Titan

History

The big tug Empire was laid down at the Staten Island Shipbuilding Company yard in Port Richmond in 1909. Hull number 449 measured in at 116’8” long, 23’ 6” wide and 15’5” deep. The tug was built for the Erie Railroad but upon completion was purchased by the Panama Railroad and named P.J.T. Co. No. 8.

The No. 8 headed south to be used in construction of the Panama Canal. During that time, the tug was caught in a rockslide and buried. It is rumored that the boat spent up to a year under rock before being dug out and brought back to life. She served her railroad owners until 1923 when she was bought by the Danziger Lumber Company. Next, she was sold to Sabine Towing Company of Port Arthur who used her for offshore towing. Records show that by the 1920’s she was re-christened with the originally intended name, Empire.

In September of 1928, while towing an oil barge, the tug Empire was caught in a hurricane off Pensacola, Florida. The tug and tow attempted to find a sheltered anchorage but struck bottom and lost her propeller blades. When the storm lifted, the high waters and gale force winds had left the helpless tug in the woods over half a mile from deep water! The Empire was salvaged by dredging a canal and towing her out.

In 1949, during her repowering, she was renamed Titan. Just after this rebuild,Titan was called out to tow a stranded 15,000-ton tanker off Sabine, Texas. The tanker’s owners decided to have the Titan tow the ship the entire 1500 miles to Philadelphia.

After a long career with Sabine, by the 1980’s she found herself working for McAllister docking ships in Wilmington, NC. In 1999, a decision was made to lay her up due to much needed topside steel work. She served as a back up boat until 2003. The following year McAllister was looking to scrap the vulnerable old tug. In January 2004 the boat was acquired by the Northeastern Maritime Historical Foundation and moved up the Cape Fear River to a new berth in downtown Wilmington.

Machinery

The tug was built with a triple expansion steam engine measuring 14, 22 and 36” bore by 24” stroke. This engine produced 800 IHP and was fed by a single 14’ x 12’ Scotch boiler.

In 1949 her steam plant was removed by Sabine and a new diesel engine was installed. This new engine was a 1750-BHP, 8 cylinder, 16” x 22”, 4-cycle, direct reversing supercharged Nordberg model FSM-168-SC.

In 1982 the seventy-three year old vessel was still in good enough shape to warrant another repowering. A 2000-BHP Electro Motive 16-645 diesel was installed, which served the tug for the rest of her days.

Disposition

Considering the extensive modifications that the Titan received over the years, the extremely poor structural condition of her decks, and that her history, colorful as it is, lies outside the geographical scope of the NMHF, it was decided from the outset that the Titan would not become part of the permanent collection, but instead would be used for fundraising purposes.

Her main engine was sold and used to repower a coastal freighter, while much of her other machinery was saved for future use by the museum. As an alternative to scrapping, the Foundation donated the hull to the reef program. In the Summer of 2004, this old tug was sunk off the North Carolina coast, to be used as a dive attraction and habitat for marine life. We feel that this is more of an "honorable death" after her long and illustrious career.

Tour the Titan

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