Some tug history! And also I'll slip in an ebay listing...

I'm selling an "original" set of plans (not a copy) originally sold by Model Expo about 17 years ago... nicely printed on heavy paper.

The subject is the Marie L. Hanlon, a wood tug built in 1914 at Alameda CA. She may have been the first diesel tug on the west coast. Several historical references mention an operating cost comparison by the owner between Hanlon and his nearly identical steam tug. Both a steam tug and the diesel powered Hanlon are shown in these plans- build her either way, or both!

The plans were originally part of the HAMMS project, a WPA effort of 1936/7 intended to employ draftsmen, and also to record historic American ships.

One of the neat things shown in these plans is the wood deck. Most ships and work boats have straight-laid deck planking-- it was easier and cheaper to do. But Hanlon is shown with curved planking joggled into a center king plank, as typically seen on yachts. Nice!

Also, Bryant Thompson did a Marie L Hanlon; you can still find his model plans on the Airage site.


ebay listing:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=300795079732

My article mentioning HAMMS and the current HAER project:
http://matthewsmodelmarine.wordpress...eering-record/

BTW: There is a complete set of the Ayers compendium of HAMMS drawings (426 plan sets!) on ebay now:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/MELVIN-JACKS...item3a7529f4f5

BIN $1280, cheap! This thing is massive, 150 pounds, 7 volumes, all in a wooden crate.

Would love to have those 7 volumes in my collection of books! Wow!

Some more neat details...

Cheaters revealed after 75 years!

So the WPA's HAMMS project was intended to create employment for folks like naval draftsmen, by having them take lines off of old historic vessels and preserving at least their record for posterity. This of course was deep into the Great Depression, in 1936.

In the case of the Hanlon, it appears that someone merely grabbed existing plans and redrew them on the HAMMS titleblock... because some of the exact same drawings are found in the 1919 book Hot Bulb Oil Engines (W. Pollack)!

"Oh yes, Mr. Gummint guy, we slaved for weeks taking lines off that old rotting hulk... an important boat in her day for sure! Now please pay us for our time..."

Profile of Hanlon in the book:
http://books.google.com/books?id=-0F...hanlon&f=false

Forward deck planking looks like that found on spendy yachts, not a workboat ~

One of the old references said the owner built her in his own yard for his own towing business...

More cheaters revealed!

So you've heard of Google's book scanning project... lots of old engineering books are available, including many in naval architecture. This "Hot Bulb Oil Engines" (diesels) is one, neat old stuff. But Google hires some real slackers to do the scanning, and perhaps their gear isn't very good for books with fold out leafs... in any event, there are a lot of mis-scanned pages where illustrations are all messed up.

OK, so I go looking for the same title from others... MANY sellers! One of them, www.forgottenbooks.org, allows you to download a few free samples of THEIR scanned books, which are also available for sale as print-on-demand books... I did, and it has the SAME mis-scanned pages as the Google copy. They just steal the Google version at even lower resolution, and offer it up as their own!

I thought there was honor amongst thieves?

Bryant Thompson's MLH:
http://www.airagestore.com/marie-l-hanlon-tugboat.html



Maybe should have a white hull, but the white above the wainscoting is right.

MLH's Bolinder 2-cylinder "hot bulb" diesel:

Originally Posted by patmat2350

I thought there was honor amongst thieves?

Among thieves, probably. Among the new digerati....



(Why do you think the digital world employs some of the highest paid lawyers in the world? Example: sign the NDA at the building entrance, the corporation owns your work product FOR LIFE, even if you are there only for a visit and never employed by them (and they made it stick in a court too). Open the shrink wrap and we, the corporation, have the right to snoop and change your hard drives forever.)

Another interesting thing about this tug from 1914-- she had ONE double bitt aft, none forward or on the sides, and no bow fender either. Looks like she had one job to do-- tow ships on the hawser, as shown in the first post.
No idea how a ship, with sails furled, went from the tow to pier...?

I do believe the tug would have taken her right to the dock wouldn't she?