A pair of Moran tugs, the Margaret Moran and the Laura K Moran, travelled up the North River on Friday to help assist a bulk ship loaded with Spanish gypsum docking at the drywall factory in Buchanan, NY. Margaret, nearly 50 years old and a dean of Moran’s New York Harbor tug fleet, came first, followed by the more modern Laura K.

Laura was taking advantage of the longer-than-usual haul up north to test her fire monitor, running water over the starboard quarter; we saw her doing similar on the way back from Buchanan back in May. Both tugs have their iconic M tinted pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, as noted by @eastriverkeeper yesterday.

The bulker Armonia came through about an hour after the tugs, about 650 feet long and drawing 31 feet partially laden.

A wallboard plant in Buchanan has been operating since the 1960s, though the import of gypsum from Spain is a more recent innovation as in historic older times synthetic gypsum derived from residuals of coal-fired power plants and brought in by barge was used. With the closure of the sugar plant in Yonkers last year, the drywall plant is the only manufacturer utilizing the marine highway left in Westchester.