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Another TBR is in the books. Where else can you see very upclose and personal some much-loved boats. I can and might do a post on each of these boats, but for now, just a survey.
Shoofly . . . complete name is Shoofly Pie. If you want actual detail, click here and scroll; you’ll see some profile of each of these boats (and others). All I’ll say about Shoofly is that she’s a WW2 naval vessel evolved into a rat rod (We need a new term for this category.) vessel. It has also likely sailed the greatest number of places, freshwater and salt. I’ve photographed this boat before, but somehow, it’s never made it onto this blog. Some explanation follows.
I frame this as a comparison of push knees on Edna A and J. Arnold Witte.
How about this as a frame– l to r, Nathan G, Margot, Benjamin Elliot, and Edna A. — involving two-thirds of the NYS Marine Highway boats participating in the event. Then another set of NYS Marine was not present . . . working . . . .
CMT Otter . . . represented Coeymans. I learned some modification history of this boat last weekend. It was once Delta Ram and looked like this.
This vessel is the fourth in the series of Atlantic Hunter boats. I had photos of Atlantic Hunter IV (under a different name last year) but those photos like those of Shoofly . . . disappeared.
My Pal Sal is not the latest government boat purchased by NYS Canals, although you might suspect otherwise. To stray down a tangent though; Sal has a song named for her; we really need a popular ditty about canal tugboats . . . any or all of them. Lobby your favorite songwriter or channel your own inner songwriter muse.
W. O. Decker looked spectacular! Last time I saw her some details were not the same.
Joncaire is several years into her new livery; she used to be the red of NYPA Niagara River boom maintenance fleet, as seen here (scroll).
Here’s the view from the 4th Street Bridge, and
here from the 2nd Street Bridge.
All photos yesterday, WVD, who got out there before many people were crowding the bulkhead.
I missed a lot of folks who were there because I stayed in the welcome center most of the time, listening to the talks.
That’s what I’m doing, preferably feeling the water but inside the ship today. Below, W. O. Decker handles the whitewater created by boats in a recent race with at least 10 times Decker‘s horsepower.
As seen from the Bayonne Bridge walkway, Quenames displaces a fair amount of water, surrounding itself with froth.
Fireboat water in the sky and spray over the bow of these boats racing to the finish line.
But today, I hope to be propelled by the wind, maybe with the rail not buried, but heeled over enough that water will be flowing into and then out of the scuppers.
Happy Labor Day. All photos, WVD.
If it seems I’m doing a lot of redux, etc. these days, my explanation is that 2012 was a great time for my being out there taking photos. It was entirely by chance that I walked past this scene on July 17, 2012 before 0900. I can’t even remember why I was there. Now it matters no more because as soon as I saw this, scuttlebutt told me what was happening. A towline on Helen‘s stern after all those years meant
she was moving. I raced around Peking to get a different perspective. She was indeed being towed out and made fast to the car float with the green spud.
I saw McAllister Responder there, but I had’t figured out why, yet.
After spinning around (does Decker have z-drives?!!) [just kidding], deckhand made up head to head with Helen on Decker‘s port side, and
began to move astern.
At the same time, Responder crawled astern on the far side of the opening. Now it wasn’t until today, studying these photos, that I noticed the crewman about midships on the stern deck. Would that have been the late Capt. Brian?
But as I said, I hadn’t noticed that person until today. He shows up in another photo.
Once Decker had Helen out of the “anchorage” enough that Responder could take Helen alongside, Decker threw off her lines and
Responder took over as dance partner for the the 1900 Helen. Notice the crewman on the stern deck?
Away they went on
might have been Helen‘s last transit of the Buttermilk channel.
All photos, WVD, who last posted photos of Helen here half a year ago.
One of the photos from this July 2022 event was memorialized here, I’m happy to report.
Not quite half a year ago, I used a variation on this title, but photos I took yesterday necessitate a modification as you see above.
Imagine my surprise when I saw this nameplate on the most famous–and only–wooden hulled tugboat in the sixth boro.
I’d noticed before on AIS that there was USCG vessel in North Cove, but I never imagined this would be it. In the background, Mariner III adds an allusion to another time period.
Now does that look like contemporary font the USCG would use?!! I don’t think so.
