Tugboat Dave circa July, 2002

[Dave Fleming]

A correspondent who should really be posting to these Forums sent me word that Dave had been on the cover of the Pacific Northwest magazine pubished bye the Seattle Times, Issue of July 21st., 2002
NO wise arse comments about how he is scowling or he looks like a big bruiser. Nay, not a kinder or gentler man could ye meet, or so says I. http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid28/paebb123603c519769eba0a599709bab0/fd6637b1.jpg

[Donn]

I wouldn't say an unkind word to him...not with those tools in his hams. :eek:

[Mr. Know It All]

Looks like the kind of guy I'd want working on MY boat. smile.gif I love black and white photography Dave. That is a great photo and Tugboat Dave should be honered. Who is the photographer?
Peace---> Kevin in Ohio

[Wild Dingo]

He aint changed a bit since those ones in your album!! :D

Funny how some of the meanest orneryest lookin fellas are such great people when you get to know them... not saying Tugboat Dave is a mean ornery lookin fella just sayin... oh dang! gonna shove me leg down me throat again if I dont shut up!! :rolleyes:

Great photo Dave :cool: ... captures the spirit of the man from what we know of him from your posts... Personally for this type of photo only black and white would be fitting colour would in my view detract from the content... IMOP that is...

And flamin heck mates if one could have someone working on their boat Tugboat Dave would be one of them fellas who would be at the top of the list!!... oh along with you Dave me ol cobber! tongue.gif

and...

I would just stay quietly outta the way watchin from a distance! :D say well beyond the distance he could chuck that thing hes holding... oh about a mile or so down the track peering around the corner with binoculars would do fine ;)

Them tools and that look in his eye get me real nervous!! :eek:

Take it easy
Shane

[Seth Wood]

"He's got an arm like a leg
And a fist that would sink a battleship (big ship!)..."

[nedL]

Wonderful picture Dave, He even looks like a great guy to know! smile.gif

[Dave Fleming]

The photo is from the July 21,2002 issue of Pacific Northwest magazine.

A quote from a 1998 story also on the Seattle Times.
"Dave Ullin lives all the way across the harbor, tucked behind a gravel barge and far removed from his neighbors in a gray tug called Spruce. He is a hulking, raw-boned man who wears a functional crew cut.

He is considered an island treasure and has no use for reporters from Seattle. He is a master shipwright, a perfectionist who toils only with handmade tools. He loves work for work's sake and is an environmentalist and volunteer in the purest sense. If he finds a spider aboard his tug, the story goes, he will make sure it is comfortable.

Ullin, in his late 50s, grew up in West Seattle and has lived on boats for more than 30 years, moving to Eagle Harbor from the Duwamish in 1983. He learned all his values - volunteerism, craftsmanship, respect for nature, "purposeful work" - from his parents and grandparents. He shuns the mainstream and considered being a hermit, but decided he couldn't help people see the beauty of a simple living if he did that.

"Living on a boat is a way to step out of this flow (of materialism) and practice independence," he told The Bainbridge Voice. "Independent thinking weeds out the frills."

The hammer or mallet like tool in his right hand, is a 'horsing or hawsing' mallet, whilst the tool in his left hand is.....a 'horsing or hawsing iron'.
The horsing iron's handle has a over sized socket( square ) that allows the square part of the iron just under the striking head to be rotated so that the person usually holding the tool can rotate the head to fit in tight places where a conventional fixed head would not work. It allows the striker access to the head without trying to reach over the iron holder.
This is usually a 2 man job but knowing DAVE he is probably doing it bye himself as most folks just can't keep up with him when he is 'making steam'. Because he is beyond tacturn in his conversation, people soon get bored with talking to his big back with no replys.
He doesn't drink, smoke, play with girls, a true Norvegian Bachelor as Garrison Keeler would say.
Notice he has put 3 threads of cotton in those hull seams. This tells me the vessel has either thick planks and or the seams are 'tired' and needed to be 'choked up' with 3 threads. I'm guessing it is a combination of both.
Being it is an old wooden tug and, tugs were worked hard.

[ 08-16-2002, 04:31 PM: Message edited by: Dave Fleming ]

[Billy Bones]

Very cool.

[Jamie Hascall]

Dave,

Thanks for fleshing out the photo with the quotes from the other article. The Pacific magazine spread used Dave's photo on the cover with just a slight description with the photo credit and no further text about him in the article on Bainbridge Island folks. I was really sad to have no idea who this guy actually was and felt like it was just a gratuitous use of that wonderful image without giving the subject his due.

Jamie

[Dave Fleming]

Jamie, have ye no been to my Tales and read my bits about my times with Dave?
I'm crushed, destroyed, downhearted, distraught, depressed. :D

PS: glad I could help you get a sense of this fellow. http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid28/p95bba36f3ea0de3395b0905cc3dfb441/fd655821.jpg

See he smiles!

[ 08-16-2002, 12:48 PM: Message edited by: Dave Fleming ]

[Wild Dingo]

Gawd mate~~!! With that grin he looks damn near human enough to say gidday too without bein in need of a new pair of jocks that is! :D

Them weapons in his mitts still bother me a tad!! even way down here under that nice friendly one :cool:

Thanks for the article mate... seems one of lifes gentlemen and a real charector to go with it... reckon if he stopped long enough to have a yarn he would have some stories to tell. :cool:

Take it easy
Shane

[Ken Hall]

Doesn't look anywhere near his age...and somehow reminds me of Michael Shaara's description of James Longstreet.

I liked the interview...without going overboard, he provides a successful example of Another Way. Not for everyone, but it can work.

Thanks for the update, Dave.

[Dave Fleming]

Ken, the 'smiley photo' was taken in about 1980 up in Anacortes,WA..
He has lost some weight since, with a big change in his diet but, still seems able to do the same amount of work.

[Bayboat]

Howrya, Dave F.? Tugboat Dave sounds like the kind of guy it would be nice to work with and learn something.
Please allow me a nit-pick: Your description of the tools he's holding in the first picture got switched. The mallet is in his right hand and the hawsing iron is in his left. This would be the natural way to hold them if he's right-handed. Hawsing is a hard job; my hat's off to him if he does it without a helper to hold the iron. He can probably hit hard enough with that caulking mallet. Most people doing hawsing hit the iron with a commander (for you smallboat guys, it's a really big wooden mallet), especially when the cotton or oakum is well choked.
It's nice to have the public learning that such guys exist. Our trade still has enough of them to keep us afloat.

[Dave Fleming]

Bay right you are!!!!
I was reversing the photo in my feeble brain.

Better hustle up and use the edit feature and change things.

[Donn]

O&O West...that's one of the early signs... :D

[Bayboat]

C'mon, Donn. I'm sure Dave knows his right from his....uh....right...er, left from his.... aarrrgh!!

[Dave Fleming]

But But fellas I fixed it!!!!!

[Bayboat]

Dave F., that comment referred to me, not to you. I have taken to wearing a green sock on my right foot and a red one on my left so I can remember which is which. Or, uh...is it green on the....?

[Dave Fleming]

Not to worry Bay, misery loves company.

There are times now when I will lay a tool or other item down, walk away to do something else and come back and SWEAR that I left that 'blurfl' right there and now it is not to be seen!
So begins a frustrating time of retracing steps again and again until....the circuit is re-activated and Bingo, there is that 'blurfl' just where I did put it! Recall the cartoon character from WWII, the Gremlin? That denizen of making things malfunction or disappear? Well I think I breed the little bast**ds in me house!

[Bayboat]

Join the crowd, Dave. It only gets better when you can find someone to do your work for you.