" Sea Stories" Skipper of the Tug Colombe.

Discussion board focusing on Great Lakes Shipping Question & Answer. From beginner to expert all posts are welcome.
captrmetz

Re: " Sea Stories" Skipper of the Tug Colombe.

Unread post by captrmetz »

Thank you very much BMCS you have been very helpful.
BMCS

Re: " Sea Stories" Skipper of the Tug Colombe.

Unread post by BMCS »

Capt Mertz, It would be an honor to help you, but unfortunately after a year or so the past years records are sent out to be archived. My guess is that back in the day with nothing but a magnetic compass and Dead Reckoning, as soon as they located the vessel in distress they went right to work. They probably made a guesstimate afterwards when doing the report by locating the spot on a chart and maybe getting the Lat and Long from that spot on the chart. I would say your best bet is contacting the US Coast Guard Historians office directly: http://www.history.uscg.mil/
They have been very helpful when I have requested information.
I hope that this will help.
-BMCS
captrmetz

Re: " Sea Stories" Skipper of the Tug Colombe.

Unread post by captrmetz »

To BMCS -
Thank you for your kind words I would like to ask you a question, I was skipper of the Soo River Trader, back in Oct. 19,1923 she was call the Samuel Mather and she ran aground on Manitou Island. The USCG from Portage rescued the crew & there was no lost of life. I have been trying for years as to where exactly did she go aground, the USCG must have the concordances of the grounding. I wrote to Portage and ask them the same question but no answer. Could you find out for me ?
Thank you,
Capt Metz
Attachments
The S/S Soo River Trader in 1981
The S/S Soo River Trader in 1981
The S/S Samuel Mather .
The S/S Samuel Mather .
pilot

Re: " Sea Stories" Skipper of the Tug Colombe.

Unread post by pilot »

Capt when crossing Lake Superior did you have men on the barges? I don't believe you could do that in these times.
BMCS

Re: " Sea Stories" Skipper of the Tug Colombe.

Unread post by BMCS »

Captain Mertz, I have probably talked to you many times on the radio. I was a Coxwain of the motor lifeboats out of USCG Station Portage from 1988-2000. I know for sure that we exchange many Securite calls on the radio with the NPS tugs, especially on foggy days. I always looks forward to you sea stories, thank you for sharing them with us.
captrmetz

Re: " Sea Stories" Skipper of the Tug Colombe.

Unread post by captrmetz »

When I got back to Mott Island I would take the fuel barges to Rock Harbor Lodge and fill there fuel tanks then to all the Rangers Stations around the island and at Windego to do the same. In the summer when we had a lot of boats coming to the island I would go back for another load. In construction I was really busy building docks and digging for rocks to fill the docks, tearing down old fishermen homes. A big job was building a filtration plant for the Lodge and we hauled all of the material for the job even the sand for the septic system. But there were a few days that I had nothing to do so my deckhand & I would work on the tug changing oil and painting and keeping things in good running order.

After I complained about the rotten manila tow line I got a big reel of 3/4 inch nylon and I made up all new tow lines and nylon was very strong I never broke a tow line. And they would float on the water when the deck hand on the barge would throw then off the bitts made is easy to reel them the line in.
Attachments
Full load of building material
Full load of building material
John Murn,Poncho & Mickey.jpg (7.29 KiB) Viewed 3326 times
Destruction of old fisherman homes.
Destruction of old fisherman homes.
Hauling rock for fill.
Hauling rock for fill.
Building Windgo fuel dock
Building Windgo fuel dock
building windigo fuel dock (2).jpg (29.73 KiB) Viewed 3326 times
Building steel docks around the island.
Building steel docks around the island.
Guest

Re: " Sea Stories" Skipper of the Tug Colombe.

Unread post by Guest »

Capt would you make the trip daily or weekly and what did you do when you weren't going to Houghton?
Guest

Re: " Sea Stories" Skipper of the Tug Colombe.

Unread post by Guest »

Being the man on the barge must have been a little scary when the seas got up or fog, imagine if the lines parted in a good blow
Darryl

Re: " Sea Stories" Skipper of the Tug Colombe.

Unread post by Darryl »

Thanks, Captain. I knew there had to be a logical logistical reason to my question. Isle Royale is a unique place in many ways. I still hope to get there someday.
captrmetz

Re: " Sea Stories" Skipper of the Tug Colombe.