And the stack marking and registration board “New York Harbor Patrol” no longer say what it used to . . . might this be some leasing arrangement. But hey . . . this is NYC, a movie-making-magnet metropolis, and this just smacks of a made-for-movies-makeover! Remember this one? Find a lot more film tugs previously on tugster here.
As to the other part of the title check this out . . . the name of the barge B. No. 280 follows the Bouchard nomenclature pattern.
Of course, I never imagined Bouchard boats in anything other than their original livery . . .
For now at least the name is the same; in fact, the name board appears not even to have been refinished.
The stack is unadorned white.
And “Portland OR” registration on the starboard stern corner of the barge and
on the tug. Maybe some lion motifs are forthcoming?
All photos, WVD.
It’s hard to believe, but I’ve not been to the Great North River Tugboat Race since 2014, but in normal times, September 5 would see the next race. But we’ve dispensed with the “normal times” concept for the time being.
In selecting the batch for this post, I wanted splash, froth, bubbles, and the effervescence the river can react with when tons of steel and thousands of horsepower push through the ever changing water. The next two photos are from that 2014 race.
It was overcast during the race, but an hour or so later, when pushing contests were happening and
the wakes flattened out and we sized up USAV MGen. Anthony Wayne, patches of blue appeared. I should leave you in suspense about how this push went. Let me put it this way; they left town not long after the push-off.
2013 was an equally overcast day, and again, not to identify every tugboat in that lineup, it appears that W. O. Decker has either jumped the gun or activated its jet drive and will soon rise up out of the Hudson on her hydrofoil assists. I’d guess the latter.
See what I told you . . . Decker has gone so far ahead that it’s already over the horizon.
Second lap maybe for Decker?
It’s starting to appear that in 2012, as in ’13 and ’14, it was overcast.
It was great to see Buchanan 12, usually burdened with a half dozen stone barges, disencumbered and frothing up the river. That’s the 1907 Pegasus back there too.
In 2011, I was able to get a photo of the racing craft along with sky spray by one of the fireboats present, likely 343. What’s remarkable comparing the photo above with the one below is the color of the water; hurricane Irene had dropped a lot of rain upstate and all the tributaries sent that into the Hudson with tribute in the form of silt.
Quantico Creek and Maurania III did an excellent job of stirring up the water.
But again, it was overcast and hazy over silty water.
However, in 2010, we had blue skies that really accentuated the DonJon boats like Cheyenne and
the harbor colossus, Atlantic Salvor.
In 2009, there were wispy clouds, allowing the “queen of the day” to be Ellen McAllister. But look who else showed up!!!!
Urger. Urger would EASILY have won the race, but she was doing what she does best . . . urging all the other boats and crews to be fleeter than she, holding herself back, allowed herself to be that day.
All photos and commentary, WVD. See you at the races in 2022.
The “4” here refers to the dry dock, not the fourth post in this series. The last post on Caddell was Something Different 57. And in the “high and dry” series, this would be number 11. I’m just trying to anchor this post in the previous body of work. Also, I believe this dry dock was originally built as an auxilliary floating dry dock (ARD) by the USN to lift submarines out of their watery habitat, but I can’t corroborate that.
In Dry Dock 4 a half dozen years ago was the pilot boat New York. I put this first so that the vessels in the rest of the photos can be compared against a standard, the dimensions of the same dry dock.
See above for scale. On this date, winter 2014, Dry Dock 4 was shared by W. O. Decker and schooner Pioneer, currently both in Albany getting refurbished and improved.
This boat’s a mystery to me; the livery on upper pilothouse says it’s a Reinauer boat, but I took this photo over 10 years ago and have lost track of its identity. You may know?
McAllisters Brothers was originally called Dalzelleagle. I believe it’s currently in the sixth boro but mothballed.
The Fireboat John J. Harvey had some work done in Dry Dock 4 . She has a long and storied career.
Doris Moran is a 4610 hp tugboat that does some sixth boro work, although she’s currently in Louisiana.
East Coast has not appeared on this blog very often. She used to tow the sugar barge, and she may well still do so.
Let’s get to the end of this post with Clipper City, having some bottom work done on a cold winter’s day eight years ago already.
All photos, WVD, who’d love to know more about the history of Dry Dock 4.
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.
