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1. One More Pull - Hank Cramer
     
    Musicians        Lyrics    Notes    mp3

2. Snap the Line Tight - Fraser Union
    
      Musicians       Lyrics    Notes    mp3

     Musicians        Lyrics    Notes    mp3

5. A Hundred Years Ago - Bob Kotta & Mariide

     Musicians        Lyrics    Notes    mp3

6. Tall Trees - Mary Garvey

     Musicians        Lyrics    Notes    mp3

7. Mary D. Hume - Devon & Dejah Leger

     Musicians        Lyrics    Notes    mp3

8. Thea Foss - Chris Roe

     Musicians        Lyrics    Notes    mp3

9. Piper Cameron - Jon Pfaff

     Musicians        Lyrics    Notes    mp3

10. Ode to the Enchantress - Cannery Row

     Musicians        Lyrics    Notes    mp3

11. Tugboats Pullin' on the Bridge Lines - Wendy Joseph

    Musicians        Lyrics    Notes    mp3

12. The Tugboat Song - Tugboat Bromberg

    Musicians        Lyrics    Notes    mp3

13. The Tugboat Langston Hughes - The Whateverly Brothers

     Musicians        Lyrics    Notes    mp3

14. Summer Wages - Chris Roe

     Musicians        Lyrics    Notes    mp3

15. Bound to Hell - Matthew Moeller

     Musicians        Lyrics    Notes    mp3

16. When Carissa Came Ashore - Jonathan Lay

     Musicians        Lyrics    Notes    mp3

17. Tugboats - Stringband

     Musicians        Lyrics    Notes    mp3

18. The Arthur Foss Leaves the Dock

                                       Notes   mp3                           

One More Pull

Words and music by Geoff Noble

Performed by Hank Cramer from the

Album "The Road Rolls On"

Recorded at David Lange Studios,

Edgewood, WA

One More Pull

Lead vocal: Hank Cramer

Guitar: Hank Cramer

Upright bass: Robby Thran

Mandolin: Steve Akerman

Octave mandolin: Hank Cramer

Hank Cramer's web site

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ONE MORE PULL

Chorus:

It's one more pull, and we'll be gone,

One more shift, we're going home.

We've been three weeks on MARIAH tug,

And we're all Vancouver bound.

We left Vancouver, Frisco bound,

Behind us we've two loaded scows.

We turn around and we head with ease

Into Alaskan seas.

Our engines roaring, loud and strong,

Six thousand horses, hauling tow,

We take on the Pacific gales

As northward we do go.

There's lots of work for all to do

On a West Coast tug when she's out at sea.

The deck apes keep our line in tow,

And Piggy makes the food.

Black gangers keep our engine tuned

As we pull across the stormy brine.

And the skipper steers a course that's true

So we've a safe return.

It's been three weeks since I've been home,

And I wonder if the kids have grown.

It's a long and lonely life at sea

When you're on this West Coast run.

What sailors' yarns I'll have to spin

Of an epic voyage, and where we've been.

"Oh tell us, won't you please, Daddy,

A story from the sea!"

So I'll sit the kids beside the fire,

And I'll sing of storms and of snapping wires,

And waves as big as any house,

And about the tugboat's mouse.

I'll sing of whales, and mighty gales,

And trees so high they touch the sky,

And how we drag them out to sea,

And how it used to be.

It's Juan de Fuca to Georgia Straight,

On the river now, let's not be late.

We've ten days off, and it won't seem long

Till we're on the job once more.

And though the work is hard and the hours are tough,

And you're wet and you're cold when the sea is rough...

But the money's good, so damn the hours!

It's a sailor's life for me!

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Chorus:
For towing your logs or pushing your barge
He's a man who is worth whatever he'll charge
The tugboat is small but the engine is large
He's a man who is worth whatever he'll charge

Tall Trees

Words and music by Mary Garvey
Performed by Mary Garvey with Chris Roe
and Jan Elliott-Glanister
Recorded at ShoeString Studios, Edmonds, WA

Lead vocal: Mary Garvey
Harmony vocals: Chris Roe, Jan Elliot- Glanister

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THEA FOSS

She could have stayed in Norway, lived the servant’s life
Maybe settled down a little later on to be a farmer’s wife
But Thea was not the kind of woman who took life lying down
And when she met the love of her life, it was farewell to Oslo town!

