5. He works the deck for the first time.

Bobby took the lad to the stern where there was a small towing winch only about two feet tall wound with cable only about three quarters of an inch in diameter. It really was a small power winch by standards. The end of the cable was attached to one of the cables running down the length of the tug that the lad had noticed on his way aboard. It was now that he noticed the other side had the same cable but this one was shackled to a length of rope. Bobby went to the engine room and started another generator. When he came back up, he used one of the levers on the winch to pay out cable and directed the lad to pull the new slack forward toward the bow.
“Don’t drop it over the side!” he cautioned loudly. “It’ll get caught in the wheels!”

The lad heard and nodded and then began pulling the cable up the deck. When it came tight he set it down and made his way back to the stern where Bobby was arranging the soft line end of the other cable onto the stern bitts at the rail. When he was satisfied with his preparations, he took the lad up to the bow. Now he could see that they were approaching a barge at the shipyard. Two men in coveralls were standing still on its stern waiting for them.

While Bobby was busy setting a line on the bow rail, the tug eased up to the barge and there was a loud and deep squeaking noise as the thick rubber fenders rubbed against the painted steel of the barge. The deck stopped under the lad's feet and he swayed for a second to hold his balance. Without speaking to each other, Bobby and the bargemen set to work. Bobby passed the line he had been preparing through the large chock ring on the bow and the bargemen placed it on the cleat in the center of the barge’s stern. When the line was up, James eased off of the barge and turned the wheel a little. With a few little bounces on and off the barge, he had the bow centered on the width of the barge. Bobby made the line off in quick and sturdy figure eights on the H-bitt in the bow of the tug. When he was finished he turned to the lad.
“Stay here. When James turns the tug toward these guys, pass them up the cables.”

The lad nodded and Bobby disappeared to the stern. He looked down to the eyes of the cables and saw that each one had a short piece of line spliced to it. He was prepared to do this job. The tug started drifting to the port side so he grabbed the line on the port side cable eye. The man on the barge clapped his hands and extended them as if to receive something. The lad coiled up the line a bit and tossed it up to him. The man pulled the eye up and over the side of the tug and began to pull it toward him hand over hand. The lad knew that he should guide the cable over the side so it would fall suddenly and jerk the man over the side. Bobby had earlier secured the cable to the stern bit so he motioned for there to just let the cable go all the way over the side; it wouldn’t get away. The man on the barge finally reached the cable eye and laid it over the bit on the corner of the barge. Now Bobby put more turns on the bitts and James stepped out the side door of the pilothouse to watch him as the stern of the tug now swung slowly to starboard. As the cable came tight, Bobby eased out some of the line to allow the boat to keep swinging. The lad saw what was happening. They were trying to get the tug in a straight line with the barge. When this was accomplished, James waved and Bobby made the line fast. Now he took a position on the other side of the stern where he could see the lad on the bow.

The men on the barge asked the lad for the other cable eye. He obliged and then heard Bobby yelling again. He saw him waving at him to step inside cable and realized that he might have been trapped between the bulwarks and the cable as it paid over the side. Once the barge men saw that he was out of harm’s way, they began pulling the cable. This pull would be further than the last so it took both of them. As they pulled, Bobby paid slack with the little winch. As before the cable eye was laid on a bitt at the corner of the barge and the cable was tightened with the winch bringing the cables on both sides to a point known as “fiddle string tight”.

The bargemen disappeared up to the head of the barge and there seemed to be a lull in the action.

“What now?” he asked Bobby.

“Not much for a few minutes,” he replied. “Those guys will handle the lines on the barge. They don’t like us up on their barges much. They say that things come up missing when we’ve been up there. Not to mention all the lawsuits that usually happen if the tug guys get hurt. No hair off my ass. We can wait here till the cables come back in.”