Unread post by captrmetz »

The reason for the long tow line is because of the prop wash left behind the tug would hit the barge if the line was short thus losing speed. We always had a man ride the barge and when we got to the piers he would throw the tow line off and we would reel it in. Then I would come alone side of the barge and hook the tug to the barge and dock it.
Attachments
Bringing in the tow line.
Bringing in the tow line.
john & Joe grounder barge.jpg (30.05 KiB) Viewed 3766 times
Prop wash from the tug.
Prop wash from the tug.
Entering Middle Is. Passage from Houghton.jpg (5.62 KiB) Viewed 3766 times
Pete in Holland MI

Re: " Sea Stories" Skipper of the Tug Colombe.

Unread post by Pete in Holland MI »

Gotta be a weird feeling to see the boats you worked on for years rotting away or being cut up for scrap. Most of us won't have that experience. Like for me, the computer or desk I work at doesn't have the personality to it, like a boat, which folks tend to talk to.

I do have those feelings to antique tractors and steam engines that have been a large part of my life, some for 40+ years. And.....yes I do talk to my tractors....especially when trying to get them started on days they don't want to play. : )

Pete
captrmetz

Re: " Sea Stories" Skipper of the Tug Colombe.

Unread post by captrmetz »

The Tug Colombe is a US Army Tug 45 ft long & 13 foot beam built in 1952 in Sturgeon Bay WI. it came with a 170 hp Buda diesel but they removed the Buda and installed a Cat Diesel. It was just a harbour tug not designed to tow barges across Lake Superior. The big 85 ft crane barge would not tow straight it kept going form side to side. So we had to lower the rock bucket from the stern and use it for a rudder. Every since I ran the tug it was plague with wiring problems.
The Tug was sold to a scrap yard in Dollar Bay MI. and it is still there on blocks rusting away.
Attachments
The old shipper looking at his old Tug Colombe 2017 as it sets rusting away.
The old shipper looking at his old Tug Colombe 2017 as it sets rusting away.
Captrmetz

Re: " Sea Stories" Skipper of the Tug Colombe.

Unread post by Captrmetz »

Darryl- Isle Royal belongs to the Keweenaw Country of MI. so I suppose they get a tax break that they would not get from MN. Houghton and Hancock have all the necessary supplies and building materials that the island need for all their construction jobs. I do not think Grand Marais could handle all that they need. I know the fuel would have to come from Superior. I haul gas, diesel,sand & gravel, propane, heavy equipment, lumber, all kinds of building material. I would have to tow the barges to Gread Marais to load then back 40 miles to Grand Portage 20 miles to Isle Royale then 50 miles to Mott Island. The tow from Mott to Houghton is 70 miles. The only boat that goes to Isle Royale is the Voyager from Grand Portage I think it is about 75 ft long.
Attachments
Unloaded and going back for another load
Unloaded and going back for another load
Guest

Re: " Sea Stories" Skipper of the Tug Colombe.

Unread post by Guest »

Thanks for posting the story Captain; very interesting. Why would the tow lines be 1000' long ? How is all that extra length handled as you arrived and departed a dock ?
Guest

Re: " Sea Stories" Skipper of the Tug Colombe.

Unread post by Guest »

What can you tell us about the Colombe? Year built? Still around? Any pics to share?

Thanx!
Darryl

Re: " Sea Stories" Skipper of the Tug Colombe.

Unread post by Darryl »

Wow. I know Isle Royale is part of the state of Michigan, but since it is a National Park, what stops them from getting supplies from a relative safe 15 mile crossing from Grand Maris, MN? I now the Ranger III crosses the lake, but is there also a Ranger size boat out of MN?
Guest

Re: " Sea Stories" Skipper of the Tug Colombe.

Unread post by Guest »

Capt must have been an awesome job on the island in summer not to hot quiet woulda loved it
RCRVRP

Re: " Sea Stories" Skipper of the Tug Colombe.

Unread post by RCRVRP »

Great story. What sort of regulations did they have in those days for transporting gasoline on those barges? Were you to have some sort of endorsement on your captains license to transport large quantities of flammables?
Did any of the managers on shore say, " What the hell are we doing bringing in barges full of gas in bad weather with poor navigational aids?"

Was this just the way it was done in that era?

What year was that?
Captrmetz

" Sea Stories" Skipper of the Tug Colombe.