In fall 2010, deepening dredging was happening in the sixth boro to prepare for the ULCVs now so commonplace here, after Panama Canal enlargement and Bayonne Bridge raising. These operations afforded me the chance to see a cutterhead close up. The crewman wielding the hammer was trying to loosen a worn tooth. By the way, those teeth weigh 35 pounds each. Teeth . . . dentist?
Then as now, Layla Renee was in the dredge support trade. Right now she’s in Charleston. She was only two years old at the time of the photo.
It looks that way, but W. O. Decker is NOT a dredge tender in this photo. Here five people on Decker are catching the stare of the one dredge worker in work vest.
The entire K-Sea fleet has disappeared. As of 2020, Falcon has become Carol and I’ve not yet seen her latest livery. Houma was scrapped in 2017 in Baltimore.
Here are two of the McAllister tugs involved in easing MSC’s USNS Sisler (T-AKR 311)into Bayonne drydock as then-John P. Brown manages the door. For many more photos of the event, check out “floating the door,” where you also see Allied’s Sea Raven, unlabelled.
I caught Growler at Mystic Seaport that fall. Rumor has it that Growler has returned to the sixth boro under a new name and sans teeth, but is under wraps.
Also in Mystic at that time, 1885 steam/sail vessel Amazon (has nothing to do with Bezos), the 2000 Amistad, and the 1908 steamer Sabino. Does anyone know the whereabouts of Amazon today?
My reason to be in Mystic that October was to work on Pegasus, seen here with Araminta and Cangarda. What works of beauty all three are!
Deborah Quinn here is docked near where Jakobson Shipyard used to be located. I believe that’s her location as of this writing.
Under the old Bayonne bridge, Maurania III assumes position to ease the 1997 Maersk Kokura around Bergen Point. Maurania III is currently in Wilmington NC.
Back a decade ago, Day Peckinpaugh had some good paint on her, and Frances was like a cocoon in Turecamo livery. There’s scuttlebutt of a new lease on life for Day Peckinpaugh.
Let’s end with dredging, as we began. Terrapin Island was one of the regulars in the navigation dredging effort. Terrapin Island is currently in Norfolk.
All photos, October 2010, by WVD.
Big announcement soon.
Back in 2010, I did four posts about the weekend, which you can see here. What I did for today’s post was look through the archives and just pick the photos that for a variety of reasons jumped out at me. A perk is each of the four posts has some video I made. One of these photos is from 2006.
Again, I’m not listing all the names, but you may know many of these. In other cases, you can just read the name. If you plug that name into the search window, you can see what other posts featured that particular vessel.
Below, here the pack that locked through the federal lock together make their way en masse toward the wall in Waterford.
You’ll see a lot of repetition here.
The photo above and most below were taken earlier than the top photo; here, Chancellor and Decker head southbound for the lock to meet others of the procession beginning in Albany.
2020 is Decker‘s 90th year.
Nope, it’s not Cheyenne. Alas, Crow became razor blades half a decade back.
Technically, not a tugboat, but Hestia is special. We may not have a functioning steam powered tug in the US, but we do have steam launches like Hestia, with very logical names.
You correctly conclude that I was quite smitten by Decker at the roundup back 10 years ago.
All photos, WVD.
And Shenandoah was not from 2010. It was 2009.
Let’s do 2013 and 2014, or redo them, same conditions as I stated yesterday. But first let’s look at the 2013 crowd, packing in like you wouldn’t with covid. Here was the crowd at 1010 and
by 1035 they had grown significantly.
The compulsory muster takes place, irrigated by fireboat John J. Harvey.
Once the race begins, a front-runner like Decker
might soon get left in the wake.
The fire boat slices up from behind and
propels itself between two Miller boats.
Pushoffs happen next, sometimes quite equally matched like here, with 3900 hp countering 4200.
Let’s jump ahead to 2014, with the arrivals on the watery carpet,
the processing to the starting line,
and get straight to racing without all the preening and posturing.
Someone seems a bit oversize in that gray livery.
This is a fairly mis-matched pair: Wayne at 5100 hp, and Ellen at 4000. Maybe a re-match is in order Wayne v. Ava.
Thanks to Jeff Anzevino for this shot, the Media Boat has military background in common with Wayne.
After Wayne has strutted its stuff in the push-offs, some of the boats lined up for the roping the bollard.
Let’s hold it up here. All photos, WVD.
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