THE URGER ers rotated as captain of the tug. The Verduin family, which still resides in Grand Haven , provided information about the Urger , ex-Dornbos that far exceeded our wildest imaginings. Mr. Claude Verduin , whose father Caleb often skippered the Dornbos, remembered the vessel well and told me how as a lad he clung to her brass wheel while out in rough seas with his father and his uncles . Sadly, Mr. Verduin passed away last year in his eighty-third year. Mr. Verduin wrote, "She was an exceptionally well built vessel with considerably more power than was required for a fish tug ... she was an outstanding sea boat and one of the finest all round boats of her size on Lake Michigan." The Dornbos was so notably seaworthy and powerful that she was often called into action as a rescue vessel of the old Life Saving Service, the forerunner of the US Coast Guard. Historically the Dornbos was one of the earliest Coast Guard vessels on the Great Lakes. A newspaper article entitled "When Seas Are High" relates the hero ic rescue of the giant tug Latham by the tug Dornbos. The Latham lost her rudder five miles out from Grand Haven in furiou s seas. She sounded distress calls on her whistle as she was pounded toward shore. The Dornbos set out through waves higher than her pilothouse, and aided by a crew of life savers in an open boat, saved the wallowing Latham. "And so at last," said a newspaper account," ... with great exhibition of skill and courage the life savers carried the Iine from the Dornbos to the Latham." In 1919 the tug Dornbos was sold by the Verduin Brothers and left Grand Haven and the commercial fishing industry. On August 19, 1920, the tug was renamed Urger. At about the same time the New York State Barge Canal System was completed. The Urge r entered the state fleet in 1922 and served on the Erie Canal until her retirement in 1986. In those sixtyfo ur years, the vessel evolved from the Dornbos to the Urger we recognize today. In 1937, her wooden deckhousing was removed and replaced with a steel superstructure. Her old Montague Iron Works single-stroke steam engine was replaced in 1948 with a 320 hp Atlas Imperial Diesel acquired from the US Navy. And her pilothouse was moved forward to its present location. Genteel features of the Urger, like
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Th e Urger, photographed in 1990 , as she looks today. Photos courtesy the author.
her gleaming brass work, old iron bitts, the brass wheel, engine room be ll and jingles, indicate that she hai ls from another age. The Urger is still a bell boatthe captain must convey hi s orders to the engine room by a series of bell signal s. The Urger is steered by a system of external cables that run from the pilothouse, down the length of her deck and connect with the rudder quadrant under her fa ntail. After all these years the Urger retains her regal bearing.
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This summer, as she enters her nineti eth year, the Urger has embarked on yet another chapter in her long and remarkable history. The New York State All iance for Arts Education and the National Maritime Historical Society are sponsoring Project Urger, a celebration of our inland waterways. The venerable tugboat, on loan from the State of New York, is touring the Erie Canal in July and August. The chairman of NMHS, Schuyler M. Meyer, Jr., Commander USNR, ret., wi ll skipper the Urger to some thirty ports of call between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. The tug will take on a new and appropriate ro le as a teacher relating the history of inl and navigation , from the era of the Native American in canoes to the modern era of tugboats and barges. The year 200 1 will mark the centennial of the Urger's launching. We hope that by then our ancient mariner of the Barge Canal wi ll be a fam ili ar sight on the waterways of New York State. She has a job of work to do on the canal. Over 600 school ch ildren crossed her decks
one day in the cruise- and plenty more are coming! D
Tom Prindle is the Canal Traffic Agent for the New York State Department of Transportation.
Canal Tour of Tugboat Urger Jul y 3, 4 , 5 Rome Terminal ; fu ll day s July 8, 9 , I0 Waterford, Button Park; full days Jul y 11 Schenectady, Lock 8; noon arriva l July 12, 13 Amsterdam, Guy Park Manor; noon arrival ; fu ll day Jul y 14 Fort Hunter, Lock 12; noon a rrial Ju ly 15 Fonda Terminal; noon a rriv a l J ul y 16 Canajo harie; noon arriva l Jul y 17, 18 Little Falls, Lock 17 ; noo n arriva l; full day s Jul y 19 Ili on; full day Jul y 20 Uti ca, Lock20 Marcy ; noon arriva l Jul y 2 1, 22 Sylvan Beach ; noon a rrival ; fu ll day Jul y 23 Pheonix; noon arriva l July 24-28 Oswego, Harborfest '9 1; noon arrival ; full days Jul y 30 Baldwinsvi ll e, Lock 24; fu ll days Aug ust I Seneca Falls; fu ll day Augu st 3- 10 Liverpoo l, Lake Onondaga August 13, 14 Clyde & Lyons; fu ll days August 15 Newark & Palmyra; fu ll day s August 16 Fairport; noon arriv a l Aug ust 17 Pittsford; fu ll day Augu st 18, 19 Rochester; full days August 20 Spencerport; full day s August 21 Brockport; full day Augu st 23 Medina; fu ll day August 25, 26 Lockport ; fu ll days August 27, 28 The Tonawandas; noon arriva l; fu ll days
SEA HISTORY 58, SUMMER 199 1