Unread post by Captrmetz »

I sent the National Park Service my resume and asked whether they had an opening for an AB on the Ranger III.  I figured all I could do was wait; I really didn’t have much of a chance of getting a job on the Ranger.
A week later, my friend Vince placed a shore-to-ship call.  “Dick,” he said, “there was a call from the National Park Service.  They asked for you.  They want you to call their office in Houghton.”
I phoned the NPS office ship-to-shore immediately after hanging up from Vince. “We’ve got an AB job open.  Do you want it?” they asked.
Of course, I wanted it!  “I’ll take it,” I said.  “When do I need to be there?”
“Tomorrow.”  My spirits sank.
“Well, I’m two days from Duluth,” I said, “and I have to give the Old Man some notice.”
“Okay,” was the reply. “Call our office as soon as you leave your ship in Duluth.”
We docked in Duluth, and I was gone.  I headed for the nearest phone and called the NPS.  “I’m off the ship and ready to fly to Houghton,” I told the girl on the other end of the line.
“I’m sorry, the AB job has been filled.”
I couldn’t speak; I was so shocked!  That was the worst news I could hear.  After I composed myself, I said, “Lady, I just quit my job for the AB job that you said was mine.” 
“Sorry, we had to fill it,” she said.  “But we do need a captain for our tugboat.  Would you be interested in that position?”
“Well,” I hesitated.  “I don’t know anything about tugboats. I’ve never been aboard one.  But I do need a job…”
“You will be trained,” she assured me.
What else could I do but say, “Yes.”
“Okay, great.”  Then she added, “But first you have to go to the Coast Guard and write for a small boat license.”
“Well, alright.”  It seemed to me that I had no choice now.
A few days later, I arrived at the NPS office in Houghton with license in hand, half expecting the tug job to be gone, too.  But I was in luck this time.  I was hired.
Morning came, and I found myself tightly strapped into a Cessna float plane flying across Lake Superior headed for my new life and position on Isle Royale.  It was exciting when the island came into view.  It looked beautiful from the air with green pine trees covering the rocks everywhere.  There were small bays and inlets with clear, blue water - so clear I could make out the rocks and reefs forty feet down.  It was majestic, truly God’s creation, and I remember thinking that He threw His watch away after creating this paradise.  This was to be my island.

The pilot brought the plane down in the area of Rock Harbor.  While we taxied to the dock, I looked out the window and saw the tug J. E. Colombe tied up waiting for her new skipper to arrive.
The pilot pointed to a park ranger standing on the dock in his green and gray uniform with Smoky-the-Bear hat, “There’s the man you have to see.”
I climbed out of the plane and walked up the dock.  I set my bags on the ground and introduced myself.
“Follow me to your quarters,” the ranger instructed.  I shouldered my bags again and followed him up a trail to a dormitory where I threw my gear on the bed.  I turned around and went back to have a look at the tug.
It seemed like a nice tug, 45 feet long with a 170-horsepower Buda diesel engine.  The engine room was clean, as were the crew quarters.  The pilothouse was equipped with an AM marine radio and a magnetic compass, but no radar.
Frank, the mechanic, came aboard and showed me how to start the generator and main engine.
“Do you know when my trainer is going to get here to show me how to operate this thing?” I asked.
“There is no trainer coming,” Frank replied.
“Oh, boy,” I thought, “I should have stayed wheeling on the big boats.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Mott Island is the NPS headquarters for Isle Royale National Park.  It’s a very small island, only one mile long and half a mile wide.  Mott is basically a huge rock covered with pine trees, and this was now my home and career.  Little did I know then that it would be for the next seven years.
Wanting to explore my new home, I spotted a path leading off into the island’s interior and followed it into a deep pine forest.  I smelled the sweet pine aroma combined with the heat of the earth.  Eventually the path let to the Superior shoreline, dotted with numerous rocky bays and inlets.  I was atop a rocky cliff.  Way below was a deep pool of clear water.  Looking down, I could see the remains of a ship below the surface of the calm water. 
The wreck happened to be the Canadian passenger steamer Algoma, which had broken in two during a storm in 1885.  Thirty-eight people lost their lives right here.

