Page 21: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 2, 2010)

June 2010 www.marinelink.com 21

The tug F. W. Vosburgh, built for Michael

Moran in 1883 by Peter Magee, of

Athens, New York, was lost at 2 a.m. on

March 10, 1895 in a blinding snow storm when she ran upon Romer Shoal, off

Sandy Hook, while towing a garbage scow. The crew of nine was rescued by the nearby tug Carrie A. Ramsay.

More recently, was the loss of the third

Eugene F. Moran. She was a steel-hulled tug of 1905 vintage named Protector when she was acquired by Moran in June 1917. Her life in the fleet was short, for on 8 December 1917 she foundered off

Absecon, New Jersey — not far from the site of the F. W. Vosburgh loss. Alas, of the 13 men aboard at the time, only four were saved.

The naming of the tugs after members of the family was, until recently, a fact that any tugboat admirer could look for- ward to. From eldest to youngest,

Michael's offspring consisted of Thomas

E., Richard J., Eugene F., Agnes A.,

William J., and Joseph H. There were, according to recent research, nine vessels were named for Eugene F., seven for Julia

C. (Eugene's wife), six each for "M." (Michael) and Doris, and five each for

Marion and Thomas E. Surprisingly,

Michael's wife, Maggie, provided the name for only one vessel in the fleet.

The appearance of tugs has, needless to say, changed remarkably over the years, from the gracefully proportioned vessels of the late nineteenth century to the push- boats of today having tower pilot houses.

Among the tugs that many thought was a good looking tug was the first Marion

Moran, built by Neafie & Levy in 1888.

Originally named E. L. Levy, she ran until June 1917 for the Lake Champlain

Towing Co. and the Cornell Steamboat

Co. Sold at that time to Thomas J. Scully, she was renamed Mary F. Scully, then went to the Neptune Line as Chelsea, and in the Moran fleet from 1925 to 1948.

This vessel was one of the historically significant tugs operating in New York waters over her sixty-year lifetime. For many years she was an important line- haul tug on the Hudson River under her original name, and she was a long time member of the Moran fleet.

Since the change in ownership of the company, the tugs continue to be chris- tened with Moran names, but the people so honored contemporaneously are not family members. According to the com- pany website, the current tug Kaye E.

Moran honors Kaye E. Barker, wife of corporate officer James R. Barker, for whom the tug James R. Moran was named. It matters not, for the new ves- sels are nicely named.

Don mentions the fact that the first diesel-propelled tug in the fleet dated from 1923. She was built in 1919 for the

U. S. Navy as a unit of a class of forty wooden hulled harbor tugs of a type built in great numbers through World War

One. She was named Harbor Tug No. 84 and was powered with a single-cylinder steam engine — which made her what the old timers used to call a "high-pres- sure boat." Sold to Moran in 1923, she was renamed Eugenia M. Moran and was fitted with a diesel having remarkable cylinders 14.5 inches in diameter by 21 inches stroke. She was sold out of the fleet about 1930 and was lost a few years later.

The next diesel vessel was Marie S.

Moran, built by Pennsylvania Shipyards,

Inc., at Beaumont, Texas in 1936, and fit- ted with a 550-hp Winton diesel. I recall