Even as a child I was curious about tractors. One of my favorite books my mom read to me was Scruffy the Tugboat. In the 20 years I’ve lived in Maine, I’ve watched the tugboat fleet in Portland Harbor from afar. This spring and summer, I photographed the crew of the Portland Tugboat aboard their fleet, seeing the vital role tugboats play in Maine and the world economy.
The Andrew McAllister escorts an oil tanker into Portland Harbor. The tanker will pass the Casco Bay Bridge and dock at one of the port’s six oil terminals. The Andrew McAllister was built in 2008 and has 6,000 hp. McAllister Towing owns Portland Tugboat and operates 13 locations from Eastport, ME to San Juan, PR.
Captain Sarah Kaplan pushes a ship carrying the Andrew McAllister at an oil terminal in Portland Harbor. Kaplan receives orders from the docking pilot over a VHF radio and responds with whistles. Your hands rest on drive controls that can rotate and control the speed of each of the two supports independently. Kaplan uses her right foot to operate the winch control pedal, which is used in the headline to cash in and out. A 2008 Maine Maritime Academy graduate and originally from Woolwich, Kaplan was with Portland Tugboat for four years, working on the West Coast hauling barges before returning to Maine.
Portland Tugboat LLC President and docking pilot, Captain Brian Fournier finishes his coffee on the Andrew McAllister before sailing out near Portland Head Light where he will climb a wooden ladder hanging from the side of an oil tanker and be in command will take over the sea steer and steer the ship into portland harbor.
The view through the Nancy McAllister’s porthole of the Andrew McAllister docking a ship at a terminal in the port. One tug is at the stern of a ship and another at the bow, pushing and pulling the ship with attached ropes. Built in 1984, the Nancy McAllister is one of four tugboats in the fleet.
A fender on the side of the Nancy McAllister. Fenders are made from the sidewalls of recycled truck tires and provide cushioning between the tug and the vessel the tug is servicing.
A grappling hook attached to an oil tanker holds a wooden pilot’s ladder out of the way while a tugboat helps the ship. Dock pilots use the ladder to get from the tug to the tanker.
The Andrew McAllister sails out to sea through the Casco Bay Bridge with the tanker ` Arizona. The docking controller tries to limit the time the bridge is in the up position to reduce the backlog of car traffic. Andrew McAllister Captain Sarah Kaplan “Going down is the easy part. If the bridge doesn’t open for a ship coming in or going out, our job becomes a bit more demanding, especially for the pilot.” What happens if the bridge doesn’t open? “So if it’s an incoming ship, we need to quickly put together a lineup and start acting as brakes for that ship,” she says.
Captain Brian Fournier disembarks a ship after piloting an oil tanker through the Casco Bay Bridge on a foggy summer day. Captain Sarah Kaplan will dive the Andrew McAllister’s bow to accommodate Fournier as the gangway lowers.
Deckhand Phil Doria is making headlines on the H-Bitt to collect extra pent-up demand for passing a terminal with a ship. The headline is attached to the ship to maintain the tug’s position along the ship and provide a way to maneuver the ship from dock.
Senior deckhand Peter Rodriguez provides a ship with an additional headline through the staple. Rodriguez has been with Portland Tugboat for 22 years and works on all four boats in the fleet. “I kind of like what I do, the ability to jump from boat to boat and do all these things,” he says. Rodriguez finds being on the water calming and enjoys being outside rather than in an office.
The headline about a winch on the Andrew McAllister. The header is made from an ultra high molecular weight polyethylene that has the strength of steel but is buoyant.
“When you’re on the boat, you’re practically with your head on a spin,” says Captain Sarah Kaplan, “day and night. You just can’t see as well at night as you can during the day, so we’re going to light up the deck there so the man who works the deck but also so we can see what we’re doing. Not so much when we follow the ship, but when we actually work on the ship, so push and pull.”
Comments are closed.