After a hearty breakfast at the mess hall the next morning, I walked down the hill to the Colombe.  In came the seaplane, and out stepped my deckhand, Joe.
“How long you been tugging?” he asked as we shook hands.
I looked at my watch.  “Just about one day now.”
“Well, you’ve been doing it longer than me,” he said.  “You’ve gotta train me, ‘cause I’ve never been on a tugboat.”
So we trained ourselves over the next few days.  We practiced with the tug running up and down the harbor, going full ahead and full astern.  Soon we were ready for the barges.  We took the tug into the barge cove where they were all tied up, and secured alongside a barge with a large, deck-mounted crane. This barge was 85 feet long and 35 feet wide, and in addition to the crane, contained crew quarters, a welding shop, and bin for loading rock.
John Murn greeted us and gave us a tour.  “You need to tow the barge to the north end of the island, so I can load rock from the bottom of the harbor.”  We didn’t do so well on this first tow, but after a few more weeks passed, we learned how!
In addition to the rock barges, our mission was to haul all the supplies that the park needed for its seasonal operation.  This included gasoline, diesel fuel, and building materials barged from Houghton, Michigan, back to Isle Royale, a distance of 70 miles.
One afternoon, we received orders to prepare the Colombe and three gas barges to leave the next morning for Houghton where we would load 35,000 gallons of gasoline.  Joe and I lined up all the barges in a row with towlines attached and waited for morning.  I was on the tug at 0400, getting the latest marine weather forecast over the old AM radio.  It looked good, so Joe and I departed the dock with the line of barges stretching 1000 feet behind us. 
We had to navigate Middle Island Passage to get out on the big lake.  The passage was very narrow, with three buoys marking the deep-water channel.  The only navigational aid at the entrance to the passage was an old foghorn that sounded like a dying moose.  We wormed our way through that passage out to the lake, and our trip over to Houghton was uneventful.


We accomplished our first loading of gasoline into the barges and headed back to the island.  Before we knew it, thick fog set in.  We gave security calls every 15 minutes advising our position.  The route back to the island involved crossing one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes - traffic in and out of Duluth-Superior.  And we were crossing at the speed of a whopping five miles per hour.  In fact, we crossed right in front of two up bound ships heading for Duluth.  Both ships answered our security calls and told us that their radars could not pick up the three barges that we were towing behind the Colombe.
One captain was a bit upset about this, and informed me that this was not the place for me to be without radar on my tug.  He was right!
I hoped the fog would clear before we arrived at the passage, but no such luck.  It had been 14 hours of running time, so I figured we had to be getting close, although we could not see anything. 
I radioed the NPS office, “Have the foghorn turned on.”  I thought that hearing the horn would give me some idea how far out from the island we were.  Well, the horn was on, but we didn’t hear it.  I didn’t want to chance going in closer and possibly running up on the rocks.  So we turned and headed back out, ran for 30 minutes, turned again for the passage and ran for 30 minutes.  We kept this up until the fog lifted some.  Then we finally heard the dying moose wail of the foghorn and headed toward it.  We found the buoys and the deep-water channel.
After that experience, I explained to the NPS the danger involved when crossing the lake in fog and trying to find our way back through the passage.  I told them that was it for me, no more crossings until we had radar installed on the tug.  They agreed.
We did go back to Houghton without radar, but our new Decca radar was installed while we were loading building materials there.  The equipment worked flawlessly.  As we headed back across the lake, I thought, “Just let it fog up now.”  It stayed clear as a bell.
About ten miles out, we met the Ranger III headed for Houghton.  Captain Woody called and informed us, “We’ve had a set to the west all the way over from the island.”
We were on a heading of 003* I changed course for the correction to more of a northeasterly heading. On our new radar, we saw the Michigan shoreline clearly, and several ships coming and going.  It was a perfect day, and looked like it would be a perfect trip all the way back to the island.
Wrong.  After about ten hours, the sky became darker.  Black clouds formed, and the wind freshened from the southwest.  The sea began lapping over the sides of the Colombe, and soon the tug was rolling from side to side.  The sky became a mass of clouds, the waves grew, and it started to rain.  I checked the barges through my field glasses - as waves boiled over the top of each barge, they were under water.  Night fell early.  It wasn’t fun, but at least we had our radar.  Or did we?
“Something’s wrong with this radar,” Joe said.
I looked into the display, and the scanner was barely moving making its sweep.  This was accompanied by a strange noise.  “Take the wheel, Joe.  I’m going to check the engine room,” I said.
I quickly found the problem:  the generator was failing.  All electric power would soon be gone - lights, radio, and the radar.  I turned off everything except the old AM radio transmitter to conserve what battery power I had left.  “Tug Colombe to Park office,” I radioed.  Someone at the office monitored the radio at all times when we crossed the lake.  No answer.  “Tug Colombe calling the Park Service,” I tried again and again.  We could not raise a soul.
I could see a heavy squall approaching.  The rain increased, as did the wind, and it was lightning.  “We’re in one hell of a fix,” I said as much to myself as to Joe.  “No generator, no lights, no radar, and no communication with anyone.  And we don’t even know our exact position.”
When the lightning flashed, I could make out Joe’s worried expression.  “What are we going to do?” he asked.  I could see the hope in his face for a solution from me.
“At the moment, I really don’t know.”
The tug rolled hard, but she was seaworthy.  I wondered how the barges were doing behind us, but I couldn’t see them at all.  “Oh, well, to heck worrying about the barges; what are we going to do about us?” I thought.  Aloud, I said to Joe, “The only thing we’ve got left to navigate with is the old RDF.”  The only thing I had ever used the small, battery-powered radio direction finder for was to play music.  I didn’t even know if the direction finder part of it worked, but it was worth a try.  I turned it on and tried to get an RDF bearing from Passage Island Lighthouse, but I couldn’t get anything from inside the pilothouse.  I would have to go out on deck and try.
I pulled on rain gear and a life jacket, and stuffed the portable RDF under the rain jacket where it would stay dry.  Outside was definitely not an inviting place to be right now.  I opened the lee door of the pilothouse and looked behind to make sure Joe was at the wheel.
“Be careful!” Joe shouted to be heard above the noise of the storm.
It was impossible to stand up outside the door because of the wind, rain, waves, and rolling and pitching of the tug.  I got down on my belly and crawled up the deck to the bow with the RDF under my arm inside the rain jacket.  The lightning was so intense and the thunder so loud that I smelled smoke with each crack.  The lake was lit up for miles with each lightning bolt.  I could see the mountainous waves.  “What I would give to be back aboard a big ship and cozy in a warm, dry bunk,” I thought.
As I reached the bow, Joe reduced the tug’s speed to keep the bow from dipping into each approaching wave.  I laid the RDF on deck and turned the dial to get a bearing from Passage Island.  Water washed over the bow, the RDF got wet, and I was soaked to the skin.  But then I heard it faintly,  . . - - -, the Morse code from Passage Island.  I took a bearing and motioned Joe to alter course.  I stayed there and listened some more.  The Morse code got louder.  I had it!
I crawled and slid back to the pilothouse door.  Safely back inside, I shed my rain gear and reached for a hot cup of coffee.  We remained on that heading until we could hear the foghorn blowing off Passage Island Light.  The lighthouse was situated four miles off the northeastern tip of Isle Royale.  Now my only problem was finding the entrance to Rock Harbor.
We had come in close to the light off Passage Island and turned toward the island to try to pick out Blake’s Point Light. 
“Turn on the radar one more time and see what happens,” Joe urged.
I fully expected to see nothing, but amazingly, I could see the tip of the island.   I could just barely make out the harbor entrance, but that was all we needed.  Finally, we were inside and back home.

