I like this NYTimes slide show called “Tugboat Minuet,” although I think tugs tango, no matter the number involved in shifting.
And …don’t know about you: I really take issue with some writing in the piece, like the lead sentence, i.e., “Tugboats are not as romantic as fire trucks, and they do not have the sleek aerodynamic shape of airplanes.” Such a land-biased statement! How many people do you know that have ever considered fire trucks romantic? I’ve never met one, and I’ve met a lot of people. Fire trucks are saviors on land, to be sure. Shrill and fast, of course. But in romance, I’ve never looked for a shrill and fast savior! Later in the piece, tugboats are described as “moving like children pushing a shopping cart for Mom” (I paraphrase) almost knocking over “stacks of cereal boxes and paper towels.” Please! I find this bordering on offensive.
Tugboats could be described as powerful, relatively silent, and mysterious. Agile. Supportive. Rugged. Reliable. Decisive. Versatile. And they’re hydrodynamic because that matters in their environment. Would you ever hear an airplane described as not as hydrodynamic as a tugboat? Tugboats certainly have classic beauty that ages gracefully . . . like Daryl Hannah or Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini… And children in the supermarket are annoyances; I’ve been a loving parent and know of what I speak. Is the insinuation here that tugboats propel themselves around the harbor wreaking havoc and chaos, reckless and immature?
Great fotos; problematic writing. So I’ll just list names today.
From left to right: Baltic Sea, Amy C. McAllister, Nicole Leigh Reinauer, and Maria J ex Jesus Saves, closest.
and a few seconds later.
Specialist and
Specialist too. . . or II.
Tucana . . . ex-Exxon Pelham, high and dry. Foto thanks to Ted.
By the way, Tucana and Daryl Hannah are both vintage 1960.
Except where stated otherwise, photos . . . WVD.
tugster: a waterblog 
8 comments
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April 28, 2008 at 11:00 am
bonnie
They are the heavy horses of the harbor.
May not have the refined looks of a thoroughbred like a racing yacht, but handsome in their own way.
April 28, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Jed
1. Nobody scoffs at The Clydesdale horses!
2. Take gander at SPECIALIST’s hand-made Bow puddening, THAT is some salty stuff!! I think JANICE ANN REINAUER is the only other boat in the harbor with a PROPER one. Sme of the MORAN boats sport some good looking handmade side fenders…
Puddening
Pud”den*ing\, n. [Probably fr. pudden, for pudding, in allusion to its softness.] (Naut.) (a) A quantity of rope-yarn, or the like, placed, as a fender, on the bow of a boat. (b) A bunch of soft material to prevent chafing between spars, or the like.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
JED sends from New Haven
April 28, 2008 at 8:00 pm
bonnie
That’s what I’m sayin’!
April 28, 2008 at 10:30 pm
will
well said, both of you. i wish i’d thought of the clydesdale v. arabian connection although tugboat to firetruck is more like Clydesdale to Holstein. fire trucks can’t cross the harbor very well either when there’s no bridge, ferry, or tunnel.
April 29, 2008 at 8:59 am
bonnie
Oh, when I was talking about Arabian I was thinking more along the lines of the yawl Leilani (mmmmmm)!
April 29, 2008 at 9:03 am
bonnie
and the schooner Adirondack…now she would be…
yes!
She would be a Hanoverian.
April 29, 2008 at 2:31 pm
tugster
and a dinghy might be a shetland. my canoe sailer is certainly a donkey. oh, this could be fun!
May 17, 2008 at 7:28 am
Dennis G - Moonstruck
I guess my Oday 23 – 1978 would be the old sway back mare – out to pasture? Do you know anything about the wooden eagles that used to sit atop the wheelhouses of the turn of the century tugs?