Captain Bill / Veronica M

Type:
artificial reef, tugboat, McAllister Towing (Boston)
Built:
1950, Oyster Bay, Long Island, NY as Hazleton
Specs:
( 110 x 27 ft ) 199 gross tons
Sponsor:
Herb & Veronica Segars
Dedication:
Veronica Segars
Sunk:
Wednesday November 10, 2004 - Axel Carlson Artificial Reef
GPS:
40°03.104' -73°59.283'
Depth:
75 ft
"Hazelton on the East River"
Doing tugboat stuff as Marie Casho
Captain Bill reef
Marie Moran
Captain Bill reef
Captain Bill

HAZLETON

Built in 1950, by Jakobson Shipyard Incorporated of Oyster Bay, New York (hull #328) as the Hazleton for the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In 1963, she was acquired by the Moran Towing Company of New York, New York, where she was renamed as the Marie Moran.

In 1984, the tug was acquired by the R.J. Casho Marine Towing Company of Wilmington, Delaware, where she was renamed as the Marie Casho. In 1986, she was acquired by Captain Arthur Fournier of the Penobscot Bay Towing Company of Belfast, Maine, where the tug was renamed as the Captain Bill.

In 2004, the tug was reefed off of Bayhead, New Jersey as part of an artificial reef program, where the tug was renamed as the Veronica M. Named for the wife of a longtime local diver and underwater photographer Herb Segars.

Powered by a single Cleveland 16-278A diesel engine, 1,600 horsepower.

Paul Strubeck, Captain Brian Fournier
tugboatinformation.com

Captain Bill reef
Captain Bill reef
Captain Bill reef
Captain Bill reef

The sinking took 4-1/2 hours and 40 seconds. The block of the 1750 hp diesel engine is still inside, as well as the 120" bronze propeller. This tug is one of the largest ever sunk as a reef in New Jersey. Compared to others in the area, it is massive.

Captain Bill reef
side-scan sonar image
Captain Bill reef
Pilot house shaggy with hydroids one year later
Herb Segars Photography

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"Higher animals" is a catch-all term for vertebrates other than fish. This is rather self-congratulatory, since the so-called "lower animals" - fishes and invertebrates - are actually the dominant species on the planet, both in numbers and diversity! The four classes of higher animals are:

  • Amphibians - class Amphibia
  • Reptiles - class Reptilia
  • Birds - class Aves
  • Mammals - class Mammalia

Of these, amphibians are absent from marine environments ( with one or two exceptions. )

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