Weeks 533 is a 500-short-ton (454 t) capacity Clyde Iron Works model 52 barge-mounted crane which is the largest revolving floating crane on the East Coast of the United States. It was originally ordered for bridge construction and has since been used in several notable heavy lifts.
14-519: The floating barge-crane, originally named Marine Boss , was built for Murphy Pacific Marine . The barge was assembled by Zidell Explorations from scrapped ship steel in Oregon in 1966 and fitted in San Francisco with a heavy 500-ton revolving crane made by Clyde Iron Works to perform the heavy girder and deck-section lifts for construction of the 1967 San Mateo-Hayward Bridge . At the time it
28-539: Is associated with the advent of steel frame buildings at the turn of the century and the increased popularity of this building method following the Great Fire of 1906. The infrastructure projects for San Francisco and California undertaken in the teens, 20s and 30s, and the build-up of the Bay Area's industrial capacity for the war effort in the 1940s are important not only to Potrero Hill and San Francisco, but also to
42-628: The Weeks 533 and refurbished it from 1997-2000. Weeks 533 is considered the flagship of the Weeks fleet. One of the tugboats returning Weeks 533 from Albany to New Jersey collided with the moored 750t crane barge N181 (aka Hank Hummel ) near the Tappan Zee Bridge at night in heavy fog on 12 March 2016. That tug, the Specialist , subsequently sank, killing all three sailors. Although
56-430: The 1950s, and even the late 1960s. The four buildings at the 17th & Mississippi Streets site that constitute the last extant structures associated with this steel producer were part of a remarkable and unique story in which outstanding contributions to the history and culture of both San Francisco and California (indeed, the entire Western region) were made. The Pacific Rolling Mill, which began incrementally constructing
70-560: The Pacific Rolling Mill Company was the genesis of a profound and remarkable pioneering steel-making operation whose work, heritage, and impact journeyed well into the 1950s: This was the small but not humble beginning of a corporation that in the next three quarters of a century was to be one of the great builders of the West, constructing both the tools of peace and the engines of war, the wheels of transportation and
84-453: The West as well as a number of notable battleships. The company was organized on 10 May 1866 by an august group of investors that included D. O. Mills , William Alvord , and James G. Fair . Other large stockholders included Leland Stanford , James Flood , Alvinza Hayward , and William Ralston . Also among the men associated with this pioneering venture was Patrick Noble who started as a clerk in 1868 and eventually served as an officer of
98-549: The buildings at the turn of the 20th century, was a pioneering steel fabrication company led by the visionary Noble family. Patrick Noble and his senior executives created their business from the predecessor Pacific Rolling Mill located at Potrero Point and their legacy at the reorganized Pacific Rolling Mill in lower Potrero Hill continued in successive mergers of the company over an 80-year period. Founder Patrick Noble died in October 1920. His son, Edward B. Noble, continued leading
112-564: The company. After the Pacific Rolling Mill's original operation closed at Potrero Point , Patrick Noble reorganized and carried on the company at the foot of Potrero Hill, at 17th and Mississippi Streets. Noble's successor enterprise retained the same name as the original company and utilized much of the very same equipment that was first installed at Potrero Point. As documented in the book, A Romance of Steel in California ,
126-621: The entire state of California, and indeed the nation. The (partial) list of buildings, vessels, and structures listed below spanned decades of production by the Pacific Rolling Mill and its successor companies, the Judson-Pacific Company and the Judson Pacific-Murphy Corporation. The heritage of the Pacific Rolling Mill Company carried on in the executives, workers, and skilled expertise of each subsequent merged company. This legacy lasted well into
140-563: The great members of bridges and office buildings and factories. (Source: A Romance of Steel in California, p. 9) While its predecessor plant at Potrero Point on the San Francisco Central Waterfront was clearly instrumental in the growth and industrial rise of the Bay Area and California in the period following the Civil War, the successor Pacific Rolling Mill firm in its nearby location in lower Potrero Hill
154-625: The main hoist oriented astern. The capacity of the middle lift is 150 000 lbs, of the small lift on the top of the boom is 50 000 lbs. Motive power for the main hoist is provided by a Caterpillar 3412 V-12 diesel engine , and electric power for the barge is provided by a Caterpillar 3406 I-6 diesel generator set. Pacific Rolling Mill Company The Pacific Rolling Mill Company was the West ’s first iron and steel producing foundry, founded in 1866, in San Francisco, California . (The company
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#1732779561136168-419: The mate, who was at the helm of Specialist , initially jumped clear from the stricken tug onto N181 , he returned to help free a trapped crewmate and all hands aboard subsequently drowned. The Clyde Iron Works Model 52-DE crane can lift 500 short tons (454 t) using the main hoist on a 210-foot (64 m) boom at any point in the crane's revolution; capacity rises to 600 short tons (544 t) when using
182-401: Was also known as Pacific Rolling Mills and the two names were used interchangeably throughout its history.) Later in its life, through mergers, the company was transformed first into the Judson-Pacific Company, and then into Judson Pacific-Murphy Corporation. In its various guises, Pacific Rolling Mills has produced steel used during the construction of numerous famous buildings and landmarks in
196-554: Was the largest barge crane in the western United States. In the 1970s, Marine Boss was sold to J. Ray McDermott & Co. , who had introduced the first 500-ton floating cranes for offshore platform construction in 1965 and were operating a similar fleet of barge-cranes under the McDermott Derrick Barge (DB) class. McDermott would later sell it for scrap in 1988 to Weeks Marine in New Jersey , who renamed it
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