New York Central tug #16 demolition may start soon

I heard recently from a friend that the new owners of the former restaurant property at the Bourne Bridge rotary in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, are looking to proceed with the construction of their new pharmacy. Former New York Central tugboat #16 has been in the parking lot for about twenty years, since it was rescued from the scrap yard at Arthur Kill on Staten Island and brought to the site for display. The new owners have no interest in it and are looking to have it demolished. This may happen very soon, possibly in the next couple of weeks.

It was noted in one of the local newspapers that the former owner has given the local historical society her quarter boards and the historic display board about the tug that was in the restaurant.

Along with the scrapping of the NOBSKA in Boston, this has been a tough time for historic ship enthusiasts. But both of these vessels are in an area with some very wealthy people and unfortunately nobody with financial means to make a difference in the outcome has taken any interest in either of them.

There have been a number of previous postings about the plight of the vessel on this website and others over the last six months or so.

It's probably been ten to fifteen years ago, but I recall someone telling me there were several New York Central tugs still tied up in Arthur Kill. He saw them from a kayak.

Are they all gone?

Dieter/

Are any of the tugs here NYC?

http://www.opacity.us/gallery87_wrecks.htm

I can't really find any information about her doing a forum search besides this thread, and a yahoo search only brought up this thread. Doesn't look like it's getting much publicity sadly.

Some of the vessels shown are railroad tugs, but appear to be Pennsy rather than NYC. Have fun picking out a nice tug to restore:

http://www.opacity.us/image3005_propped_up.htm

Dangerous place to go poking around. I was told by a guy who saw this area from a kayak in the 80's that there were at least three New York Central tugs tied up together on Kill Van Kull. They probably rotted through and sank by now.

Anybody remember which New York Central tug was featured in the closing shot of "Funny Girl"? Anytime I stumble upon it, I take in the tug and not Barbara Streisand belting out a song from the top railing.

Dieter/

Hi All,

Yup, I remember that really nice Tugboat with Barbra singing away. I even have a copy of the movie on videotape. Great songs, and great memories of NY harbor and a really well kept tugboat. However, I will bet that it is no longer in existence. I wonder, however, how much money and effort the movie company put into that Tug to get her to look that great.

An article in today's Boston Globe about the tug:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articl ... of_rescue/

It made the New York Times too but they want you to register and provide lots of personal information to let you see it on the internet so I will not bother posting the link.

The amount needed to get the tug moved to a new location is being quoted as between $250K and $500K, which is about 1/8th the price of the smallest house on Nantucket, but considering the area has lots and lots of rich people I am guessing that the tug will end up getting scrapped.

Reading about the possible/probable destruction of this historic tug makes me want to cry! I saw it on a trip to the Cape way back in the mid-1980's and didn't even know about it until I saw it. I made the group I was with stop so I could take a picture of it. Really will be a sad day for NYC and marine fans when this is torn apart - and all for a CVS pharmacy! If this happens, I personally won't shop at CVS again!!!

I am pretty sure I have one of the original name boards from NYC Tug #15. No one has been able to positively ID it, and I'm not really sure of it's lineage myself. I got it from my parents, who bought two of them in an antique store in the 1970's.

I will send a pic to anyone who thinks they might know what it is.

Thanks!
Anthony

There was a fellow on Staten Island that was restoring NYC Tug 13, what happened to that?

My friend once told me the tugboat business is fairly predictable. You own a tugboat until it does what all old boats eventually do: sink. You think restoring a locomotive is hard? How about a vessel that spends all its time in water!

-otto-

Mentioned to me this evening that a news brief reported that tug in Bourne
was being relocated to Bayonne.Anyone know anything??

A piece in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel states that Bayonne, NJ for
preservation. I guss there are some details to still work out but
apparently the tug has been saved at least for now.
Noel Weaver

It has been reported that the City of Bayonne NJ has offered a site for the tug in a waterfront park, and two marine towing companies have offered the services of a deck barge and tug to provide the transportation between Buzzards Bay Mass. and Bayonne NJ. What is lacking at this point is the funding or donated services for contractors to do the crane lifts and ground transportation. Hopefully these services will be contributed or perhaps CVS will provide something to help support the expense (since they would be faced with the cost of scrapping the tug if it remains where it is). So progress has been made, but there are still critical (and very expensive) services needed to get it to happen. Unfortunately the tug is in Southeastern Massachusetts, an area that has a long record of lack of support for historical displays like this tug. Perhaps some folks from other areas who have deep pockets will chip in to help on this one. Charles Schneider has done an absolutely incredible job of gathering together support for this effort, let's hope the means to complete the job can be found.

CVS allowed a representative of the tugboat museum in Kingston, NY to remove the upper level of the wheelhouse, the skylight on the engine room clerestory, and a few other small parts from NYC #16. They demolished the rest of the vessel. There was a media report published locally that said the pieces removed from the tug would be installed on a replica tug being built by the museum and that the new vessel would visit Bourne next year. I don't know why they would bother doing that, since previous news reports had said there was little support in the town for saving the tug since it was not one that had worked in the local area.

So in its place we will have one more big store being built on a dangerous and congested traffic rotary that you should avoid on your way to Cape Cod.