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Cruising America's Great Loop and other inland routes
View all threadsTug Seneca
For all you tugboat enthusiasts:
NYS Canal Corp's Tug Seneca is one of their prettier boats. She's a
medium sized tug, capable of hauling most anything moving on the canals:
http://www.tug44.org/canal.corp.boats/tug-seneca/
Seneca has a diesel electric propulsion system. The engines are not
connected directly to the prop ... instead each engine has a generator on
it and the actual drive is a pair of electric motors. Amazingly well-kept
and maintained, the Seneca is about 85 years old and still beautiful.
Fred
Tug 44
Great looking tug!
My dad was a diesel mechanic on the US Coast Guard TAMAROA, a 205-foot fleet
ocean/salvage tug originally in the NAVY, which is featured in the book and
movie THE PERFECT STORM. It also has an engine generator propulsion like the
SENECA has.
http://www.uscg.mil/history/webcutters/Tamaroa1943.asp
Propulsion: Diesel-electric: 4 General Motors model 12-278 diesels driving 4
Allis Chalmers generators driving 4 electric motors; 3,010 SHP; single
4-bladed propeller
(also on that page is a very interesting history, including how she once
sunk because of a drunken sailor !).
R.
-----Original Message-----
From: Great-Loop [mailto:great-loop-bounces@lists.trawlering.com] On Behalf
Of fred@tug44.org
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2014 7:11 PM
To: Great Loop List
Subject: GL: Tug Seneca
For all you tugboat enthusiasts:
NYS Canal Corp's Tug Seneca is one of their prettier boats. She's a medium
sized tug, capable of hauling most anything moving on the canals:
http://www.tug44.org/canal.corp.boats/tug-seneca/
Seneca has a diesel electric propulsion system. The engines are not
connected directly to the prop ... instead each engine has a generator on it
and the actual drive is a pair of electric motors. Amazingly well-kept and
maintained, the Seneca is about 85 years old and still beautiful.
Fred
Tug 44
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I commanded USS Tawakoni, a Navy oceangoing tug similar to Tamaroa. The
original diesels, installed in 1943, had been replaced by four 16-cylinder
Caterpillar D399s, the same engines that propelled an oil field supply
vessel I served on many years later. In the Tawakoni, the four engines in
the first engineering space (B1) each had a large DC generator attached to
their back ends. Thick electrical cables carried the DC into the
switchboard in the second engineering space (B2) where a single very large
electric motor resided. There were several people on watch in each space
when underway, enginemen in B1 and electricians in B2. The motor's rotor
was connected to the propeller shaft at the end of which was a four-bladed
fourteen-foot diameter bronze fixed-pitch propeller. The motor field
required external excitation from one of several smaller diesel generators
in B2 in order to roll the shaft. One advantage of the diesel-electric rig
was that in rough weather, the propeller could come free of the water and
spin up without damage to a gear train. We could use any combination of the
four D399s in B1 to provide DC to B2. If we wanted to run at our full speed
of 15 knots, we used all four; four 12 knots, we used three; for 10 knots,
two were required; and we could get about seven knots using two engines. We
carried 96,000 gallons of diesel, enough to get half way around the world.
'
Subject: Re: GL: Tug Seneca
Great looking tug!
My dad was a diesel mechanic on the US Coast Guard TAMAROA, a 205-foot
fleet ocean/salvage tug originally in the NAVY, which is featured in the
book
and movie THE PERFECT STORM. It also has an engine generator propulsion
like the SENECA has.
http://www.uscg.mil/history/webcutters/Tamaroa1943.asp
Propulsion: Diesel-electric: 4 General Motors model 12-278 diesels driving
4
Allis Chalmers generators driving 4 electric motors; 3,010 SHP; single
4-bladed
propeller
(also on that page is a very interesting history, including how she once
sunk
because of a drunken sailor !).
R.
Rich
That sounds very familiar to me....like what I may recall my dad describing
how the Tamaroa was outfitted.
R.
-----Original Message-----
From: Rich Gano [mailto:richgano@gmail.com]
I commanded USS Tawakoni, a Navy oceangoing tug similar to Tamaroa. The
original diesels, installed in 1943, had been replaced by four 16-cylinder
Caterpillar D399s, the same engines that propelled an oil field supply
vessel I served on many years later. In the Tawakoni, the four engines in
the first engineering space (B1) each had a large DC generator attached to
their back ends. Thick electrical cables carried the DC into the
switchboard in the second engineering space (B2) where a single very large
electric motor resided. There were several people on watch in each space
when underway, enginemen in B1 and electricians in B2. The motor's rotor
was connected to the propeller shaft at the end of which was a four-bladed
fourteen-foot diameter bronze fixed-pitch propeller. The motor field
required external excitation from one of several smaller diesel generators
in B2 in order to roll the shaft. One advantage of the diesel-electric rig
was that in rough weather, the propeller could come free of the water and
spin up without damage to a gear train. We could use any combination of the
four D399s in B1 to provide DC to B2. If we wanted to run at our full speed
of 15 knots, we used all four; four 12 knots, we used three; for 10 knots,
two were required; and we could get about seven knots using two engines. We
carried 96,000 gallons of diesel, enough to get half way around the world.