A Perfect Pairing

It was a great day in June 2004 when the Shelburne Shipyard offered to lend their ex-yard tug, the C.L. CHURCHILL, to the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum (LCMM) as towboat for its 88' replica Lake Champlain canal schooner LOIS McCLURE. At 34', the workboat looked perfect for the job, with her wooden, hard-chined hull, traditional tugboat wheelhouse, tall stack, and high bow with low stern.

LCMM director Art Cohn and I took her out for a trial run in Shelburne Bay. We opened up her Ford Lehmann diesel to about 1,500 rpm so that it was delivering a good percentage of its 120 hp, and the tug churned through the water at about 8 knots. I noted with satisfaction that there was no hint of a rooster tail. Evidently, her big propeller was well submerged, down in deep-enough water so that it would be able to do real work. With a look at the shaft, we saw that her propeller was left-handed—that is, when viewed from astern, it turned counter-clockwise. This is a bit unusual; normally, when you back down a single-screw boat with a more-common right-handed propeller, the stern walks to port. We would need to remember that the CHURCHILL’s stern would tend to go the other way.

Jack Gilbert, the CHURCHILL’s designer, had certainly given her a high bow and a very low stern. I wondered if all that freeboard at the bow was really necessary, and if she had enough freeboard at the stern. Time told that both dimensions were perfect.

And time would tell other things: that the CHURCHILL would steer steadily when towing, but, like most tugs, would require more attention to the helm when running free; that she would be an efficient towboat, economical on fuel; and that in a rare beam sea of just the wrong size, probably made by a wake rather than the wind, she could roll her steering stool right over.

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