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The Derelict Tug J.S. Polhemus
by John Buchanan 2017
The J.S. Polhemus in 2013. (Photo from the John Buchanan collection. )
In 1939 she was owned by the US Army Corps of Engineers having been built in Washington State by R.B. Bivens to a design by O.A. Seigley. She was named for J.S. Polhemus who was an administrator of U.S. Lighthouses.
The J.S. Polhemus in 1939. (Photo from the December 1939 issue of Pacific Motor Boat Magazine. )
She was a tug boat 78.6’ x 21.6’ x 5’ powered by a 350hp DMG–26 diesel engine by Enterprise Engine & Foundry Co., San Francisco CA.
The builders of the J.S. Polhemus in 1939. From l to r: R.B. Bivens (builder); O.A. Seigley (designer and supervisor of construction); Bill Porter (Enterprise Engine Co.); M.C. Bray (Superintendent of plant for the engineers); George Nickum (consultant naval architect). (Photo from the December 1939 issue of Pacific Motor Boat Magazine. )
The J.S. Polhemus in the Derelict Boat Flotilla at Darrell Bay BC in 2016 (Photo from the John Buchanan collection. )
The J.S. Polhemus is part of a group of boats that over the last 5 years or so has been reduced by 6 because one by one they have sunk mostly from lack of maintenance. The group of boats in question was in the Squamish Harbor last year and was ordered to move. The boats were then moved just outside the harbor to a small bay called Darrell Bay in Howe Sound B.C. There they sit where already two have sunk and can be seen at low tide. My interest in these boats is both the environmental impact they present, and my love of their history. Sadly the J.S. Polhemus will also probably sink there one day too.
To quote from this article please cite:
Buchanan, John (2017) The Derelict Tug J.S. Polhemus. Nauticapedia.ca 2017. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/JS_Polhemus.php
Site News: January 14, 2025
The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 94,957 vessel histories (with 16,337 images and 13,935 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters).
The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,599 entries (with 3998 images).
My thanks to Ray Warren who is beginning a long process of filling gaps in the photo record of the vessel histories in the vessel database. Ray has been documenting the ships of Vancouver Harbour for more than 60 years.
Thanks to contributor Mike Rydqvist McCammon for the hundreds of photos he continues to contribute to illustrate British Columbia’s floating heritage.
My very special thanks to our volunteer IT adviser, John Eyre, who (since 2021) has modernized, simplified and improved the update process for the databases into semi–automated processes. His participation has been vital to keeping the Nauticapedia available to our netizens.
Thanks to John Spivey who is beginning his 4th year of fact checking all of the entries in the vessel database.