arghh - gimme da power

[martin schulz]

I feel like Tim Taylor lately (more power).
The old Salt who helps me out a lot with my rigging and I decided we should have a traditional tugboat in the Museumharbour.
Actually the Museumharbour Flensburg came into life 25 years ago with the idea of trying to get people with traditional working boats (sailing vessels as well as motor-boats) to put their boats in the harbour. The first non-sailing-boat was the 1908 built Steamer ALEXANDRA who unfortunately then formed their own club.

So (back to power) the sailor and I figured it's time to have a historic tugboat in the harbour. To tell you the truth, this might be a child-dream come true for me - who has never dreamed of steering a tugboat???.

The boat we have in mind is the 1928 built25m long BÖSCH. She was actually built with Steam-engine and had her 1000hp diesel built in 1950.



Opinions?

[ACB]

A proper tug. I like the look of her.

[martin schulz]

Ah Andrew, by the way - you probably have some experience with tugs, don't you?
I don't know if you ever steered one, but I imagine working on tanker you'll probably have seen enough of them. Are there major differences in built and looks comparing tugboats from different countries?

[Roger Stouff]

Very nice. Gets my vote!

[ahp]

Martin, when I was in Germany in 1953 there were still a few steam tugs pulling barges on the Rhine. They were very interesting boats, long, low and narrow. They had side paddle wheels, a very low pilot house foreward, and I could not see any covering over the boilers, from a distance. They had two boilers, in line that you could just see over the top of the rail, facing in opposite directions. I guess the fireman was between and could feed the fire boxes of both. The stacks were quite tall but I would guess they could hing down for going under briges.

Do any of these still exist?

[Hughman]

Almost, but not quite....

http://www.natlhistoricseaport.org/tug.html

[martin schulz]

Originally posted by ahp:
Do any of these still exist?

There are a lot of people aware of this "maritime" heritage (expanding maritime to rivers also). I found one picture the GREDO, a steam-tug-boat from the Rhine sideriver Main which was restored lately.

[ACB]

Martin - years ago, in the 1970's, I was doing some work for that very fine Hamburg company, Bugsier Reederei und Begungs AG, and was in Hamburg over a weekend. They invited me to join one of their harbour tugs for a day so I have actually handled (under careful supervision!) a German tug, helping to berth a container ship in Hamburg docks!

These old tugs are not so easy to handle, when towing, and that is why they have been replaced with the "water tractor" type tugs for port operations.

[martin schulz]

so - how about this one



...just got this tugboat offered for 35.000 Dollar in Norway. The Hull was built around 1894/1903 (riveted) but of course the supersrtucture and the machine was made in the 60's (what a sacrilege).

[mmd]

Nice tug. Interesting to contrast the graceful compound curves of the vintage hull against the austere square box construction of the modern superstructure. It is unfortunate that the craftsmanship of old steelworkers has been abandoned in the quest for efficient plate construction. Damned economics taking all the "pretty" out of ships!

[ahp]

Martin, your picture didn't come through. Could you try again? Thanks

[martin schulz]

Hmm - you mean the picture of the Norway-tugboat?

I wonder why - the link arrears to be alright. But there is an internet-site with all the pictures:

web page

[ahp]

No Martin, the pictures of the paddlewheel steam Rhine tug. The other pictures came though fine.

[martin schulz]

Sorry the Internet site went offline. To cool your temper, rightly arisen by disapointment I will post this picture of a Danube-Steam-Tugboat.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Well, Martin, I've been trying to find a picture of my favourite tug, and I've found one at last:

http://www.faktaomfartyg.crosswinds....lland_1951.htm

Doeksen's "HOLLAND"

Built in 1951 with war reparations money, because her predecessor, built in 1938, was requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine, then and bombed and sunk by the RAF, she is the very picture of a salvage tug - and one with a long and glorious history of rescues.

When built she was one of the most powerful tugs afloat, and the fastest, with the shallowest draft for her size, because she was in friendly but fierce competition with Bugsier Reederei-und Bergungs AG, to the North, and L. Smit en Zonen's Internationale Sleepdienst, to the south, of the Frisian Islands where she was based.

Indeed, there is a spirited painting of her firing a rocket line to a ship in distress on my son's bedroom wall.

Company legend has it that on one occasion, her fire monitors were used to wash a competing tug's crew off the casualty's foredeck...

But she also acted as a passenger ferry during the summer months, when the salvage trade was quiet, and tourists went to Terschelling for their summer holidays - the only tug with a first class saloon! The photo on the left shows her "playing ferry" with a deckload of holidaymakers.

When she began to be out dated for salvage work, at the age of 25 (!) in 1976, by which time her claimed 3,000 hp was looking a bit feeble - Bugsier and Smit both had 20,000hp tugs - her owners chartered her to the Rijkswaterstaat (Dutch Coastguard) for work taking pollution samples and so on along the Dutch coast, and she did this for another 22 years, until at the grand old age of 47 she was finally pensioned off - she was expected to be scrapped, but an anonymous donor, (thought to be, in fact, her owners, in their private capacities) presented her to the museum in Den Helder, with enough money to keep her going as a static exhibit.

There is an expression about a very well maintained ship, "being kept up like a yacht" - well, the HOLLAND was such a vessel - scrubbed teak, varnished teak, suji'ed paintwork, polished brass fire hydrants and binnacle, she was always a joy to behold.

A famous, happy, little ship.

[ 01-17-2003, 09:21 AM: Message edited by: Andrew Craig-Bennett ]

[martin schulz]

Yes definetely a great Tug.
Those "deep-sea"-Tugs are something very special anyway. Too special for our needs, of course.

But since we are into dreaming, what about other very powerful Tugs:


Those two pulled(?) the burned-out Cruise-ship HANSEATIC from New York to Hamburg, went though a hurricane and even lost the Ship for a day. What a great job that must have been...

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Ah, yes, been on board each of those... (namedropping!) - each was, in turn, the most powerful tug of her day, until the Schuchmann dynasty came up with the ARCTIC and OCEANIC, then their naval architect defected to Safmarine and built the JOHN ROSS and the WOLRAAD WOLTEMAADE.

PACIFIC (1958) had beautiful oak panelled accomodation - and she always seemed to have a ship's dog somewhere about her, regardless of quarantine regulations. Both had very ingenious quick release davits for getting the workboat in the water, and I think you can just make these out in the picture, along with the walkway past the funnel to the after bridge, used when manoeuvring to make fast - PACIFIC's was worse, because you had to go up and down three steps each way.

Captain K-G Meyer performed a very ingenious feat with the PACIFIC at Lisbon - he had to refloat a ship which had grounded above the railway bridge, but the tug could not pass under the bridge, so he laid a monstrous anchor in the river bed with an even more monstrous block, led the towline through that and off she came!

In my time, 1970's, Captain H. Weinert usually had the PACIFIC, at Brest, and did a lot of good salvages with her, until "the one that got away" (AMOCO CADIZ - for which Bugsier were found entirely blameless by each of the enquiries and court cases).

A silly story - I was in the office when the ARCTIC was doing bollard pull trials after having Kort nozzles fitted - her Master, Captain Friis I think, telephoned to offer the good news to Captain Meyer - the BP was now over 200 tons - and the bad news - he could not say precisely how much, because at that point the tug had pulled the harbour wall after her!

Isn't one preserved at Hamburg?

[ 01-17-2003, 10:22 AM: Message edited by: Andrew Craig-Bennett ]