister Sisters and McAllister Girls wait with three Crowley tugs, 

Cavalier, Pioneer, and Mars. 

After they are floated aboard, the tide turns the anchored Swan.

Socrates and Heron also float aboard, and

overnight, Swan gets deballasted and raises the hull, so that we can see their five-bladed wheels.   More of the story here.

Also in the boro those days was Picton Castle, showing the flag and more, maybe recruiting some hands

before sailing away.  Does anyone have news about her?  Has she really stayed in Lunenburg since late 2020?

All photos, WVD, exactly 120 months ago.

Unrelated to any of this, read this May 2004 article by the late great Don Sutherland and reflect on how much change has occurred.

Random ULCVs 13

January is named for Janus, the one who looked forward and backward . .  . transitions, this Roman.  The connection is this . . .   one day i post photos from 2022 and the next or two I post photos from the 1950s, supplied by Albert Gayer.

Charles James, framed here by the big green Tokyo Triumph and an Apex barge, pushes a bow wave in front of her.

Here’s the 13, 600 teu Tampa Triumph class ULCV that followed Charles James.  You also notice Maersk Vilnius following the ULCV. 

I know that names are just for convenient, but I wonder why this class of five Costamare ships carry the names Tampa, Tokyo, Toledo, Taipei, and Texas Triumph.  Surely there are larger cities starting with T. In fact, Tampa and Toledo don’t even make the top 50 by population.  And if Texas,  then why not Tennessee?  Taipei is fine because it’s home to Evergreen, the operator.

She’s deep, although I’ve seen deeper.

From the time she starting moving from her berth to the time she departs through the Narrows takes avbout an hour. 

The fact that all those containers can leave safely makes an hour a short time.

She meets Oleander coming in for her usual Thursday appointment, and this meeting shows relative scale of these two cargo ships.

I mentioned Maersk Vilnius earlier in this post;  I don’t recall ever seeing one container ship overtake another as they race out toward the Narrows.

All photos, WVD.

Package Boats

You’ve seen all the brown, white, and now blue package trucks clogging the streets and roads, their drivers working ever longer hours as we take to online shopping.

These two Reynolds boats have nothing to do with that, but they do deliver foodstuffs, spares, and incidentals to ships at berths and in the anchorages.

The 1951 Twin Tube has been featured in many posts already, but when it comes to Christmas, I think of this boat, as well as 

ABC-1, the other Reynolds boat.  ABC-1 dates from 1941, a product of Bay Shipyard, launched as an L-boat, and subsequently T-473, Mariner, and now ABC-1.

She always seems to trudge along the waterways, but her track is steady and sure.

I wonder how many foreign seafarers have photos of the two Reynolds boats, since they and the bunkering boats might be the only sixth boro vessels they deal directly with, lifting the packages and bundles onto their ship.

 

All photos, WVD, who wishes you a happy day. 

Retro Sixth Boro 37 B

I’m away from the sixth boro, so here’s another from the vault, archived May 2011.

 Twin Tube back then still had her lighter stick.  Lichtenstein now sails as Mr Tigris. 

Sand Master, the sand miner, had not yet gone to South America.

A company called K-Sea still existed, and Norwegian Sea still sailed.

The 1976 tug now sails as Miss Rui for Smith Maritime Ocean Towing and Salvage.  She’s currently in Amelia LA.

Colleen McAllister was still in salt water;  she’s now on Lake Michigan but not in service.

Stena Poseidon is now Espada Desgagnes, sailing the Saint Lawrence, where I saw her less than two years ago.

In late May, the first attempts were made to load a half dozen tugboats onto Blue Marlin,  the heavy lift ship, but I talk more about that when I open the vault next month. Blue Marlin still sails the seas with unusual cargoes, currently between the Philippines and Shantou, in SE China. 

And this boat, the 1951 Dorothy Elizabeth, begging to be captured on a painting, imho, was still intact.

All photos, WVD.

 

 

 

 

 

Retro Sixth Boro (and beyond) 33

2011 began in Charleston, a great place to welcome a new year.  Strolling around, I encounter the 1962 75′ buoy tender Anvil, 75301, here made up to CGB68013.  In the background, that’s cutter Cormorant or Chinook.

Heading farther north a day or two later, it’s Hoss, sister of Patricia, and now habitat for fish and other sea life.  Click here to see her sink if you do FB.

Still farther north, I see this T-boat, a 1952 Higgins named for a high point in Ireland.

Lucinda Smith, then based in Maine, is currently based on Cape Cod.

Bering Sea, like a lot of K-Sea boat, has become a Kirby boat;  it is currently in Philadelphia.  According to Birk’s invaluable site, this boat was Stacy Moran for a short time.  I never saw it in Moran red.

Thanks to my friend Paul Strubeck, this Kristin Poling needed an assist from Cornell to get through an ice jam.  This is one of my all-time favorite photos.  It looks to me like a submarine in the very deeps.

McCormack Boys was active in the sixth boro back in 2011, and although she’s still working, I’ve not seen her in years.

