No doubt many of you cringe when "Tamaroa" once again mentions that rusty old tug boat but I can't help but feel there are some of you out there (right Jeff?) who ,might be interested.
Below are some statistics of what we TMF members have compiled relative to getting this 1943 vintage 205 foot 1730 ton behemoth of a tug back in operating condition.
Since April, we have utilized over 1200 man hours on direct volunteer work, (not counting night time watch standing or travel). Approximately 1,200 man hours on administrative work between Tom Robinson, Serge, Bill Doherty,Tom Reinhart, Shirley Jaeger and Harry Jaeger. Another 100 man hours for R. C. Dawson and his wife Candy, for administrative assistance and 20 man hours for our attorney. About 100 man hours for The Virginia State Fair. 50 hours of volunteer machine ship assistance.
The value of supplies, tools equipment and material donated, probably exceeds $4000. The total, actual expenses, are $14,640.
We just had a crew of 7 people for 2 days last week at the U. S. S. SENECA and a crew of 4 people for 2 days this week. We retrieved about 200 items with an approximately value of $9000.00. Some are irreplaceable and others are antiques.
We have received approximately $9000.00 in donations. Northrop/Grumman has acknowledged receipt of our grant application. They say we should hear something in January 2003.
So there are a dedicated cadre of about 60 guys and a few ladies taking turns every other weekend spending time and money on the old girl to get her into the shape required to be used as a training ship for njrotc cadets, sea cadets and sea scouts. For more on the "DAMN TAM" as I used to call her, please visit
www.tamaroa.org.
Thank you,
Bill Doherty
TMF Historian