High Seas: Ocean Tow Boats

The front of the building looked out on their waterfront, there was sufficient room for twenty tugs, if the need arose. It did not look like they would outgrow their new home any time soon. Over the next several days, Keith noticed the increased tempo of their business, a tug hardly ever spent more than over night at the pier. The MANUEL and the DAVID were constantly on the move, these new tugs were what the oil folks were praying for. A single tug that could move an entire Texas Tower, needing only smaller tugs for steering! They had been there hardly a week when both Keith and Andrew were having to think about another new tug! They were so delighted with the JOHNNIE that they let a contract with Texas Shipbuilding to build a second tug, just like the JOHNNIE. When Andrew asked Keith if he wanted to call the new tug the CHAI, he agreed immediately. They decided not to tell the young teen about the new ship and its name until it was time for launching.

Charlie had come to Houston to help get the business started and, as soon as things had settled down, Johnnie flew out of San Francisco Airport and joined him in Houston. Charlie had planned on returning to San Francisco as soon as the business was established in Houston. He did not like Texas or its people and had flatly refused to take the position of Business Manager in Houston and besides, he felt Johnnie was fully capable of running the store!

The pace of operations picked up when The DAVID and The MANUEL JASPER arrived. The two large tugs were constantly being called to move a rig or retrieve a drill spud.

They had hired two divers right away and completed the outfitting of a diving air compressor on each of the large tugs as well as a special compartment for the divers to use for their gear.

The fuel barge was at Bates' Pier so often that the supplier suggested they just park a barge near the pier and Bates' pay for the fuel by the barge load. It would be cheaper, even though Bates Marine would have a greater initial outlay. With the reduced price of the fuel, the initial outlay would be recovered on the first barge. Johnnie asked both Peter and Keith about the idea and they told him it was his job, just do it.

Johnnie rounded up a contract with several of the local drillers for them to be "sole source" suppliers for transportation and relocation of drilling towers. The activity in the waters off the Texas shoreline was booming, almost every day the trade papers noted another bore was being made.

Keith and Andrew were being run ragged, The DAVID and The MANUEL JASPER were sailing almost every day.

Peter and Charlie returned to San Francisco after a few weeks in Houston, Charlie had no intention of returning, ever! Peter was thinking it might be a good idea to move their corporate headquarters to Texas, as California taxes were already sky-high and talk was they were going up again.

When both Keith and Andrew were worn down, both had lost weight and had dark circles under their eyes, Texas Shipbuilding called to tell them that their new ship would be ready for launching the next week. It would then take another month at the outfitting pier before she was ready for service.

That evening, both Keith and Andrew sat down with Chai and explained to him about the new tug's name and that he was going to send it down the builder's ways into the water.

Chai's eyes got big and asked, "Does it know how to swim yet?"

They could see the boy's eyes rolling in laughter and soon, they all were chuckling about Chai's joke. That night, the two brothers were having a last cup of coffee and watching the late news on the television. Keith said, "You know, that was the first time I have ever heard Chai make a joke!"

Andrew replied, "Yeah, he has come a long way. Did you see the note from his teacher at Higgin's Academy?"

Keith said, "No, I have not seen it."

Andrew went into the den and got the letter, Keith's eyes bugged out! He asked, "What do you think about her proposal?"

Andrew replied, "I think we ought to let him do it, if he can do the Eleventh Grade work like she says, then let's go for it."

The next day, Chai went to school with a letter from both Keith and Andrew giving their permission for Chai to be advanced into the Eleventh Grade at the Academy.

Chai struggled for a few days until he got used to the new teacher and the curriculum. When he brought home his first quarterly report, Chai had an ear to ear grin on his face, he had brought home all A's and Mr. Carleton, his home room teacher, wrote that Chai Bates was pushing his classmates to achieve more, faster and that his teachers feared that they, themselves, were going to be left behind!

They sat down with Chai that evening and asked him if he knew what he wanted to do after high school.

The boy didn't hesitate, he said, "I wanna drive a tug boat just like my Daddies!"

