High Seas, High Risk: The Story of the Sudburys

By Pat Wastell Norris

Book Overview

Island Tug & Barge, once the largest employer in Victoria, BC, was a Pacific Ocean marine salvage company world famous for deep-sea rescues and long distance towing feats - and infamous for superior crews and a feisty little fleet, including the renowned Sudbury and Sudbury II. Most famous, however, was the unstopable, fiery owner, Harold Elworthy - H.B. for Hard-boiled - a boy who started with nothing and became a maritime giant. Together these ships and men proved themselves as some of the best marine salvors in the world. High Seas, High Risk recounts the Sudburys' most notable and dramatic tows and rescues, told mostly through the memories and anecdotes of former crew members.

Island Tug & Barge made headlines around the seafaring world. The Sudburys made almost impossible rescues with ease - towing their charges through typhoons, pulling them off pinnacles of rock, fighting their fires and keeping them afloat with batteries of pumps. Beset by storms, lightning, and impossible conditions, the two tugs always made it home safely. Year after year the drama was repeated, until, one day, the headlines stopped. The Sudbury and the Sudbury II disappeared, Island Tug & Barge was gone.

Writing with the care and detail of a historian, and the passion of a maritime adventurer, Pat Wastell Norris has parlayed her childhood seafaring passion into every story and anecdote - an interest instilled by her father who carried her about his 60-foot tugboat before she could walk. This never-before told history of Island Tug & Barge is a must-read for mariners and yachtsmen of every ilk--the armchair adventurers, professionals and everyone in between.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1550173456
• ISBN13: 9781550173451
• Release Date: March 2005
• Publisher: Harbour Publishing
• Length: 235 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

True life adventure at its best

In December 1955 the stormy rescue of a disabled freighter by the Victoria, BC salvage tug Sudbury made headlines around the world: a feat which was to repeat year after year as the Sudbury and Sudbury II made dramatic rescues through typhoons and shipwrecks alike. High Seas, High Risk is the saga of the two salvage tugs which became famous for risky deep-sea rescues and long-distance towing; in the processing telling of an owner who began with nothing and turned two little tugs into a challenging, successful business. True life adventure at its best.

Sudbury, a famous name in marine salvage

This book tells the story of the Island Tug & Barge Co's two big salvage tugs, both named "Sudbury". Island Tug & Barge is now history. Its greatest years were the fifties and sixties. The big tugs were initially acquired for the towage of ships to the scrapyards, which was a thriving business in those years. The entered also in deepsea salvage work where both tugs earned their fame. The book tells about the tugs and, of wrecks, of ferocious storms, of tugs riding out typhoon weather the tow still attached. And of the crewmembers of course. The book is a very good read, also to the non-initiated in the business of deep sea salvage. It also has a number of photographs accompanying the text. It is good that this piece of marine history has been published.