Thunder Bay, ON: Salvaging the 1905 James Whalen Tug with Coastal Titan

(Satellite)

Because the 117-year old, steam-driven James Whalen Tug sunk on May 1, 2022, there has been some Facebook action concerning that boat. These notes catch some of the action concerning its $800,000 salvage on Sep 8, 2022.

Derek M, May 2022

I'm saving this satellite image because it will be changing since the tugboat is no longer docked there.

Satellite

Janey Anderson posted four photos with the comment:

Great teamwork today!!

Was a long, hard day's work from dawn to dusk for this team in Thunder Bay!!

They raised the James Whalen tug, pumped out the water, and looks like there are no holes. Tomorrow they will float her over to Patterson dock and lift her onto the land.

More pictures and updates tomorrow

All photo credits - Jeff Harding on Salvage Monarch tug and Coastal Titan barge.!

08.09.22

Penny Johnston: Great photos. What caused it to sink?

Kevin Sidlar: Bilge pump was removed for the winter, and wasn't reinstalled in time for the spring.

[This was the first attempt to raise it because there is just one connection to the bow. The rigging for the bow line broke. The second attempt used a spreader for both the bow and stern, and it was successful.]

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Tom McClement commented on Jenny's post
Great Job To All Involved! Coastal Titan at Jack Knife Bridge With James Whalen on Deck Heading Upstream to Paterson Dock for Offloading

The salvage barge is Costal Titan from Toronto, ON. See the bottom of these notes for photos taken as it went upbound and then downbound for this job.

Three of the fourteen photos posted by Connor Kilgour with the comment: "The 117 year old tug is to be refloated and moved to a new location for storage before hopefully being taken to a new home along the Thunder Bay waterfront. However, her final fate has yet to be set in stone"

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1 of 22 photos posted by Michael Hull, cropped
SALVAGE MONARCH (1959 Canada) arrived in the Port of Thunder Bay in the early morning hours of September 8, 2022. Salvage Monarch brought the multi-functional barge Coastal Titan along to help raise the tug James Whalen (1905), which had sunk this past spring.
Stewart Roberts: She did the job, albeit had to have two try’s. Nice photos!
Michael Hull also posted

Janey Anderson posted four photos with the comment:

The James Whalen tug has been raised from the water and placed on land!! 

Bravo to LH North and Tom McClement (who were awarded the contract to raise the tug and did all the rigging,  pumps and ground work), for assembling this team of experts to get the job done fast -  including Toronto Drydock Coastal Titan & Salvage Monarch tug, TBay Tug, Big Lake Dive and Marine & LH Crane.

By way of a bit of Background- LH Construction is an innovative heavy-civil construction company based in Northwestern Ontario (Thunder Bay) specializing in building and designing world-class infrastructure such as bridges, roads, deep foundations and underground water networks. 

Excellent teamwork everyone!

Photo credit: Jeff Harding

Stewart Roberts: Now if we could only convince the City to move her to the Lakehead Transportation Museum!

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2:35 video @ 0:34
Bruce Symington shared (Satellite)

Bruce Symington shared 5 photos of raising the tugboat

Jamie Ruggles posted 24 photos of raising and transporting the tugboat.

Shawn Sabbe posted 7 drone photos of raising the tugboat

Ron Miller: Why did it sink???

Shawn Sabbe: Ron Miller the city failed to install and turn on pumps so when it rained a bunch she listed and down she went. Thing is it ripped it’s mooring last summer and was listing like crazy. The city knew it was full of water and IGNORED ALARMS so that’s how the 100yr old Thunder Bay icon found herself 3/4 underwater. All part of the cities plan to move it to Waterfront! They built that park then just ignored it. And now EVERYTHING is Waterfront screw the rest is their attitude

Jeff Harding shared a LH North post of 10 photos of the raising, transport and final resting place.

Michael Hull posted 13 photos of its new location. 

Michael Hull also posted

Kyle Bortolon: I think it’s worth noting that the salvage monarch is currently pushing the costal titan all the way back to Toronto. Very impressive

Michael's photos allowed me to find Paterson's Dock, which is the current location of the tugboat.

Satellite

Lorna Kingsland posted
James Whalen Tug on dry dock in Thunder Bay ON near the James St Swing bridge.
Robert Hubbard: Are they going to fix it or junk it?
Matthew Carlson: Robert Hubbard undecided yet. There is a 2 year storage agreement in the contract that was awarded for the raising of it, so the city has a year left to decide if it’s worth saving or not. The hull is pretty rotten in spots, there are a few plans being made for different types of storage options if it was to be kept so it’s all in the works. Lots of things to do, it will take time. We have a feeling it’s likely going to be cut up since it’s not a easy thing to move around, not cheap and not very many good locations for it nowadays.

Comments on Lorna's post
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Whalen_(businessman)

Comments on Lorna's post
 https://youtu.be/wZZ8YLYB0xc

Barry Westhouse commented on Lorna's post
James Whalen July14, 2022 - this was my 1st visit to see it.

A 0:59 drone video

2:01 news video  The recovery cost $800,000. The first attempt failed because the cable lifting the bow snapped. [0:29]

Salvage Tug/Coastal Titan had a long journey up the Great Lakes to Thunder Bay. On Sep 1 it was going through the Welland Canal (6 photos). On Sep 3 it was on the Detroit River (3 photos) and going under the Blue Water Bridge (8 photos).

Then it had to go back to Toronto Drydock. On Sep 15 it was in Lock #8 of the Welland Canal (2 photos) and Port Colborne (10 photos).

Dec 19, 2024: Steve William Lindsey commented on a post: "Jeez. I wish the tug James Whalen had received a small portion of this outpouring of grief. Theodore Too deserves your sympathy. But so did the Whalen, soon to be scrapped."