Page 28: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (September 2001)

Maritime 11 istorv

Making the transition from lighterage to towage, with the acquisition of his first tug R.W. Burke in 1876, marked a significant milestone for the company in that it was the company's first propeller driven vessel. (See story on page 31).

The 75-ft. (22.8-m), 150-hp tug was named after the man who financed its construction in Philadelphia three years earlier. Tugs at this point still proved too much of an extravagance for most ship- pers for the routine transfer of freight around the harbor, as slower, yet much cheaper, sail powered vessels were still popular. Towboats, called "luggers," were deployed for towage, and some tugs hauled long tows of barges along the Hudson.

The McAllisters pose in their office at Broad

Street, from which they moved in 1914. L to R:

John E. McAllister, Daniel McAllister (seated at desk); James P. McAllister (with mustache);

William McAllister (with hands behind back);

James McAllister (with beard); Margaret

McAllister and Catherine McAllister.

The company also moved into the business of moving oil about the harbor, as A.J. McAllister Sr. once recounted: "My father had converted a number of his sail lighters into bulk oil carriers by putting bulkheads in them and caulking the bulkheads and the ceiling in the sail- lighter, so that a tank was thereby formed for carrying oil in bulk. They carried perhaps thirty tons of oil. And they sailed it from Bayonne, to Brook- lyn, Manhattan, wherever. This small fleet became quite a factor in the mov- ing of oil in the harbor."

It seems though, that the company seemingly missed the boat on another major deal, which would have indeed drastically changed the direction of the family company, as A.J. McAllister once again recounted: "Reportedly John D. Rockefeller came to my grandfather because he was in the process of forming the major

Standard Oil Company, or had dreams of doing it, and offered my grandfather a substantial piece of the company if he

The Great Escape

McAllister grabbed headlines in 1912 when the great Houdini performed the "Great Packing

Case Escape" after being shoved overboard from the side of the tugboat J.P. McAllister.

Captain Jim made the magician sign a release.

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