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Stewart calls this “museum tugs of the Great Lakes.”
“We start in Lake Superior, specifically Two Harbors, with Edna G., built in 1896 and assisted freighters for 80 years. [You can find previous appearances of this tug on this blog here. ]
Next we go to Sturgeon Bay with John Purves. She was built in 1919 [at Beth Steel in Elizabeth NJ, I might add] and during World War 2 found herself armed with machine guns on her deck and out in Alaska protecting the shipping channels….
A short ways away in Kewaunee is our next tug, Ludington. She was also a war veteran. Originally built as LT-4 in 1943, she helped moved barges to Normandy on D-Day.
All the way down in Lake Erie, at the bow of the museum freighter Col. James M. Schoonmaker, is our next tug, Ohio. She was built in 1903 as a fireboat, and stayed this way until she was bought in 1948 by the Great Lakes Towing Company, and converted into a tug. She served this job until 2015, and in 2018 was converted and restored with the purpose of being a museum ship.
Finally, we end in Lake Ontario in Oswego New York, where yet another war veteran has retired. This tug is USAT LT-5, which is a sister ship of Ludington. [In fact, Ludington is hull# 297, and Nash is hull# 298, from Jakobson in Oyster Bay NY.] She was launched in 1943, had 50 caliber machine guns on her deck, and also helped haul barges to Normandy on D-Day. [Her dimensions are 114′ x 25′ x 14′. And on June 9, 1944, her Norwegian crew shot down a German fighter aircraft.]
Thank you for reading this post. All pictures from museumships.us, which is remembering history one ship at a time.”
Thank much, Stewart.
And I could leave well done alone, but this is an opportunity to mention one more . . . Urger. Here she is less than 10 miles from Lake Ontario, pulled over above lock O-3 by a state employee on a mission. He wanted to look the 1901 tug over and lamented his son wasn’t there to get the tour with him. Hats off, officer. The info on museumships here is, unfortunately, three years out of date.
June 2014
And why not another . . . Urger here in 2018 alongside The Chancellor.
Last two photos,WVD.
Here’s what GL tugs have looked like for a century, and many of them are still working, despite their age, as you can see here by clicking on the state names. The tug below is Nebraska, launched in 1929. Grouper–frequently mentioned on this blog–has the same basic design.
A new beginning took place yesterday in Toledo at the National Museum of the Great Lakes, and Paul Strubeck of Vintage Diesel Design as well as all these photos on tugster took these photos of the ceremony: in front of the Colonel aka Schoonmaker, the 116-year-old tug Ohio was rechristened along with
the new tug Ohio. Below and to the left, the old/new Ohio (originally built as a Milwaukee fire boat) was christened with beer and the new Ohio . . . with champagne. Read the ToledoBlade story here.
Click here for a story on the new design, based on the Damen 1907 ICE class design. This blog did a post on the first of this new design about two years ago here.
The new Ohio will assist ships in port of Toledo, so juxtaposition of these three vessels will be commonplace in years to come.
Many thanks to Paul for use of these photos. And if you are ever in the Toledo area, do stop by the National Museum of the Great Lakes.
We all have our colonels or folks like him, Col. James M. Schoonmaker. The photo below, in the center, shows the man. While he’s important, I’m really talking about the vessel shown in yesterday’s post.
After the war, the colonel made a fortune in coke, not the carbonated, heavily-sugared beverage. The colonel and the iron broker created a company.
Since we have a “how,” let’s jump to a “where.” Where the ore boat carried its cargo is shown below, one of the holds. Her total ore-carrying capacity was 12,200 tons. By way of comparison, the largest laker today has capacity of 68,000 tons of ore. Dividing each of those numbers by 20, i.e., 20 tons per truckload, you have a ratio of 610 to 3400. Schoonmaker aka Willis B. Boyer was launched in 1911; Tregurtha in 1981, the year after Schoonmaker was retired.
How it’s steered is shown here, although most boats have only a single wheel.
How crews stay in touch with families, friends, and businesses . . . the bucket is lowered. The Detroit mailboat J. W. Westcott II can be seen in the photo above and to the right of the mail bucket.
How the crew gets onto the dock to handle lines . . . the green boom swings out, and the crewman sitting on the bosun’s chair is lower.
Why these robust blocks of cross-plied wood with the blue line attached can be found on lock chambers’ sides . . . is explained above.
What is an iron deckhand? It’s a frame that moves the length of the cargo deck on rails and lifts the covers off hatches.
What backhaul helped keep ore boats like Schoonmaker profitable?
Where in the world are there similar vessels?
How long have these vessels been built? A fine book called Buckets and Belts traces the evolution of the design.
Where do these vessels fit into US economic history?
And here’s more.
What happens to laker after they are taken out of service? Some become museum ships, like William A. Irvin or William G. Mather. Others are converted into barges, like Joseph H. Thompson. Still others are scrapped.
Here are two more photos of the Colonel.
Wh-words, the engines of writing have brought you this post.
All photos here by Will Van Dorp, who encourages you to visit the Colonel if you’re passing through the Toledo area.
GL tug Mississippi has appeared on this blog several times before. She’s a tiller-steered boat that looks good and still works hard although built in 1916!!
GL tug Ohio was built in 1903!! and originally served as a Chicago Milwaukee fireboat.
She’s recently changed roles again, as a result of her joining up with that green-hulled laker behind her. Recognize it?
Now she’ll live on more decades, centuries we hope.
Of course, the green hull is the Colonel, Col. James M. Schoonmaker. If you’re in Toledo area, check them out.
Many thanks to Paul for use of these photos, and reminding me, I have a bunch of Schoonmaker photos I’ve never posted. Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow.
tugster: a waterblog 
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