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Posted August 9, 2007

The Bumblebee Has A New Home

Photo Above: The former New Haven Railroad tugboat Bumblebee (presently named Cross Harbor I.) is now berthed at the Hinckley Marina in Melville, Rhode Island as a stationary breakwater. (TES News Photo)

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The classic New Haven Railroad tugboat Bumblebee (now Cross Harbor I.) and her sister Cordelia were designed by Joe Hack of TAMS inc. in the 1950s to handle railroad carfloats in the New York Harbor area. By the 1980s they were both still in railroad service with New York Cross Harbor, operating between Brooklyn and Greenville on the only remaining carfloat route in the metro area. Eventually both boats fell on hard times, the Cordelia had a fatal engine failure and was scrapped, the Bumblebee was laid up out of service in Brooklyn, where it was heavily vandalized. The tug was eventually bought by Doug Della Porta of Eastern Towboat in Boston, to provide spare parts for another vessel with similar propulsion machinery.

For a number of years the Bumblebee sat at the Autoport in Charlestown, Massachusetts, facing an uncertain future. Doug had her advertised for sale as a possible houseboat conversion, but found no takers for such a large an immobilized vessel. Recently when it looked like the tug might end up following her sister to the scrapyard, a new need developed for the Bumblebee. She was purchased for use as a stationary breakwater, mated to a retired barge at the Hinckley Marina in Melville, Rhode Island. This marina is part of a newly developed industrial cluster in the former Navy Fuel Depot property, in the area that also served as the training base for PT boat squadrons in World War Two. In her new location the Bumblebee provides an additional 100 feet of breakwater to plug a gap in the shielding of the yacht basin from the prevailing southwest wind and seas.

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FOLLOW-UP

DECEMBER 2007

We are sorry to have to follow-up the earlier report by telling you that the Bumblebee took on water and sank in the November coastal storm, and is now resting on the bottom with wheelhouse and part of the deckhouse exposed. So the fate of the tug is now very uncertain, and we still try to provide updates as the information becomes available.

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Photo Above: A close up of the Bumblebee (closest) moored inboard of the former Lehigh Valley tug Capmoore in Charlestown, Massachusetts prior to her move to Rhode Island. She had been retained for many years as a spare parts boat by Eastern Towboat. Kodachrome by Preston Cook from the PowerPoint program Diesel Railroad Tugs.

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Our Railroad Tugs information page has a view from the pilothouse of this tug taken underway in New York Harbor with a loaded carfloat. To access that page please click on the silhouette of the Bumblebee below:

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This silhouette of the Bumblebee underway also appears on the TES home page. Artwork by Preston Cook

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