Foto from Birk. I never noticed before how much the colors of a McAllister tug and Santa Claus are alike. Now all Alex needs is to sport white fabric bow pudding, you to squint, and . . . et voila! To the right . . . I think that’s she who did a last waltz this past July.
Christmas decorations on USS New Jersey? Except this foto was taken in October.
Tugboat Lizzie with reflections . . . and made by a frustrated retired jeweler friend of John Ericsson.
a gold- and silver-plated copper tug! Trophy material. See more at the Independence Seaport Museum, not where the road has taken me but well worth a visit.
Top foto by Birk Thomas. All others by Will Van Dorp, who’s quite inland and equidistant from the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico.
tugster: a waterblog 
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December 26, 2012 at 10:15 am
Chris Williams
Hi Will –
If you haven’t toured the Becuna, it’s worth a visit. When you get to the wardroom, on that short transverse bench facing forward, is where I sat as a very young Naval Ensign conducting a salvage inspection and calmly wrote up the commanding officer of the Becuna for not having kept his escape training current. I must say it seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Subsequently, however, I received some intense “personal guidance” from my own CO back on the Tringa. It was certainly one of those “tuition payments to the school of Life.” By the way, the best way to get through those circular hatches between compartments on a diesel boat is to grab the handrail above the hatch, stuff your feet through first and then limbo up into the next compartment. Also, watch your head in the control room and engine rooms. There are or were, at least, a number of valve handles that were just the right height for an unsuspecting Ensign to recognize them by contact, as opposed to vision. Yup – I tested that.