Built at the entrance to South River in 1875, this lighthouse is of the screwpile design. Probably motif #1 on the Chesapeake Bay
“Seneca was built as the General in 1939 by the Gulfport Boiler & Welding Works in Port Arthur, Texas. That same year she was renamed Raymond Card for the Card Towing Company. In 1942 she was requisitioned by the Navy for use as a submarine net tender down in Cuba for the war.
After being decommissioned in 1946, McAllister Brothers up in NYC picked her up, renamed her Mary L. McAllister and she worked out of Norfolk, Va in the shipdocking business until coming to the Great Lakes in 1981 to work for North American Towing until their demise in 1991. She was sold off to Billington Contracting in Duluth and served in the dredging business off and on until 2000. At that time she went to work for Zenith Tug in the general towing trade.
“She is powered by her original engine, an Elector Motive 12 cylinder 567C producing 1200 BHP. She uses a diesel-electric propulsion system, much like a locomotive, where her main engine turns a large generator rather than a reduction gear, which in turn produces electricity to spin a large electric motor (stands 5' tall) that turns her 8' prop.
“She has good ice breaking capabilities and can accommodate up to 8 crew members with her 5 berths, head and full galley. She is a true classic "model bow" tug with her upturned bow and tall stack with a proud looking pilothouse. ... She was just this spring painted into those new colors; before that she was still in the old North American livery.”
Franz Von Riedel - www.ZenithTug.com
The oldest active lighthouse on the Great Lakes was built in 1821.
Built in Lubec, Maine in 1808 and rebuilt in 1858 stands 83 feet above sea level.
Some of these freighters are a thousand feet long, if you can imagine it. Their bridge looks a lot like a hotel on a ship.
Tugs thrashing about the ice in order to allow shipping to pass.
This painting, based on a photo from
National Geographic, shows a trawler on the
West Coast of the US, braving seas to get in the days catch. The crew pulls an octopus
aboard to use as bait. Now in the permanent collection of David and Jeniffer Brubaker.
Lighthouses must sometimes put up a fight to survive. The elements of nature and the designs of progress have proved to be formidable enemies. These things among others inspired the
painting of Jeffrey's Hook Lighthouse. From planning through execution, the painting was over three weeks in the making. The work stands as a testament to the old lighthouse, to the honorable place it holds in history. It is now part of New York's Fort Washington Park. You can visit this lighthouse under the George Washington Bridge on the Hudson.