And it was hard scrabble for a country girl on the streets of Oslo town
And it’s many a hard-earned dollar to get you from there to Puget Sound
It’s a grand story how she made her way, where the transport vessels roam
Hauling the big boys out to sea, and bringing them safe back home

Now Andrew Foss was a man in love, and you know he would have paid her way
He’d earned that passage three times over on a Minnesota carpenter’s pay
But he found out when he was almost ready to send for his wife to be
She’d made every penny of her own way there and was halfway across the sea

And it was hard scrabble, but they had each other and a love of the great unknown
Working harder than they ever would have done, under the cold Norwegian sun
Making their way to the great Northwest where the transport vessels roam
Hauling the big boys out to sea, and bringing them safe back home

It was nine long years from the time she landed ‘til they made that final haul
To Tacoma’s inland waterways from the city of Saint Paul
There was business there a-plenty, there was money to be made
For a woman with a love of enterprise and a man in the building trade

It was hard scrabble on the back wash docks in the belly of Commencement Bay
But it was heart’s joy to a mind that sees beyond the passing day
It was a life journey to the Northwest waters where the transport vessels roam
Hauling the big boys out to sea and bringing them safe back home

Now Andrew’s off making their board and bread out on the Longbranch strand
There’s a stranger with a boat to sell, and Thea with cash in hand
And after Andrew’s job was finished, after Thea’s deal was done
They were richer by a fleet of working skiffs and a business of their own

And it was hard scrabble but it goes to show you when it comes to paying dues
You can serve the ones you were born to serve, or you can serve the ones you choose
And their boats still work the Northwest waters where the transport vessels roam
Hauling the big boys out to sea, and bringing them safe back home!




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• Reverbnation:  http://www.reverbnation.com/canneryrow
• Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/canneryfolk

Chorus:
Where do you lay your weary head?
Where lay your body down?
Amid the crash of wrecking ball
You sink into the sound.
Is this a fitting legacy
Of one so strong and proud?
The mighty tug Enchantress
Sweet friend of Puget Sound.

Tugboats Pullin' on the Bridge Lines

Words and music by Wendy Joseph

Performed by Wendy Joseph

Recorded at ShoeString Studios, Edmonds, WA

Lead vocal: Wendy Joseph




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TUGBOATS PULLIN ON THE BRIDGE LINE

A 1990 blast came round

Almost took two bridges down

Chorus:

Tugboats pullin’ on the bridge lines

Tugboats pullin’ on the bridge lines

Tugboats, tugboats, pullin’ on the lines

 

Someone left an open door and

Water and wind began to pour in

Filled them pontoons to the brink

Old I-90 began to sink

Goin’ down it cut twelve cables

Now the new bridge was unstable

Someone made a Mayday call

Help us or the bridge will fall

Crowley, Fremont, Big Claw, Foss

Sailed out to prevent the loss

Shot their lines and tied ‘em tight

Now they chug there day and night

And people cheered as they sailed by

With coffee and doughnuts, cherry pie

Thanking victorious Puget Sound tugs

Saving our bridges, chugga-chugga-chug

To hold that bridge they stayed in place

All lined up, just like a race

Goin’ nowhere day and night

Standing still they won the fight

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The Tugboat Song

Words and music by Inge Wessels

Performed by Tugboat Bromberg

Recorded at ShoeString Studios, Edmonds, WA

Lead vocal & guitar: Tugboat Bromberg

Website for Tugboat Bromberg


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The Tugboat Langston Hughes

Words by Captain Andrea McDonald and Mary

Garvey, tune by Matthew Moeller

Performed by The Whateverly Brothers

Who are Dan Roberts, Matthew Moeller

and Chris Glanister

Recorded at ShoeString Studios, Edmonds, WA


Lead vocal: Matthew Moeller
Harmony vocals: Dan Roberts, Chris Glanister

Website for The Whateverly Brothers


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THE TUGBOAT LANGSTON HUGHES

Well a long time ago, then wouldn't you know

Skipper’s in the pilothouse playing the blues

Well a tugboat was born got some logs to tow

And the tugboat’s name was the Langston Hughes

Thick black planks from long gone trees.

Skipper’s in the pilothouse playing the blues

Huge heavy beams and hanging knees.

And the tugboat’s name was the Langston Hughes

Captain Bellesen got her it was love at first sight

Skipper’s in the pilothouse playing the blues

He taught us how to run her and pilot her right

And the tugboat’s name was the Langston Hughes

Well he taught us how to navigate and calibrate and cook

Skipper’s in the pilothouse playing the blues

And things you don’t learn with your head in a book

And the tugboat’s name was the Langston Hughes

Well we knew every gage and we knew every dial

Skipper’s in the pilothouse playing the blues

We polished that brass til the captain would smile

And the tugboat’s name was the Langston Hughes

Well a long time passed and we grew into men

Skipper’s in the pilothouse playing the blues

Well we thought she had sunk but we found her again

And the tugboat’s name was the Langston Hughes

Once again she took us all out for a ride

Skipper’s in the pilothouse playing the blues

Well splashing through the waves and riding the tide

And the tugboat’s name was the Langston Hughes

So here’s to all you tug nuts wherever you be

Skipper’s in the pilothouse playing the blues

And good Captain Bellesen who sent us to sea

And the tugboat’s name was the Langston Hughes


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Summer Wages

Words and Music by Ian Tyson/Slick Fork Music

Performed by Chris Roe with

Mary Wilson, Mary Garvey, Wendy Joseph

Jan Elliott-Glanister, Alice Winship, Matthew

Moeller, Chris Glanister, Tugboat Bromberg

Recorded at ShoeString Studios, Edmonds, WA

Lead vocal: Chris Roe

Guitar: Matthew Moeller

Chorus: Mary Wilson, Mary Garvey, Wendy Joseph,
Jan Elliot-Glanister, Alice Winship, Chris Glanister, Matthew Moeller, Tugboat Bromberg

