The Laura Van Enkevort and Barge Joseph H. Thompson

 As I was taking pictures of the Alpena, I noticed that there was a ship unloading at the stone dock in Marine City.  Normally, I wouldn't be able to get pictures of that but the drone lets me do it.

It is the tug Laura Van Enkevort and barge Joseph H. Thompson.  The Joseph H. Thompson used to be pushed by the Joseph H. Thompson Jr. which was a barge made from the Joseph H. Thompson ship.

I'm not sure if the Laura Van Enkevort is a new build or an update of the Joseph H. Thompson Jr.  Either way, I've not caught her in this configuration.

And Then There Was the Joseph H. Thompson

So I got to my spot and I was just waiting for the ship I was hoping to catch.

 But before that ship was a tug/barge.

 The tug/barge in question was the Joseph H. Thompson, Jr. pushing her barge, the Joseph H. Thompson.

 If I remember correctly, the tug was made from parts of the ship.

 And the ship at one time was known as the Marine Robin and she was off the shores of Normandy on the morning of June 6, 1944.  She is the other war veteran on the Great Lakes.

 Now she is just a tug/barge doing tug/barge type things.  I think in this case, she was delivering stone somewhere.

 the more or less full on shot.

 And a shot of her pilothouse.

 A sort of shot of her stern.

And she pulls away.  Unfortunately, I couldn't any more pictures after this one.  It was kind of a warm day and the Lakes really haven't had time to warm up and therefore are creating a bit of haze in my pictures.

The Joseph H. Thompson Downbound at Port Huron

I was feeling kind of blah on Sunday and I really didn't want to do anything and then I checked Marine Traffic and saw that there was a ship I was interested in catching heading downbound.  I made it up there in time to catch a couple of ships.

 This wasn't the ship I was interested in catching but it was still kind of nice to catch her.

 I think she was heading down to Lorain, Ohio but I'm not sure what she was carrying.  I'm going to guess that she was carrying stone.

 I'm pretty sure that she wasn't carrying iron or grain though.

 I wish I would have caught her before they converted her into a barge.  She looks like she could have been a pretty nice vessel.

 She is just about to enter the St Clair River.

 One of the  things I love about catching ships at Port Huron is the fact that I can get a head shot of them.

And she continues on her way.

And the Joseph H. Thompson

As I was waiting for the Paul R. Tregurtha, I looked to the other side and saw that the Joseph H. Thompson was heading up.

 The Joseph H. Thompson is one of a few ships that have been converted to articulated Tug/Barges.  She started life as a tanker and like the Lee A. Tregurtha was covered to a laker.

 She was on her way up to Cedarville but I'm not sure where she delivered to.  I think it might have been Detroit, but I'm not sure.

 I think she's a fairly neat looking vessel.

She's different from the other tug barges in that the tug was made from other parts of her. 

Next Up the Joseph H. Thompson

Next up is the tug Joseph H. Thompson Jr. and her barge the Joseph H. Thompson.

 The Joseph H. Thompson is unique in the tug/barge world in that the tug is made from parts of the ship that was was converted to a barge.

 I'm not quite sure where she was heading though.

 She is kind of a cool looking ship.

 A beam shot of her.

 A shot of her tug.

And she continues on down.  As I write this post, she is in Lake Erie.  It appears she may be heading to Cleveland.

Ships Not Otherwise Classified

These are ships I only took a couple pictures of and I don't really want to make a separate post for each of them.

 The Joseph H. Thompson, Jr. has appeared on this blog before.  She is the tug portion that pushes the Joseph H. Thompson barge.

 The BBC Olympus is one of several salties that ply the Great Lakes.  She is picking up cargo from the Detroit Port.  I'm not sure what cargo that is.  I don't have a ton of information on her either.

The Cuyahoga unloading in Windsor.

Another Tug/Barge

Next up is the vessel that eluded me most of the day.  Well, I did get a picture of her on Belle Isle but it wasn't a great picture.

 The Joseph H. Thompson was following pretty closely behind the Speer.  If I had to venture a guess, I would say it was probably about 5 to 10 minutes at best.

 I kind of wish I would have seen her before she became a barge because she looks like she might have been a pretty nice looking ship.  But sadly, things move on.

 A shot of her bow as she approaches the Blue Water Bridge.

 She gives me the three quarter view.

 And she makes her turn towards Lake Huron.

 Framed by the Blue Water Bridge.

 I look at this shot and I can still imagine that she has her proper pilot house.  It turns out that she is also a war hero like the Tregurtha.

 Her tug was made out of parts from the original ship.

I love the way the reddish ship stands out against the blue water.

Random Shots from Riverside Park

I heard rumors that Riverside Park was going to be opening this April.  Since it's April, I figured I would go check it out.

 It turned out that those rumors proved to be false but since I was there and since I didn't figure I would be there long, I parked my car to get pictures of the Welland.

 the Federal Yukon docked at Nicholson.  I'm not sure she what she's picking up.

 The Joseph H. Thompson docked at Mistersky.  she's getting some fuel.

A duck parked at Riverside.

From what I could tell, it doesn't look like Riverside is going to be opening any time soon.  The parking lot looks like it could use a paving.  The park was still in disarray and the signs announcing that it was closed were still up.  I did see some drums, so I presume that there was some kind of cleanup activity.  So maybe...

The Joseph H. Thompson Sails By

Following fairly close behind the Sam Laud was the Joseph H. Thompson.

 She is another ship that has appeared on this blog several times in the past. 

 She is also one of several tug/barges on the lakes.

 A shot of her bow.  You can see that she was a proper ship at one time.

 She started life as the Marine Robin and was present during the Normandy invasion.

 After the war, she was brought to the Great Lakes where she served as a lake freighter under the name Cliffs Victory.

In 1985, she was converted to her current configuration.