It sank in an ice storm in Long Island Sound approaching the mouth of Huntington Bay, New York on December 30, 1962, with the loss of the entire crew of nine.

The tug was laid in Camden, New Jersey, in 1888 as hull #287 by the John H. Dialogue Shipyard and originally intended for the United States Navy.

According to the NY Times and Chicago Tribune, he took frequent evening cruises with his Cabinet aboard her on the Potomac to escape the city heat of Washington, DC.

[4] These enlisted woman were assigned to the Triton due to the vessel being previously outfitted with amenities for executive use and being stateside under the careful watch of Secretary of the Navy.

3) One of her early captains was Samuel F Lomax, a Civil War naval officer[5] On 17 July 1920, the Navy changed Triton's designation from "Harbor Tug No.

The tug was sold by the Navy on September 15, 1930, to a New England interest, and the vessel appears on the Merchant Registry in 1932 as the "Melrose" of Boston, MA.

The company had a large waterfront sandmine in Northport bordered by James Street to the south, Ocean Avenue to the east, and Eaton's Neck Road to the north.

On Sunday, December 30, 1962, Gwendoline Steers left New York City at 11:30am on a routine trip to Northport, Long Island.

Temperatures were about 50 degrees F. But as the day progressed, an approaching cold front of severe magnitude caused the weather to turn from calmness to fury.

Dickman radioed the Coast Guard Station at Eaton's Neck reporting the tug was “an hour overdue for its Northport destination and that it was shipping water" but that “the pumps and engines were working properly.”[6] The Station Commander, Chief Warrant Officer George C. Bannan, said the Coast Guard would “attempt to launch rescue craft,” if the tug's situation deteriorated, and both parties “agreed to repeat radio contact in one hour in order to keep check on the ship’s progress.”[6] An hour later, the Coast Guard attempted to contact Gwendoline Steers without success.

Reports from Long Island and Connecticut claimed 10 to 12 foot waves with gusts of wind up to 90 m.p.h.”[6] Coast Guard Station Eaton's Neck was unable to launch their own craft, and it was decided that the USCGC Yeaton, a “125-foot search and rescue vessel based in New London, Connecticut,” be launched instead.

[6] While underway, Yeaton "was only able to make speed of only 2 or 3 knots due to the weather condition" and "experienced severe icing which ultimately forced her to turn back.

"[8] Evening news and radio reported that a Steers tugboat was missing, and many of the victim's families first learned of the situation in this fashion.

The following morning, the tug's lifeboat was found at Hobart Beach on Eatons Neck, NY with the body of Second Engineer Hugh Reid.

On January 3 and 10, 1963, Captain Frederick K. Arzt of the Coast Guard opened a Board of Inquiry and questioned witnesses under oath.

Witnesses stated that the tug had been heading south into the sheltered waters of Huntington when it abruptly turned around and faced North into the storm, without making any headway.

With salt spray on windows and the high winds and fading light, most witnesses had been watching the tug intermittently from their homes, and at some point noticed that it was gone.

On April 11, 1963, Captain Robert Nolan's body was identified at the entrance to Centerport Harbor utilizing his ID buttoned into his pocket.

Divers were dispatched, and the tug was located "lying in about forty feet of water,” and sitting upright and intact in the mud, her superstructure only twenty-feet below the surface.

Between May 3 and May 20, the bodies of Rasmus Nordvick, Claude Markell and John Iverson were recovered; two were found in Long Island Sound, and one on Crescent Beach in Huntington, NY.

2) The perception of the victim's families that Steers was unwilling to raise the vessel and properly inspect the hull for fear of finding defects or an unseaworthy condition.

The next reported position comes at 1630, when Dickman notified the Coast Guard that he was 2 miles west of Eatons Neck, and taking some water.

The question is - did Dickman turn his tug ESE after passing the Captain Islands, and begin taking the NW wind (large arrow on chart below) on the port quarter, or did he continue another half an hour until the tug was abeam of the Stamford breakwater, a familiar landmark to him, and then turn southeast.

It is my thought that had he continued along his course, he would have been abeam of Stamford at 1600, and may have opted for putting into harbor there, as it was well protected and deep enough for the tug's draft.

If he attempted to make the turn past Sand City, and the boat strayed off course in the wind, perhaps the tug would touch bottom or ground on the passage into the inner harbor.

The wreck can be located at Lat 40/57/15.31, Long 73/26/02.78 or GPS Coord 073.4293 40.9547 This site was created from source material researched by Ed Carr, Tom Jordan, Steve Knox, and Adam Grohman.

Photos were provided by Steve Knox, Henry Steers, John McKenna, Lori Barrus, Rich & Regina Ferrari, Gerard Thornton, and Allan Wyman.