Pictures of Ships, Tugs, Off Shore Rigs, Barges, and those who work them

Two tugs the Willamette, Sommer S. , assisting the ATB Pride into Kinder Morgan Willbridge.

During a call out a ship battle breaks outā€¦LOLā€¦ The tall ship Lady Washington & Hawaiian Chieftain during the memorial weekend.

[QUOTE=cmakin;99867]Oh, you were on the THUNDER/LIGHTNING ATB? I wasl involved with the construction of that monstrosity. A Robert Bludworth creation if there ever was one. After having worked with Robert on this, I finally understood why the SEA SKIMMER/PLAQUEMINE was the way it is. Robert was easily one of the most interesting people that I have ever worked with. Truly one of a kind.[/QUOTE]

Hate to necro an old thread, but when I took the Thunder/Lightning through ABS back in '00 or '01, the ABS guy couldnā€™t figure it. According to his records she was sank in the mid '80s and declared a total loss. No record of her ever being inspected since. After several days he decided we werenā€™t actually on the bottom of Lake Michigan and issued our cert. It was owned by Odyssea Transportation out of Houston at the time.

If any thread deserves to be brought back from the dead itā€™s this one. I think of some threads as just going on forever even if they take brief interludes of rest. Anyway, unfortunately I donā€™t have any photographs to offer but a request for some instead.

Iā€™ve heard stories about how years ago Kirby used to have unlimited tonnage tankships (Kirby Offshore Marine before there was a Kirby Offshore Marine) but Iā€™ve never been able to find any information on them. Does anyone know if they ever existed or if Iā€™ve been told a fish tale? If they did exist does anyone know their names or have any pictures of them?

M/T Great Lakes & M/T Great Gull last owned by K-Sea in New York. http://tugboatinformation.com/
Poling Brothers, Exxon and Mobil Oil also had some unlimited tonnage tankers (just over the 1600 ton threshold) running in the northeast at one time.

[QUOTE=btm;128694]M/T Great Lakes & M/T Great Gull last owned by K-Sea in New York. http://tugboatinformation.com/
Poling Brothers, Exxon and Mobil Oil also had some unlimited tonnage tankers (just over the 1600 ton threshold) running in the northeast at one time.[/QUOTE]

Iā€™ve heard of them before, the tankers Iā€™m referring to were actually owned by Kirby Corp., not K-Sea. The K-Sea tankers were still around till the early 2000ā€™s. The Kirby tankers I heard about were with Kirby only till the early 90ā€™s.

ā€œMegaā€ is a former harbor icebreaker (it shares the hull form and machinery with the Swedish icebreaker Ale) that was rebuilt into a pusher vessel. The barge ā€œMottiā€ is unique in such way that it was built specifically for Mega. I saw the combination often in the horizon during my military service - you could easily recognize it among other ships because the tall superstructure was pitching in a different phase with the rest of the hull. My father also used to work on it when it was sailing under the Finnish flag and he was often commenting how the pitching of the pusher vessel was pretty annoying in heavy weather. That was one of the reasons why he switched to the vessel that, when it comes to pusher-barge combinations, is the only one I see fit for unlimited service particularly in the Baltic Sea: Finnpusku. Itā€™s surprising how so few pusher-barge systems utilize rigid coupling.

Some pictures from Tananger(Stavanger), FlorĆø and the North sea:





[QUOTE=PaddyWest2012;128697]Iā€™ve heard of them before, the tankers Iā€™m referring to were actually owned by Kirby Corp., not K-Sea. The K-Sea tankers were still around till the early 2000ā€™s. The Kirby tankers I heard about were with Kirby only till the early 90ā€™s.[/QUOTE]

I believe that was about the time that Kirby bought Sabine Tankers. Sabine had a bunch of old iron. I was offered a job with them in 88 but turned it down for various reasons.

Here is a shot of the GUADALUPE, laid up at Port Arthur in 2001.


Guadalupe by cmakin, on Flickr

[QUOTE=PaddyWest2012;128672]I

Iā€™ve heard stories about how years ago Kirby used to have unlimited tonnage tankships (Kirby Offshore Marine before there was a Kirby Offshore Marine) but Iā€™ve never been able to find any information on them. Does anyone know if they ever existed or if Iā€™ve been told a fish tale? If they did exist does anyone know their names or have any pictures of them?[/QUOTE]

Yes in the late 80ā€™s and early 90ā€™s Kirby went on there first buying spree. They bought about 7 or 8 different inland companies, here are some of the names I can remember off the top of my head. Scott Chotin, TPT (Thomas petroleum transport), Western towing, Brent transportation, Ole man river transport. Sabine transport, and I canā€™t remember the rest. They already owned Dixie Carriers and rolled all these inland companies into what is now Kirbly inland marine.

cmakin is correct they bought the Sabine tankers along with Sabine towing. All these ships were single hull steam power, and about at the end of there like span anyway. They also bought a small number of tankers from OMI. I think around 4 of them. They did not own them long maybe a couple years and sold them. I canā€™t remember who they were sold to. I worked on one of the old OMI ships named ā€œRangerā€ it had Peilstik mains and Cat 398 generators and pump engines. I worked on it as a qmed in 90 or maybe 91. Been to long ago to remember the details. I saw the sister ship to the ā€œRangerā€ once, we passed it going in or out of the harbor, but I canā€™t for the life of me remember the name of the thing. By the middle 90ā€™s Kirby had sold all the ships and was in the process of selling all there offshore red flag fleet, including the Dixie Carriers ATBā€™s and red flag barges. Which was basically the Dixie Commander and the Dixie Avenger. Now the Sea Raven and Pacific Avenger. Ironic that Kirby wound up getting both boats back 15 years later.

