Page 26: of Marine News Magazine (January 2, 2010)

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26 MN January 2010 to Robert Dann's brother Rodney, of Dann Ocean

Towing. Mr. Robert Thomassie of Thoma-Sea Boat

Builders met with me to discuss building a 100-ft tug on speculation for service in the offshore oil industry. My 100-ft hull met his criteria which was basically the same as

Mr. Robert Dann's." Altogether, eight tugs were built to this design.

Although Basile announced a completely new 100-ft tug in 2000, of which there are presently seventeen in service, at least two of the original 100-ft class were launched afterward. The Ludwig E. was the next-to-last, late in 2000. The last, launched in 2002, was the Normandy.

The Nathan and the Ross answer to the description of sisters, even if they're not absolutely 100% identical.

Although drawn from the same design, they were built by two different shipyards — the Ludwig/Nathan by Hope

Services of Dulac, La., and the Normandy/Ross by

Thoma-Sea of Houma, La. The Ludwig E. was built with a higher bow, of which Frank Basile reports the following: "The first tug of this design that had the semi-focsle was the C. Angelo. This was done at Gateway Towing’s request to give the bow more buoyancy, thereby faster recovery when going into a Northeaster when up the Atlantic coast from New Jersey to Massachusetts."

There are other differences between the Nathan and the

Ross that pertain more to finish than operational features.

When Metropolitan's Capt. Paul Mahoney ordered his tug, he saw it this way: "The boat is our home for weeks at a time," a home with no exit if you're offshore on the way to Maine, and "it should be a home you like to return to." Where Modern Continental may have felt a corporate satisfaction with the Ludwig as delivered, Capt. Mahoney took the liberty of detailing his home as he liked. "She has poured floors and more insulation in her," he said, "and the wheelhouse was done like a yacht. I mean, Frank makes a good boat, the Ludwig E. is a very good boat, she's just not the Normandy."

One feature the two tugs share, to the exclusion of all the other Emtech 100-footers, is the use of two Cummins

KTA-50 engines; the six other sisters use Caterpillar and

Of the eight tugs built to the Emtech 100-ft design, only two — the Nathan E. Stewart and the Ross Sea — feature the compact

Cummins KTA-50 16-cylinder engines. Ross Sea's engineer Lawrence Bethke respects the units, but said they're not as amenable to an engineer's teardown if required.