Edward J. Engel Tugboat
The Engel was built in 1945 for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company by Consolidated Steel Corporation as hull number 1320. The business address of the builder was Newport Beach, California. Their shipyard was in the Port of Long Beach in Wilmington, California built in 1941, at what is now berth 196 and 197 of the automobile terminal. The builder dissolved in 1952.
The Engel had a single screw and a steel hull of dimensions 141.5×29×12.7 ft (43.1×8.8×3.9 m). She was powered by a three-cylinder Skinner Uniflow steam engine, 25 x 20, 1,200 ihp (890 kW); Babcock & Wilcox water tube boiler, 3,311 sq ft (307.6 m2) heating surface, 236 psi (1.63 MPa) working pressure. She retains this power plant to this day. Her sister tugs were built with steam and later dieselized. VIN number is 248085.
On September 30, 1969 with barge traffic declining as piggy-back truck usage increased, the Santa Fe sold the Engel to John K. Seaborn, a collector of old tugs and ferries. The sale was not recorded until June 25, 1971. On September 18, 1975 the vessel was removed from documentation because the name was changed to Respect without the consent of the Documentation Officer at the vessel’s home port who at that time had no record of the whereabouts of the vessel or owner.
The next entry in the Abstract of Title for the Engel is on February 24, 2006 when Seaborn sold the vessel to Sause Marine Services, Inc. in the person of Gary Sause. Sause intended to dieselize the vessel whose hull was still in good condition. When Sause received an unsolicited bid for the vessel from Jeff Barnell he accepted it. What Barnell intended to do with the vessel is unknown. In any case he soon sold it to Ron Cook of British Columbia. The Engel/Respect had now changed hands three times in a little over a year. Cook planned to move the vessel to Seattle and restore it. There had been other attempts to restore and preserve the Engel. The Newport Harbor Nautical Museum, near where the tug was built, was contacted but showed no interest. There are several references in Trainorders.COM in the fall of 2006 about saving the Engel.
For many years the Engel had been anchored in the Oakland estuary in Oakland, California just north of the Park Street bridge. The tug was vandalized on April 9, 2007 and sank the next day. Apparently the seacock valve and other metal parts were scavenged for their scrap value. As of February 2008 she remains submerged in the estuary. The location is marked with buoys and a flashing light. The Army Corps of Engineers is now responsible for administering the fate of the Engel. She will likely be raised and moved from her current location where she is impeding a navigable waterway.
Whether the Engel will be scrapped or preserved is unknown.
Read more about this topic: Santa Fe Railroad Tugboats