I’ve taken this photo from Facebook, on a thread started by Aleksandr Mariy. He wondered what it was.
Look at the stern, the shape of the house, and the bow apart from the upper bulwarks shaped up to and around the bowsprit.
Speculation in that thread was and I change the words slightly and add a few of my own . . . old Moran tug that got turned into a sailboat back in 1983. Work was done at a yard in Port Arthur. Wheelhouse was moved to aft position, bulwarks modified, bowsprit and masts added. Believe it was one of the Thomas Morans, maybe the 1926 one. It was a diesel electric. Owner was a Moran captain who planned to go tuna fishing with it.
Anyone want to weigh in? Does anyone have photos either before or after?
And while I’m commenting on FB, here’s a photo shared there by Robert Silva, showing self-propelled barge Toledo Sun from days of yore.
Click here to see it out of the water, showing although not clearly enough the power configuration. Anyone know the manufacturer of the propulsion? I believe she’s now operating out of Singapore as Marine Success. Here’s more of the Sun Oil fleet. Is this the same vessel?
tugster: a waterblog 
3 comments
Comments feed for this article
April 8, 2016 at 11:35 am
William Lafferty
The Toledo Sun was propelled by twin 12-cylinder Caterpillar Diesels, rated at 1700-bhp. As Marine Success, it was deleted by Lloyd’s in 2011 with the notation “Existence in doubt.”
April 8, 2016 at 2:30 pm
tugster
From Dave Boone, a photo taken in 1966 of Thomas E. Moran, originally New York Central No. 33, the starting point of the conversion in this post: https://tugster.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/1926newyorkcentralno-33.jpg
April 13, 2016 at 1:52 pm
Bob Silva
Originally the Toledo had Murray & Tregurtha “Harbormasters”…Then she was retrofitted with new Schottel units. The main engines were Cats as stated above by William.