Steamer Moultonborough
 

Hi All,

A man I met who loves the lake and her history sent me the attached picture he said was taken from the stern of the steam tug Moultonboro and wanted to know what direction it was facing. He said the vessel was in Lees Mills.

He took it at the age of 15 with a Kodak Brownie camera in Feb. 1951 on a scouting hike over the ice. If my pictures post in the order I upload them the picture he took will be the 1st one. And it will be the only one that clearly is from the stern. I have posted others of the Moultonboro as well after the one he sent me. It was quite a tug.

I can't find but have def. seen, pictures of a massive building/buildings on the shore at Lees Mill where the present Town Dock is. I recall them clearly because of where they were (front & center right on the shore) and their massive size and height.

When I zoom in on the photograph he sent me as far as I'm concerned they are the same structures I saw in the other pictures I can't find. As I recall these buildings were destroyed by extraordinary high winds.

The tow point in his picture does not seem to appear in my photographs but it could be the same vessel.

My take is that the tug is sitting low in the water to your right as you come into Lees Mills bay from the south, thru the narrow channel, and faces more or less north/north west.

He was wondering if the horizon in the background was Red Hill.

Any idea?

Based on research of the steam tug Moultonboro I have done in the past, formerly called the Center Harbor, I think I know where her hull is (all 90 feet of her). I have a hull, but can't say of course it's the Moultonboro.

In the Spring I will dive it and the first thing I will be looking for is propellors. I estimated the length of the hull I found at about 90 feet based on the center-to-center distance of the ribs. My information indicates that one of the Moultonboro's two props were taken off but the 2nd should be there.

I will speculate and suggest that the big prop in front of the Tuftonboro Historical Society could be from the Moultonboro, and this assumes the info I have is accurate. Measurements and pictures I will take of any props I find on this hull, if there are any, will help with identification when compared to the one at the TBoro Historical Society.

We'll see.

Red Hill for sure.

hemlock point
 

It looks as if the photo was taken as if the steamboat was tied off to Hemlock Point(Loon Center Property). There is currently an old railroad truck submerged nearby that used to be used to haul larger vessels out of the water. If you look carefully at low water it is near the ribs of an old barge beached parallel to the shoreline. (Will Raymonds old barge).

T'Boro Library Owes M'Boro a Propeller?
 

Interesting historical thread with a "lake workhorse" tug some of us could have seen in place. ;)

In the first photo, the main deck aft is hidden, but shows the second deck tow point, which was apparently photographed from the third deck. The third deck has a noticeable arch to it, 90# felt :eek2: and scuppers (of a sort :look: ).

On the second deck, which is nearly flat, appears an apparent woodstove / stovepipe flashing next to the tow point in three photos (1, 3, 4, + less-so in 5, where someone has "liberated" the pipe and cap).

On a steam vessel, what was the purpose of the hose and nozzle circled below?

:confused:

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i1...psnawshfjz.jpg

.

Purpose of the nozzle and hose
 

While I do lake research all year round as the need arises, off-season I dig deeper into materials I have found.

I am now searching all 60 issues (each issue spans multiple years) of the Granite State News-165 gigabytes of data-covering 1861 to 1985 for various things I am looking for (like the Seneca) and 3 days ago came across a reference to oil being shuttled around the lake on steamers to various points. The piece did not say what the oil was for but it's fair to say heating and/or fuel oil for some sort of furnaces or engines.

For this reason I think that the purpose of the hose and nozzle was to move oil off the tug, but a longer hose would seem to be in order.

Good call APS-I didn't see that on the tug.

Thanks all for your input-I find it really helpful when people reply to my posts and I greatly appreciate it.

HH

I just found this piece in GSN
 

Too strange-just after I posted the above reply as to what the hose and nozzle might be for, I went back to my research in the Granite State News archives.

Almost immediately up came the attached advertisement dated December 23, 1916 for Socony kerosene heating fuel.

The Universe at work.............

Missing prop? Fuel?
 

In the OP pix it looks like the machinery was removed--e.g. no stack, whistle. If that's true, and it was common practice, I believe, why would not the props and shafts have been removed for re-use? If one prop made its way to the T'boro Historical Society, why would there be an expectation that one was left with the boat?

Re: hose and kerosene. I can visualize that portable sawmills may have been set up on shore where roads were inadequate, since a lot of shipping was done by boat/barge, not truck, at least to connect to rail points. Would that have been a kerosene market for the Moultonborough? Any idea what the Moultonborough might have used for fuel herself? If she had a large (metal) fuel tank, either there should be evidence of it, or I would expect some evidence of superstructure removal in order to remove the tank.

Another picture of the Moultonboro
 

I was sent an interesting picture of the steamer Moultonboro at the Lees Mill dock.

Not sure what year it was taken, but according to Jane Rice in Moultonboro who sent it to me, it was taken by a man named Fred Markus, "who had the camp in the cove on the right between the channel into Lee's Mills and the larger bay to the right of the town wharf, where the loon nesting raft usually sits, hence the Markus Sanctuary".

Credit goes to Jane and the Loon Preservation Society.

I am curious how a vessel that size got in and out of the Lees Mills cove. Depth alone should be a challenge, much less the narrow slot that is the channel.

I have some other information to collect about Lees Mills I may post once I see it.

As usual if you want to zoom in on the image right-click it, save it as a picture to the desktop.

More pictures from Jane Rice.

The logs are due to what I believe was a burst dam due to a flood long ago.

The laker-type craft is the Weownit.