Whitherward 5

Loretta B Moran is not yet ready for a christening, but the shell leaves little to the imagination.  Stuart Pate took these a few weeks back at the Washburn Doughty & Associates yard up in East Boothbay, Maine.

Looking at these newbuilds prompts some questions:  How many tugboats* are there in the world?  How many in the US?  What is the average age of the US fleet?  What is the only country counting MORE tugboats than the US?  Answers at end of post.  (* counting only “seagoing” and greater than 100 gross tons.)  I guess this is a miniTugsterteaser, since you get the answers by the end of the post.  The tug in the water might be Catherine C. Moran.

I’m guessing the other tug-in-progress here is Lizzie B. Moran.

Thanks, Stuart.  Stuart’s fotos were previously  featured here and here.  I love the primer colors!

The numbers are :  13,473, 1489, and 33 years average age.  Country is Indonesia, a nation of 230 million people scatttered over more than 17,000 islands.  The source is Marcon International.

And a followup question:  ever hear of Rufus W King?  According to this article in 1828 it was the first tugboat in the sixth boro . . . possibly anywhere.