Bound to Hell

Words and Music by Matthew Moeller

Performed by Matthew Moeller

with Jan Elliott-Glanister

Recorded at ShoeString Studios, Edmonds, WA

Lead vocal, guitar, harmonica: Matthew Moeller

Tamborine: Jan Elliot-Glanister

Website for Matthew Moeller

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Chorus:
Skipper you drive this tug too hard
She’s old and bound to fly apart
That pilot house is goin’ to be your grave
Boiler’s old and bound to blow
It’s gonna send you down below
Skipper, do you hear what I say?

Chorus:
Oh, Carissa, don’t you come around here no more . . .
We’ll always remember the time that we had when Carissa came ashore

ONE MORE PULL - notes

This song was written by Geoff Noble, and is an evocative description of life on a West Coast tug.  According to the Whistling Fish website, Geoff will have a new CD out soon.

One of several songs by Canadian songwriters included on this CD, 'One More Pull' exhibits the broad range of West Coast seagoing tugs: BC to California, then back to Alaska, and home again to Vancouver, BC.  Some trips might range as far as Hawaii or other Pacific islands.

"It's Juan de Fuca to Georgia Straight,

‘Deck apes’ are deckhands, and ‘blackgangers’ are the engine room crew.  Obviously, these nautical terms pre-date the political correctness movement.

I was going to try to list tugboat companies that operate ocean-going tugs out of Vancouver, BC, but discovered there are too many to list. If you want to find more information online about tugboats, try searching for 'marine towing' (and the name of a port city if you want to limit your search).  Most of these websites are geared towards someone who actually wants something towed, but many sites have photo galleries of their tugs, or a history of their company.

This song was also recorded by Hank Cramer when he was a member of The Cutters, on the ‘Live Aboard Wawona’ album.  Chris Glanister chose the studio version from Hank's solo album, ‘The Road Rolls On’, for its higher production values, but the live Cutters album is also recommended as a great collection of songs.

Hank Cramer has recorded a slew of CDs, all of which are recommended.  He is probably the Northwest's most prolific recorder of maritime songs.  If you are mainly interested in maritime music, check the song lists on his CDs before buying, because he also records collections of cowboy songs while wearing his other hat.

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The lyrics to this song were written by Mary Garvey, about tugboats on the lower Columbia River.  The music was written collectively by the group Watch the Sky! – Jan Elliot-Glanister, Chris Glanister and Joe Wagner. 

The name ‘Knutsen’ reflects the strong influence of Scandinavians in the Pacific Northwest, especially in the maritime industry.  But instead of giving these lyrics a jaunty, Scandinavian-style tune, Watch the Sky has written a minor-key Celtic melody which captures the brooding atmosphere of the fog-ridden lower Columbia.  Although the Native Americans of the Northwest did not historically play whistle or flute, the whistle and drum parts on this piece somehow draw one into the past of the landscape, evoking the power of the river and the mystery of the foggy, tree-covered shores.

Chris Glanister, the lead vocalist, is secretly British, although usually this is only revealed by his passion for American-style all-night diners.  But occasionally a British inflection shows through his carefully acquired American accent, in this song giving a somehow appropriate twist to the line, ‘I don’t care if your name should be Simpson or Foss’.

Simpson operates lumber and pulp mills in Western Washington, and Foss has one of the largest fleets of tugboats on the West Coast.  Both of these industrial giants were originally family owned.  (Later in this CD, Chris Roe tells the story of the beginning of Foss Launch & Tug in her song, ‘Thea Foss’.)  Nearly all the Foss tugs are named for members of the Foss family, descendants of Thea Foss.  (Regardless of the last name of the family member, the tugboat is given the last name ‘Foss’.)

‘The tugboat is small, but the engine is large’

Although larger tugboats may be over 100 feet long, they are still small compared to the loads they move.  A tugboat has been described as ‘an engine with a hull around it.’  On any tug, the engine takes most of the space, and crew quarters are minimal and efficient.

Watch the song lyrics on this CD for references to coffee.  Long before latte stands could be found on nearly every street corner in Seattle, coffee was as essential on Northwest tugboats as the diesel that fuels the engines.

Alice Winship

THE ODA G - Notes

This song was written by Stanley G. Triggs, who worked as a deckhand on British Columbia tugboats in the late 1950s.  According to the liner notes for his Folkways album, Bunkhouse and Forecastle Songs of the Northwest, the Oda G was the name of a real tugboat that he worked on, at that time one of the oldest on the coast.   He made up the song while painting the bulwarks, as in the song.

