Boatnerd Discussion Forum

There appears to be something in place of a hatch cover between the 1st and 2nd hatches behind the pilot house in the photo. Not sure what this is, doesn't look to be a structure like the William A Irvin has in that location, but not sure. Is is possible that whatever was here was later removed and another hatch added to account for the change from 34 to 35 hatches listed?

Indeed, I used photo enhancement after narrowing the selection to those Pittsburgh boats with 34 hatches operating in 1952. It's interesting that Green's of 1952 and Greenwood's 1960-1963 listed the Roberts as having 34 hatches, but after 1963 it is listed as having 35 hatches (like the Alva C. Dinkey).

It's easy to see the name on the boat if you go to "Page" on your computer and go to "Zoom." I went to 300% and the name on the port side aft was very easy to see. WL might be good, but no one is that good to look at a boat from above and know what boat it is. Especially a hatch farm. And especially with the number USS ran at that time.

William,
Thank you so much for identifying that, and so quickly!
I also am curious how you identified it so quickly. With my limited boat knowledge, I was just trying to find names of ships from the Pittsburgh fleet that match up in length with the lettering in the bottom right corner as well as by the pilot house shape. I was having a tough time finding any sort of list of ship names as well as dates to match up.
Again thank you very much.
If anyone is interested, Miss Bourke-White is a phenomenal photographer with a lot of work focusing on steel mills in the Great Lakes region, trains, and even some nice shots of the ore docks in Superior, WI. She pioneered the idea of helicopter photography. I recommend a look at her work.
Happy New Year all!
-Heather

I sailed on both the Clempson and the Dickson and they did keep a deckhand hopp'n ...

WL how did you ID the Percival Roberts so fast? What other boats built in teens had 33 hatches? I was on the Dinky boat and can't remember how many hatches she had, I though she had less. I don't have, or can I find, any pictures of her deck to count them either.

I believe Pittsburgh Steamship was only running around 30 boats 1952, which was half there fleet. Is there any way to tell how many of there boats were running with telescoping versus solid hatch covers back then?

In addition, ships with 32 or so hatches to work with. This means the hatches were on 12 ft. centers rather than 24 centers. They were a lot of work for the deck crew especially during tarp season. Mike

telescoping hatch covers
A current Boat still sailing with them is The Saginaw.
You can look it up in the fleet photo gallery.

What a hatch farm.

Percival Roberts, Jr..

http://life.time.com/culture/air-americ ... -above/#12
I've been struggling to find a ship whose description and available photos match with this ship photographed in 1952 by Margaret Bourke-White from a helicopter. Would anyone be able to identify it?
Thank you,
Heather