Post Parade - Great North River Tugboat Race Part 3

Updated 9/6, at the end of a very long work day - YES! Through the assistance of one friend, one reader, and the Working Harbor Committee blog, I've gotten info on the 3 tugs I'd come up short on when I posted this on Tuesday night - The Bronx, Little Toot, and the Viking III! Having those, I've also run through tonight and added links to the Tug Info site for those boats I found there. ALL PAU!
Thanks, Vlad, DJ, and Mai - I never would've actually finished this without your help.

10:00 am, first Sunday in September - Time for the Post Parade!

This may be a post that only a true tugboat geek will enjoy, but here it is, the  grand Post Parade of the  20th annual Great North River Tugboat Race (imagine cacophonous blowing of whistles here)!

Congrats to all who raced (and even the one who didn't - still lovely to see that nice old tug back after such uncertainty...see last picture for details)

For more on most of the tugs, visit TugboatInformation.com Harold E. Tartell and Birk Thomas's absolutely amazing compendium of - well - just what the name says, tugboat information. The details I've given here are from there unless otherwise noted, and I've barely scratched the surface. Where I used the site, I've given links to the individual tugs' pages - their entire life histories are in there, it's really quite fascinating, the changes of owners, names, and homeports (and colors!) some of these tugs have gone through. Seems that the towing industry doesn't give much credence to the superstition against changing a boat's name.

Quantico Creek

Built: 2010 Builder: Chesapeake Shipbuilding, Salisbury, MD

Owner: Vane Brothers, Baltimore, MD.

Hull Length: 94' Width: 32' Depth: 13.5'

 Engines/Horsepower: twin Caterpillar 3512 main engines with a combined 3,000 horsepower.
TugboatInformation Page: http://www.tugboatinformation.com/tug.cfm?id=54&fs

Meaghan Ann

Built: 1975 Builder: Marine Power and Equipment, Seattle, WA

Owner: DonJon Marine, Hillside, NJ

Hull Length: 73.5' Width: Draft: 

Engines/Horsepower: twin Caterpillar D-399 diesel main engines with a combined 2250 HP.

TugboatInformation page: http://www.tugboatinformation.com/tug.cfm?id=979&fs

Maurania III

Built: 2004 Builder: Providence Steamboat Company, Fall River, MA

Owner:McAllister Towing and Transportation

Hull Length: 101.6 Width: 33.5 Draft: 17

Engines/Horsepower:

(Winner of the 2012 Best-Looking Tug Award - very sharp!)
TugboatInformation page: http://www.tugboatinformation.com/tug.cfm?id=495&fs

Buchanan I

Built: 1967 Builder: Equitable Equipment, Madisonville, LA

Owner: Buchanan Marine

Hull Length: 89.4' Width: 28.1 Draft: 9.5'

Engines/Horsepower: Twin screw, rated at 2,200 horsepower

TugboatInformation page: http://www.tugboatinformation.com/tug.cfm?id=303&fs

Little Toot

UPDATED - Google searching Little Toot when you're looking for info on anything but a famous fictional tugboat is an exercise in futility (at least when you have a cold and your self-assigned research project is keeping you up way later than you'd planned), and I'd given up without trying too hard last night, but DJ Silver left the following info in comments this morning - thank you, DJ, and Joseph Kemp, too!

DJ's comment: Regarding Little Toot, she apparently was originally Fireboat 7 for the Wilmington, DE fire department and was retired in the early 90's.
Year built 1977
Length 65 Ft. Beam 22 Ft. Draft 5 ft 10 inches

Speed 13 Knots Fuel 5000 gallons

Propulsion Twin Detroit Diesels 8V71

Fire Pump 7200 GPM @ Detroit 12V71 Ingersaw Ram Single Stage Pump

Information is Courtesy of Joseph Kemp

Catherine C. Miller

Hull Length: 65' Width: 23.9' Draft: 9.1'

Engines/Horsepower: 1400

The Catherine C. Miller and the next few tugs are all from Miller's Launch in Staten Island, and I can't seem to find any Millers in TugboatInfo, so all information on them is from the Miller's Launch website. 

BTW, Miller's Launch won "Best Team Award" for sending out nearly their entire fleetto race! I can't even begin to imagine what this must have cost but it's got to be a lot - it was really terrific of them to turn out this way. 

Susan Miller

Hull Length: 68.4' Width: 23.9' Draft: 9.3'

Engines/Horsepower: 1200

Freddie K. Miller

Hull Length:  68.4' Width: 23.9' Draft: 10.5'

Engines/Horsepower: 1800

Shawn Miller

Hull Length: 50' Width: 20' Draft: 7.7'

Engines/Horsepower:

Debora Miller

Interesting thing here - I assumed that she was part of the Miller's Launch family, but I found her stats on the website of Miller Marine Services.  Any relation, or just a coincidence, I wonder? Miller is a fairly common name, but it seems like the working maritime world is a kind of small one note later in September: Capt. Doswell from the Working Harbor Committee saw this post & answered that question - the owners of the 2 companies are brothers, definitely related. Anyways. Stats, stet!

