Retro 2012 Waterford Tugboat Roundup

The 2010 post had a photo from 2009, so let me start this one with one from 2010.  This photo made the cover of a NYS Restoration publication devoted to boats, but I lent my copy to someone and it’s never returned.  If you know the publication, please let me know.

OK, let’s see one more from 2010, taken from the same bridge, but closer to the bank and less zoomed.  Lots of folks come to these Roundups, but the number of working boats that can get there is decreasing because of increasing air draft and the inflexible 112th Street bridge, which also wiped out the viability of Matton shipyard.

The Roundup always begins with a parade, and that used to be always (in my times there) led by Urger.

Cornell and spawn named Augie waited on the wall in Troy.

Buffalo is now in Buffalo, and in less good condition. Here‘s more info on her.  She’s 53′ x 16’ and worked for the Barge Canal from 1916 until 1973.  Originally steam, she was repowered after WW2.  See her engine, a Cooper Bessemer, running here back in 2007.

Wendy B was the show stealer in 2010.  She looked good and no one I spoke with knew where she’d come from.  She’s a 1940-build by Russel Brothers of Owen Sound ON, originally a steam tug called Lynn B. More info is here but you have to scroll.

8th Sea is a staple of the Roundup, probably has been since the beginning. She was built in 1953 at ST 2050 by American Electric Welding. That makes her a sister to ST 2062, now in the sixth boro as Robbins Reef, seen here if you scroll.  Here‘s a tug44 description of tug and captain.

Small can still be salty, especially with this innovative propulsion . . . . Little Toot.

As I said, one of the traditions of the Roundup is that Urger leads the way.  Here, above the federal lock, the boats muster. And traditions are important.

The active commercial boats line up at the wall nearest the Hudson River, but when a job needs doing, they head out.

Since the Roundup happens just below lock E-2 of the Erie Canal, the thoroughfare for the Great Loop,  it’s not uncommon to see some long distance boats pass by.  All I know about Merluza is that it’s the Spanish word for hake.

What happened to 2011 you may ask?  Irene happened and the Roundup was cancelled.   We’re indebted to tug44 for documenting the damage of that hurricane in the Mohawk Valley.

All photos, unless otherwise attributed, WVD.

 

 

Chrononauts 3

Of all the project boats, converting work boats into yachts, few get completed to the degree this one has.

I took these photos last weekend in a cove just off a major portion of the sixth boro, thanks to a tip from MM & MM.

M. V. Santandrea keeps some elite company, its humble beginnings notwithstanding.  Click here to see her working lines usually submerged.  Now here’s the most important link . . . to see what she looks like inside, thanks to MM.  I have not found photos of her as she looked in 1961.

Converting a workboat to a yacht seems a common dream and sometimes succeeds, as in the 255′ salvage tug later called Lone Ranger, now called Sea Ranger.  Another success would be the 193′ Sea Wolf, former sister of pilots’ mothership Elbe.   Then there’s the sixth boro’s own Yemitzis.  And there’s Wendy B, which was 1940 built in Owen Sound, ON,  and which generated lots of interest at the 2012 TBRound Up.

 

There’s no mistaking that rigging.

 

 

Meanwhile, Santandrea . . . she’s a beauty.

PS:  Does anyone have updates and/or photos to share of Sea Monster, formerly of Narragansett Bay and once being worked on in Mamaroneck?

All photos here by Will Van Dorp, and thanks again to MM & MM.

 

Winter Blues 2

This photo of Doris Joan Moran that has been circulating on FB this morning.  Sorry . . . I wish I knew who gets the credit for this unusual shot.  Anyhow, it reminded me of a post I did five years ago here.

Here’s a Doris photo I took last week . . . uncoated.

So one reaction to the cold is to bundle up, grit your teeth, plod on, complain a little more . . .

But you have to admit, winter in the northern latitudes gives us new senses of hulls on snow bases, or

levitating above it.

Here’s roughly the same angle . . . as I took it in September 2012.

Thanks to Bob Stopper for the photo of tug Syracuse and to Erich Amberger for the winter photo of Wendy B.  The others I took, except for the top photo, and I’d still like to know who took that.

Uh . . . I just mis-read the FB info on the frosted over tugboat above.  It was spelled j-o-a-n, and I transferred that as d-o-r-i-s.  I’m sloppy sometimes.  Maybe I need an editor.

Waterford Tugboat Roundup 2012 c

Three vessels at the roundup this year appeared there for the first time .  . well sort of.   The red one, aka Augie, was in fact there for the first time.  The other . . . on the left, Frances, has been there before but with very different appearance.

Here’s a closeup of Augie, who first made a show here and here.

The surprise newcomer at the roundup this year was Wendy B, but with a bit of search, I’ve found this blog about here journey from Toronto to DC seven years ago, by the previous owners.

Click here for the specs at the time of her last sale.  Talking with the owners, I learned she was delayed in the sixth boro–on her recent northward passage–by the 4th of July 2012  fireworks.  Does anyone recall seeing her in town?  Here are my fotos of the spectacular illuminations that day.

Here’s Augie, nestled up to Cornell, in current colors.

When I saw Frances this weekend, I first assumed I was looking at Margot, currently working on Lake Ontario.

Here’s how Frances looked two years ago.

I’m enthusiastic to see Frances (1957) covered in new paint that just exudes vitality.  Soon she’ll be working like Margot, her one-year-younger sister.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Unrelated but thanks to Barbara for sending this link along:  South Street Seaport in the news.

Waterford Tugboat Roundup 2012 b

Canals are like bridges . . . points of connections, although “bridge” gets used much more as the verb for “crossing the otherwise uncrossable.”  As with bridges, canals create clusters . . . centers of

communication and cooperation.

Archways can easily be created.

Within canals you find vessels passing through with connections from many different places, like White Horse and

Telluride?!!

and

Norfolk by way of Montreal . . .

and Florida . . . nearing its highest point of navigation…

Vermont, and

and Albany by way of Owen Sound, Halifax, and the Potomac . . .

Roundup tales to be continued . . . .  Will Van Dorp’s fotos.