I’m working on identifying this . .. tugboat and engine, but I know very little about these things. I hope you enjoy the fotos as much as I liked taking them. Is the wood/metal unit to the left side of the foto part of a coal hopper?
I homed in on text, but I don’t know this name. The internet tells me they made marine motors but not what these motors powered.
The wood/metal unit I mentioned before lies here between the engine and the boiler, I gather.
Abaft the engine, I’m not sure what the pulley 
with chain would be . ..
All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who hasn’t been very helpful in this post. Hope you enjoy looking at fotos and either identifying what I can’t or getting to this part of the post having learned very little along the way. TES might offer more info at that link. Maybe a trip to Mystic would help “demystify” these engines. .
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September 29, 2011 at 3:02 pm
Joe Herbert
All parts of a triple expansion engine, most probably not a tug, most stood too tall, unless it was a very old boat with a walking beam, the wood and metal thing has me thrown, the flange would indicate that it penetrated som sort of horizontal plane, perhaps an above the waterline coal chute?
September 29, 2011 at 3:10 pm
Julian M
Not sure about the sheave and chain. But my guess would be part of the steering gear.
September 29, 2011 at 4:37 pm
Anonymous
this is an old tug at Witte’s. The engine is a triple expansion steam engine. The round object next to it is a steam generator. They were insulated with wood to retain their heat energy. The chain and wildcat are most likely part of the steering gear. It could have been steered by hand power or by a small dedicated steam engine. The engine would have been connected to the crank by a cross head.
September 29, 2011 at 7:55 pm
Luan John
The Olympia in Philadelphia has similar but different chain contraptions linking steam valve gear in her boiler rooms to remote controls on the decks above.
October 5, 2011 at 10:27 am
Anonymous
Compound engine. Only HP and LP cylinders.
October 20, 2011 at 12:55 pm
John Sperr
Photo 1 looks like a “compound” or “double expansion” steam engine — a small high pressure cylinder and a larger low pressure cylinder.
Photo 2 looks to be an electric motor powering a large centrifugal water pump — could have been the boiler feed pump, or perhaps it is unrelated to the original steam engine at all and just found its way onboard.
Photo 3 looks like some boiler exhausts I have seen in pictures — is the wooden part steel lined? Perhaps the exterior wood is added insulation where it came through the deck?
Photos 4 & 5. I think the people who suggested a control mechanism for steering or the engines have it right. That’s a double wide sheave and it looks like the chain may have turned upward and run through that rusty colored pipe to the wheelhouse. The size of the chain suggests rudder control to me, but I’d have to see more of it to fully appreciate what is happening.
Thanks for the great blog and I hope you enjoyed your trip to the headwaters of the Hudson. I hope we see you on the ice again this year.