There are a couple of articles about Stanley G. Triggs from the Canadian Folk Music Bulletin here and here.  He is retired and lives in Quebec, after a long career as curator of the Notman Photographic Archives, McCord Museum.  .

Some notes about the lyrics:

‘She came off the ways in 89’

That's 1889, not 1989.  This eventful year, 1889, was also the year that Washington became a state, Seattle had its Great Fire, the Arthur Foss was built with the name Wallowa in Portland, Oregon; and Thea Foss bought her first rowboat, which would grow into the huge Foss Maritime fleet.

The fantail is the extreme aft (back) of the boat.  On a tugboat, the aft deck is low to the water, to allow a clear run for the towlines to the winch.  The fantail would be a quiet place to read, being as far as you can get on a tugboat from the sound of the engines (and the engineer’s job).

Tugboats have a narrow ledge, just wide enough to stand on, around the outside of the bulwarks (the solid ‘railing’ around the outside of the boat).  I don’t know what this ledge is called, but I have stood on it to paint the bulwarks.  You can do this by leaning sideways rather than forward to paint. You must constantly resist the impulse to take a step back to paint the way you would normally, because there is nothing behind you but air and water.

The word ‘chuck’, meaning water, is heard only in the Northwest.  It comes from the Chinook jargon used in early trading.

This cheerful song is a piece of black humor that makes light of the very real dangers of working on a tugboat.  Such lines as ‘He ran out of luck when he fell in the chuck with a rusty old boom chain wrapped round his left arm’ can still have a chilling effect in spite of the jaunty tune.

A HUNDRED YEARS AGO – Notes

This song is based on a traditional tune, with new lyrics written by Mariide and the late Bob Kotta. 

You can read a couple of versions of the traditional lyrics here and here.

The Arthur Foss is one of the oldest tugboats in existence and part of the history of the Pacific Northwest.  Long before Boeing and Microsoft drove our economy, this ship was hard at work on Northwest waters.

In her 121 years afloat, the Arthur Foss has seen a lot of changes along Northwest shores.  Launched at Portland in 1889 as the steam tug Wallowa, she was built to tow sailing ships over the Columbia River bar. 

She was caught up in the gold rush fever of 1898, and made several voyages up the Inside Passage towing barges packed with would-be gold miners and supplies.  (The Arthur Foss is the last Alaskan Gold Rush vessel still operating.)  She served in the Pacific during World War II, and was the last American ship to escape Wake Island before it fell to the Japanese invasion. 

She briefly became a movie star in the 1933 movie Tugboat Annie, playing the garbage-barge towboat Narcissus.  But her greatest role in the Northwest economy was her work in the timber industry, towing log booms to mills around the Puget Sound, mostly that same Douglas Fir that makes up her massive hull.

Retired after 80 years of hard work, in 1970 she was donated by Foss Maritime Co. to her current owner, Northwest Seaport.  Here she began a new life as a teaching tool and floating museum.

 This song was originally recorded by the group Victory at Sea, and released by Victory Music, a non-profit organization that supports acoustic music.  The CD is still available, and is recommended as one of the best compilations of songs by various Northwest musicians.

Bob Kotta was Executive Director of Northwest Seaport in the early 1990s, then left to become Curator of Education at the The Kendall Whaling Museum.  He passed away unexpectedly of a heart attack in 2000, and is much missed in musical circles in the Northwest and beyond.

Mariide has been a leading light of Northwest folk music since the 1960s.  She helped originate the Northwest maritime music scene in the 1970s, and was in the groups Victory at Sea and St. Elmo’s Choir.  She continues to perform and write songs, although she is perhaps better known at present for her wry political songs.

PIPER CAMERON - Notes

Piper Cameron is about a 26- year-old deckhand, Piper Inness Cameron, who was killed in a tragic accident aboard the tug Emma Foss, and about the tugboat named after her, the Piper Inness.  You can read her story in TowBitts and Professional Mariner.

Piper Cameron was only 41 work days away from earning her Master’s License, which would have enabled her to fulfill her dream of becoming a tugboat captain, like her father before her.  Her death caused a re-examination of safety standards, as ships, tugs and equipment have all become larger and more dangerous.  You can read more about her story here.   

Although most Foss tugs are named after family members, descendants of Thea Foss, Foss Maritime made an exception and renamed one of their tugs Piper Inness.  Cameron had served as mate on the boat, and would have served the tug as captain once she got her license.

Jon Pfaff won third prize at Seattle Maritime Festival’s annual Fisher Poets Competition for his performance of this song. 

The lyrics for the song were written by Mary Garvey, and the tune was written by Jon Pfaff.  Jon also gets co-credit for the lyrics, because he tweaked the words to fit the tune and his perception of the song.  Mary had conceived this as a drinking song, but Jon saw it more as a lyrical tribute.  Still, when Jon sang the song at the Fisher Poets Competition, you could see glasses raised in tribute all over the pub.  Perhaps they are both right.

