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Tug OCEAN PRINCE

The Ocean Prince was a steel single screw diesel tug built in 1944 at Calumet Shipyard in Chicago, Illinois, originally as a US Army tug designated LT-59.  Prior to World War II most tugs were still steam powered, but during World War II the production of large diesel engines progressed so quickly that building steam tugs no longer made sense.

Ocean Prince was fitted with a Fairbanks Morse seven cylinder two stroke slow speed diesel engine of 1225 Hp.  The engine was direct drive and direct reversing which meant there was no reduction gear and to make the tug go astern the engine was stopped and then started in reverse.  A somewhat slow process, but super simple and super reliable. While today’s tugs no longer use that system, almost every large diesel cargo ship uses that system today. 

A slow running diesel engine like this could last forever so tugs of this type had long lives; some tugs of this era may still be running in the 2020’s. 

After World War II LT-57 was sold to Ocean Prince Inc. in 1947 where she was first named Ocean Prince.  In 1951 she was purchased by Red Star Towing of New York and retained her name. In 1955 she was sold to Smith Brothers in New Orleans and again retained her name.  She was sold two more times and was renamed Dauphin in 1963.  After that she was sold a few more times, ended up on the Pacific Coast and finally was last seen in the Oregon-Alaska trade in 2014.  It is not known if she retained her original engine all those years.  In her service working for all the companies that owned her, she must have entered nearly every harbor and inlet along the entire US East, Gulf and Pacific Coast and even some Great Lakes.

A tug like this was mostly engaged in barge towing duties, but may also have done an occasional ship assist job, or maybe even a salvage tow.  With lighter more efficient and more powerful diesel engines most tugs today of this size are powered with engines in the 3000 to 4000 Hp range running at much higher RPM and using reversing reduction gears and driving two propellers.  They are much more powerful, but nowhere near as much fun.

In commercial service tugs like this were manned by a crew of about 8, consisting of a Captain and a Mate, one or two engineers and four deckhands.  The Captain and Mate swapped watches, which was hard work, but a close knit crew could take care of each other and on long runs could give the officer a break by standing on watch. There often was no cook, so crew members swapped cooking duties.  Often the food was quite good, with various crew members, even the Captain, having their own specialties.  Tugboat service was not for everyone, but those who found they liked it, loved it forever.

The model

This model was scratch built and completed in 2005.  Mr.  Schaefer completed earlier models of this design for friends and customers as early as 1990.