Page 27: of Marine News Magazine (January 2, 2010)

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EMD engines. Their wheels are inboard-turning, where the two now in the K-Sea fleet are outboard-turning. It might seem odd that these features link the two tugs, to the exclusion of all their other sisters. But the DNA of these two tugs comes from a lot of sources, one of the most important being Capt. Mahoney himself. Although he is the builder-of-record of the Normandy and Modern

Continental is of the Ludwig, it's a little more complex than that. Said Capt. Mahoney, "I built both boats."

Before she was the Nathan E. Stewart, before she was the

Ludwig E., the first of these sisters was called Normandy.

She was to be the same Normandy that was finally built to

Capt. Mahoney's specifications two years later. Between those two events came 9/11/01. The first Normandy was building when the World Trade Center came down, after which the Coast Guard shut-down New York Harbor.

Included in the lockdown was a dinner boat, the

Mystique, which composed part of Capt. Mahoney's equi- ty. "The Mystique was forbidden to go out for the next seven weeks, which brought us up to Halloween, and the end of the season. We had to give back deposits close to $400,000." said Capt. Mahoney. "I received a letter from the bank, saying they were pulling the financing of the tug. There had been a change in my financial condition, see." Capt. Mahoney pursued sources of re-financing, including Modern Continental, one of the intended customers for the first

Normandy. "They said that rather than refinance it, they'd like to buy it. I said okay, I'll sell you the boat.” "They sent a guy down to the ship- yard. He went and cut-back a lot of the things that made the Normandy what it was supposed to be. He got rid of all the fancy woodwork and fancy elec- tronics. They put linoleum down instead of having the poured floors, eliminated a lot of the portholes, and stuff like that.

One part they kept was the higher freeboard up front, where the final Normandy, the Normandy/Ross, has the flat foredeck. With new financing, Capt. Mahoney ordered this second and final Normandy in 2003, built to his original specs with the exception of the bow. Was this a cost-saving measure? "Not really," said Capt. Mahoney. "I thought it would change my Karma."

Metropolitan's newest tug is the Pegasus, not to be con- fused with the antique by the same name, built in 1907 and presently under restoration. Nor should it be con- fused with Capt. Mahoney's previous tug Pegasus, now said to be operating as the Peggy Winslow in Maine. This newest Pegasus, from a distance at least, resembles a some- what scaled-down version of the company's previous tug, and has earned the nickname "Normandy Lite." She was built by another owner/operator whose tastes in wood- work echo Capt. Mahoney's. And the Karma? The radio kept interrupting our interview with Capt. Mahoney, with jobs here, jobs there. K-Sea, meantime, enjoys all the economies of a matched brace of tugs. MN

Galley provides welcoming surroundings for crew in this most public section of the

Ross Sea. www.marinelink.com MN 27