ODE TO THE ENCHANTRESS – Notes

From Tim Wittman:

Enchantress Song – was written as a tribute to the tug Enchantress. She served during WWII, Puget Sound, and Alaska.  Several years ago, the Enchantress was abandoned in Anacortes by her owner who apparently could no longer keep her moored in Seattle. She was tied to pilings and sat there for years.  A citizens group was started to protect and preserve the Enchantress; at a minimum, people wanted to simply let her rest in peace, living out her final days.  Emotions flared when local authorities decided that she needed to be demolished. Despite protests and proposals to save her, a wrecking crew eventually destroyed the Enchantress. 

The video clip about the enchantress featuring local historian, Bill Mitchell, and the introductory comments provided by Stew tell the complete story. 

About Cannery Row – Cannery Row is a small folk group located in the Anacortes/Guemes Island area.  The group members include myself, my sister Pam (Wittman) Hobson, and her husband Greg Hobson.  I live on Guemes Island, and Pam/Greg live on South Fidalgo Island/Anacortes.  Pam and I have a music history that goes back to the mid-1960’s , playing folk music in a group called “The New Concepts.”  The New Concepts was a 5 member group playing traditional folk music as well as (at the time) newer music written by Randy Sparks of the New Christie Minstrels, the Smother’s Brothers, Burl Ives, and others. We sang for the dedication of the Anacortes Museum, the Anacortes Arts Festivals, various dedications, such as the Anacortes Airport, and occasional dinner hour concerts at the Hatch Cover Restaurant.  The group disbanded in the early 1970’s as we went our separate ways to attend college and other pursuits. Three years ago, I organized a similar folk group called ‘Windsong.’ We initially got together to sing a dedication for a new sculpture by artist Leo Osborn, at Kiwanis Park in Anacortes. From that point on Windsong took on a life of it’s own.  We performed at the Museum of Northwest Art in LaConner, Washington, along with 2 poets, Thelma Palmer, and Densley Palmer; the theme was “Of Love & Laughter.”  Windsong performed several concerts on Guemes Island Community Hall and the North Wind Art Gallery, as well as a Peace Rally at Causland Park in Anacortes, and weekly performances during the summer at Deception Pass State Park Amphitheatre.  As time went on, I became interested in writing music for the group. We started including more and more original songs to our program that were received very well by the listening audience.

Around January, 2010, Pam, Greg, and I recorded my song “Cannery Row.” We decided to form a separate group specifically geared toward writing and recording original music. We have a small recording setup in a barn located on South Fidalgo Island.  There, amidst the chickens, donkeys, and other critters, we lay down tracks of my original compositions. It has been a wonderful experience sharing these songs through recordings. As we continue to create and develop our song repertoire, we hope to make a CD of our own, and look more toward performances in different locations.  We also hope to invite additional musicians to join in with us for recordings and performances.

Most of my songs have a seafaring flavor . . . not that I planned it that way . . . circumstances simply conspired to point me in this direction.  In addition to Cannery Row, and Ode to the Enchantress, I have been asked to write a ballad about the Wawona to be performed later in June.  Other songs include a humorous folk song about a religious revival, done up ‘North West Style,’ titled “Jesus Set the Hook and Now I’m Saved!”  I recently completed a romantic folksong called “Two Ships” about relationships and how we navigate across a lifetime.  Other songs in the works touch on humor and wit and include ballads about local characters, as well as a political satire titled “Have You Ever Seen a Grown Man Cry?” The songs keep popping out there and I keep writing them down!



You can read a Seattle Times story about the Enchantress here.  You can see a photo here.

Some of  these lyrics strike a familiar note for those of us who tried unsuccessfully to save the schooner Wawona.

TUGBOATS PULLIN' ON THE BRIDGE LINES - Notes

This song was written and sung by Wendy Joseph.  She is currently working on the APL container ship President Jackson, and sends out an interesting log about her experiences.  If you would like to read her reports, email us at info@maritimefolknet.org and ask to be put on the email list for Wendy's Sea Log.

Before the construction of a highway system in Western Washington, much of the transportation of people and goods was done by water.  With the advent of the automobile, all that water became an obstacle.  The Northwest’s solution: the ferry system, and floating bridges.

The City of Seattle is bordered on the east by Lake Washington – too long to drive around, too wide and deep for conventional bridges.  On the west side, Seattle.  On the eastside, bedroom communities and newer industries like Microsoft. Lake Washington is crossed by floating bridges in two places, carrying two major highways: State Route 520, and Interstate 90.   I-90 ends its over 3000 mile coast-to-coast trek where it intersects I-5, shortly after crossing the floating bridge, which is well over a mile long.

You can see a photo of the I-90 floating bridges here.

