From collection Jon Johansen Collection
Four Tugs Tied Up at the Eastern Maine Towage Co. Pier in Belfast, Maine.
Color slide of the tugs CLYDE B. HOLMES, PAULINE H. HOLMES, SEGUIN, and SECURITY (later renamed EVELYN M. HOLMES seen tied up at the Eastern Maine Towage Co. pier in Belfast, Maine.The CLYDE B. HOLMES was originally named the JOHN WANAMAKER. She was built in 1924 in Baltimore for the city of Philadelphia, for which she served as ice breaker and barge-handling tug (though her last master, John Doak of Belfast, Maine, says she wasn't a very good icebreaker), but she was very fancy, with mahogany cabin and bar and settees, and her primary job may have entertaining the mayor's friends. As the CLYDE B.HOLMES, she worked from Belfast up until the end of 1975, at which time she was said to be the last working coastal steam tug in the US.Capt. Jim Sharpe of Camden, Maine purchased the tug and converted her into a restaurant berthed in Camden, Maine. The engine was kept intact in the dining area and turned by a small motor. She was sold and moved to Quincy, MA and renamed the EDMUND FITZGERALD. In 1977 she was relocated to Portsmouth, NH as a restaurant and renamed JOHN WANAMAKER. The PAULINE H. HOLMES had been built in 1946 in Cambridge Maryland, for Moran towing (as the JOSEPH N. MORAN) to use on the Erie Canal and the rivers of New York State. She wasn’t finished until after the war, as the materials were all needed for the war effort. When Eastern Maine Towage brought her to Belfast, she had a low pilothouse designed to pass under the inland bridges, but they (EMT) built her a higher pilothouse. Arthur Fournier bought her with the rest of the assets of Eastern Maine Towage in 1977.The SEGUIN was built by B.W. & H.F. Morse, Bath, for Knickerbocker Steam Towage Co., (which the Morses owned) in 1884. Seguin was owned by Maine Maritime Museum from 1969 to 1988 but proved impractical to restore, and no longer exits.The tug SECURITY began life as the USS Security (AMc-103), an Accentor-class coastal minesweeper acquired by the U.S. Navy for the dangerous task of removing mines from minefields laid in the water to prevent ships from passing.Security was laid down on 29 April 1941 by H.G. Marr, Damariscotta, Maine; launched on 27 September 1941; sponsored by Miss Louise Marr; and placed in service on 11 March 1942.World War II serviceAssigned to the 5th Naval District, Security, a wooden-hulled coastal minesweeper, trained at Yorktown, Virginia, from 27 March to 11 April, then began operations out of Morehead City, North Carolina. On 20 May 1944, she was detached from the 5th Naval District and reassigned to the 1st Naval District where she operated into May 1945.With the end of the war in Europe however, she was designated for inactivation; and, on 25 July, she was ordered south to the 6th Naval District to await disposal. She arrived at Charleston, South Carolina, on 8 August and was placed out of service on 16 November. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 28 November, and she was sold, via the Maritime Commission's War Shipping Administration, on 13 August 1946 to Mr. Philip Filetto, Gloucester, Massachusetts.She was sold in 1948 to the Eastern Maine Towing Co., Inc. of Belfast, Maine and converted to a tug. She was renamed s the EVELYN M. HOLMES in 1966 and eventually abandoned in May/June of 1974.
