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UNITED STATES SHIPPING BOARD OCEAN TUG PROGRAM, WORLD WAR I by Rev. Edward J. Dowling, S.J. Part IV In this installment we are concerned for the most part with the steel tugs built q by Whitney Brothers at Superior, Wisconsin. It is noteworthy that the Whitney Shipyard alone, among the Great Lakes shipbuilders involved, was able to complete its contracts without a single cancellation. Whitney-built HUKEY and HULVER were described and illustrated in the February Historian. The remaining eight Whitney steel tugs are included in the descriptions which follow: HUMACONNA (S) - (US. 218071) was Whitney Brothers Hull #53, and was delivered to the U.S. Shipping Board in 1919. Three years later Merrill & Ring Lumber Company of Seattle purchased the tug which served her new owners in raft towing in the Puget Sound district. Western Pacific Railroad bought HUMACONNA in 1938 and used her for moving car floats on San Francisco Bay. In 1958 Western Pacific's new diesel-powered car ferry LAS PLUMAS replaced the tug and barge operation and HUMACONNA was sold. In 1959 she was repowered with a General Motors Corporation diesel engine, and at the same time her topsides were altered, not in a way to improve her appearance. The owners at this time were Any Ocean Towing Company of San Francisco. Nicholson Transit Company bought the HUMACONNA in 1962 and brought her to the Great Lakes, but made little use of her. Stender of Bay City acquired the tug in the late-Sixties but again did little with it. Finally this veteran, another survivor of her type, was rebuilt into a salvage tug by Busch Oceanographic, in which capacity she serves presently. HUMRICK (S) - (US. 218072) was Whitney's #54. Ford Motor Company bought it from the U.S. Shipping Board in 1925 and eventually brought her into the Great Lakes. HUMRICK towed the Ford barges up to World War II, when the U.S. War Shipping Admin- istration took her for ocean duty. In 1946 she was sold as war surplus to the 4 Crescent Towing & Salvage Company of New Orleans. HUMRICK'S original triple expan- % sion engine had been built by Filer & Stowell Co. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin who built engines for all the Whitney tugs, and was replaced in 1972 by a 1700 h.p. General Motors diesel. HUMRICK was scrapped in 1975. (Continued on Page “) HUMACONNA at Nicholson's Dock in the Sixties somewhat changed from her original appearance. Editor's Photo -2-