Andrew and Keith looked at each other and Keith said, "I guess we should go meet the folks at the Texas Maritime Academy over at Galveston and get them ready for Boy Wonder here!"

Their crews had hardly gotten used to the change of pace in their new location when Johnnie went into high gear selling their services.

The MANUEL JASPER and The DAVID hardly had time to refuel and Johnnie had contacted PEMEX, the Mexican Oil Company. They were opening a new block and the Mexican Officials were delighted there were two large tugs now in the area. They placed a contract with Bates Marine Services that would tie up one of the large tugs for the next six months with an option to renew for another six months!

They assigned The DAVID, The HELEN and The ANDREW to work the PEMEX Account. Keith groaned, he said he didn't like tacos and beans for breakfast!

This latest contract put additional work on Andrew and The MANUEL JASPER, he started complaining of blisters on his butt because it was dragging!

Both The MANUEL JASPER and The DAVID were in port together for once and their housekeeper had fixed their favorite meal, corned beef and cabbage. They had hardly sat down to their supper when the telephone rang, it was the duty clerk down at the office, "Texaco No. 6 and 7 are on fire, there has been a gas explosion and there are many injuries. They have called for both The MANUEL JASPER and The DAVID!"

Keith shouted to Chai that they were leaving and the boy stood at the window watching his Daddies jump in the car and race down the street. Tears were rolling down his face as he watched his Daddies disappear down the street.

The Chief Engineers on both tugs had beat Keith and Andrew to the pier and had started warming up their main engines. They had already started the generators and had dropped off shore power.

Keith shouted to Andrew, "It's your turn to incident commander. I will follow you out the channel."

Andrew waived a knuckled fist with an extended index finger above his head as they both ran up the gangways of their tugs.

As soon as the tugs had been checked out, they slipped their mooring lines and headed down the ship channel out through Galveston Bay to the Gulf. Texaco No. 6 and No. 7 were almost due south of Galveston about sixty miles, in the Claypile Block.

As soon as they cleared the bay, they both crammed their throttles to All Ahead Emergency, they were on the Ship to Ship Net and the Tower No. 6 operator reported many injuries from burns.

The other tower reported two fatalities and that his fire was out of control! They were going to need a diver to go down and shut the Christmas Tree (valve column) off.

They both reported that there had been seismic activity just before the explosions.

Andrew called down to the engine room and told the Chief, "Chris, give me everything you got, people are hurt and the fires are out of control!"

Chris Jenkins, his new Chief Engineer, got his key out and unlocked the emergency override on the governor and crammed the governor wedges all the way to the stops.

Allen Murkey did the same on The MANUEL JASPER and the two tugs surged forward, the pit logs were quivering at twenty-three knots. Still, it took them nearly three hours to get there, there were two Coast Guard Helicopters circling, trying to find an opening in the flames so they could set down and take off the injured.

Both rigs were covered in a sheet of fire. Andrew pulled up to Tower No. 7 and Keith maneuvered around to Tower No. 6. The tugs each put both fire pumps on line and started pouring sea water on the fires. The smaller tugs were a little slower in arriving, but they added their streams of water to battle the fires.

Huge balls of gas were being ejected and would explode, sending sheets of fire over the tugs battling the flames!

Both drill foremen asked for diver assistance to shut down the Christmas Trees, divers on both The MANUEL JASPER and The DAVID were already in their gear and their attendants were hooking up their hoses and life lines. The "Divers in the Water" pennants went up on both tugs at the same time.

It took four hours before the Coasties could board the towers and begin sending the injured ashore for treatment. Those who had lost their lives were carried over to the Cutter. By daybreak of the next day, they had finally beaten the flames down, the divers had managed to turn the valve blocks off and the fires ran out of fuel.

The two towers were a twisted mass of steel girders that had softened and crazed like spaghetti. The oil company had sent out relief crews and the tugs took the fire and smoke blackened drill crews off, wrapped in blankets and sitting numbly in the mess, their eyes glazed and hair singed.

They knew all about HELL on Earth! They had just come from there!

As soon as they had been released, they followed the Cutter back to Houston in a solemn parade, there were twenty-two fatalities and their bodies were all on the Cutter.