My main concern was how far away was I from Gull Rocks that lie just NE of Passage Island because I was headed  NNE.
 I did not want to go aground on the rocks with 35,000 gallons of gas and a top load of Propane tanks on the last barge. I should of thought that when the Captain of the Ranger III called and said he went through a NE current and suggest that I altar course more to the NE to counteract the current. But now I realize that the Ranger was drawing 12 feet of water but my Tug only drawing 5 ft. would not affect the Tug as much as it did on the Ranger III.   
Attachments
Cull Rocks NE of Passage Island.
Cull Rocks NE of Passage Island.
Fuel barges loaded waiting for weather at Lily Pond.
Fuel barges loaded waiting for weather at Lily Pond.
cleveland cliffs boat portage canal (2).jpg (23.69 KiB) Viewed 1947 times
A 1000 ft. tow.
A 1000 ft. tow.
Entering Middle Is. Passage from Houghton.jpg (5.62 KiB) Viewed 1947 times
Wind started to pick up.
Wind started to pick up.
over the bow (2).jpg (14.09 KiB) Viewed 1947 times
Fog set in on our way back to the Island
Fog set in on our way back to the Island
towing in fog (2).jpg (8.52 KiB) Viewed 1947 times
Passing a steamer.
Passing a steamer.
Frighter.jpg (27.2 KiB) Viewed 1947 times
NPS Hq. at Mott Island Isle Royale.
NPS Hq. at Mott Island Isle Royale.
The plane that flew  me to the Island
The plane that flew me to the Island
Ranger III
Ranger III
ranger lll arriving at mott is. (2).jpg (25.18 KiB) Viewed 1947 times
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