Tug Gregory J. Busch of Saginaw nestles alongside the USS Edson to move the vessel about 1,000 feet upriver. (MyBayCity Photo by Dave Rogers)

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EDSON MOVES: Destroyer Shifts Making Way For Freighters at Wirt Dock

May 3, 2013
By: Dave Rogers

A 94-year-old tug can't be expected to work all day, now can it?

The 142-foot Gregory J. Busch, pusher tug out of Saginaw, huffed and puffed and eased the 418 foot destroyer USS Edson just 1,000 feet on Friday morning.

There it parked the Edson at the west end of the Wirt dock, near tall blue loading towers that rise above the Essexville "skyline."

Hard to believe, but the tug was built in 1919 for the U.S. Shipping Board by Whitney Brothers in Superior Wisconsin and originally named Humaconna. It is categorized as an ocean-going tug by Bowling Green State University.

Operating on the West Coast for the shipping board 1919-1923, the Merrill & Ring Lumber Co., 1923-1940, and the Western Pacific Railroad Co., 1940-1959. Then came a series of one year owners, including a bankruptcy trustee and the Any Ocean Towing Service 1961-1962.

The tug was brought back to the Midwest by the Nicholson Transit Co. in 1962 and based on the Detroit River in Ecorse.

Bill Stender acquired the tug in 1969 and operated it as a salvage tug at his yard on the Saginaw River south of Salzburg until 1977.

Busch Oceanographic acquired it in 1977 converted to a salvage vessel at Carrollton. Two tall towers were added to the deck that make the tug distinctive among mostly small fellow tugs.

The tug moved the Edson to make way for a couple of bulk freighters due in to the Wirt Stone Dock in Essexville.

Then the old girl rested, perhaps to save strength for another day . . . who knows?

"Why not move her all the way?" Mike Kegley, president of the Saginaw Valley Naval Ship Museum was asked.

"Ask the tugboat captain," Kegley replied.

The tug has been contracted for $5,000 to move the ship through the railroad bridge to its permanent mooring near the Independence Bridge in Bay City.