I glimpsed Stephen Scott in Boston a few months back, but since this photo was taken, she’s lost the upper wheelhouse.

There’s classic winter light beyond Torm Carina, provisioned here by Twin Tube.  Torm Carina is currently in the Taiwan Strait. 

Later Margaret and Joan Moran assist the tanker westbound in the KVK while Taurus passes.  Taurus has become Joker, wears Hays purple, and I’ve not even seen her yet.  I guess it’s high time I hang out in Philadelphia again.

A wintry photo shows McKinley Sea in the KVK eastbound.  In the distance,

notice the now foreign-based Scotty Patrick Sky.  If you want to see her, gallivant to St. Lucia.  McKinley Sea is currently laid up in Louisiana.

Erie Service, now Genesis Valiant, pushes her barge 6507 westbound. 

And on a personal note, it was in January 2011 that I stumbled into a locality that had been attracting me.  I suppose if ever I created a retreat, I’d have to call it Galivants Hideaway.   Here‘s another Galivants Ferry set of photos.

Thanks to Paul for use of his photo.  All other photos, a decade back, WVD.

 

Christmas Eve 2020

Having seen the forecast for December 25, I did my watch on Christmas eve.    These are the latest sunrises of the entire cycle . . . photo taken around 0745, and the sky was still reddish and offering very little light.   Fort McHenry and survey boat Christina cross. Yes, Christina . . . namesake you know who. 

Diane B was pushing John Blanche deep in the water with heating fuel.

Fort McHenry passes my station.

Ocean Endeavour was heading in ahead of the strong winds . . . or maybe just to be at the dock for Christmas.   Note the Staten Island ferry off her starboard and a tip of Twin Tube off port stern.

 

By now, it’s a little after 0800.

Twin Tube is the ultimate sixth boro Christmas boat;  there’s no Santa or reindeer, just a competent captain and enough horsepower to get alongside ships.

The reindeer . . . they’re atop the tarped salt pile.   Santa may have abandoned the sleigh, however.

All the above photos were taken before 0900.  The photo below. . .  it’s W. O. Decker, currently getting work done upriver, but ensconced between Wavertree and  work barge Progress a few years ago . .  .

All photos, WVD, who wishes you all Merry Christmas and gifts of life, health, and happiness however you find it.  And one more . .  . bravo to the Normandy crew for the decorations.

Random Ships 78

Seen in and around the sixth boro in the past weeks . . .  is this batch, starting with BBC Germany, heading up the North River.

Kitikmeot W had Dory alongside,

She was previously . . . Icdas 09.

Genava, homeported in the impossible saltwater port of Basel and formerly Tsuneishi Zhoushan Ss 180, discharges Chilean salt.

Maritime Kelly Anne preps for departure.

Parallel to the previous shot lies FPMC 24, with Lesney Byrd providing lubrication oils.   Without looking it up, what do you suppose FPMC expands to?

Sten Odin has to be the newest vessel in today’s set.

 

And finally, in the anchorage near the VZ Bridge, it’s Ladon and Chemneon.

All photos by WVD.

And FPMC . . . is Formosa Plastics Marine Corporation, based here.  I never saw that coming.

Outbound 5

This series goes way back . . . in fact, the first installment was in 2006 using some photos I took in 2003, on my first trip up the Hudson.

What struck me yesterday as Nord Gainer headed out . . . was how much business was being taken care of on the fly . . .

As she headed out on the ConHook Range–I believe–opposing traffic is winter dragger Eastern Welder.

The docking pilot departs, via James D Moran, and after I’d gotten out ahead, it seemed odd to see the crane pitched over to port until

I caught sight on the vessel alongside her port . . .

the venerable Twin Tube!

Whatever needed to be transferred . . .  Twin Tube was there.

Photos by WVD, who’s always surprised by sights in the sixth boro.

Nord Gainer is part of a huge fleet of tankers, some of which I’ve seen in the boro previously.

 

Random Ships 69

Let’s start with Alice Oldendorff, inbound with a hold full of Nova Scotia stone and about to turn to starboard on her (almost) final approach to Brooklyn.   Alice and I have a long history.

YM Wind makes the final approach her into Global Terminals, her first call at sixth boro docks.  In contrast above, Alice has already made hundreds of calls here, always transporting aggregates. Visible assisting Wind are Alex McAllister and Ava M. McAllister.

E. R. Montecito is a large ship, but containers are stacked 17 across, versus 20 across for Wind above.

Undine here takes on bunkers and other supplies.  The small black/red/white vessel long her stern is Twin Tube, the venerable 1951 harbor supply vessel. In dry dock in the distance it’s USNS Sisler.

MOL Emissary travels the last few miles before Port Elizabeth.

Uniquely named tanker Forties waits in the Stapleton anchorage.

COSCO Vietnam enters the Kills and passes Houston at the dock.

Since Kriti Amber is Greek-flagged, I’m guessing that’s a variation on “Crete,” but that only conjecture.

QM2 takes on fuel while transferring passengers on the port side.

And let’s call it a day with Unique Explorer.

All photos recently by Will Van Dorp, who considers himself fortunate to live in this large port.