THIRTY YEARS AGO

Tug Boats on Humboldt Bay, 1983

Prior to moving to Eureka in 1979, I had never lived by the ocean. The place where we lived was a little over a mile from the old Del Norte Dock. Occasionally I could hear the whistles from the tugs as they were going about there duties, and sometimes I would dash down to the harbor to watch them work.

I had a scale model of a tug boat when I was a kid. I think I always imagined that working on a tug would be a good thing to do. I think tug boats are of the same caste for the maritime world as are switch engines for the railroads. Tug boats like switch engines, play important roles in supporting there larger siblings, but are generally behind the scenes, and therefore do not have the glory that goes with large ships or long trains.

I scanned this the other night, and I did a little processing in Light Room. Somewhere I have a gelatin/silver print of this shot in storage.