The two sat where James could see them if he needed them and they smoked cigarettes and drank some more coffee. Then the cables came in. Then the cables went back out. After more cigarettes, the cables would come back in. And then? The cable would go back out. This continued until the lad lost track of the time and the number of barges he had made up to. He felt very comfortable with this procedure now and didn’t have to be reminded of anything.

“You’re doing pretty well,” Bobby told him during one of their breaks. Most guys don’t pick this up on the first morning.”

The lad thought about that for a second, wondering how anyone could have difficulty with a few simple tasks. “Thanks. I don’t look like a goof then?”

“Oh, no!” cried Bobby in his singsong voice. You’re probably going to work on tugs for a while."

The lad smiled. That’s all he wanted was to work on tugs. For a while? That was a bonus. It looked like he had just received some sort of seal of approval. Pretty good for one morning but there would be many other mornings to test his skill.

He smoked his cigarettes, slung his cables, and watched the ballet of barges in front of them.

4. He takes his first tugboat ride.

After the power cable was wound up and stowed, the two lit another cigarette and stood around waiting for James to show up. The lad looked around some more and peered into the companionway to get a look at the space below. It was a little dark, with only the glow of incandescent bulbs to light it but he made out piles of line and boxes of parts. There was a small chest freezer on one side and he could see the end of a workbench.

“Is that the forepeak?” he asked.

“That’s what that is. We keep just about everything in there. I’ll show you later.”

The lad nodded and continued inspecting the small tug. As he was looking up at the pilothouse he could see the reflection of a Ford truck pulling up to the edge of the dock. He turned and joined Bobby in watching the edge of the dock. Soon a man appeared. It was the skipper, James Graff. He looked young, maybe in his thirties. He was well dressed compared to the two aboard, wearing khaki pants, a colorful polo shirt, and clean deck shoes.

“Good mornin’, jemma-nems,” he called out in his best local accent. He was smiling and made the hops easily down to the deck carrying a duffle bag over his shoulder. He went straight to the lad and extended his hand. “You’re our new hand. Follow the skinny guy’s lead and you’ll do all right. Then to Bobby, “OK. Let’s get going’.”

Bobby started walking down the deck. James started climbing the forward ladder to get to the pilothouse. The lad suddenly realized he needed to follow Bobby. When Bobby saw him he made a motion that indicated that he was going up to the dock. “Take off that stern line, I’ll toss it in.” He climbed up and was quickly at the cleat holding the eye of the stern line. The lad took the turns from the bitts and Bobby lifted the eyes off. “Just give it a good sharp tug when I toss it.” The lad did just that and the line flew into the boats and landed in a heap in front of him. A neat trick he thought of it. “Get the head line next,” he called down to the lad. Figuring that a head line must be the same as a bow line he headed forward. The same technique was used to remove it and then the spring line was taken in.

James held the bow of the tug against the dock for a second or two longer to allow the skinny to board again. They backed out of the berth, turned slowly, and when the bow was pointed across the river, the engines eased up to speed and they were underway. The tug pushed its way to the middle of the river and took a left to head under the big bridge. The city was getting closer now. He had been on the water long enough to have sailed this harbor but he had never been this far up the river. Now he could see the other side of the city. He remembered viewing the tugs from the concrete shoreline and now he knew what he had looked like to the crew of those boats. The tug stopped and the engines were idling. They were sitting still in the water so he could continue looking at the city scene.

He realized he was alone and looked around a bit till he saw Bobby and James talking in the pilothouse. There wasn’t much animation. The two would occasionally motion toward a nearby shipyard so it became obvious that the job was going to be over there. The shipyard sat across from the city and was full of people moving about on the ships and docks. There were countless barges with such a wide variety of equipment and ship part on them; he couldn’t imagine how anyone kept track of it all.

Bobby tapping him on the shoulder and waving him in to follow as he hurried to the stern interrupted the lad’s thoughts.

“We have to get the pushing gear ready. It’s going to be a bunch of barge shifting for these guys”, he said jerking his thumb toward the shipyard.

Without a clue as to what was to be done, the lad followed.