Alligator tugs were a type of amphibious vehicle used in the forestry industry throughout Ontario, Quebec, the Maritime provinces of Canada and the northern United States from the mid-19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. These tugs were so named because of their ability to travel between lakes by pulling themselves with a winch across land. Alligators served as a "warping tug". They towed log booms across lakes and then portaged themselves using a winch to the next body of water. The rugged, steam-powered tugs were one of the pioneers in the mechanization of the forest industry in North America.
Various companies built amphibious tugs for logging, but the most successful line of the tugs which came to be known as "alligators" were designed and patented in Canada in the late 1880s, a notable example of Ontario's early industrial era. Most were built by West & Peachey of Simcoe, Ontario. In 1878, Joseph Jackson, a North Ontario country logging businessman, approached the firm West & Peachey Company of Simcoe, makers of boilers, steam engines and logging equipment, to help him solve a problem with hauling large log booms across lakes and slow moving rivers. John Ceburn West traveled north to see Jackson's loggers at work and began to sketch and develop a plan. [1] West & Peachey presented their idea to Mr. Jackson who then commissioned the building of a prototype. West & Peachey built 230 alligator tugs between 1889 and 1932 for customers across Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, the Yukon and the northern United States from Maine to Wisconsin. One was shipped in pieces to be assembled in Colombia in South America. The largest alligator was the Mistango built by Captain John A. Clark for service on Lake Nipissing which was over 66 feet in length and required a crew of eleven. [2] They were used for more than thirty years and were ubiquitous in northern Ontario until eclipsed by the Russel Tug warping tugs built by the Russel Brothers Company in Owen Sound, Ontario. [3]
Alligators were scow-shaped, shallow-draft tugs, fitted with side-mounted paddle wheels, powered by a 20-horsepower steam engine and provided with a cable winch and large anchor. By using the winch Alligators could pull themselves over land, around portages and up as much as a 20-degree incline at the rate of 1 to 2+1⁄2 miles per day. They could haul a boom of some 60,000 logs across water against all but the strongest winds. They were heavily but simply built, making rebuilding and repair easy. Alligators began with paddle wheel propulsion. Later versions used screw propellers and diesel engines in place of steam.
These tugs enabled access to the upper reaches of the Ottawa River and its many tributaries. The Alligator tug extended the social and economic stability provided by the timber industry and supported the populating of this vast region. Alligators of the North is a wonderful touchstone for all who share this heritage.
— Mary Campbell, mayor of McNab-Braeside Township, Renfrew County
The only currently operating alligator tug is the W.D. Stalker located in Simcoe, Ontario. A static alligator, William M. is preserved at the logging museum in Algonquin Park. Another, named Fairy Blonde is preserved at the Wakami Lake Provincial Park near Chapleau, Ontario. An Alligator tugboat called the Missinaibi is on display in the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Surviving remains of an alligator tug have been the subject of a contested restoration effort in Northern Ontario between the Connaught and District Historical Society and another interest group. The abandoned remains of another alligator can be found on a small island in Catfish Lake in Algonquin Park. [4]
An amphibious vehicle is a vehicle that works both on land and on or under water. Amphibious vehicles include amphibious bicycles, ATVs, cars, buses, trucks, railway vehicles, combat vehicles, and hovercraft.
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Simcoe is an unincorporated community and former town in Southwestern Ontario, Canada near Lake Erie. It is the county seat and largest community of Norfolk County. Simcoe is at the junction of Highway 3, at Highway 24, due south of Brantford, and accessible to Hamilton by nearby Highway 6. The largest of the communities in Norfolk County, Simcoe had a population of 16,121 at the time of the 2021 Census.
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John Rudolphus Booth was a Canadian lumber tycoon and railroad baron. He controlled logging rights for large tracts of forest land in central Ontario, and built the Canada Atlantic Railway to extract his logs and to export lumber and grain to the United States and Europe. In 1892, his lumber complex was the largest operation of its kind in the world.
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'Brompton Caribou' is 28 feet 6 inches long, 7 feet 6 inches wide and has a depth of 2 feet 9 inches boat commonly known as a "Gator Tug", or "Winch boat" made by the Russel-Hipwell Engines Company in 1955 and is hull number 1058. It is made with a welded 3/16" steel hull in the clinker configuration and a cabin made of 18 gauge steel. It has a cable steering system with a plate steel rudder, 26" diameter Propeller with a rather heavy duty shield around the prop made of round bar to shop logs and debris from damaging the propeller, English made Lister model FR4 4 cylinder water-cooled diesel engine producing 36 hp at 1,800 rpm and a Twin Disc model MG-61 reversing marine gearbox with a 3:1 gear ratio. This boat also originally had a Russel-Hipweel winch, model W-434 that was driven by a PTO on the front of the engine but it has since been removed. The standard models have a simple rectangle cabin with a large sliding windows on both the port and starboard sides, a smaller sliding window and a door that opens to the inside on the front, and a little sliding door on the back of the cabin. They usually have the exhaust pipe going out through the side of the hull approximately a foot below the bulwarks on an angle facing aft, but many have had the pipe removed and installed going up through the roof of the cabin.
The Bull-of-the-Woods Logging Scow is a small paddle steamer wrecked in Burntside Lake in Morse Township, Minnesota, United States. It was built no earlier than 1893 for one of the lumber companies operating in the area. It is a small, flat-bottomed vessel outfitted with a steam donkey modified to power the vessel as well as a winch. There were at least a few of these vessels in operation in northeastern Minnesota in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, where they were locally known as "alligators" or "gators". With the steam-powered winch and shallow paddle wheels, they could tow timber rafts, hoist logs, navigate shallow waters, and even pull themselves across dry land. This vessel may have remained in service as late as 1926, when the last lumber company ceased operations on Burntside Lake. It is the only known surviving example of its type.
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