❖ Oh–Oh, Where is the Captain's Ship?

L: Captain Otto Johnson, 
master of the real RELIANCE tug,
with a scale model he crafted.
R:  Churchill Griffiths, V-P 
Washington Tug & Barge.
Photo dated June 1952.
Tap image to enlarge.

Low-res. scan of an original photo from the 
archives of the Saltwater People Historical Society©
Photo is back-stamped from the
Marine Salon /Williamson Collection.

This site has had archived photographs posted of finely crafted scale models of a sternwheeler, a ferry or two, and a few sailing ships. One of the latter class was a model of the Arthur Sewall three-master Henry Villard (1882-1929) eventually owned by James Griffiths and Sons. Keeping it in the family, we can now sponsor a tug boat model.

        This was a long time ago; we hope the story had a happy ending.

        The scale model of the Seattle tug Reliance went missing during dinner, much to the consternation of her owners and the committee which handled the Maritime Day Tug Boat Races.        

        The Reliance model was seen the evening of 24 May at the Seattle Yacht Club, during the awards dinner. She was on display along with winners' plaques and other mementos connected with the annual race.
        When the event was over, the Reliance was gone.
        Committee members suspected a joke and were confident she would soon turn up in some ludicrous situation as a "topper" for the gag.
        But, more than two weeks later, the whereabouts of the Reliance was still a nautical mystery.
        The two-foot, scale model was made by Capt. Otto Johnson, master of the real Reliance, which was owned at this time by the Washington Tug & Barge Co.
        The model had considerable sentimental value to Captain Johnson and other officials of the tug company. Churchill Griffiths, vice-president of the company, joined in a plea for the return of the small ship.
        Hollis Farwell was general chairman for the Maritime Day events and remarked "Let's just say the joke's over."

News source: The Seattle Times newspaper. 

Addendum: 

"By the 1970s the RELIANCE was still a handsome old tug but she leaked all the time. She was losing her sheer also. It was hard to assess the hull on the inside due to an enormous fuel tank which occupied the midship area of the full. Something was wrong, somewhere. I was with Olson Tugboat Company with my tug BEE during the mid-to-late 1970s when Church decided to sell the RELIANCE. He offered the old tug to me for $45,000. I had the sense not to buy. Captain Lee Freeman who was the  dispatcher there at Washington Tug said to me, 'it's like selling your grandmother.' Church sold her to Gene MacKay in Ketchikan, who had a shipyard of some sort there. Soon afterward I heard that RELIANCE had sunk. Don't know the details." Words by Keith Sternberg, Lopez Island, WA.