scenes from the sixth boro and gallivants beyond by any and all the crew
Details of the daylight between Sarnia and Toledo, from William J and JimBob,
to the beginnings of a new livery for Manitoulin,
a partnership I’d love to know more details about,
Presque Isle pushing a lot of downbound water,
a still idle Laura L VanEnkevort,
Michigan et al and Stenheim,
to the last light resisted by Toledo Harbor Light.
All photos, any errors, WVD.
The photo below I took on 30 May 2025. How old would you guess that foreground tugboat?
Today is 29 May 2026, and I noticed Superior as we sailed in, and decided to go have a look.
Someone has done some surface work, and
much of the boat looks better.
Year and place of build?
1912 in Manitowoc. She had a lot of history even before 1916!!
Bravo Toledo for the work on the boat and the Maumee banks.
All photos, any errors, WVD.
How about something different? You’ll understand the timing by the end of this post.
Back in September 2017, I caught Calusa Coast in Buffalo, passing this unusual light on the Niagara River.
In September 2021, I got this photo of J. Arnold Witte at the DonJon facility in Erie PA.
Here was Cape Henry and her sister Cape Lookout back in May 2019.
I made a special trip to catch Vane’s New York heading for the Black Rock Lock and then Tonawanda back in January 2021.
This was Gracie M. Reinauer light and westbound in the Kill van Kull in February of this year.
And finally just a few days ago, Great Lakes mariner sent along this image of Ocean Tower loading a huge crane in Manitowoc for a tow to . . . Hawaii!
So the connection is this, Ocean Tower is currently in the Great Lakes, Gracie M will soon be, New York and Cape Henry already are here, and J. Arnold and Calusa Coast have been here. Keep your eyes on the lakes and you may see the latest ones here. I know there are others that have been here as well.
Many thanks to Great Lakes mariner; all others WVD.
Silverback Marine calls this a truckable tractor tug. I wonder how many of these have been built and what user satisfaction is.
It’s certainly a looker, IMHO.
I’ll bet the visibility from the helm is impressive as well.
All photos, any errors, WVD.
Follow the sequence and name the location? There are some serious clues.
Here was the first installment of this series. Another previous post showed the superstructure of the barge back when it was its own self-propelled boat.
Here’s a significant clue to location.
I work on a vessel called Victory 1, and it was interesting to have two Victory-named vessels doing the Strait together.
More clues in the distance.
Sunrises are glorious on the water no matter when and where.
And the bridge in question here is the mighty Mac, our location.
All photos, any errors, WVD.
First, because it is Memorial Day, I’d like to reshare this post from 2015 called A Time to Remember. The story at the end of the post about a former student of mine is emblematic of what this day is about. Gratitude to her and to all others and their stories gone too soon. *
G. L. Ostrander has changed company and livery. It might be more accurate to say the company has evolved.
She left port of Milwaukee yesaterday as I was not watching, but GL Mariner was watching and caught these photos.
She has certainly carried many megatons of cement around in her lifetime.
It sounds like Milwaukee has some interesting bridge history.
All photos, GLM, to whom I am grateful.
*Some of the links in the 2015 post are broken, discontinued.
First time named here is Harbor Seagull. The name and appearance remind me of Toronto’s Iron Guppy.
I have no name here although it may have been supplied some years ago in a comment to tugster.
Noteworthy here are New Jersey . . . 102 years young . . . and Nebraska, reaching the century point in 2029.
William C Selvick dates from 1944.
Quite different, Lake Guardian came here from the Gulf some years ago.
Milwaukee is a good town to visit, especially if you have a guide like Great Lakes Mariner. Thanks, Cap.
All photos, any errors, WVD.
Here was the first in the series.
The NOAA vessel is currently working in Lake Erie, then others of the Great Lakes. The tracks below were from a week ago. Today’s track follows.
Here’s a closer-up of the previous.
Accompanying the NOAA ship were two uncrewed vessels, referred to as DriXs, as explained here. Below is a DriX track from a few days back. These DriXs operate under conditions of “supervised autonomy,” i.e., a tender is nearby ready to intervene if needed. That might be an interesting job.
I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the DriXs when we arrived in Cleveland recently, but they were safely stowed.
Sister vessel to Thomas Jefferson is currently Seafreeze America, fishing vessel in the Bering Sea.
To the crew of the flotilla enclosed, happy mapping. I’d love to learn more about the NOAA aircraft doing LiDAR mapping.
All photos, any errors, WVD.
Attached below are some tracks from this morning, first zoomed out and then
closer and more detailed.
x
How many years of tugboats did I see the other day on the Old Cuyahoga behind Whiskey Island? Mental math might work. Start with Arkansas, built 1909.
Hawaii, newly raised from nearly a half year submerged as here . . . 1911. Wisconsin, 2020.
Tennesssee, 1911. William C. Gaynor, 1956.
Utah, 1913. Kansas, 1927.
Alaska, 1914.
Salvage Chief, ?. Iowa, 1915.
Muskie, 2011.
(l to r) Arizona [?] 1931. Kentucky, 1929. Ontario, 1964. unidentified WTGB. All others are already identified. Are you still doing the math?
(l to r) Kentucky, 1929. Donald J. Sarter, 1964. All others are already identified.
This one–as indicated above–I think is Arizona.
Now the math for the total ages?
Add in an approximate age for the WTBG and Salvage Chief, and you have a stunning more than 1200 years of vessels. This eclipses the 651 years of tugboats from multiple locations from a post back in 2010.
Dawn saw no sun. The USCG closed the St Marys in fact for the night fog. At dawn, we were allowed to proceed to the Soo. Mid-morning we passed within 500′ [my estimate] of James R. Barker, but
this is all we saw. It seems her “bark” has been remedied, unless a single-tone horn was the result of all this atmospheric moisture.
CBP was out.
Waiting at the approach wall to Poe, we next met Whitefish Bay.
Next through was Algoma Endeavor.
We advanced into Poe for the transit along with excursion vessel Le Voyageur and a USCG 45′.
In the distance beyond the bridge, that’s Harvest Spirit and further beyond, Murgash.
By this time, the fog cleared, and a cold front moved in, dropping the temperature about 20 degrees F in minutes, it seemed.
All photos, any errors, WVD.
Recent Comments