Captain Bill

Type:
artificial reef, tugboat, McAllister Towing (Boston)
Built:
1950, Jakobson Shipyard, Oyster Bay, NY as Hazleton
Specs:
( 110 x 27 ft ) 199 gross tons
Sponsor:
Herb & 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

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 of the "Veronica M" 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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storage box

The standard means of moving and storing dive gear is the dive bag. All of the major manufacturers make dive gear bags. These are often quite fancy, with embroidered logos, pockets inside and out, "ergonomic" handles, and even wheels. Most of these bags are very nice but really too small to hold a cold-water dive kit, and very heavy to carry around when full. These bags are also expensive, a bother to clean, and a lot less waterproof than they claim. Here's is a convenient alternative that is much cheaper:

Go to K-Mart Home Depot and spend $5 on a Rubbermaid tote box, about the size of a milk crate. This will not be big enough to hold all items - you'll have to pack your fins and BC separately - but it will hold everything else, is small enough to fit almost anywhere, and also avoids making a single excessively heavy load. The tote also will not lose small items like a milk crate will. I eventually drilled drain holes in the bottom. I now use my fancy dive bag only to carry my drysuit and its accessories. This type of tote box is the preferred container on every area dive boat I have been on.