John Wanamaker

City's last tugboat is looking for new home

By Leonard N. Fleming

Inquirer Staff Writer

When it cruised the Delaware River in its heyday, the City of Philadelphia's John Wanamaker tugboat had a spare-no-expense paneled interior and an enormous steam engine that could power the 116-foot vessel through thick ice.

The tug could easily tow a scow. It also carried gatherings of city officials and the well-connected, who used the tug as a municipal yacht after its completion in 1924. But once Philadelphia's newspapers learned of the tug's extravagance, the John Wanamaker became a scandal.

The city sold the tug in the 1950s to a private owner, who moved it to New England. It eventually docked as an elegant seafood restaurant in New Hampshire. In 2002, the restaurant failed, and the John Wanamaker - one of only five steam-powered tugboats still in existence - became a bankruptcy orphan.

Today, the once-luxurious vessel is anchored a quarter-mile from an old Rhode Island naval yard. It's a bit of Philadelphia history with an uncertain future.

Owner George Walker - who has been unable to use the boat as an attraction near hotel property he owns in Fairhaven, Mass., because of a stalled marina development plan - has had offers to sell the vessel for scrap metal.

But neither he nor tugboat aficionados want to see it follow most of the other majestic big tugs of its era to the scrap heap.

"It's the most beautiful tugboat," said tug enthusiast Steve W. Lindsey, who lives in New Hampshire and wants to see the John Wanamaker preserved in Philadelphia or New England. "It's really our last chance to save a steam-powered vessel on the Eastern Seaboard."

The John Wanamaker was Philadelphia's last city-owned working tugboat and the last working steam-powered tug on the East Coast. Its electrical system and bilge pumps are in good shape, Walker said, although its 1,000-horsepower engine has long been idle. Its hull could easily weather a haul down the East Coast, he said.

"Generally, it's in good condition," he said.

Walker, who bought the vessel from a U.S. bankruptcy trustee after the restaurant business sank, said he was willing to take offers but only from people committed to preserving the tug.

"I guess I'm in a unique position: I have the will to see it preserved," said Walker, who declined to say how much he paid for the boat. "The only way I would be willing to part with the vessel is to be convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that a buyer would have the demonstrated ability to maintain the vessel."

David Boone, a longtime tugboat enthusiast from South Jersey who paints tugs and used to repair them, said that "it would be nice," but not easy, to preserve the Wanamaker.

"The saying always goes, if you have enough to restore an old tugboat, you know enough not to do it," Boone said. "They are money pits."

The nonprofit Philadelphia Ship Preservation Guild, which preserves and maintains historic vessels, has the 1902 tugboat Jupiter and the 1883 sailing vessel Gazela Primeiro. The diesel-powered Jupiter, owned by the Penn's Landing Corp., costs an estimated $40,000 per year to maintain, officials say.

Money to repair boats worth saving is hard to come by in Philadelphia. The river doesn't resonate with the public as it does in places such as Baltimore and Boston, said Ed Stemmler, president of the preservation guild.

Lindsey, a trustee of the New England Steamship Foundation, said he hoped his organization would buy the John Wanamaker.

Walker said he was sure that no matter what happened to the tug, "it'll be floating long after I'm gone."

Contact staff writer Leonard N. Fleming at 856-779-3223 or lfleming@phillynews.com.

City man buys historic tugboat
But plans for vessel-restaurant are up in the air
By JACK SPILLANE, Standard-Times staff writer

PETER PEREIRA/The Standard-Times
The tug John Wanamaker is shown at Fish Island. It formerly was docked in Portsmouth, N.H., and operated as a restaurant.

A local businessman has rescued a tugboat restaurant with a glamorous history from Portsmouth, N.H., and brought it to New Bedford Harbor.
George T.J. Walker, owner of the Holiday Inn Express in Fairhaven, as well as its related conference center and marina, has gained control of the John Wanamaker.
The boat was towed from Portsmouth to Fish Island and arrived early Monday morning.
In Portsmouth, the upscale restaurant-boat's owners had fallen behind on their rent, and the vessel's hull had fallen into disrepair.
Dunfey's on the John Wanamaker operated at a berth in Portsmouth Harbor since 1994.
Mr. Walker said he has considered rehabilitating the boat for operation in New Bedford Harbor, but his prime goal is to save the historic vessel from sinking.
There are a limited number of local boatyards that can repair the hull of a vessel like the Wanamaker's.
"I've always had a passion for boats," he said.
The Wanamaker was built in 1923 and is said to have been the last active steam tugboat in American waters. It originally operated as a tug icebreaker and fireboat.
A restaurant has functioned on the tugboat in various locations besides Portsmouth, including Boston and Camden, Maine.
Mr. Walker said he does not yet know where the rehabilitated boat will ultimately be operated.
The restaurant areas inside the boat are "thoroughly spotless," he said.
He has had inquiries from both Newport and Boston; both would like to bring the restaurant-vessel there, he said.
"It's premature to say where it will ultimately be. It would have to be consistent with the vision of the harbor for there to be a role for New Bedford or Fairhaven," he said.
The main portion of Portsmouth Harbor has long been reserved for working waterfront purposes, such as fishing and shipping.
New Bedford has just completed a harbor master plan that would prohibit a boat functioning as a restaurant anywhere south of Wamsutta Street all the way to the hurricane barrier.
The only possible location south of Route 195 would be the Hicks-Logan area.
In Fairhaven, the only areas outside the designated port areas appear to be a shallow area near Mr. Walker's Holiday Inn and a marina just south of Route 195.
John Simpson, executive director of the New Bedford Harbor Development Commission, said there might be suitable locations for a restaurant boat in the harbor under certain circumstances.
But in order to operate a restaurant-boat in a waterway in Massachusetts, the operator would have to obtain a Chapter 91 permit from the state.
That permit is granted only if the operator can demonstrate that the operation does not damage the tidal area and is in the overall community's interest.
"The benefits have to far exceed the risks to a working waterfront in order to operate something fixed like that," Mr. Simpson said.
At least one member of the local business community said a tugboat-restaurant could benefit the area.
"For something like that, if he's able to pull it off, there's just no better view (of New Bedford)," said Jim Mathes, executive director of the Greater New Bedford Chamber of Commerce.
Davy's Locker in the South End is the only waterfront restaurant currently operating in New Bedford.
A number of years ago, Twin Piers was a well-known restaurant that operated near Homers Wharf downtown, and Queequeg's was a restaurant on the top floor of the Bourne Counting House.
Noncommercial operations on the waterfront must pay a special permit fee to the city.


This story appeared on Page A4 of The Standard-Times on December 5, 2002