By the late 1980s, the I-90 bridge had become a bottleneck for traffic.  The State government determined to build a new floating bridge next to the old one, and then renovate the old bridge.  This would more than double the amount of traffic that could cross.  The new bridge was finished in 1989, and the old bridge closed for renovation on the road surface.

In November 1990, I was leaving Seattle on the Greyhound bus to visit my family.  As I crossed Lake Washington headed east on the new bridge, I had a good view of the old bridge from the high bus windows.  I noticed a number of gaping holes in the bridge pontoons, not far above the water line.  Not knowing much of nautical matters at that time, I just muttered, “I hope they know what they’re doing.”  They didn’t.

The construction crews had removed the watertight doors on the pontoons.  Then the crews went home for the long holiday weekend.  As a windstorm came up, waves put water into the center pontoon, which sank, dragging most of the other pontoons down with it, as each pontoon filled with water through the open doors.

What happened next is recounted in Wendy’s song – when the old bridge went down, it cut twelve cables on the new bridge.  Tugboats were called in to replace the tension that the cables had provided, until repairs could be made.  There is a ship canal from Puget Sound to Lake Washington, which allowed the tugboats to respond.  The old bridge was pretty much a total loss, and had to be totally rebuilt, but the new bridge was saved.

Of the tugboat companies named in the song, Crowley and Foss are giants on the West Coast.  Fremont Tugboat Company is based in Lake Union, situated along the Ship Canal between Puget Sound and Lake Washington.   Wendy has somewhat mythologized Big Claw Maritime by including them here, since they didn't form until the late 1990's.

Alice Winship

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THE TUGBOAT SONG – Notes

This song was written in 1979 by Inge Wessels about her experiences as a tugboat cook on Puget Sound and BC waters, and recorded on the 1981 Folkways record ‘Sea Music of Many Lands: The Pacific Heritage’.  On the Smithsonian Folkways site, you can hear an audio sample of Inge singing her song.

 
Gold River is on Vancouver Island.  Inge Wessels was working on tugs operating out of Vancouver, British Columbia.  Cape Scott is at the extreme northwestern end of Vancouver Island, a rough coastline of sea stacks and big trees.

You can read Inge Wessels' notes about the song at the Folkways web site .

Above: Inge Wessels at an early "Festival of the Sea" at Hyde St. Pier in San Francisco. 

Below: Inge Wessels at at her "Wessels Watertales" puppet show at Hyde St. Pier.

Inge Wessels moved to San Franciso, where she recorded this song.  She was well known on the waterfront for many years as a puppeteer. Sadly, she passed away in April 2010, shortly before we decided to record her song for this CD. 













We really wanted to record Tugboat Bromberg for this CD, since on account of his nickname, the CD would be incomplete without him.  Due to the shortage of tugboat songs, Chris was having trouble finding a song for him, until Mary Garvey located this gem, which is better known in the Bay area than it is in the Northwest.  Tugboat Bromberg was initially reluctant to take on the song, since his voice and singing style could not be farther from that of Inge Wessels.  He was persuaded by Chris Glanister to give it a try, and he has succeeded brilliantly in creating his own version of the song.

THE TUGBOAT LANGSTON HUGHES - Notes

From about 1969 to 1973, Capt. Paul Bellesen, Sr., one of few black captains at that time, operated a tugboat as a training school for youth from different races and backgrounds.

When Capt. Andrea McDonald acquired the tugboat, she looked up some of the former students, now in their 50s, and gave them a ride on their old training vessel.

You can read a 2008 story in the Seattle Times.

You can see photos and more information here.

The lyrics to the song are by Capt. Andrea McDonald and Mary Garvey, and the tune is by Matthew Moeller.  It is performed by the Whateverly Brothers, who are Matthew Moeller, Chris Glanister, and Dan Roberts.

From Steve Lewis  -  Port Townsend:

Subject: Paul Bellesen and the M.V. Langston Hughes

I got to hear your lyrics to the song about ‘North by Northwest Adventurers’ at a recent chantey sing at Northwest Seaport.  I was the mate on several of the Langston's trips.  I taught piloting and navigation.

Bellesen started with a donated, converted captains gig which he renamed the Martin Luther King.  It was about 35 feet long.  One of the Seattle TV stations, KOMO or KING, did a TV story on him, which aired while I was in the hospital in August 1968 recovering from hepatitis.  In the interview portion, he said he wanted to teach sailing as well as other skills of seamanship.  After I got out, I called him to set up a meeting.  I wanted him to know I had a sailboat, and that I wasn't some weirdo.  The Langston was purchased with a donation of stock from Samuel E. Raymond, who had been at Yale with Cole Porter, class of 1910 (?)  When NxNW got a grant from Department of Labor to teach / retrain older men in the workforce, they acquired a T-boat (many were made during WW II) and renamed it the S.E. Raymond.  Bellesen's partnership with Merle Adlum, head of the Inlandboatmen's Union, and the DOL, ran afoul of his favoring the program for youngsters.  They parted about 1972 and the Langston had to be sold when fuel prices started to skyrocket.

