John R. Hayden Tugboat
The John R. Hayden is the only tug of the Santa Fe post World War II tug fleet that remains afloat. She was built in 1945 by the U.S. War Department and is now the Titan owned by Sause Bros. and operating out of Coos Bay, Oregon. She had several other owners and names. She was repowered three times. The VI number (VIN) of the tug is 253495, IMO Number is 8424123.
The Hayden was built in 1945, the final year of World War II, by Tampa Marine Corp. in Tampa, Florida as hull number 40 and designated LT-830 (LT for Large Tug). Dimensions were 142.2 ft (43.3 m) × 33 ft (10 m) × 16 ft (4.9 m), tonnage 581 gt, 35 nt. She had a single screw.
On June 5, 1947, she was sold to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway who renamed her the John R. Hayden. When built the vessel was powered by a three-cylinder Skinner Uniflow steam engine, 24.5 × 20", 1,200 ihp (890 kW), supplied by two Foster-Wheeler water tube boilers, 5,460 sq ft (507 m2) heating surface, 225 psi (1.55 MPa) working pressure. In 1967 the Santa Fe had her dieselized at the Todd Shipyard in Alameda, California with a 1,600 hp (1,200 kW) General Motors 567C EMD F-7 engine. In December, 1975 the Hayden was taken out of service due to persistent stern tube leakage.
On September 16, 1976, with barge traffic in decline, the Santa Fe sold the Hayden to Marine Leasing Corp. Marine Leasing repowered the tug, which required rebuilding the superstructure. On December 22, 1983, Marine Leasing renamed the vessel the Marine Crusader. Her home port was then Seattle, Washington.
The repowering of the Marine Crusader was done by Propulsion Systems Inc. of Kent, Washington. The repowered tug put to sea in December 1983 as one of the most highly computerized and automated tugs in the world. It also represented the most complete installation to date of a ship control and monitoring system. The new engines consisted of four General Motors Detroit Diesel 16-cylinder, 1600 hp 149T1 diesel engines with a pair of twin-shaft input/single-shaft output Lufkin reduction gears with controllable pitch propellers. The control system provided automatic engine load control, multiple engine load sharing, pitch control, machinery monitoring, and steering. The control complex involved two electrically isolated units, port and starboard. Machinery control function was divided between the units, each managing its own propulsion subsystem consisting of two engines, reduction gears with clutches and hydraulics for controllable pitch propeller. There was an automatic pilot function driven by either gyrocompass or magnetic compass as the input heading source. There were four control station in the tug: main bridge, wing stations port and starboard, and an aft control station. All control systems operated off a non-interruptible power system.
As rebuilt, the Marine Crusader had a beam of 33 feet (10 m). A new epoxy coating was applied to the hull. She had quarters for an operating crew of eight. She had a gym in the forecastle, a useful accoutrement on long, ocean tow missions. With full tanks the Marine Crusader carried 225,000 gallons of fuel.
On November 26, 1984 Marine Crusader was sold to Alaska Marine Towing Inc. On February 5, 1985 Marine Leasing changed her name to Harris Bay, after a bay in the Kenai peninsula south of Anchorage, Alaska. Alaska Marine ran into financial difficulties and filed for bankruptcy. As part of an August 3, 1988 reorganization the new legal owner of the Harris Bay became United Marine Tug and Barge. On August 29, 1988 they changed her name back to Marine Crusader.
Two years later on July 27, 1990 the tug was sold yet again to its current owner Sause Bros. Ocean Towing of Portland, Oregon. Sause Bros. soon gave the tug her current name, Titan. The financial troubles of Marine Leasing may have resulted in poor engine maintenance in the years before Sause Bros acquired the tug. Or the GM16V149TI engines may have been at the end of their useful life. In any case, the Titan was repowered with two 12-cylinder turbo EMD engines, with 3½ to 1 Lufkin gears and is sailing as that now. Coast Guard contacts over the years of Sause Bros. ownership show the tug mostly in Portland, Oregon with some time in Honolulu, Hawaii.
The former Hayden continues in active service.
Read more about this topic: Santa Fe Railroad Tugboats