The relief crews were going to clean up a bit and shut everything down until after there had been a Board of Inquiry.

They arrived back at Bates' Marine, where there were ambulances to take the tower crews to the hospital. Several of the tower crew looked longingly at the tugs and one of them said to Keith, "Cap'n, I gots me papers, 'n I sure would like to work on this here tugboat."

Keith replied, "When you are all healed and a bit rested, come on down to the office and we shall see what we can do." Keith thought that having some crew who had drill tower experience might be a pretty good idea, especially since it looked like this was going to be a frighteningly regular occurrence.

They moored to the pier at a more sedate manner and cleaned up both ships before sending the crews home to get some sleep. Peter was waiting for them when Keith and Andrew stumbled into their house, both were dead tired and covered in soot from the fire.

Peter had made some coffee and handed it to them and said, "Guys, I have made an appointment for us to go down to Galveston tomorrow, we are gonna have lunch with the Dean at Texas A&M Maritime Academy.

Andrew replied, "Great, we are pretty sure that is where Chai wants to go."

Peter laughed, "Yeah, he was glued to the Ship to Ship receiver, listening to everything that you guys were doing."

The brothers both grinned and looked at each other as if to say, "I told ya!"

That afternoon, Chai came home from school all excited, he had gotten an application for the Maritime Academy from the counseling office and he was all set to fill it out now. Keith told him, "Why don't you wait a few days. Your other Dad and I are going there to meet with the Dean and look the place over."

Chai said immediately, "Can I come too?"

Keith said to him, "Nope, you gotta go to school and get all the grades you can, entrance is very competitive and only the very best get accepted!"

Chai went to do his homework. His teachers would complain that the boy was pushing them for more knowledge, more homework!

There was a slight lull in operations after Keith and Andrew returned from their trip to Galveston. They had met with the Dean at the Maritime Academy and both were impressed with the school. They concluded an agreement to allow two Cadets at a time to spend two weeks on the large tugs as observers.

The fame of The DAVID and The MANUEL JASPER had spread as far as Galveston and the brothers had not even gotten off the campus when there was a line at Dean's office to sign up.

A contract had come into the office from PEMEX to move a drill tower from Matamoros to the Mexico Basin. It would be a forty-five day operation and, when Johnnie had quoted them the charges, the Mexican officials didn't even blink.

They decided that Keith would take The DAVID and The MARTHA to handle the tower. While Keith was off working the PEMEX Tower move, an "INVITATION to BID" was received from the Navy Reserve Fleet (mothball fleet) in Houston. On the list of ships to be disposed of were six Ocean Tug Boats like those they already had in their fleet.

Andrew spoke with Keith over the Company Radio Net and then called Peter in San Francisco. They both agreed that he should go and take a look, bid on all six if he thought they were in good shape.

Andrew had a check cut for the bid fees and, since Higgins Academy was on spring break, he told Chai that he could come with him. The two arrived at the mothball fleet on the morning of the sale and there were only a few people present.

Andrew filed their fees and he and Chai went to inspect the tugs. After they had climbed all over the six tugs, Andrew decided to bid on only four of them. They were high bidder on three of the tugs and when Andrew went to write the check for them, he was told they had to be removed from the premises in two weeks or sooner.

Rather than start them up, he decided to send their own tugs to tow them down to Texas Shipbuilding to have their hulls inspected and the ships painted. Chai had asked permission of the Navy Officer in charge of the sale to take pictures of the tugs they had purchased and the officer told him it would be alright.

Andrew didn't think anything more about it until a week later when several men came to the office. They were looking for employment on the new tugs, their sons went to Higgins Academy and Chai had given them pictures of the new ships.

They hired two new Captains, three Chief Engineers and three Mates out of the group.

With the new acquisitions, Peter finally accepted that their corporate headquarters should be in Houston and he began the planning for the move. They purchased some land away from the waterfront, but where the upper story windows looked down on Bates' Pier.