Paul Bellesen Jr. is a licensed mate with the Washington State Ferry System, running mostly on the Bainbridge to Seattle run.  I don't know what happened to the many other youngsters who went through the program.

From Mary Garvey:

Excaliber is the name of the boat now, run by Captain Andrea McDonald.  Her poetry is the basis of the words to the song...they are really not mine...I filled in the blank spots. Anyway, they were able to get hold of a number of the boys as adults and took them for a spin.

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SUMMER WAGES – Notes

This song is performed by Chris Roe, with a muted unison chorus of eight others.  This is the most well-known song on the CD, but Chris Roe’s unusual voice gives it a fresh interpretation.  There is something about her voice that is honest and sincere, generally somewhat low-pitched but rising unexpectedly with highlights of pristine clarity.

The song was written by Ian Tyson and was first released by Ian and Sylvia in 1967.  It is a tribute to the subtlety of Ian Tyson’s songwriting that while everyone likes this song, they may not agree on the story that is told. 

Whatever the song is about, it is certainly about tugboats:

‘So I’ll work on the towboats in my slippery city shoes,

which I swore I would never do again,

through the grey fog-bound straights, where the cedars stand watching ---‘

 Here’s my guess at what the story is, reading between the lines:

This is a guy with more problems than just his shoes.  He left home for a summer job, probably as a logger, and probably in northern BC, although it could have been Washington, Oregon, or California.  He might even have been hoping to make a big stash with high-paid summer work so he could get married.  Then after working all summer, he had one last night in town, and gambled away everything he had (even his workboots, or he had already sold them).  So he has no money to get back to Vancouver, and is working his way home as a deckhand on the towboats.  It's taking a long time to get home as they work short runs through every little fog-bound strait along the coast.  He has no way to communicate with his girlfriend (he's far off and gone).  He's been away months longer than he promised, and he’s coming home broke.  Will she still be waiting when he finally gets back to Vancouver, whenever that is?  Some of his friends always had their eyes on her......  

The chorus seems to me to compare the stands of timber 'just waiting for falling' to the tall young loggers coming to town with their money, with the hustlers eyeing them as a potential crop headed for a different kind of fall.

This is a highly personal interpretation, and I was surprised to learn that some people have completely different ideas.  One person saw this as a cheerful song, that the protagonist has reformed and gone into a healthier lifestyle, working on tugboats.  This interpretation might depend on how you feel about the line ‘through the grey fog-bound straits, where the cedars stand watching’.  Some people would find this a gloomy description, but others love the foggy, forested West Coast and think there could be no finer scenery.

Ian Tyson reworked this song several times, and recorded it more than once.  At one point he wrote an extremely pessimistic fourth verse:

“She's a woman so fine, I might never try to find her

For good memories are all we had before

And they can never ever be changed, for they're all that I'll take with me

Now I've gambled and lost my summer wages”

This verse is not included in the version on this CD, and not everyone likes it.  I personally prefer the shorter version as Chris Roe sings it, which leaves the ending open and the questions unanswered.

BOUND FOR HELL - Notes

This song was written and sung by Matthew Moeller.  Matthew has written quite a few songs about Northwest maritime history, including songs about crimps, railroads, and geoducks. 

The fact that the tug in this song has a boiler means it was a steam tug.  This sets the era somewhere between the 1850s and the 1960s.  After about 1950 all new tugs were diesel powered, but some steam-powered tugs continued in service into the 1960s.

You can generally tell a steam tug from a diesel tug by the height of the stack (the funnel).  A steam tug will have a taller stack.
 

The difference between a log boom and a raft of logs:  In practice, both these terms are used for logs chained together for towing.  (You can find a link to some good photos in the notes for Tall Trees.)  Originally a log boom was a barrier across a river to catch logs that came floating down.  Assembling logs for towing is called booming.  ‘Log boom’ is sometimes used to refer to the resulting tow, which could also be called a ‘log raft’.

Cape Flattery is the most northwestern point of the continental U.S., at the south side of the entrance from the ocean into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  The area is renowned for bad weather and shipwrecks.  Everett is a mid-sized city on the east side of Puget Sound, about an hour north of Seattle by car.

Alice Winship

WHEN CARISSA CAME ASHORE – Notes

This song was written and sung by Jonathan Lay.  He often performs it live with Gordy Euler in the duo Shanghaied on the Willamette, although Gordy does not appear on this recording.

The New Carissa was a tanker ship headed to pick up a cargo of wood chips when she ran aground on the Oregon coast in 1999, causing one of the most serious oil spills to affect the state of Oregon.  So what is a song about a freighter doing on a tugboat CD?  The real heroes of the story were the tugboats like Sea Victory that struggled to tow the wreckage away.

