E.B. Macnaughton – Unusual Former Vancouver Visitor Goes to the Breakers

by Dave Shirlaw 2013

EB Macnaughton

E.B. MacNaughton and barge Hawaii photographed in Tacoma February 21, 1985. (Photo courtesy of the freemonttugboat.com collection.)

The tug E.B. MacNaughton was built in 1970 by Gulfport Shipbuilding of Port Arthur, Texas for Ultramar Chemical Company and operated between Hawaii and the West Coast of North America until 1990. She was powered by a pair of 12 cylinder Fairbanks–Morse engines, generating 4400 bhp, through gear boxes to twin screws.

The E.B. MacNaughton would tow the barge Hawaii into Neptune Terminals in North Vancouver BC to load potash at berth two. The tandem was so large a British Columbia Coast Pilot was required on board the tug. After loading, the tandem would depart to Hawaii via the Victoria Pilot Station.

In 1990 the tug was purchased by the Crowley Marine Services of San Francisco and was renamed as Dauntless. Her assignments for Crowley are unknown. In 1999 she became Coastal Sun for Bay Towing of Norfolk, Virginia and is believed to have spent most of her service to for this firm towing container barges between Halifax NS and US ports from Elizabeth, New Jersey.

She was later owned by Harbour Service LLC. who sold her to Tug Coastal Sun LLC., disappearing from the US registry in 2009, the veteran tug was scrapped earlier this year in Amelia, Louisiana.

In 1948–1952, E.B. Macnaughton (1880–1960) was a businessman and banker who became the President of Reed College in Oregon. During World War II, he worked with Governor Charles Sprague and others on behalf of Japanese Americans, and was named the first president of the Nippon Society of Oregon, today known as the Japan–America Society of Oregon.

Acknowledgements: The author acknowledges Freemontttugboat.com for permission to use the image of the tug E.B. Macnaughton.



To quote from this article please cite:

Shirlaw, Dave (2013) E.B. Macnaughton – Unusual Former Vancouver Visitor Goes to the Breakers. Nauticapedia.ca 2013. http://nauticapedia.ca/Articles/EB_Macnaughton.php

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