I am still working on my new book Lifeboat Station Sailor and I have had luck getting more pictures. Jim Gold of Hoquiam is sending me a picture of his dad, Fred, who was my Commanding Officer in 1957 at Grays Harbor! Thanks to Roland E. Miller Jr.,  Leiter S. Hockett is sending me pictures of his dad Leiter.  I received pictures of the ODANAH, a halibut schooner that I towed in after she broke her tail shaft, thanks to Don Fastabend at Astoria Marine Construction who knew the family and gave me the name. Brady Engvald sent me 200 photos that Harry Webb took and he is playing detective in trying to run down pictures of the FRANK L III & the VICTORIA. If it wasn’t for Brady I think that I would just give up on any pictures out of Westport and thanks to Roland for getting me in touch with Brady.

   We lost two and got one back. My man in Ballard reports that the tug SOUND was being towed to Port Angeles by the tug CHIEF (Bob Simmons’ old boat.) when she floundered and sunk somewhere in the Straits and her engine the 200 H.P. Enterprise is going into Skip Lampman’s old YTM the MICHAEL which is called the 702 now,———– how’s that for a bunch of rumors.

CHIEF TOWING 702 ALONGSIDE.

Also General Construction came in with one of their big floating cranes and picked the RUSTLER off the bottom and set her on the hard at the West Wall (Fishermen’s Terminal). Then the port built a fence around her because they are investigating the possibility of someone being aboard just before she sank———another great rumor, info from My Man in Interbay.

RUSTLER ALL FENCED IN.

SIDE OF RUSTLER SHE WILL END UP IN A DUMPSTER SAD ENDING FOR A REAL TUGBOAT.

Our new tug the GENERAL LEE looks just great without a deck. The old deck was thin so Tom and Erik and Keegan took it off and now they can get at the interior and paint her up with some 235. She is built very strong; with the deck off you can now see the construction,  she weighed 16 tons when SeaView East unloaded her. More info on her: she was owned by Rainer Log Co. in Port Angeles and is about a 1950 hull. The Makah Tribe had her for a while and she worked at the Neah Bay log dump pushing bundles.

MR. KEEGAN STANDING WHERE THE DECK WAS ON THE GENERAL LEE.

GENERAL LEES 6-71 WITH AFTER BURNER GIVES HER 310 H.P. ADAIR SAYS WE CAN TRICK IT UP A LITTLE AND GET 500 H.P. OUT OF IT.

The 4th of July went very well this year it got cloudy and rainy in the afternoon and that slowed the crowds down. We, of course, had our Seattle Police Officer at the entrance because with 50 or 60,000 people walking by our door you just can’t take any chances. We got to visit a little in the South Lake Union doings; they invited the old tugs and we got to Rob Paterson off the JOE and Bob off the TEAL and saw Randy & Ben Flodquist now from Anacortes.

MARK ON LEFT; HIS SENIOR CITIZEN FRIEND IS ROB PATERSON OF THE TUG JOE.

BEN & RANDY FLODQUIST DOWN FROM ANACORTES. LINDA, RANDY’S WIFE, SAID HE IS YOUR MAN IN ANACORTES.

NORM DIBBLE, THE OLD DOC FREEMANS STORE HEAD MECHANIC, CAME TO SAY HELLO.

Anacortes had a workboat race and a flea market and pirates, etc and Margie & I were invited. We had a good time looking at all the stuff for sale. At the very last of the booths I found a Swift boat model for sale about 2 feet long complete with 20 MM guns. As you might have guessed it is now in my museum. We also went down to the docks to see the races and the workboat parade and the tugboat models but it got too hot with too many people and when the cannon went off, that was it for us. I had lost part of my hearing 20 years ago when Dee Cowan fired off a cannon on the stern deck of his tug TROJAN in Friday Harbor. So we went up to the Flodquist’s new home overlooking the bay and pestered Linda until everybody from the Skagit R/C Ship Modelers showed up. Ron Burchett and Gary King came down from Canada and took a bunch of pictures of all the boats. We had a great feed and BS session and got back to town about 2300. Thanks for opening your home to everyone, Randy & Linda – it was a delightful time.

Michael Dean one of our Men in Ladysmith sent down several tug pictures; thank you Michael.

 Our Man in Maine, Bill Page, sent more tug pictures and tells me that it is so hot back there he can’t believe it. He said he would sure like to be cruising in Canada in his new fishboat/yacht  that  he is building.

Deep Sea Tom and Keegan took the DIXIE out into salt water to do a couple of tows and of course the phone rings immediately and Towline Erik and I go put this Longliner into drydock;  funny how it always works that way.

We watched the new tug DANA KRUZ run around in Ballard in Foss colors.  She is 92 x 36 trippple screw and very shallow draft to work way up north. She is on a bare boat charter  between Cruz Marine and Foss. Fred Whal built her in Reedsport, Oregon and she is really a neat looking boat.

I received a phone call about whether I was still interested in a CHERYL ANN model; of course I said yes and the voice on the other end said “I think there is one in my attic”.. now the waiting begins – what fun.

This time I had more photos than space so next issue I will play catch up.

Keep sending those tugboat photos, you brighten everyone’s day.

                            Your Man in Seattle,

                               Fairtide Mark