The newspapers in the San Francisco Bay Area urged Peter to remain in their area and the San Francisco Examiner called for a state investigation in an attempt to block the move. But, Bates Marine was a privately held company that had no ties to any government nor did they have government loans on any of their ships.

The move began almost immediately.

Before any of the "smoke" had settled, PEMEX called, needing a second big tug and Andrew had to go. The MANUEL JASPER joined The DAVID and The MARTHA. The tower was fighting The DAVID and it was going to take the two of them to maneuver the thrice damned thing out to its drill position. The winds were awful and they were kicking up the seas something terrible.

They finally fought the tower into position and divers from both tugs went down with the PEMEX divers to check the footprint of the tower. PEMEX officials asked that both tugs "hang around" for a couple of days until they got the drill spud in position and started the bore. Since PEMEX was paying the standby time, neither Andrew nor Keith objected.

Keith and The DAVID finally departed with The MARTHA following behind. Andrew was asked to wait one more day, at the fees that PEMEX was paying, he had no problem staying another few days on the worksite.

They were given leave to depart at noon the second day and Keith called in to Bates Marine that he was headed home. As they were crossing the Walker Ridge out in the Gulf, the lookout spotted a small fishing boat that looked wrecked. When Keith put his binoculars on the boat, he saw the mast laying to one side and the sail was dragging in the water.

He ordered the DAVID to reduce sped to slow and he headed the tug towards the derelict boat. When they came alongside, the deckhand screamed up to the bridge, "THERE IS A BODY IN THE BOAT SIR, A CHILD'S BODY!"

Keith backed down the DAVID until they were at a dead stop alongside the small boat. He and the First Mate climbed down to the boat on a rope ladder and saw that the boat was taking on water, it would sink in minutes!

They quickly searched the boat and found no one else, except the body of a boy, who appeared to be around nine or ten years old. When Keith touched the boy, the child moved slightly, showing that the boy was still alive.

The deck crew sent a Stokes stretcher over the side and they got the child into the basket. The deck crew hauled the stretcher on board the DAVID as Keith and the Mate climbed back to the tug.

They had hardly gotten aboard the DAVID when the fishing boat slipped beneath the surface of the water.

Keith carried the child up to his own stateroom while the Mate went to the bridge and got them underway again.

The child was semi-conscious, he kept moaning, "Dondé está mi papa, piratas, piratas!" Keith had to dredge up what little Spanish he remembered from his childhood, which brought awful memories back along with the words. Neglecting his own needs at the sudden memories, he quickly translated what the boy was saying. There had been no other person on the little fishing boat and there had been no other vessels in sight of on the radar screen.

Since the child was saying "pirates", he sent the mate down for the pistols out of the firearms locker.

He carried the boy into his own stateroom and laid him on the bunk. He set to wiping the child's face and cleaning him up a bit and the boy began screaming as he started to "come to"

As near as Keith could tell, some other fishermen had attacked the boy and his father and had stolen their catch. There was no sign of the father so he had the tug wander around the area at dead slow, but there was no sign of the father or a body floating in the water.

After searching for an hour, they had to give up, there was no sign of even their fishing boat, nor that of a body. He surmised that sharks would have taken care of a bleeding body very quickly and leave no trace.

They returned to their course for home and Keith got on the Ship to Shore. Peter had returned and answered the call, when Keith told him what they had, Peter asked, "Another son?"

Keith chuckled and replied, "Yeah Dad, he is a handsome little guy, even though he hasn't been eating enough lately. Make it happen!"

They had retained Peterson and Sons as their attorneys in Houston, so Peter called their offices right away. Joel Peterson said, "We don't usually handle cases of this sort, but, in this case, we will make an exception. Expect to see my son, Hank, in your office in about an hour or so."

Peter had only dealt with Joel Peterson before, so he was startled when a tall lanky cowboy type man walked into his office. The man said, "Hi, I'm Hank Peterson and I understand y'all got a boy problem."

Peter was speechless, Hank Peterson was about his own age and even taller than he was. At six foot, four inches, few men were taller, Peter looked up at this man and was nearly floored.

After Carson had died, he figured he would never again meet anyone he could be interested in. The two men shook hands and it was like an electric charged passed between them, they just stood there staring at each other.

