There’s a new nautical face at the Inner Harbor, now berthed at Canalside’s Commercial Slip. It’s the tugboat C.L. Churchill, which recently made its trek from Vermont to Buffalo. The reason for this auspicious journey to Buffalo is in anticipation of its heralded role as guide ship for the replica Seneca Chief packet boat, which will embark upon its inaugural voyage down the Erie Canal in 2025. The event will commemorate the bicentennial of Governor DeWitt Clinton’s own voyage on the original Seneca Chief to mark the opening of the Erie Canal, on October 26, 1825.
The Buffalo Maritime Center (BMC) is in the process of constructing a full size replica of the historic Erie Canal Boat Seneca Chief – the Erie Canal Boat that opened the Erie Canal in 1825.
To learn more about the tug’s recent trek and its future duties, as well as the timeline of the launch of the Seneca Chief, Brian Trzeciak, Executive Director Buffalo Maritime Center, had this to say:
She’s [the tug] a beauty of a boat, and we’re excited to see her here in Buffalo ready to assist the Seneca Chief.
History and Context
The Buffalo Maritime Center (BMC) is currently constructing a replica of an Erie Canal Boat Seneca Chief to commemorate the Bicentennial of the Erie Canal (learn more). The Seneca Chief is an unpowered 73’ Erie Canal line boat that will recreate Gov. DeWitt Clinton’s voyage to New York City back in 1825 which marked the official opening the Erie Canal.
Thanks to a grant from the NYS Canal Corporation and the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor, BMC has purchased the C.L. Churchill from the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum to serve as a yawl boat that will accompany and move the Erie Canal Boat Seneca Chief.
The Seneca Chief will be taken out of the Longshed and launched in May of 2024.
The C.L. Churchill is a 33’ wooden tugboat built in 1964. The Churchill served as a yawl boat for the Lois McClure, a 90’, 50-ton canal boat (the Churchill and the McClure last paid a visit to Buffalo in 2017). Both vessels provided programming and education for thousands of visitors, safely traveling throughout the inland navigation system from 2004 – 2019. After their long and successful service, the Churchill and the McClure were taken out of service in 2019. The Canal Society of New York State (CSNYS) worked to transfer the replica Lois McClure to its Erie Canal Heritage Park in Port Byron where it will host the public in proximity to the authentic 19th century canal, locks and buildings. But the McClure had to be moved one more time to get her there. So for about two weeks in October, the CSNYS and BMC teamed up to have the C.L.Churchill take the Lois McClure to over-winter in Beacon Bay, NY before she starts her new life as an exhibit on land.
This voyage was led by Captain Art Cohn, the Director Emeritus of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum and nautical archeologist, who had made countless trips with the Churchill and the McClure throughout their life together. Art assembled a seasoned crew to help with this voyage including captains Erick Tichonuk and Tom Beardsley. Members of BMC staff (Roger Allen, Greg Dudley, and me) and a board member (Joe Koessler) were able to join this voyage and spend a few days aboard to gain some experience and a sense of what the upcoming Bicentennial Voyage with the Seneca Chief is going to be like when we travel the Erie Canal and the Hudson River to arrive in NYC on the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Erie Canal on October 26th, 2025.
Once the McClure made it to her destination in Beacon Bay, the Churchill continued on to Buffalo piloted by Roger Allen and his crew of BMC volunteers including his wife, Tina, and Kent Iggulden. The Churchill pulled into the Commercial Slip on October 30th. The BNMC will be installing a new engine in the tug in the fall of 2024, thanks to the NYS Canal Corp. Additional touch-ups will also be made, so that the tug is in tip-top shape for its big adventure in 2025.
For further reflections on this historic undertaking, with additional information on the importance of the BNMC and its programming, click here. Also, click here for a full photo album of the Churchill‘s and McClure‘s fantastic voyage, with images from Dave Kinyon, Chair of the Lockport Locks Heritage District.
Also, below are further reflections on the Voyage of the C.L. Churchill and Lois McClure voyage by Roger Allen, BMC Master Boatbuilder:
Our experience as members of the crew aboard the Canal Schooner Lois McClure had immense value for a variety of reasons. My primary goal was to observe the technology involved in using the nine ton, 90 horsepower, 33 foot long Tug, Churchill, to maneuver the 88 foot, 50 ton, engineless, high sided McClure through all of the navigational challenges across the Erie Canal “from Albany to Buffalo.” Those challenges were expected to include locks, lift bridges, open bodies of water, stationary bridges, and a variety of docks upon which McClure had to be gently nudged for the evening. Cold, windy, rainy weather and potential recalcitrance from a diesel engine and mechanical systems that were built just a few years after I was born were also probable troubles on the horizon.