The saga began when the captain of the New Carissa anchored offshore overnight, perhaps not realizing the stormy reputation of the Oregon coast.  The crew didn’t notice until too late that the ship was drifting ashore.  Efforts to pull the ship off the beach failed; she was stuck.

When the ship began to leak oil, authorities tried to burn the fuel to get rid of it, using plastic explosives and napalm.  Despite making some pretty fireballs and a huge black smoke cloud, the fuel would not stay alight.  The fires did, however, weaken the ship’s hull, causing it to break into two pieces, causing more fuel to leak out.

The ‘yellow ribbon from Holland’ was one of several high-tech, unbreakable lines that broke when tugs tried to tow away Carissa’s bow section.  The tug Sea Victory, owned by Crowley Maritime,  finally got the bow off the beach, but it broke loose and drifted ashore about fifty miles south of the original wreck. 

Eventually, Sea Victory pulled the bow off the shore and out to sea for a second time.  When explosive charges failed to sink the wreckage, a naval destroyer was called in to shell her at the waterline, with no success.  Finally, a submarine was called in to torpedo her, and 45 minutes later the bow finally sank. 

The stern section remained on the shore until 2008.

You can read the story here.

Photos and short news stories of the saga here.  Some amazing quotes.

Photos and sarcastic remarks here.

The lawsuits.  The State of Oregon sued the ship owners for environmental damages, as well as storage fees of $1500 per day for three years since the ship had gone aground.  The ship owners sued the federal government for faulty charts, and because no one told them it was a bad idea to anchor off the Oregon coast in the wintertime.  The ship was eventually found guilty of negligent trespass.

Alice Winship

This classic song was written by Bob Bossin and recorded about 1977 by Stringband, of which he was a founding member.  Stringband was a leader in introducing Canadian content into contemporary songs.  You can read more on Bob Bossin's web site.

I confess I’m not familiar with the term ‘jackpot tug’, but ‘jackpot’ is logging slang for a messy pile of logs, especially if logs are floating in a tangled mass that extends below the surface of the water.  

‘Her hull is wood’

There were more wooden-hulled tugboats working in the 60s and 70s, but most of the wooden-hulled tugboats you see now are retired.  Their advocates claim that a wood hull is just as good as a steel hull, if not better, but modern tugs have gone to steel construction.

‘She don't make the news like the Sudbury’

The Sudbury was a salvage tug famous on the West Coast in the 1950s and 60s for dramatic rescue operations.

‘She's the best boat since the Beaver’

The Beaver was the first steamship on Northwest waters.  She was a sidewheel steamer, and was used for towing in the latter part of her career.

The Straight of Georgia separates Vancouver Island from the mainland of British Columbia.

Towboats:  In most of North America, a ‘towboat’ is what might be called a ‘pusher tug’ in the Northwest.  These are primarily river craft, and they push barges rather than tow them.  (Originally, the barges were towed rather than pushed, and the name stuck with the vessels.)  In the Northwest, ‘tugboat’ and ‘towboat’ are often used interchangeably.

'Towin’ the sun on a golden chain, On a silver line, drinking cups of coffee."
What wouldthe afterlife be without tugboats and coffee?  Apollo’s team and golden chariot have been replaced by a tugboat.

‘Prince Rupert down to Flattery’

Prince Rupert is a port city at the northern end of the British Columbia coastline.  Cape Flattery is the most northwestern point in the continental U.S., at the western end of the Straight of Juan de Fuca.  The border between the U.S. and Canada goes down the middle of the Straight of Juan de Fuca.  So ‘Prince Rupert down to Flattery’ takes in the full extent of West Coast Canadian waters.

Alice Winship

 THE ARTHUR FOSS LEAVES THE DOCK - Notes

Next you hear the engine start, useing compressed air.  Because this is a large, old engine that runs at slow speed with a long stroke, you can hear each of the six cylinders.

The engine is a 700 hp Washington diesel engine, installed in 1934, when the Arthur Foss was converted from steam to diesel.  The engine was manufactured by Washington Iron Works, a Seattle-based company that also built logging equipment.  At the time the engine was installed, it made the Arthur Foss one of the most powerful tugboats on the West Coast.  (By contrast, a modern ocean-going tug might have an engine of 7000 hp or more.)

You can read more about the Arthur Foss engine at the Old Tacoma Marine site.

You will hear the telegraph ring, hear the engine stop, and then start again.  The Arthur Foss has a direct-reversing engine.  This means that the there is no reverse gear.  In order to change direction, the engine must stop, and then start again.

The skipper has to plan docking maneuvers carefully, because if there are too many stops and starts, the compressed air, stored in tanks, will be used up, leaving the vessel drifting, possibly on a collision course.  There are no brakes; the only way to stop the motion of the boat is to reverse the engine.

In this case the skipper backs out perfectly, using only one start to change to a forward direction.

Alice Winship