Just then, Joel Peterson entered the room and saw the two men just standing, holding each other's hand and staring. Joel chuckled and said, "Well, Hank, is this him?"

Joel shuddered and nodded his head, unable to speak, both men clasped each other and were sobbing, their tears soaking each other's shirt.

The emotion finally wore down a bit and everyone sat down, Joel said, "First things first, about this boy that your son, Keith found out in the Gulf?"

Peter stammered, "Yes, Keith is the Captain of The DAVID and he and his brother, Andrew were rescued from a flaming yacht when they were both children. My friend, Carson Bates, and I raised them and now they command the two largest Ocean Tugs in the Gulf."

Joel asked, "And Carson Bates?"

Peter replied, "He died of a massive heart attack just before we moved Bates Marine Services here. It was not until after he died that he expressed his love for me and then it was too late."

Peter looked at Hank and said, "I'm not gonna let that happen again, Hank Peterson, will you be my life partner?"

Hank was unable to reply, he could only nod his head in a yes.

Joel then said, "OK, we got that taken care of, now, let's see about this boy."

While Hank was filling out forms, Joel got on the phone and called in a few favors, twenty minutes later, His Honor, Judge Hector Garcia, Chief Judge of the Superior Court arrived.

Peter could see The DAVID tying up at their pier and Keith was walking down the gangway with a child held in his arms. Peter said, "I think they are coming here right now." He went out to the upstairs veranda and called down to Keith to bring himself and the child upstairs right away.

Before the evening had turned dark, there was a stack of signed forms on the table and Chico Gonzales had become Chico Keith Bates. The boy was bewildered by all the attention, but he knew that Keith was now his Papa and he wasn't letting loose of him anytime soon!

Chai came home from school and was the instant big brother, he coerced Chico to come downstairs, where Maria, their cook/housekeeper was just pulling chocolate brownies out of the oven. Between the two boys, she thanked herself that she had made TWO pans of brownies, those two boys ate even the crumbs! She had to draw the line at licking the pan!

The next morning, Keith took Chico to their doctor and had him gone over from stem to stern. They came away with a lollypop in Chico's mouth and a fist full of prescriptions in Keith's hand. Chico was badly undernourished, a little small for his age, had head lice and he was covered by flea bites!

Keith reminded himself to have his cabin sprayed on The DAVID and he got the prescriptions filled at the local pharmacy on their way back home.

Since summer was beginning, Keith didn't need to worry about school just yet, so they hired a tutor to begin Chico in English lessons.

Andrew came swinging in from a tower repositioning that afternoon, he walked across the downstairs and said, "Where is my nephew, Chico?"

The little boy came shyly into the room and asked, 'Tio Andi?"

Andrew knelt down and hugged the boy, Yeah, Tio Andi is just fine!"

With Chai working with him, Chico's English improved rapidly, every day Keith could see improvement in the child.

Whenever Keith had to take The DAVID out Chico would latch onto Chai and the two boys would head for the kitchen. They knew that Tia Maria always had cookies and milk just for them.

In a few short weeks, Chico was visibly stronger and his ribs were less prominent.

He remained a little shy, but they discovered the boy was a "whiz-kid" in math. When it came time for school to start, they enrolled him at the Higgins Academy. At the end of the first week, Keith was asked to come for a Parent-Teacher conference.

Miss Peabody, his teacher, was recommending that Chico be enrolled in the "Gifted Student" program.

She said, "Chico is with his classmates in English and Social Studies, but he is very advanced in arithmetic and numeric reasoning, he is so far advanced, I have not the skills to teach him."

Keith asked, "How well does he get along with his classmates and out on the play yard?"

Miss Peabody laughed, "In a word, he is HELL ON WHEELS! That boy is going to be a terror in soccer and we are going to have to take out baseball insurance!"

On the way home, Keith asked Chico, "What do you want to do when you grow up?" He thought Chico might want to be a ball player or some other sport.

Chico replied immediately, "Me drive big boat like you, Papa!"

It runs in the Family?