Since 2005 when we moved to Karystos there has been a tugboat on the waterfront. In 2005 it was moored at the old Karystos shipyard, which has since been relocated down the road after the port renovation. The tugboat was then moved to the dock on the north end of the port.
A couple of weeks ago Fokion and the boys were here visiting and Dimitri walked over to see the tug boat. He noticed that the original registration was still visible and that it was a U.S. tug boat.
I did a search on it and it turns out that it was built in Brooklyn.
Tugboat Fuli
(US Army ST tug Design 327 – 186 built / 327E)
Registered: IMO 8941559
155 GRT, L26,40m(24,67), B7,04m, Dr2,971m, Dp3,15m (86.5’x23’x8.6′)
1 fpp, diesel 2tew 6cyl “Clark Bross” type MD6, 700bhp-515kW @300rpm, sp 9,5kn
ST 756
1944: Built by “Continental Shipbuilding Co” at Brooklyn, NY (USA) (YN 5)
1944: delivered to the US Army (USA)
194x: To “Corinth Canal Co” at Isthmia (GRC), renamed POSEIDON
1998: To “Sierra Cia Naviera y Comercial SA” at Athena (GRC), renamed FOULI
(HND flag, regd San Lorenzo, ON L-3527182, c/s HQUL7, 122 GRT, 23 NRT)
POSEIDON (ex ST 756) worked more than fifty years in the Corinth Canal The tug first went there at the end of the 1940s. The Corinth Canal damaged by the Germans in WWII. After the war the canal was repaired and became fully operational in 1949. The POSEIDON was there in that year. The tug remained remained in service of the Corinth Canal Co. until the mid 1990s. Around 1997-8 was immobilized and after some years was sold to Sierra Cia Naviera y Comercial SA.
The new owners used it as a tug until 2003. Sometime in 2003 the Hellenic Coast Guard confiscated the tug because of illegal tobacco trading or smuggling of illegal immigrants. The ship remained deserted in Karystos port
The tug also has a sister boat, the tug “Vernicos Eirini” (ex ST 755) that has become a museum exhibit at the Rahmi M. Koc Technology Museum in Konstadinople (Istanbul). The tug was donated by the Greek Vernicos family after serving a long career in the family’s tug business. Now is one of the main exhibits of the museum and it operates as a tug in specific occasions.
More information is at the following websites:
http://www.hnsa.org/ships/vernicos.htm
http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Mid…hoto521840.htm
Source:
Piet van Damme’s (Belgium) tug database, republished in Shipsnostalgia http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/showthread.php?t=16057)