Captains Art Cohn on the Churchill, and Tom Beardsley on McClure, pretty quickly explained how breast and spring lines were set up to hold the two boats together firmly to perform a method called “towing on the hip.” While in open water conditions, where there is room and where waves could develop that might cause the two boats to crash against each other if they were close together, a long tow line is strung from the tug’s stern to the bow of the McClure to tow the engineless boat in a classic configuration. In confined waters, such as canals and narrow rivers, a tug has to be tied off tightly to the boat being moved and far enough back towards the “hip” of the schooner that its rudder is just behind that of the bigger boat to make steering possible. Boats navigating the canal keep to the right side of the channel, just as cars keep to the right side of the road, so that oncoming vessels are to their left as they pass. When moving together in the canal system, the tug is most often made off to McClure‘s port side because the schooner usually has her starboard side against the lock walls in keeping with this basic rule of the road.
While the propulsion is all done by the tug’s diesel, steering is actually accomplished using the rudders of both boats until they are in a lock, or docking. A third small tender, on our trip it was an inflatable nicknamed the Oocher, is also used to help “ooch” the big McClure sideways against the lock wall, or a dock, or to turn the big boat around in a narrow space, especially if there is a contrary wind blowing. It is the Captain on the McClure who pretty much runs the show, communicating directions for speed and rudder by radio with the tug’s two crew members. He also communicates with the Oocher telling her crew of two when they are to push or pull against the schooner to bring her to rest gently against the wall. Lots of giant big fenders protect both hulls from each other, and lock and dock walls. Five or six deck hands handle the dock lines and extra fenders in locks or when docking. They also wield stout push poles, used to help get the schooner away from whatever wall she has been against.
The whole effort ended up being a hands down pleasure. The make up of the crew varied as the trip progressed but, with the exception of our BMC folks, the assembled were old hands who knew where to be and what to do when needed. Some had been on the building crew for McClure and had stayed on as deck hands for many of her voyages from Lake Champlain and all over western New York and Canada. Art Cohn and the Churchill crew were equally old hands with Art having been a prime mover in the McClure building project and acquisition of Churchill. I admired the way they worked the two vessels smoothly together and the way they easily brought total strangers onto the team quickly to learn and perform work that needed to be done.
While the technology of towing was not new to me, and working with a tight knit crew is one of the particular joys of what we do at BMC, the strong sense of community on this voyage was an eye opener. The feeling began our first night in Waterford where the Erie Canal meets the Hudson. Canal Corp. personel, including Brian Stratton, some lock tenders, administrative staff and maintenance crew started gathering around the two boats that had just completed the first leg of the trip down the Champlain Canal with the original Lake Champlain Maritime Museum crew. Crew from the Canal Society also came by and representatives from the Erie Canal Heritage District joined soon. We all strolled off to John Callaghan’s house a few blocks from the canal for spontaneous burgers, canal history, and talk about working together.
The next day, as Churchill steadily chugged us north and west along the Mohawk Canal, the sense of being newly found members in an old ongoing family history was reinforced. As each lock tender welcomed us with open gates, and I can hardly say enough good things about how professional, efficient and courteous are the Canal’s Corp’s people, we were met by inquiries about plans for the upcoming Bicentennial. Other members of this extended family came by from whatever town was nearby toa take pictures of this historic trip, talk about Seneca Chief, Churchill, McClure and the Canal. Semi Trucks driving over the road near the canal began honking in participation and support for the event of our passage as soon as they saw the boats in the canal. Train Engineers whistled their own support as long as they were in view. They all seem to have known for decades what I have only come to know from this voyage. We are lucky to be able to spend time wandering along this historic waterway, being part of the welcoming community that appreciates what an amazing human accomplishment it is. Seneca Chief has an important part to play in continuing the story and spreading the word to guarantee that it is an ongoing story of which I feel lucky to have been a part.
Further reflections on the Voyage of the C.L. Churchill and Lois McClure voyage by Greg Dudley, Boatbuilding Programs Director:
Our new boat, the C.L Churchill spent the previous 20 years as the companion, and propulsion to the 88’ sailing canal boat, the Lois McClure. The two boats traveled the New York State Canal system, Lake Champlain and even into Quebec for nearly two decades.
When this venerable pair of boats pulled into towns along the canal this fall, the reception, with crowds of people on shore, felt like this was the bittersweet return of a dear friend. It will likely be the last voyage of the Lois McClure. The boat has long been carrying the mantle of historic traveling canal ambassador, and to the townspeople along the canal system, it was their symbolic link to far away places like Burlington, Buffalo, and New York.
While I was aboard the Lois, I was told that the Lois McClure generated so much appreciation and support from people along its travels, that the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum actually had more members from outside of Vermont than in its home state.
My first lesson from the experience traveling aboard, is that we, and the Seneca Chief, have some big shoes to fill. The second lesson is that the communities we visited, are looking forward to the arrival of the Seneca Chief just as much as we are.
The Buffalo Maritime Center will be continuing a tradition in these communities that is as old as the towns themselves. A historic boat moving along the Erie Canal is more than just something to look at, it breathes life into the canal. The Lois McClure and crew have done with a precision honed by years of experience. I can’t say that they made it look easy. In fact, they made it look like good teamwork and careful planning.
Our challenge in the near future is to take on this role, add our own interpretation and creativity, and provide an experience that renews this relationship with the Canal.