![]() Theodore Too next to the Queen Mary 2 in the port of Halifax, September 25, 2004. | |
History | |
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Name | Theodore Too |
Builder | Snyder's Shipyard, Dayspring, Nova Scotia |
Launched | April 19, 2000 |
Identification | |
Status | in active service |
General characteristics | |
Type | Tour boat |
Tonnage | 105 tons [1] [2] [3] |
Length | 65 ft (20 m) |
Beam | 22 ft (6.7 m) |
Draft | 7 ft 3 in (2.21 m) |
Propulsion | 400-horsepower 300 kilowatt CAT 3406 turbocharged diesel engine. [1] [2] |
Theodore Too is a large-scale imitation tugboat built in Dayspring, Nova Scotia in 2000 based on the fictional television tugboat character Theodore Tugboat. [1] [4] Theodore Too was located in Bedford, Nova Scotia but arrived in Hamilton, Ontario, his new home, on July 18, 2021.
Theodore Too was commissioned by Cochran Entertainment, Inc., [2] the now-defunct production company. Andrew Cochran, the creator of Theodore Tugboat , [1] [5] had told his son bedtime stories about the boats in the big harbour and how they interacted with everyone. This later became the basis for the TV series. Theodore became so popular, the company constructed a life-size model of him for marketing and promoting water safety. [2] [4] The boat is unusual, as it is a full-size replica of a scale model. The original model which was used to film the series and inspired Theodore Too can be seen at Halifax's Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. [6] Theodore Too was built at Snyder's Shipyard in Dayspring, Nova Scotia and launched on April 19, 2000. After sea trials out of Lunenburg, the vessel made its first port call to Halifax on May 6, 2000. [7] The ocean-going boat made a 50-city tour down the eastern seaboard to Tampa Bay and back again through the Great Lakes to Chicago. Theodore Too became the Ambassador of the U.S. National Safe Boating Council and mascot to the U.S. Coast Guard, participating in several tall ship events. [4] For most of its time touring the eastern seaboard and Great Lakes, Theodore Too had a full-time three-person crew, headed by Captain Bill Stewart, a 25-year veteran tugboat captain, who also had an additional nine years as a 44-foot motor lifeboat coxswain in the Canadian Coast Guard. After Cochran Entertainment went out of business, the boat was purchased by a Halifax tour boat company, Murphys on the Water. The vessel provided tours of Halifax Harbour in the summer, operating from the Cable Wharf in downtown Halifax.
On July 16, 2020, Ambassatours announced plans to sell Theodore Too. [8] [9] [10]
Theodore Too was sold to Blair McKeil of McKeil Marine in Burlington. [11] The tug is now expected to collaborate with Swim Drink Fish, a water education and conservation advocacy group, and will promote sustainability and preservation of the Great Lakes. After 21 years, the tug departed the waters off of the Halifax Harbour in early June en route to his new home at the Hamilton Harbour. On July 18, 2021, the tug arrived in Hamilton.
The boat was designed by Fred Allen and naval architect Marius Lengkeek of Lengkeek Vessel Engineering, and was built by Snyder's Shipyard in Dayspring, Nova Scotia, on the Lahave River, not far from Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. [1] [2] [12] [13]
The hull and wheelhouse are made entirely of wood, with a fibreglass hat and smokestack. [1] It has a 'face' on the wheelhouse, with large realistic hydraulic eyes which are no longer operational. [2] The boat displays a number of prop details such as winches and towing bitts inspired from real tugs but operates as a tour boat, not a real tug boat. [1]
Lunenburg is a port town on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, Canada. Founded in 1753, the town was one of the first British attempts to settle Protestants in Nova Scotia.
Bluenose was a fishing and racing gaff rig schooner built in 1921 in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada. A celebrated racing ship and fishing vessel, Bluenose under the command of Angus Walters, became a provincial icon for Nova Scotia and an important Canadian symbol in the 1930s, serving as a working vessel until she was wrecked in 1946. Nicknamed the "Queen of the North Atlantic", she was later commemorated by a replica, Bluenose II, built in 1963. The name Bluenose originated as a nickname for Nova Scotians from as early as the late 18th century.
A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they can or should not move under their own power, such as in crowded harbour or narrow canals, or cannot move at all, such as barges, disabled ships, log rafts, or oil platforms. Some are ocean-going, some are icebreakers or salvage tugs. Early models were powered by steam engines, long ago superseded by diesel engines. Many have deluge gun water jets, which help in firefighting, especially in harbours.
Mahone Bay is a town on the northwest shore of Mahone Bay along the South Shore of Nova Scotia in Lunenburg County. A long-standing picturesque tourism destination, the town has recently enjoyed a growing reputation as a haven for entrepreneurs and business startups. The town has the fastest growing population of any municipality in Nova Scotia according to the 2016 census, experiencing 9.9% population growth.
