Tugboat or Towboat 1

I had a chance to see Orange Blossom depart the sixth boro this morning, but since our current January light is so monochromatic, I thought to take on the tugboat/towboat question.  Having said that, I’ve always considered Buchanan 12 (last one here) and Glen Cove (seventh foto here) as river tugboats or pushboats.   Odin, depicted at the end of this post and possibly still in the Kirby yard in Houston, also has some towboat characteristics.

Olga  G. Stone, big pushknees and little if any sheer . . . .

without a winch or H-bit . . . definitely a towboat.

Barbara E. Bouchard and in the lift Edwin N. Bisso . . .  as definitely tugboats

Admiral Jackson . . . tugboat.

J. W. Herron . . . towboat, and I’d love to see her high and dry hull lines.

Ned Ferry . . . tug.   Here’s Ned Ferry with Sanko Venture, recently somewhat curiously rendered by bowsprite.

This unidentified Florida Marine vessel with tow is a towboat . . . .  Note how the length of the tow

seems quite lengthened when you get a profile.  Also notice the dance as the ferry Louis B. Porterie sashays between the two tows.

John Williams . . .  towboat.

Ditto Alley Cat,  Stone Power, 

and Jerry Aragon.

This one I don’t see enough of to identify.

For nostalgia’s sake . . . a foto of Odin in the KVK . . . circa 2007.

All fotos above by Will Van Dorp.  For some great towboat fotos check Boat Photo Museum and Ohio River Blog, recently added to my blogroll.  Also, an excellent site is Dick’s Towboat Gallery.  For more on the difference between tugs and towboats from TES, click here.