# McDermott Owned Supply Vessels



## Thunderhorse

Good Day-
Just wondering if anyone has any old pics of some of the old McDermott owed supply boats? My dad started his career as Mate on the Morning Star. I think he also worked on the Mud Lump. I've been looking for years for pics of these vessels. There was another one named Double O Seven. If anyone has pics of these vessels, it would be greatly appreciated if you could share them!!
Thanks!
Alan


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## DxbBob

*No Luck With JRM Supply Boat Pictures*

Thunderhorse,
Just to let you know … I don’t have, and also cannot find, any pictures of *MORNING STAR* (later *PELICAN ONE*) or *DOUBLE-O-SEVEN *(later *OCEAN DIVER II*) or *MUD LUMP* (later *VIKING STAR*). Neither have I been able to find pictures of *LITTLE JACK* or *LITTLE BOB* or *LIL SAM* or *EVELYN KAY* or *FRAN* or *JIRAFA* or *CARLA E* or *JOE McDERMOTT* or *MAXINE McDERMOTT* or *DAISY McDERMOTT*, which served McDermott as warping tugs or utility boats in the 1950s or 1960s.
Interestingly, *MORNING STAR*, *DOUBLE-O-SEVEN * and *MUD LUMP* were part of an order for eight menhaden fishing vessels placed on 15 September 1965 with McDermott Shipyard by The Fish Meal Company d.b.a. Texas Menhaden Company of Sabine Pass, Texas. The boats were to be all steel welded twin-screw diesel-powered (1700 bhp), 165’ long x 35’ wide x 14’ deep, suitable in hull and machinery for pursing and trawling in the Gulf of Mexico. Among other things, they were to have a fish hold capacity of 700 short tons of menhaden and draw 6’6” light and 9’6” loaded. Truth be told, McDermott had never built a fishing boat before then so it bid the job using plans for a supply boat that it had never built, but only after, it alleged later in court, it had incorporated all of the revisions to those plans that the customer’s owner, Alfred Davies, wanted them to make). 
Long story short: McDermott delivered the first four vessels in mid-June 1966 (eventually the other four were completed) and the owner immediately set about fishing with them. His boat captains (including Captain William Fortner and Captain Douglas Brill) came back to him and told him that his new boats were not fit for intended purpose and were, in fact, unseaworthy. 
Needless to say, that assessment gave rise to a legal dispute between The Fish Meal Company (then located about a mile from McDermott's shipyard in Morgan City) and McDermott. When the dispute settled, McDermott ended up taking possession of the eight boats, three of which it must have still been operating when your dad worked for McDermott. I don’t know the disposition of the other five vessels or even what they ended up being named.
As an aside, when I worked in the Middle East in the 1970s, *JARAMAC XXV* was sent over to work as a supply boat. When she came up Dubai Creek to berth at the marine department she was described to me by McDermott Dubai's port engineer as “an old pogie boat”. I didn't know what that meant and I was too proud back then to ask him to explain. I now know he was telling me she, too, was formerly a menhaden fishing boat. From what I can find now, I think her former name was *WATERMAN*. I have no pictures of *JARAMAC XXV*.
Sorry I can’t help.


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