The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic is a maritime museum located in downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Halifax Harbour is a large natural harbour on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, located in the Halifax Regional Municipality. Halifax largely owes its existence to the harbour, being one of the largest and deepest ice-free natural harbours in the world. Before Confederation it was one of the most important commercial ports on the Atlantic seaboard. In 1917, it was the site of the world's largest man-made accidental explosion, when the SS Mont-Blanc blew up in the Halifax Explosion of December 6.
Bluenose II is a replica of the fishing and racing schooner Bluenose, commissioned by Sidney Culverwell Oland and built in 1963 as a promotional yacht for Oland Brewery. Sidney Oland donated the schooner to Nova Scotia in 1971 and it has since operated as a sailing ambassador and promotional device for Nova Scotia tourism. In honour of her predecessor's record, Bluenose II does not officially race.
Theodore Tugboat is a Canadian children's television series about a tugboat named Theodore who lives in the Big Harbour with all of his friends. The show originated in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada as a co-production between the CBC, and the now defunct Cochran Entertainment, and was filmed on a model set using radio controlled tugboats, ships, and machinery. Production of the show ended in 2001, and its distribution rights were later sold to Classic Media. The show premiered in Canada on CBC Television, then went to PBS, was on Qubo in the United States, and has appeared in eighty different countries.
The Halifax Waterfront Boardwalk is a public footpath located on the Halifax Harbour waterfront in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Chebucto Head is a Canadian headland on Nova Scotia's Chebucto Peninsula located within the community of Duncan's Cove.
Jeddore is a Canadian rural community in Nova Scotia's Halifax Regional Municipality. The community itself comprises several smaller communities. Often the inner communities are referred to on their own but much of the time simply the encapsulating region of Jeddore is simply used. This is most likely due to the size of the communities, individually they are relatively unknown to residents outside of Nova Scotia's Eastern Shore.
Dayspring is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located on the banks of the Lahave River in the Lunenburg Municipal District in Lunenburg County. It is home to the traditional wooden shipyard, Snyder's Shipyard, builders of Theodore Too, among many other vessels, as well as The Riverview Enhanced Living Centre, Miller's Point Peace Park, the Municipal Activity and Recreation Complex and the Bridgewater/Dayspring Airpark.
Fred Allen was a Canadian set designer, art director, artist and model maker, from Stewiacke, Nova Scotia.
The Glen-class tugs were a class of tugboats of the Royal Canadian Navy built during the Second World War. There were three designs of the tugboat; two were of steel-hulled construction and the other was wooden-hulled. Of the 20 of the class built, 16 were of the steel-hulled type; 11 built by Russel Bros. of Owen Sound, Ontario and 5 by Canadian Dredge & Dock Co., Kingston, Ontario. Of the four wooden-hulled type; three were built by McKenzie Barge and Derrick, Vancouver, British Columbia, and one by LeBlanc Shipbuilding, Weymouth, Nova Scotia. All but one – Glendyne – were sold into commercial service after the war.
Point Chebucto is a harbour tug that was built at the Halifax Shipyard in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada in 1992. She is one of very few harbour tugs that were built at the Halifax Shipyards. She has been aiding ships in and out of Halifax Harbour and later Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia since she was registered in January 1993. The tug was built for Eastern Canada Towing Limited, a company that has been around for over 60 years. The tug is named after the point at Chebucto Head, continuing the tradition of Eastern Canada Towing of naming its tugs after points. Eastern Canada Towing took over Foundation Maritime's work in the field of Harbour, Coastal and Deep-Sea tow and salvage. The firm owns and operate a fleet of modern tugs ranging from 1250 HP - 5400 HP. Most tugs are ice strengthened, with several having Ice Class 1 certification. Their head office is also in Halifax. Eastern Canada Towing was purchased in 2007 by Svitzer, a tug boat division of Maersk.
ABCO Industries is located on the waterfront of the UNESCO World Heritage Site-designated port town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
HMCS Reo II was a former rum-running vessel turned military vessel from Meteghan, Nova Scotia. Built in 1931, the ship was used for rum running for five years until Prohibition ended, and was turned into a coastal freighter. She was commissioned during World War II by the Royal Canadian Navy as an auxiliary minesweeper. Declared surplus by the navy in 1945, she was sold to private interests in 1946. Reo II ended up in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia under the care of the Lunenburg Marine Museum Society. In 1984 Reo II was deemed unfit for repair, and was scuttled off Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1985.
Erg was a vessel built and owned by Halifax Steamship Ltd. in 1915. She was used to ferry workers across the harbour to vessels under repair during the Second World War. Erg was sunk in the Halifax Harbour three times and is currently located in the Bedford Basin.
Although it is a busy port, there is sparse record of fireboats in Halifax, Nova Scotia.