Standard Oil Company No. 16 (harbor tug)

Standard Oil Company No. 16, later Pegasus, was a historic harbor tugboat located at Morris Canal Basin, Jersey City, New Jersey. She was built in 1907 by the Skinner Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company of Baltimore, Maryland for the Standard Oil Company. She had heavy steel frames and deck beams. She was 100 feet in length, 23 feet in beam and 11.2 feet in depth. She was registered at 175 gross tons. She had an original wooden pilot house and the engine room dated to 1953-1954 when converted from steam to diesel. At that time, Standard Oil sold the tug to the McAllister Towing and Transportation Company and she was renamed McAllister 41. In 1955, she was renamed John E. McAllister.[2][3]

No. 16
Pegasus moored inboard of the tug Patriotic in Morris Canal Basin, September 2019.
History
Owner
  • Standard Oil Company (1907–1915)
  • Standard Transportation Company (1915–1947)
  • Esso Shipping (1947–c.1953)
  • McAllister Towing and Transportation Company (c.1953–)
  • Hepburn Marine (1987-2021)
BuilderSkinner Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company
Launched1907
Renamed
  • SOCONY 16 (1915)
  • Esso Tug No. 1 (1947) John E. McAllister (c.1953)
  • Pegasus (1987)
IdentificationIMO number5173498
FateScrapped in 2021
General characteristics
TypeTugboat
Tonnage175 GT
Length100 ft (30 m)
Beam23 ft (7.0 m)
Depth11.2 ft (3.4 m)
Installed power
  • Steam (1907–c.1953)
  • Diesel (c.1953–)
Standard Oil Company No. 16 (harbor tug)
Standard Oil Company No. 16 (harbor tug) is located in New York City
Standard Oil Company No. 16 (harbor tug)
Location3001 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island, New York
Coordinates40°38′18″N 74°9′35″W / 40.63833°N 74.15972°W / 40.63833; -74.15972
Built1907
ArchitectSkinner Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co.
Architectural styleharbor tug
NRHP reference No.01001321[1]
Added to NRHP29 November 2001

Pamela Hepburn acquired the tug in 1987 and renamed her Pegasus. She served with Hepburn in commercial service for 10 years until her retirement in 1997.[3] Subsequently, efforts were made to preserve the 90-year-old tug, and she was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.[1] Pegasus was docked at Pier 25 in Manhattan as a museum ship for 13 years, but the preservation group began running into funding problems around 2015, and the tug had to be moved to Morris Canal Basin in Jersey City.[4] Ultimately the group was unable to continue to maintain Pegasus, and she was towed to Staten Island for scrapping in March 2021.[3][5]

References edit

  1. ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 13 March 2009.
  2. ^ Brouwer, Norman J. (June 2001). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Standard Oil Company No. 16". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Retrieved 10 December 2010. (Java required)
    "Accompanying 11 photos". (Java required)
  3. ^ a b c "SOCONY 16". Tugboat Information. Retrieved 6 July 2013.
  4. ^ "Pegasus, a Tugboat and Floating Museum, Hits Rough Waters". The New York Times. 3 July 2015. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
  5. ^ "Tug Pegasus hitching a ride to that great tugboat anchorage in the sky". 24 March 2021. Retrieved 27 July 2022 – via Facebook.