Old Years 2022

I’m back and just in time for the last day of the year, which –as explained in previous years— in my Dutch tradition is a reflection day, a time to if not assess then at least recall some of the sights of the past 12 months.  A photo-driven blog makes that simultaneously easy and hard;  easy because there’s a photographic record and not easy because there’s such an extensive photographic record to sift though.

A word about this set of photos:  these are some “seconds” that did not make the final cut for my 2023 tugster calendar.  The actual calendars are still available if you’ve not ordered one;  find the order info here. I’m ordering a bunch myself. 

One windy day last January I caught a Pilot No 1–the old New York–doing drills under the VZ Bridge.  Just recently I met one of the engineers on that boat, a person with epic stories about the sixth boro.

A warm day in February, I caught JRT Moran assisting QM2 into her Red Hook berth. 

March I spent a delightful day on Douglas B. Mackie observing the water side of a Jersey shore beach replenishment project, thanks to the hard-working folks at GLDD. 

April . . .  I caught Jane McAllister heading out;  correct if I’m wrong, but my sense is that soon afterward she made her way down to South America to join the expanding ranks of US-built tugs working on various projects on the south side of the Caribbean. 

As a member of the Canal Society of NYS, I had the opportunity to see Urger up close and sun-warmed on the bank of the Oswego in Lysander NY. 

A clutch of Centerline tugboats waited for their next assignment at the base just east of the Bayonne Bridge.   Note the fully foliated trees beyond them along the KVK.

From the humid heat of western Louisiana and onto the Gulf of Mexico, Legs III–shown 

here spudded up just east of SW Pass, afforded a memorable journey on its way up to the sixth boro.  Thx, Seth. 

Back in the boro, later in August, a Space X rocket recovery boat named Bob–for an astronaut– came through the sixth boro.  More on Bob–the astronaut–here. 

In September, I finally got to my first ever Gloucester schooner race, thanks to Rick Miles of Artemis, the sailboat and not the rocket. 

Icebreaker Polar Circle was in the boro a few days in September as well.  Now it’s up in Canada, one hopes doing what icebreakers are intended to do. US naval logistics vessel Cape Wrath is at the dock in Baltimore ready and waiting a logistics assignment. 

Ticonderoga certainly and Apache possibly are beyond their time working and waiting.  I believe Ticonderoga is at the scrappers in Brownsville. 

Passing the UN building on the East River, veteran Mulberry is currently out of the army and working in the private sector.  I’ve a request:  for some time I’ve seen a tug marked as Scholarie working the waters west of the Cape Cod Canal;  a photo suggested it might be called Schoharie. Anyone help out?

And finally, a photo taken just two days ago while passing through the sixth boro during what can hardly be called “cover of darkness” it’s Capt Joseph E. Pearce on its way to a shipyard on the mighty Rondout to pick up some custom fabrication for a Boston enterprise. Many thanks to the Stasinos brothers for the opportunity.

I’d be remiss in ending this post and this year without mentioning lost friends, preserving a memory of their importance to me personally . . .  Bonnie of frogma–first ever to comment of this blog so many years ago and a companion in many adventures– and Mageb, whose so frequent comments here I already miss. 

I plan to post tomorrow, although I may miss my high noon post time because I hope to post whatever best sunrise 2023 photos I can capture in the morning.  

Happy, safe, and prosperous new year to you all.  I’m posting early today because I want my readers who live much much farther east than the sixth boro to get these wishes before their new trip around the sun begins. Bonne annee!  Gelukkig nieuwjaar!

The Delaware’s Doomed Ships 3

A relative’s big birthday brought me to Philly for the first time in a long while and afforded a few minutes to look around.  Name that carrier?  I once walked its decks as a visitor more than three decades ago, and have a friend who served aboard . . .  as a journalist in the USN.

On an earlier trip of the Delaware, I recall seeing that faded reddish, peeling gray on Arthur W. Radford (DD968) before it was reefed.

Got the name?

But wait, there’s more . . . including one that should not be there.

I’d heard that Powhatan-class Apache had just been decommissioned and towed there last week, and this was the vessel I wanted to check on.  The link in that previous sentence I posted a decade ago, after walking her decks.  Recognize the larger vessel to Apache‘s port?

I wonder where Apache‘ll end up, now that her replacement(s) are under construction.

The one below would not have been there if a tow last month has gone without issues, as seen here but you have to scroll. I wonder when she’ll attempt her final journey next.

Yup, it’s ex-USS Yorktown (CG-48), and the carrier is the JFK, another fading Kennedy.

All photos, WVD, who really needs to get to Delaware River ports more often.

Retro Sixth Boro 50 B

Ten years ago, the WTC was incomplete, no supertalls/superskinnies were up, and Taurus was not yet Joker.

Miriam and the archway at Sailors Snug Harbor are all the same, although that dock is gone from there.

The 1969 Barbara McAllister is now Patsy K, operating out of the Gulf coast of Florida.

The 2003 Jane is now Anna Rose, and I’ve seen her in the boro a few times.

Amy Moran is now John Joseph.

Crow was in her last days here, and has been scrapped more than a half decade already.

Charles D. McAllister has now been five and a half decades in service and still working in the sixth boro. 

Gage Paul was lost in transit after being sold overseas.   Note the seaplane on the East River.  

Last I knew, Buchanan 10 was laid up upriver.

In June 2012, I had the opportunity to tour USNS Apache near Norfolk.  A few years later, Apache was the vessel credited with locating the black box of El Faro, after its tragic sinking.

Sharing the dock with Apache that day was USNS Grapple.

All photos, ten years ago, WVD, who is currently traveling again, out of tugster tower for an indefinite period of time, getting more indefinite every day.  I have re-activated the robots, but we’ll see how reliable they are this time.