Hull Length: 75' Width: 24.2'  Draft: 7 - 8'

Engines/Horsepower:(2)16V149 Detroit's Diesels 2060HP

The Bronx (Hey, Salty!!!)

Again, sorry, not much info on this smallest entrant. 25' length is all I recall, and I can't find her online anywhere - no details, at least, although lots of pictures! Winner of the 2012 "Little Toot" award (although Salty did NOT take home the mascot award this time - as I mentioned, there was some great competition this year). Update 9/6 - Her age and horsepower remain unknown, but it turns out that Mai over at the Working Waterfront had posted an article about this charming but tough little tug - another rescue story of someone who sees an old boat rusting away at a pier somewhere and thinks "That's worth saving". The article includes incredible before-and-after shots - click here to read it.

Back to Tugboatinfo.com info now -

Weddell Sea

Built: 2007 Builder: Sea Boats Inc., Fall River, MA

Owner: Kirby Inland Transportation, Channelview, TX

Hull Length: 104.9' Width: 37.8' Draft: 19.5'

Engines/Horsepower: two Caterpillar 3516 B diesel engines, rated 4,500 horsepower.

TugboatInformation page: http://www.tugboatinformation.com/tug.cfm?id=2500&fs

Lincoln Sea - BIGGEST boat in the race!

Built: 2000 Builder: J.M. Martinac Shipyard, Tacoma, WA

Owner: Kirby Inland Transportation, Channelview, TX

Hull Length: 118.6' Width: 40' Draft: 22'

Engines/Horsepower: 2 EMD 16-710 main engines, rated 8,000 horsepower

TugboatInformation page: http://www.tugboatinformation.com/tug.cfm?id=2441&fs

The Growler (from the US Merchant Marine Academy - the kids all love the Growler!)

Built: 1962

Owner: US Merchant Marine Academy

Hull Length: 64' 11" Width: 19' 0" Draft: 6' 2"

Engines/Horsepower: Caterpillar D375, 400 HP

Lt. Michael P. Murphy

The Lt. Michael P. Murphy is a retired 46' Coast Guard buoy tender. Google searching led to an interesting small Flickr gallery of her refit by a gentleman who bought her on e-bay - click on the name to see that. What a project!

Vulcan III

Can't find much info on this one, and it's getting too late for me to look much longer - sorry!

And here's an update at the end of a very long work day on 9/6/2012 - A very very big "Thank you" to Vlad from Wind Against Current for taking the time to hunt down an article about the Vulcan III! Professional Mariner featured her back in April - click here to read. Vlad, thanks again for finding that - as I said in the comments and in a recent post, I've got so much work to do this week, and left up to me, there was a good chance this last "button" was going to be left undone, but I'm just tickled that I've now actually got info on all 21 of the entrants who made it to Pier 84 on Saturday!

Buchanan 12

Built: 1972 Builder: Halter Marine Services, Lockport, LA.

Owner: Buchanan Marine

Hull Length: 86.5' Width: 30' Draft: 9.5'

Engines/Horsepower: 3000 hp

TugboatInformation page: http://www.tugboatinformation.com/tug.cfm?id=307&fs

Info for next 2 boats from Thornton Towing and Transportation website

Thornton Bros.

Built: 1958

Owner: Thornton Towing & Transportation

Hull Length:83' Width: 27' Draft: 9'

Engines/Horsepower: 1600 Horsepower 16-567 EMD diesel engine.

Gage Paul Thornton

New boat for the Thorntons: "Rated for coastwise towing, she is powered by a 1,000 HP diesel and towing winch for offshore assignments. 68' long x 20' x 7' 6" draft."

Pegasus

Info from the tug's website - click on her name. A true NY Harbor classic!

Built: 1907 Builder: Skinner Shipbuilding Yard, Baltimore, MD

Owner: The Tug Pegasus Preservation Project

Hull Length:101' Width: 23' Draft: 12'

Engines/Horsepower: Pegasus is now powered by a 900 horsepower General Motors diesel engine - before that, she was steam-powered. She worked NY harbor for 90 years, when her final owner, Captain Pamela Hepburn, decided that she had to be retired and preserved, creating (with much help from friends) the Preservation Project for that purpose. And hasn't the project done well? Pegasus won "Best Vintage Tug" this year, and Capt. Hepburn was actually quite pleased with how she did in the race, too.

W.O. Decker

OK...this is both my most favorite and least favorite picture from the post parade.

Most favorite because it's a nice shot of the W.O. Decker, with the GW Bridge and all the other tugs parading in the background.

Least favorite because she should have been headed north with all the others. As I was suspecting when I took this shot, she was about to withdraw from the race.

But at least she was here this year - it's good to see that she's out & about again under the new management of the South Street Seaport Museum.

W.O. Decker details from Tug44.org

Built: 1930

Owner: South Street Seaport Museum (reopened in 2012 under the auspices of the Museum of the City of New York)

Hull Length: 52' Width: 15' Draft: 5'6"

Engines/Horsepower: Originally steam, now a 175 HP diesel.

And that wraps it up for the post parade! Still to come - the race itself, the line toss, the spinach eating contests, and more. Can't wait - or want to see things from a different perspective? Head on over to http://tugster.wordpress.com/ - he was on one of the tugs this year!