I spent time recently at the Port Townsend Boat Haven with Dee and Sara Meek.
They are overseeing repairs to their vintage tugboat, Elmore, damaged as high winds whipped our area in late November.
The wooden vessel had her bow stove in by a steel-hull commercial fishing boat that spent the stormy night of Nov. 22 continuously pummeling the 122-year-old tug — it was no match.
The next morning, Elmore lay badly damaged with more than three feet of water flooding her hull.
Her entire bow was destroyed as were the inner and outer stem.
The battering she took bent the stem of the anchor and twisted its flukes.
Despite the crushing disappointment, Dee and Sara immediately went to work bailing out the water and making emergency repairs.
On Nov. 24, Dee fired up her engine, and the Meeks slowly made their way from Port Hadlock Marina to Port Townsend, where a waiting TraveLift hauled her out of the water and placed her on the hard.
Repairs to the tug, which was built of Douglas fir, are being made using Purpleheart, a heavy dense wood found in Central and South America.
Once all the damaged wood was removed, they saw additional areas where the wood had gone bad, so the Meeks are resolving those issues as well.
Elmore’s keel was laid in 1889, and she was launched in January 1890 as R.P. Elmore.
The steam-powered vessel carried passengers and up to 40 tons of freight between Astoria and Tillamook, Ore., twice a week.
She was then purchased by a group of Port Townsend businessmen in the mid ‘90s (as in 1890s, folks), and in 1898 participated in the Klondike Gold Rush ferrying passengers and freight to Alaska.
In 1901, R.P. Elmore became the flagship of the American Tug Boat Co., when her then-skipper, Capt. Ramwell, and a group of investors purchased the Towle-Thurston Towing Co. of Everett.
A fire burned R.P. Elmore to the waterline in 1922. She was rebuilt as a combination tugboat and fish carrier with a load capacity of 18,000 pounds of salmon and renamed simply, Elmore.
Her original steam engine was also replaced by a 110-horsepower, 3 cylinder diesel engine that was built by Washington Iron Works.
It was the first engine built by the company — still in use in 1946 as a stationary plant — and bore the serial number of 00.
After 1930, Elmore was used exclusively as a tug, and in 1967 Crowley Tug acquired American Tug. Puget Sound Freight Lines purchased Elmore and renamed her Kiket.
Dunlap Towing operated her until the mid-1970s, when she was sold to Washington Tug and Barge of Seattle.
All of her machinery was stripped off in 1982, and she was slated to be scuttled until Dave Updike of Seattle stepped in and purchased her.
Floyd Waite, a shipwright at Fisherman’s Boatyard in Everett, bought the hollowed-out shell from Updike and restored her as Elmore.
Dee and Sara Meek’s stewardship of Elmore began in 1990.
As soon as they were handed the proverbial keys, they went right to work and replaced worn beams in the galley and made needed repairs to the main deck.
The years 1993 to 1996 were spent in Eagle Harbor on Bainbridge Island, where Elmore received her ninth engine: a four-cylinder Atlas Imperial that generates 110 horsepower.
During this time all of the below-deck machinery that went round and round, as Sara put it, was replaced with new equipment.
Elmore has spent a somewhat leisurely existence with the Meeks.
She has taken them on a three month trip to the Canadian Gulf Islands, across the line from the San Juan Islands, and Desolation Sound area.
They have traveled together up the Inside Passage to Alaska, where 3½ months was spent traveling between Ketchikan and Tracy Arm as well as circumnavigating Baranof Island.
And no vessel can rightfully claim a Pacific Northwest pedigree without circumnavigating Vancouver Island, which Elmore did with the Meeks aboard for six weeks in 2003.
As is the wont of any workboat, a little leisure goes a long way, and Elmore keeps her keel on the pulse of the maritime community by acting as a certified platform for the US Coast Guard Auxiliary, where she is used on patrols and participates in training exercises with the U.S. Navy and the Canadian Coast Guard.
Legacy gathering
The Port Angeles Yacht Club was formed in 1937 and held its meetings in the Legion Hall on Ediz Hook until 1960.
From 1961 to the present, the yacht club has been congregating at its clubhouse on the north side of the parking lot behind Castaways Restaurant off Marine Drive.
From its inception, the club has been led by a board of directors more appropriately referred to as a bridge.
The figurehead and typically the public face of the club is the commodore. This year the commodore is Steve DeBiddle.
At the club’s regularly scheduled meeting Friday, the service and legacy of former commodores will be recognized and honored.
Much of the evening will be spent in the sharing of the club’s history, viewing old photographs and no doubt telling a bilge load of mighty tall sea stories.
Seven former commodores have been located, thanks to Melanie DeBiddle’s dogged persistence, and they will be honored along with the current club members who have served in that capacity.
On Saturday, May 21, from 8 a.m. to noon, the Port Angeles Yacht Club will hold its fifth annual Marine Swap Meet.
This well-attended event is a great opportunity to be a vendor for a morning by renting a space outside for $10 or a spot inside the clubhouse for $15 to sell marine-related equipment and memorabilia.
Boat safety inspections will also be conducted in the parking lot by the North Olympic Sail and Power Squadron, which is empowered to affix a 2011 safety decal to compliant vessels.
For more information or to reserve a space, phone the Port Angeles Yacht Club at 360-457-4132 and leave a message.
Harbor filler-up
Tesoro Petroleum on Tuesday bunkered Overseas Los Angeles, a 600-foot petroleum products tanker, in Port Angeles Harbor.
On Friday, Tesoro provided bunkers to Fortune Sunny, a 738-foot bulk cargo ship that is flagged in Hong Kong.
On Saturday, Tesoro had its refueling barge alongside Mercini Lady, a 597-foot, Liberian-flagged petroleum products tanker.
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David G. Sellars is a Port Angeles resident and former Navy boatswain’s mate who enjoys boats and strolling the waterfronts.
Items involving boating, port activities and the North Olympic Peninsula waterfronts are always welcome. Email dgsellars@hotmail.com or phone him at 360-808-3202.
