Capt. Capt. Craig's World

M/T "Seismic Explorer".

 I returned to Miami and once again became Tug Master for Moby Marine.   They decided to get a "Big Tug" and bought a former seismic research vessel.  Shallow draft, big house, definitely not designed to be a tug, but with a cutting torch and a new winch, walla!  A 'tug'!  They found a covered ocean barge and we made our shake-down tow from Miami to Arica, Chili carrying military vehicles.  With a fairly inexperienced crew, and me, we got underway.  We made it to Navassa Island off Haiti when the autopilot quit and by the time I got to the bridge the barge was about to run us down.  Hand steering to Panama was like going back in time, especially since the gyrocompass was located in a position that was hard to read and only two of us in the crew of 7 new how to steer.   Then we began blowing holes in the ballast tanks, the steel was just a little thin and the ship had been laid up just a little too long.  When we finally arrived in Panama; it took a week of welding and quite a few bucks to put it back together again. It was just the beginning of one of those adventures you wish you had never begun.   Eventually we completed the trip to Chili and two more trips to Panama with bombs and rockets.  Then to Guantanamo and Jamaica to support the refugee camps.  Even though she was a bit ungainly for a tug, she actually worked pretty well.  She was easy to maneuver and powerful enough to get the job done.  But boy, could she rock and roll!

The tug eventually ended as a movie star in a fiery explosion for the movie, "Fair Play", 1998. 

The following is a picture gallery of photos I took along the way.  This is a slide show and just click the little arrows on either side of the the thumbnails to view more pictures.  Click on a thumbnail to enlarge.