Thanks to Stewart Gibson

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   The info on museumships here is, unfortunately, three years out of date.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.

 

Montreal Bound 2019 A

This begins a new series, and I’ll post only when I can get on WIFI.  “Montreal bound” will soon devolve to MB.  Logistics causes me to post with a few days lag, so I’m posting from Buffalo.

To start, this is the closest I’ve been to Roger Blough so far.  One of these years, I’ll see her in much greater detail.

Since I’ve switched vessels most of this years, here’s my former ride . . . Grande Mariner, Chicago bound.  By now she’s been in Chicago a few days.

Off Wisconsin, we passed Sarah Andrie towing A-390,

Tonawanda-bound.

At the Fincantieri Bay yard in Sturgeon Bay, I saw what I believe are portions of the new Van Enkevort barge.

At the Miller Art Museum in Sturgeon Bay, I enjoyed the works of its namesake and benefactor, Gerhard CF Miller, and this drawing from 1883.

No stop here would be complete without a glance at the Elizabeth NJ-built John Purves.

But leaving town by the ship canal, I had my greatest surprise . . . these two USCG 22′ ice rescue airboats.  The Door peninsula is happy they are here. 

I never knew the USCG had such equipment.  These are cell phone pics, because if I had run to my bunk to grab my camera . . . I would have missed the shot altogether.

All photos and any errors by Will Van Dorp.

 

 

Thanks to William Lafferty

Many thanks to William Lafferty, who has things to teach me about research.  He sent along this Agfa black&white photo version of

this photo below that I put up a few days ago . . .  Here’s what he writes:  ” the mystery vessel at Milwaukee is the Leona B., built by and for the Advance Boiler and Tank Company (founded in 1919 and still with us, although located in West Allis now).  I believe Advance still owns the property on Jones Island where you saw it.  It was used for welding repairs at Milwaukee and nearby harbors.  The image shows it while still afloat and operating, a mere forty years ago.  I believe it was purchased to be converted to a tug to shuttle coal barges in Milwaukee harbor, but proved unsuitable for whatever reason for the conversion.  The firm bought the Hannah tug Mary Page Hannah (third of that name) and renamed it Leona B. for the coal shuttle.

When I research Jones Island, I learned of a new (to me) ethnic group who settled here as a fishing village:  Kashubians.  Here’s something of Kashubians from an extraordinary obituary for a son of the island . . .

In my fishing tug post the other day, here was a photo of Islander.  William writes:  “Attached is a photograph (Agfachrome!) I took of the Islander in 1992 at Sheboygan while it was still working.  It appears to have been ridden hard and put away wet quite a few times.  The Islander, launched 16 November 1936 and took off for Washington Island two days later where it fished for Albert Goodmander,  was a product of the Sturgeon Bay Boat Works, earlier called the Palmer Johnson yard.  It had a 45-bhp Kahlenberg (and maybe still does).”

Looking at Islander 1992 and 2017, it’s hard to imagine the type of sport luxury yachts they produce today (in the Netherlands!)

One could spend lots of hours looking at and for the siblings (like Bascobel, which saw its end of the graveyard featured in Graves of Arthur Kill in Rossville) of John Purves, product of the shipyard in Elizabeth NJ across from Howland Hook.  William writes:  “The regal John Purves thirty-eight years ago at the Bultema dock (now Andrie) at Muskegon.  It was named for Captain John Roen‘s right hand man, and every owner afterwards kept the name out of respect for Mr. Purves, a Sturgeon Bay boy.”  Here’s more on Roen.

Finally, once more . . . I’m looking for more images of the McAllister boat below.  ” M. L. Edwards  was built at Chicago in 1923 as a 60-foot steel steam-powered coastal freighter for upper Lake Michigan service, and served for McAllister for about forever. ”

Credit for photos as attributed.

Thanks a lot, William.

 

Random Tugs 203

except “random” here  just means in the order that I encountered them on my all-too-short gallivant around Wisconsin.

In Sturgeon Bay, I finally saw the 149′ x 27.8′ John Purves, built in Elizabeth NJ in 1919, definitely retired now but looking great as part of Door County Maritime Museum.  John P. Holland had some connections with Patterson and the shipyard in Elizabethport NJ–right across from Howland Hook terminal, as well, where the USN’s first series of submarines was built.  See some here (and scroll).

Stern to stern with Purves is Donny S, formerly ATA 230, G. W. Codrington, William P. Feeley, William W. Stender, and Mary Page Hannah.  She’s 135.5′ x 33.1′ and is said to hail from Cleveland.  She was building a Levingson Shipyard in Orange TX.

I gather she was once part of the Hannah Marine fleet, as in here.

Quite a number of Selvick tugs rafted up here as well:  right to left:  William Selvick, Jacquelyn Yvonne, Sharon M Selvick, Cameron, Susan L, and William C. Gaynor. … a bit too tightly packed for good photos.

Farther south in Kewaunee, WI, I stumbled upon Ludington, a 1943 Jakobson Oyster Bay tug just a month older than Nash, restored to Navy gray and part of the exhibit in Oswego NY’s H. Lee White Maritime Museum.  Lots of tugboats–current and older–in the sixth boro hail from Jakobson’s, now all gone.

In Milwaukee, I was fortunate to track down tug Wisconsin.  Now that might seen less than ordinary until you learn she dates from 1897 and still works!!  She’s gone through more names than there are Great Lakes but here she is.

Off her stern Minnesota and Superior (almost invisible) are rafted up.  The 1911 Minnesota is a year older than Urger but still profitable.  Superior was launched in 1912 in Manitowoc and still works in ship assist and lakes towing.

I’ll need some help on this one, high and dry just beyond Superior.  For some of the more GL tugs previously posted here, click here, here,  and here.

Joey D is a workboat boat, 60′ x 20′ launched 2012, built in Cleveland.

My guess is that this is the boat Joey D replaced, but that’s sheer conjecture.  It’s not conjecture that this bow’s seen some ice and made contact.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who’s eager to get back to the Great Lakes basin and see more.