Lars was a Chief Engineer on Blue Line tugboats in NY harbor, the east coast, canal system and Great Lakes.
He was purportedly to be the youngest tugboat chief engineer in the NYC harbor in the 1940’s.
He worked on tugs with steam engines, straight drive diesel engines and diesel-electric tugs and small tankers.
See the section  "Marine Engineer License 1929" for an appreciation of some of the requirements for a license.
MarineEngrLicense1929
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Lars was sent by the McWilliams Blue Line Co. to Port Arthur Texas in 1950 & 1951 to supervise the building of the Tug Salutation.
Salutation was a GM-12-278A diesel-electric  and was the first new-build tug in NY harbor to have a hydraulic-pilothouse.
This new design made it unnecessary to add or remove a pilothouse extension in a shipyard  when changing to or from harbor work to canal or low-bridge assignments.
A great book :Sailors, Waterways and Tugboats I have known, by Capt Fred Godfrey, shows older tug Canal Cities being retrofitted with a retractable pilot house at Oyster Bay, NY in March 1950.
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Subsequent to the Salutation, other similar new tugboats were built by the Bushey Shipyard in NY including the Crow  and Cheyenne which are still in service; see web site Waterford Tugboat Roundup.
Lars was assigned by Blue Line in 1954 as a shore-engineer to represent them for all their work done at the Perth Amboy Dry Dock.
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During the summers of 1956, 1957, and 1958  Dad was instrumental in getting me to join the Merchant Marine Union in NY and to then serve on Blue Line tugboats.   I was an oiler on the Seneca in 56 and 58 and a deckhand on the Saratoga in 57.
There can be something positive to be said for nepotism!
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Dad was born on the little island of Tysnes at the entry to the Hardangerfjord just south of Bergen, Norway.
He left home at 14, as did most of the country boys at that time,   to go to work at sea.  I believe he only returned home once when he was ill with Scarlet Fever.
One can view the family homestead at: http://www.lars1.com/NorwayTrip2008/Tysnes/default.htm
Dad died in an auto accident in 1964 near our home upstate NY.
Dad was a very professional seaman and a good, kind, decent and honest person, husband, father and friend.
He spend most of his life away from home.    He is greatly missed!
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