1953 ❖ Silverware for Capt. Noel Davis, Tug MONARCH ❖

Capt. Noel Davis
the winner of the
workboat trophy presented by 
Mr. O. Bardahl.
Click image to enlarge.
Friday Harbor Journal
1953.

Captain Noel Davis was one of four sons of James E. Davis, first white child born on Lopez Island. The four Davis sons, Russell, Leonard, Noel, and Hilliard all became masters.
James E. Davis' brother, Lindley Davis, was one of the founders of the Cary-Davis Tug and Barge Co.

MONARCH 
249711
Built on the east coast in 1944.
292 G.t. 122 N.t.
117.2' x 28.1' x 12.8'
Scan of an original photo from the
Saltwater People Historical Society©

1946: 
 She was purchased by the Puget Sound Tug and Barge Co at a fixed price of $43,200 for her and the tug HERCULES, both the same size. Each of the tugs cost $400,000 to build.
1952:
Captain Noel Davis had the MONARCH dragging a barge loaded with 26,000 gallons of aviation gasoline through a full southwest gale off the Washington coast. At the height of the storm, ten miles or so southwest of Destruction Island, the tow line broke. The laden barge went rolling and pitching off into the storm, headed for sure destruction on the rocky Washington coast. Rescue vessels, summoned by the MONARCH's radio, ended up in the lee of Tatoosh Island taking seas down their stacks while they rolled and pitched like porpoises.
      While other shipping was concerned only with taking care of itself, the MONARCH, looking more like a submarine than a tugboat, circled her runaway barge. Capt. Davis saw to it that every man on deck was wearing a life jacket and was secured by lifelines. One man was detailed as a lifeguard for every two men working. The broken towline was cast free, a new line attached to the big towing winch aft. Then a light kedge anchor was attached to a messenger line at the end of the new hawser.
      For more than eleven hours the tug stalked the storm-driven barge. Then, as the MONARCH swept in a fast turn around the barge's plunging stern, the messenger line was flung out, the anchor hooked over the surge chain on the barge, and the tow was secured again. The crew of the MONARCH had harpooned the runaway tank barge in much the same way men in small boats once harpooned whales. 
      The MONARCH received the Barhahl Workboat Service Trophy for that job––an award for 'outstanding navigation, seamanship, and courage." [as included in the above newspaper clip.] Gordon Newell, Pacific Tugboats. 1957. Seattle. Superior Publishing Co.