[QUOTE=cmakin;129332]I believe that was about the time that Kirby bought Sabine Tankers. Sabine had a bunch of old iron. I was offered a job with them in 88 but turned it down for various reasons.

Here is a shot of the GUADALUPE, laid up at Port Arthur in 2001.


Guadalupe by cmakin, on Flickr[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=ChiefRob;129471]Yes in the late 80ā€™s and early 90ā€™s Kirby went on there first buying spree. They bought about 7 or 8 different inland companies, here are some of the names I can remember off the top of my head. Scott Chotin, TPT (Thomas petroleum transport), Western towing, Brent transportation, Ole man river transport. Sabine transport, and I canā€™t remember the rest. They already owned Dixie Carriers and rolled all these inland companies into what is now Kirbly inland marine.

cmakin is correct they bought the Sabine tankers along with Sabine towing. All these ships were single hull steam power, and about at the end of there like span anyway. They also bought a small number of tankers from OMI. I think around 4 of them. They did not own them long maybe a couple years and sold them. I canā€™t remember who they were sold to. I worked on one of the old OMI ships named ā€œRangerā€ it had Peilstik mains and Cat 398 generators and pump engines. I worked on it as a qmed in 90 or maybe 91. Been to long ago to remember the details. I saw the sister ship to the ā€œRangerā€ once, we passed it going in or out of the harbor, but I canā€™t for the life of me remember the name of the thing. By the middle 90ā€™s Kirby had sold all the ships and was in the process of selling all there offshore red flag fleet, including the Dixie Carriers ATBā€™s and red flag barges. Which was basically the Dixie Commander and the Dixie Avenger. Now the Sea Raven and Pacific Avenger. Ironic that Kirby wound up getting both boats back 15 years later.[/QUOTE]

Thanks very much to both of you! That was just the information that I was looking for. I couldnā€™t find any additional pictures of any of these ships on google, which is rather disappointing. Would this ā€œOMI Rangerā€ be any relation to the infamous ā€œOMI Chargerā€ of Bolivar Rhodes in 1993?

Just had a brain fart, you can add Holywood towing or transportation and all the old Exxon Sea/River inland tugs and barges to the list that Kirby bought as well. There are more, I just have to think a little harder.

THIS OMI CHARGER?


Scan10006 by cmakin, on Flickr

[QUOTE=cmakin;129488]THIS OMI CHARGER?[/QUOTE]

Yup, thatā€™s about the size of itā€¦

Any relation to the Kirby boat?

If my memory serves me correctly OMI had a couple different class of ships. The class the Charger was in was steam powered. What ever class the Ranger was in was diesel. The best I can remember Kirby only bought the diesel ships from OMI not the steam. Like I say that was many years ago, and I was just a young pup back then. There was only a few of them, 4 if I remember correctly.

I wonder if the 1990 Kirby buying up old rust buckets could have pictured themselves ordering brand new ATBā€™s at 80 million a pop in 2014. How things do change sometimesā€¦

Was the other diesel ship OMI Hudson? Iā€™ve been on a lot of those ships. Mostly the steam ones Willemette, Star, Charger, etc. Iā€™m racking my brain as well.

[QUOTE=PaddyWest2012;129506]I wonder if the 1990 Kirby buying up old rust buckets could have pictured themselves ordering brand new ATBā€™s at 80 million a pop in 2014. How things do change sometimesā€¦[/QUOTE]

I have been around Kirby personally since 1988, and my step dad has been with them since I was old enough to walk. Trust me they have done many things over the years that have left me scratching my head going WTF?

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[QUOTE=Fraqrat;129543]Was the other diesel ship OMI Hudson? Iā€™ve been on a lot of those ships. Mostly the steam ones Willemette, Star, Charger, etc. Iā€™m racking my brain as well.[/QUOTE]

There might have been one with that name Fraq, but Hudson doesnā€™t ring a bell to me. I searched around on the interweb and found a pic of the Leader, Champion, and Columbia. The Leader looks similar to the Ranger that I remember, but I could not find any specs on any of them. They were fairly old back in the early 90ā€™s so probably all these ships we are racking our brains over are most likely razor blades by now.

Well for cryin-out-loud if you found pictures then why donā€™t you post 'em!?!?!?

What in godā€™s name is this monstrosity?

I was just cruising around NOLA on google maps and saw some interesting looking things alongside a scarp yard just north of the lower ninth ward. Then, I saw that THING floating there. At first I thought the image was just distorted but it isnā€™t, the barges all around it look perfectly normal.

Does anyone know what that boat is? Better yet has anyone ever sailed on it? I know more beam means more stability but jeeze! The damn thingā€™s already a tanker, what the hell do they need THAT much extra stability for?

Anyone interested can find it at ā€œ29.9926, -90.0143ā€ on google maps.