The end of the piece from Diesel & Gas Progress has got garbled up with an advertisement by the firm Alnor. It should read something like:

""These tugs are identical and were designed under supervision of Lt. Col. W. W. Moore of the U. S. Army Quartermaster Corps. and built by Equitable Equipment Company Inc of New Orleans. Each tug is propelled by a Superior 8 cylinder diesel of 560 hp at 100 rpm.""

""Insist on the best protection for your gas Diesel or engine investment with an Alnor 8-point exhaust pyrometer for protection - horizontal edges.""


There is some confusion here (not helped by internal inconstistencies in the listings pages linked on www.shipbuildinghistory.com). These tugs must have been built at Madisonville as Equitable did not buy the former New Orleans yard of Higgins Industries until 1966. However as the founder Neville Levy was a New Orleans resident, maybe the head office was there.

Secondly, the five tugs were not quite identical - though they did have identical machinery installations and were the same width and depth. The first two listed were 80ft length, Design 191, while the other three were the 82ft Design 222. [see David H Grover "US Army Ships and Watercraft of World War II", page 112]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/08/2018 03:31PM by david asprey.