The New York State (NYS) Canal Corporation has demonstrated that age is no impediment to complying with the Subchapter M requirements.
Its tugboat Syracuse, launched in spring 1934 from a NYS Department of Transportation shipyard in Syracuse, N.Y., recently received its Coast Guard certificate of inspection (COI) required under Subchapter M.
Key to the process were the efforts of Syracuse Capt. Wendy Marble. In fact, Marble, who had been captain of that boat from 2014 until 2019 when she was promoted to management, resigned from her administrative job in 2022 to shepherd the vintage tug through the COI process. Because no qualified captain stepped up when Marble was promoted, Syracuse was idled from 2019 until its return in 2022.
“No waivers were necessary for Syracuse to get her COI,” Marble said, clearly proud of the accomplishment. “I knew the Subchapter M deadline was approaching and I started getting ready long before 2019, but still, it’s a big deal to get it.”
“No major modifications were needed, either,” Marble added, “although we did need to add some things.”
Additions included a fire detection system, manual as well as automatic general alarm systems, and various sensors and alarms to monitor such conditions as high bilge water, low oil pressure and high temperature for the main engine and generator, low fuel level, and low hydraulic steering pressure. In the wheelhouse, the indicator panel includes a whole new row of lights. Preparing for the half-day Coast Guard inspection involved teamwork.
Marble took care of assembling the paper documentation, organizing and labeling, as well as necessary publications. Actual systems installation was done by marine engineer Stephen Plucinik and oiler Tom Church.
Plucinik said the systems added to comply with Subchapter M all had to be custom-built to fit the tugboat, which runs with a three-person crew during the navigation season.
The 80-by-20-foot welded-hull tug Syracuse left the shipyard 89 years ago for freshwater-only service. Back then, it had a used oil-burning steam engine, transplanted in when a wooden NYS Canal tugboat also called Syracuse was dismantled. Some time later, a new Morris Machine Works steam engine was installed, and it powered the tug until 1970 when the current diesel, a Caterpillar D379, was installed. “Getting the COI on a tugboat this old is gratifying,” Marble said. NYS Canals still has a mothballed steam-powered vessel — a dipper dredge — that operated until 1985.
Since Syracuse is restricted within the 524-mile waterways of the NYS Canal System, no radar is required. Immersion suits and a life raft, however, are. They are particularly important since the tug’s area of operations includes two Finger Lakes — Seneca and Cayuga — as well as Oneida Lake. The COI stipulates that by spring 2023 a new light stack that meets the CFR light spacing must be installed.
“That’s one of our winter projects,” Marble said, alluding to the fact that the NYS Canal dry docks its vessels for maintenance over the winter, when ice shuts down the navigation season. The existing light stack placed the towing lights closer together than the CFR specified so that the stack would fit under the lowest bridges without having to be folded down.
The NYS Canal System has added 10 new smaller pusher tugs built by Marine Inland Fabricators since 2015, all shorter than 26 feet. Some older NYS Canals tugboats have been taken out of service — and some reefed — because addressing hull deficiencies would cost too much to correct. However, four of the older tugs, including Syracuse, have received their COIs. One is Governor Roosevelt, which launched for the port of Buffalo in 1928. The 77-by-20-foot icebreaking tugboat also repowered from steam to diesel in 1970.
Marble, who has worked at NYS Canals for 20 years — nine as a tender captain, eight as a tugboat captain, and three in management — explained that getting the COI on these older boats was the most cost-effective way to do the work of keeping the canals open.
“Besides the obvious safety reasons for these upgrades on the tugboats, keep in mind that there are some jobs the new pushers are unable to perform, particularly towing.” In fact, on some of the pushers, the generator is mounted on the stern bulwark, exactly where a towing wire or hawser would run. Marble explained that it’s not uncommon during the navigation season for Syracuse to tow several dredge scows in a train, or a dredge and several scows, or a long string of dredge pipe pontoons from one silted-in work area to another along the waterway.
Syracuse, which cost $40,000 (about $900,000 in 2022 dollars) when launched, was described by a former captain as no “beauty queen,” alluding to her lines lacking flare, tumblehome or sheer. But he went on to praise its “backing power, fair acceleration and tracking ability” that tows well on the “nose, hip and string.” With this COI, tug Syracuse as well as its fleet mate Governor Roosevelt may be on their way to working to their centennials and beyond. •