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In Mackinaw City four and a half years ago, I took and posted photos of the very rusty 1938 fish tug Kari A, one of which you see directly below. But a lot can happen in that period of time, further decrepitude or thorough rehabilitation.
Above, that’s before, and what follows, is now.
Many thanks to Darrin Lapine, who wanted updated photo of his boat. The good news is that Kari A. has been rejuvenated and is ready to fish again in 2022.
Kari A. began life at Burger Boat in Manitowoc and christened Hustler, as seen here.
You notice there’s no name on the bow?
When 2022 is upon us and it’s fishing time, the name Hustler will be repainted on the boat, her once and future name.
Many thanks to Darrin Lapine assisting in updating this post. After all, suppose you imagined that my still unfinished 1948 beast still looked like the first photo here and not the last photos here.
Many previous posts with fish tugs can be found here.
Anna May is not anime, not matter how much they sound alike. She’s a cargo boat, sometimes carrying horses over to Mackinac Island. Here she is at the St Ignace dock.
And the 906 Express . . . she’s AF’s
landing craft mail boat, Mackinac Island’s version of the supply boat Ojibway or the mail boat Westcott, aka zip code 48222.
Laura Ann is one of the fish tugs bringing in wild catch for Massey Fish.
Farther west and over by Grays Reef, some sort of research boat is at work.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who in real time is hours away from getting back in these waters down bound from Chicago by the time this posts.
Here are the previous 8 installments.
We’ll start just north of Belle Isle and move north for these. From l to r, it’s Kimberly Anne and Andrew J, both sailing for Dean Marine & Excavating.
Near Sarnia and in front of the refinery that creates its product, McAsphalt Transportation’s Everlast lies at the dock. Previous Everlast photos show her in locations as far east and downstream as Montreal. Here’s a bit of history on McAsphalt. Want more here on the history of usage of asphalt, bitumen, or as Noah the boat builder called it, tar and pitch? And want to get really nerdy “good news” about the evolution of asphalt road building and McLeod’s contribution published in Asphalt: The magazine of the Asphalt Institute , click here.
Venturing farther north and along the east side of Nebbish Island, it’s a fish tug. Anyone know the name?
Farther upstream and hauled out, this tug appears to have Soo as the first part of its name, but I can’t make it all out.
Over on the Canadian side in the city of Sault Ste Marie, these boats appear to be floating for the duration.
On the US side of the Soo, it’s Rochelle Kaye and Kathy Lynn, both of Ryba Marine from the lower peninsula.
Beside the Bushplane Museum, it’s the Purvis Marine yard, beginning with large Norwegisn-built tug Reliance.
On the other side of the building is a menagerie of other tugs, including Avenger IV and W. I. Scott Purvis.
Wilfred M. Cohen, with some inside and out built in the US, lies along the pier. Cohen previously appeared here.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who has the luxury of staying indoors today.
In Bayfield WI, this park adjoins a complex named Reiten Boatyard condos,
but the namesake is a gentleman who–with his crew–partook of the food intended for their own wake. The story? Click here.
Now you’d imagine that this fish tug–Dawn–would have been built at the Reiten boatyard. Nope. She’s another Burger Boat product from 1928.
South Twin was Bayfield-built, 1938. It fished until 1995 but since then has been a yard ornament in Red Cliff.
Heading south on the Bayfield peninsula, we come to Washburn WI, where I saw John D, which appears to be a greatly modified fish tug. Maybe I’m wrong but I find no info on her from my sources.
The fish tug site has this to say about H. W. Hocks: “built at Milwaukee, Wis., in 1935, by Harry W. Hocks, the 50 ft. x 14 ft. all-steel vessel was originally equipped with a 100-120 hp. Kahlenberg oil engine. By the early 1940s the boat had been sold to Reuben Nelson, Sturgeon Bay, Wis. Nelson re-powered with a Model D13000 Caterpillar diesel. In 1955 Clyde and Clarence Anderson, Algoma, Wis. purchased the boat, and fished her up until 1991, when she was sold to Cliff Parrish, Brimley, Mich.”
In the village of Cedar River MI, I spotted Art Swaer VI, which I believe was built as late as 1974.
Nearby trap net boat Robert J tied up.
Now way over by the Bruce Peninsula, it’s Mamie and
Anzac K.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
I still have lots of these. If I were to spend money for a boat and lived in a place where I could walk to it every day, I’d get a fish tug. All boats today are within a three-minute walk of the market at Bodin Fisheries.
Let’s start with the 1938 Ruth, which has become a static display at the Bayfield Marine Museum, which–to my disappointment– was closed when I visited.
Noree Jo was built in 1948.
Let’s have a look from all angles.
Cassie-K is slightly older, a 1945 boat.
John R seems to have gone to the birds . . . She’s from 1942.
The smaller red-hulled boat beside John R gave no clue of her name.
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Just east of the dock featured a few days ago here is another dock.
Eleanor B might be among the “newest” of the fish tugs I’ve seen, 1950. Click here for photos of her christening at Peterson Brothers in Sturgeon Bay and more.
In the same fleet colors–I think–and two years older than Eleanor B is Twin Sisters, a trap net boat. If my info is correct, she was once known as Sue Carol.
Kristin Beth . . .I can’t find any info about her. I’m wondering if the shelter forward is original or a repurposed portion of an old boat.
