ONE OF THE past week’s visitors to Platypus Marine Inc. on the Port Angeles waterfront was the Navy tug YT-801.
She steamed into Port Angeles from the sub base at Bangor on Monday.
She was scheduled to get hoisted out of the water for repairs to her bow pudding (more about that in a moment) and a fresh coat of bottom paint in Platypus’ yard at Marine Drive and Cedar Street.
But there was a bit of a weight problem — and the work didn’t happen.
YT-801 was built as a harbor tug in the early 1970s by Marinette Marine Corp. in Marinette, Wis.
She was placed in service in December 1973 as USS Washtucna with the hull number YTB-826 .
The 109-foot Natick class tug was stricken from the Naval Register in 1997 while she was based in San Diego and subsequently transferred to the Department of the Interior.
At an unknown later date, her single engine and screw were replaced by a pair of engines powering a Twin Z drive propulsion system, converting the “little tug that could” to a tractor tug that is now capable of maneuvering the largest of vessels.
The Navy reacquired the tug in October 2008, reclassifying her as a yard tug, YT-801.
She operates out of
Bangor primarily pushing submarines around.
One of the failings of not maintaining the tug’s provenance is that during her upgrades, the vessel’s weight was not accurately adjusted when the original engine and propulsion systems were replaced.
The Navy was operating under the notion that the tug weighed in the range of 285 tons to 295 tons.
When it came time last week for Platypus Marine to haul the tug out of the water using the company’s 330-ton Travelift, inaccurate record-keeping reared its ugly head.
It appears now that the weight of the tug as she sat at the haul-out dock Monday morning exceeded 340 tons — beyond the capacity of the Travelift.
So the YT-801 headed back home to Naval Base Kitsap.
And the bow pudding?
Bow pudding is another of those colorful nautical terms.
It’s the fendering system used on the bow to lessen the shock of contact when the tug is pushing another vessel.
Until the early 20th century, bow pudding was typically handmade masterpieces of knot-craft made by a boat’s crew to pass away idle hours.
With the advent of the rubber tire, tug-boaters have deep-sixed the art of knotting together bow pudding in favor of rubber fendering systems.
Passer-by
The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74), could be easily seen last Monday from the North Olympic Peninsula heading west through the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
The 97,000-ton carrier and her crew of about 5,000 personnel departed Bremerton earlier in the day for a seven-month Western Pacific cruise and duty in the Persian Gulf.
She will be joined along the way by Carrier Air Wing 9 — her nine squadrons of aircraft that are based at Naval Air Station Lemoore, Calif.— plus Destroyer Squadron 21 and the guided missile cruiser, USS Mobile Bay (CG-53).
Armstrong deliveries
Armstrong Marine, the aluminum boat fabricator located between Port Angeles and Sequim, recently delivered two 50-foot mono-hull vessels to the Navy that are to be used as dive boats.
Joe Beck, who works in sales and marketing for Armstrong, said one of the boats went to the USS Emory S. Land (AS-39) which is based at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
The other one went to the USS Frank Cable (AS-40), which calls Guam home.
Land and Cable are 649-foot submarine tenders that are attached to the Military Sealift Command.
Each has a hybrid crew of civil-service mariners and uniformed Navy personnel who are commanded by a Navy captain.
The ships are floating warehouses of food, fuel, repair parts and torpedoes from which submarines draw during replenishment at sea or when moored.
Onboard each tender there are 53 specialized machine and fabricating shops that enable her complement of 85 officers and 1,200 civilian and enlisted personnel to make repairs to submarines while under way or in port.
According to Beck, the Armstrong-made dive assist boats will be used as platforms to make in-water repairs to fast-attack submarines and guided-missile submarines that are attached to the 5th and 7th fleets, respectively.
Joe also said Armstrong spent last week putting the finishing touches on a 41-foot catamaran that will be used by Tree Tops Lodge in southeast Alaska to take guests fishing.
Sea trials wrapped up at week’s end and the boat is scheduled to get underway this weekend for the trek to Thorne Bay, a small cove on Prince of Wales Island.
Keeping weight down
One of the recurring questions I field along the waterfront is why do bulk oil tankers transporting oil from the Trans Alaska Pipeline System, or TAPS, anchor as frequently as they do in Port Angeles Harbor for fuel?
The answer is a quick exercise in economics.
The Magnuson Act of 1977 banned oil tankers from transiting Puget Sound that exceeded 125,000 deadweight tons.
Because the cost of frequent refueling is less than the profit gained by carrying additional bulk oil to refineries east of Port Angeles Harbor, crude oil tankers carry less refined fuel for their own consumption in favor of a cargo they can sell.
Speaking of refueling
So at the Port Angeles Harbor filler-up, Tesoro Petroleum on Tuesday bunkered Brasil Star, a 492-foot cargo ship that made her way to Port Angeles from Unalaska.
Tesoro also refueled Alaskan Frontier on Tuesday. She is a 941-footer that transports crude oil between the oil terminal in Valdez, Alaska, and various refineries along the West Coast.
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David G. Sellars is a Port Angeles resident and former Navy boatswain’s mate who enjoys boats, ships and strolling the waterfront.
Items involving boating, port activities and the North Olympic Peninsula waterfronts are always welcome. Email dgsellars@hotmail.com or phone him at 360-808-3202.
