Alligator tugs

[Straw Boss]

I found this little piece today.

>THE ALLIGATOR TUG
>By the late l9th century lumbering in Ontario had retreated from
>easily accessible waterways andmovement of logs became difficult and
>expensive. An imaginative solution to this problem, the amphibious
>steam warping (or winching) tug was developed in l888-89 by an
>inventive local entrepreneur, John Ceburn West. His remarkable
>vessel, commonly called the Alligator driven by paddle wheels and
>housed a powerful winch that enabled the scow to tow large log
>booms cheaply and efficiently and to pull itself over land from lake
>to lake. West's iron foundry, West and Peachey of Simcoe, quickly
>became the major producer of Alligators supplying the North American
>lumbering industry with some 200 tugs by l932. Although considerably
>modified, the Alligator is still in use today.

Has anyone ever heard of these vessels and, better still, has any doy
got a picture of one?

[MikeDD656]

Hey Strawboss, I can fix this problem for you. Go to
http://www.modelcontrol.com/ and look at the picture of the radio controlled
model of an alligator tug. While you are there check out their outstanding
speed controllers. If you need RC information then feel free to subscribe to
our list ModelBoats@yahoogroups.com

[MikeDD656]

Yes. Where did I put that emergency gas can? This said 13 miles down the
Little Wekiva River when out of gas and faced with the horrible possibility
that I would have to paddle 13 miles back to the car against the current>G!

Mike

[Paulrjordan]

Michael!!
Least you never took a boat over Niagara Falls..which I ALMOST did in
1976!!!

Okay..P/DUX stuff. I've been getting more info on these cute little
Alligators..they literally scream out "CANADAAAAA!"!!! I think they'll
be a perfect building project I need for the Navy Cadets...no rudders
... cheapie 2 piper into a couple of servo motors to power the
paddles..hulls gotta be the simplest things to build and could be a
barrel load of laughs for log coralling competitions....NOT to mention
how SERIOUSLY wicked they could be in Steering courses. You could
almost put one together in a weekend.!!

I've loaded some files for you all to look at which you can find in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Paddleducks/files

Look in the folder "THE ALLIGATOR" WARPING TUGS of CANADA

Now...I have to get some "welcomes" done to our 4 new members who just
arrived. Some members are STILL having probs accessing the files...so
I'm going to get THAT one sorted out tonight if I can.

Tomorrow we start the first of our FUN SAILING REGATTAS in
Victoria..the weather here is perfect and almost every street is lined
with blossoms..which make a nice backdrop for all the horsedrawn
carriages!! You HAVE to visit this lovely City!!!

HAVE A FINE weekend to Paddleducks EVERYWHERE!!

PJ

PS ..Mike..do we have the same file access prob in Modelboats?"..can't
seem to recall seeing it as much there!!)

[MikeDD656]

Not a wise decision!

Mike,