Crews were mostly working on the three boats above, even though I caught these photos without them. Obviously, no one earns money when the boat’s at the dock. There were boats–fish tugs–moving toward and away from the docks, like this unidentified one, and
this one, Gary. If I may borrow from “the fish tug” site, here’s their info on all the modifications done to Gary: “GARY 247461 .Built by Burger Boat Co. in 1945, for William Yauger, Jr., Algoma, Wis. The 40 ft. x 11 ft. steel hulled fish tug was equipped with a 45-54 hp. Kahlenberg oil engine. The cabin was of wood, over steel frames, with pilot house mid-ship. Yauger was owner until 1951, when she was sold to Canadian owners, and renamed BARRY MCKAY. In 1962 the boat came back to the U.S., retained her original name, and was owned by William Heward, Rogers City, Mich., until 1969. Bought by Gilmore Peterson, Bayfield, the Kahlenberg was removed, and a Cummins diesel installed. The wood cabin was replaced with steel, and the pilot house moved to the stern. Gilmore sold the boat to his nephew, Michael Peterson, who still has ownership.”
Boats came and went at the dock. An arrival was Thomas C. Mullen, a 1946 Burger built boat. Click on the link in the previous sentence for info on all her modifications since 1946. I may have mentioned this before, but Burger–still in Manitowoc–has built many vessels since 1863.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who plans many more posts on fish tugs and is fully to blame for any errors in info here.
This road trip was partly about seeing more fish tugs, the focus of the next few posts. One of the current hubs of fishing tugs still fishing is the Bayfield Peninsula, jutting out of northern Wisconsin into Lake Superior. Bayfield still had chunk ice in the harbor on May 9!
Let’s start out at Bodin Fisheries, and the docks there.
Visible here from l to r, it’s Miss Madilynn, JJC, Twin Disc, and Alicia Rae.
And circling around to the other side, more views from different angles of this set.
Mackenzie May, partly visible here, is astern of Miss Madilynn.
Looking out of the cove, that’s Madeline Island–the only inhabited island of the Apostles–visible only when the fog is lifted. Part of the island is home to the Bad River band of the Ojibwe.
But back to the fish tugs. Note JayJayCee is abridged on the stack.
A major resource I use to learn more about fish tugs is here, compiled by Harvey Hadland and Bob Mackreth. A second one is Great Lakes Commercial Fishing Forum here.
Miss Madilynn might be the newest of this set, built (I believe) in 1964 in Black River Harbor MI. Previous names are Isle Royale Queen, Jean-Maur-B II, and Jean Mor B. She’s 31′ loa.
Mackenzie May was built in 1940 at Burger Boat, 42′ loa. The Burger family has been building boats since 1863 in Manitowoc WI.
Twin Disc, 45′ loa, carries the original name as when she was built in Sturgeon Bay by Peterson in 1937.
Alicia Rae was built as C. W. Lind in 1945. The 42′ boat was also once called Kelly. She was built as hull 209 at Sturgeon Bay Shipbuilding & Drydock.
I skipped the Garden Peninsula on my drive out to Bayfield, but from George Schneider a few years back, here’s a fish tug he photographed there.
All photos by will Van Dorp, who takes the blame for any mis-processed info here.
Click here for a short video on commercial fishing on Lake Superior.
Even gallivants have destinations, and her it is, the Bayfield peninsula,
one of the best places to see fish tugs, to be included in a number of upcoming posts, following on these past ones. South Twin was built in 1938 in Bayfield and is now out of the water,
but many more like Gary (1945) still fish. Recall that Urger was once a fish tug.
Obviously, this is not a fish tug, but an excursion vessel.
Bayfield’s Devil’s Island was once visited by one President, and here’s why.
The town is itself spectacular, even when the fog prevents excursion boats from heading out. Radar and other navaids can get you out there, but don’t guarantee
that you’ll see much.
Was this Bartholdi’s inspiration . . .?
… just kidding.
Anyone recognize this ferry?
Here’s the story.
This kit saw me and ran for its mother, lurking in the bushes.
John D is one more fish tug, and not mentioned in this site, but we’ll leave you here. As Robert E. Keen says . . . the road goes on forever….
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who has crossed a border by now.
Happy fall equinox. This seems as good a time as any to honor Poseidon with a photo parade of more fish tugs, to really challenge a segue. . .
as is grouping Lady Kate with fishing tugs. It appears she was built as passenger vessel G. A. Buckling II back in 1952, and is wearing her fourth name now, but
she certainly has the lines of a fish tug despite possibly never having worked as such. I’m sure someone will weigh in on this.
Doris M is a fish tug built in Erie in 1947, and given the flags,
she appears to still work.
Real Glory is a real deal: a Lake Erie fishing boat that sells the catch right from the pier, according to this news article.
If I lived nearby, here’s where I’d get my fish dinner.
Environaut (1950) is a 48′ science platform for Gannon University.
Big Bertha is a 1945 Stadium Boat Works fish tug, built as Gloria Mae.
I love how shore power plugs in here.
Thanks to this site, I can confirm that ASI Clipper, which I’ve wondered about before, began its life as a 1938 Port Colborne-built fish tug. Here’s a photo from that earlier incarnation.
And finally, we end here, it’s Eleanor D, a 1946 Stadium Boat Works fish tug about to be eclipsed by Stephen B. Roman. Here’s a closer-up photo of Eleanor D I took almost a decade ago. Like me, Stephen B Roman has been roaming a lot.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who is honored to have been interviewed on WBAI’s Talk Back–New York, We and Thee show. To hear the interview, click here and start listening at about the 1 hour 38 minute mark on the Sept 20 show.
And if you haven’t seen this yet on PBS, stream Erie: The Canal that Made America here.
And finally, click here for the “fishing tugs” tugster archive.
According to the Harvey Hadland site, Kari A dates from 1938. Previously known as Hustler, she was the product of Burger Boat in Manitowoc.
I was fortunate to have done this walk around in Mackinac City MI
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who wonders whether fish tugs ever towed trawl nets….
tugster: a waterblog 
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