Fruits of Preservation 3

Here were the first two installments of this series.  And what prompts this post is the news yesterday about a $200 million structure in the assembly stages just four years ago.  Click on the image below to see the post I did just four years ago.

It will be scrapped as announced yesterday here.  The physical disassembled parts will be sold as will portions of it non-fungible tokens (NFTs), whatever they are;  I can’t quite understand them even after reading this.  Doesn’t that sound like eating your cake and still having it?

You can’t save everything . . . as the next two photos from Tony A show . . . relative to the 1907 Pegasus. For comparison, check out Paul Strubeck’s thorough cataloging of the many lives of Pegasus through the many years. 

Here’s the engine that powered Pegasus for many years, originally from Landing Ship Tank, LST 121 , which itself lived only three years before being scrapped and the engine transplanted into Pegasus.

The next two photos come thanks to Steve Munoz.  The 1945 USS Sanctuary (AH-17) looked shabby here in Baltimore harbor in 1997;  it last until 2011, when it was scrapped in Brownsville, TX, then ESCO and now SteelCoast. 

Another photo from Steve shows SS Stonewall Jackson, a Waterman LASH vessel in the Upper Bay;  note the Staten Island ferries off the stern.    Scroll through and see Jackson on the beach in Alang in 2002.  Tug Rachel will arrive in Brownsville with Lihue, a very smiliar LASH vessel within a week;  she’s currently approashing the strait between Mexico and western Cuba.

Here’s a photo I took of the beautiful NS Savannah;  a recent MARAD public comment period on what should be done with her ended less than a month ago;  I’m not sure when the results will be publicly commented on.   

Sometimes preserved vessels change hands, as is the case with the 1936 Eagle, another photo from Steve Munoz taken in 1992.  

More on this tomorrow.  Many thanks to Tony and Steve for use of these photos.

Ship preservation is tough and costly.  Turning an almost-new metal structure into NFTs . . . just mind boggling.

 

 

 

Ends 2

As you know, I do this blog because it’s fun.  I’ve met a lot of great people, and recently, with the evolution of so-called “social media” have become friends with some hunks of steel aka ships.  Well, although I “befriend” a ship, it’s more accurate to say . . . the crew of the ship.  And I’m overjoyed to learn of others’ routines, lives, and journeys . . .  as offered by FB.  Here’s a foto recently posted by the crew of Algolake, a Great Lakes bulker.  This post I dedicate to the crew  of Algolake, my FB friends.      To hear the vessel, click here for youtube of her leaving Duluth.  The foto below was taken FROM Algolake.

And, I take a lot of fotos.  The first two below I took in the St. Lawrence Seaway in July 2008.  Algoport entered the port, and then

moved downbound for its next load. At the time, I recall looking up more info on the vessel, learning that it was built in Collingwood, Ontario, in 1979, and then ran only one foto, seen in this post.  Imagine my surprise then, when a few days ago, because of my FB friendship with Algolake, I ran into info about Algoport sinking in the East China Sea, while under tow by Pacific Hickory, for a new “forebody.”    Here a youtube slideshow with more info on the demise of Algoport, now gathering marine encrustation (?) 16,000 ‘ below the surface, a wreck no wreck diver will ever see.

Another story:  in March 2010 I took these fotos of USS Sanctuary in Baltimore harbor.  She served as a hospital ship during WW2 and the Vietnam War.    Yesterday, a friend mentioned in passing that this vessel

was on its way . .  or already arrived in Brownsville, TX

for recycling.  A little hunting leads me to believe her demise/rebirth . . .   will involve ESCO, a dismantler or recycler.  Foto 7 here leads me to think at least part of the tow was performed by Allie B.  Also back in March 2009, I gallivanted up to Massachusetts to see Allie B leave on a fairly long tow to Romania.  Some posts on that can be found here, here, and elsewhere.

Ships, like everything else, have lives.  Lots of folks, like me, are fascinated by the “end” of the life of various ships.  Some sink.  Some get reefed and then some of those “reefs” dived upon.  Some get recycled.  Others get scrapped or broken.  If, like me, you’re interested in these things and have the chance to see Park Bong Nam’s documentary “Iron Crows,” by all means . . . go.

I’d also love to hear your thoughts on this interest many of us share on the end of ships . . . breaking, recycling, wreck diving, wrecks in general,  . . . and the eerie beauty of rusting derelict ghost vessels.

Algolake . .  fair winds, interesting ports!  And keep the great fotos coming.