The Raritan as seen through the lens of John Fasulo

~ Raritan, NY Harbor passing the World Trade Center, circa 1980-1982 ~

Raritan near Kingston NY being 
towed back to NYC after 
a crack developed in her shaft

At Rest, Kingston NY

Raritan on the Rondout, heading East 
to assist tug. Note Rondout Lighthouse 
at left. circa 1980-82

Raritan - winter 1970

Memories Of Raritan
Story by: Al Halverson, photos by David Drickhamer

The painting of the phone bell on the bridge. I got such a kick out of that. I am glad Dave painted it. I think even the captain liked it. Note from Dave: I painted the bell while preparing the bridge for a District inspection. Even the inspectors from district liked it. I'll see if I can find a picture of it. (Note:  the top right picture below. You'll see this bell which was painted various shades of pink. Use your imagination to see what it resembles)

As you guys know, in heavy water the Raritan bounced around quite a bit. We got a guy in the spring of '71 that had just re-upped and was previously in the Navy. He was sick as hell and I said to him "you were in the Navy". He said he had never been on anything in the Navy that bounced like that!!!

I think near St. Ignace, I took a little too much of a run at the ice. I popped the old boat out on top of the ice. The screw was just barely touching water and throwing water in the air. We just kept throwing the rudder over and after about 20-30 minutes the ice busted and we were back in the water. The captain had done the same thing about a week before.

I think the most terrifying story was when we were returning to Milwaukee one night and were in a storm and it was cold. Every wave blew water on the starboard side that instantly froze. We were listing over badly and I didn't think we would make it. We pulled into Sturgeon Bay just in time. If that thing would have rolled, we all would have been dead in a couple of minutes. It took us a long time and with a lot of hard work (including guys from the Sturgeon Bay station) to pound off a good share of the ice the following morning. Don't remember where all of those baseball bats came from. Even the cook was out with his clever.

Most of the captains of those ore boats didn't have any stones and they only reluctantly would gun it to make any headway in the ice. One time, we almost begged the captain of the ore boat to give her some gas. Well, he did and wouldn't you know it we got stuck in a pressure ridge. We were on the phone to him in a heartbeat but stopping one of those things didn't happen instantaneously either. By the time he got her stopped, she was about 2 feet from our stern. I thought we were going to be goners. Aside: Doug (from the Tug Association) said that the same thing happened to them on the Kaw. The captain on the freighter dropped the anchor to stop the freighter only by then it dropped on the fantail of the Kaw. His story is better than ours.

The ice could really get jammed in under the bridge at St. Ignace. I remember one day we made about 100 yards in 24 hours of smashing into it. Some of the ice chunks were as big as a Cadillac. They would knock the engine offline when they hit the prop. I guess the Mackinaw couldn't be everywhere.

We worked with one of the tenders in a bay just after you got into Lake Huron. Can't remember the name of the bay or the tender. Anyhow, one of the lake boats got a load there and on the way out of the bay got into a flow of ice and the wind and ice blew it back into the bay and grounded her. We each put a tow rope on her and pulled for a long time. The tender's steel rope separated. Luckily, no one was hurt. Those things part spectacularly!!! We towed on her for a long time and she finally came off and we sent her on her way.

I think it was Muskegon that we pulled in one afternoon and just got tied up when we were called out into the Lake for a S & R. As we started back towards the Lake, we had to have a drawbridge go up to let us through. We called them or signaled them and the drawbridge didn't rise. So we got on the horn with him. He said he couldn't raise it because it was a heavy traffic time of the day and he didn't want the traffic to back up. The captain was furious and told him that we were on a search and rescue mission and that if he didn't raise the bridge immediately that he would push the bridge and him into the Lake. Silence on the other end. Bridge goes up.

  
All Haverson - Notice Schlitz draught handles on the enunciator

Flag from Miller Brewery - Flown returning from icebreaking mission