By: Captain Tim Caza

The Thomas H was a tugboat built in 1898 at a shipyard on the tip of Staten Island in New York.  The tug was 70.2 feet in length, 8.9 feet in depth with a beam of 19.1 feet, she weighed 77 tons. Originally named the Thomas Flannery in 1930, the tug’s name was changed to Thomas H after being acquired by Olin Haakonsen.  In 1938 the tug was converted from a coal-powered steam engine to a four-cylinder diesel powered engine.

The tug was towing six barges loaded with iron ore to the port of Oswego.  She proceeded up the Hudson River and picked up the Mohawk, leading to the Barge Canal System. She made it to Oneida Lake on May 29, 1945 at 11:45 p.m. she passed the watchtower, where the captain was given the weather report.  At that time there was no indication that the tug and her crew of twelve would be facing a storm.   A storm that would claim the life of one crewmember.

The tug was on the lake on May 30^th, 1945 when a gale had started to blow, the storm was so intense that the tug took on water.  Concerned for the safety of his men the captain ordered the crew to cut the towlines, he turned the tug around to pick up the men off the barges.  It was more than she could handle, the tug had opened up at her seams.  The captain gave the order to abandon ship.  The crew leap to the Margaret Hutton a barge in tow.  The tug slipped beneath the surface with her light still on.  They used a washtub with gasoline to send a signal fire.  Finally spotted by the oil tanker Poughkeepsie that braved the high winds to pick up the survivors. She picked up all but one, seventy three year old Charles Blanchard, believed drowned. At 2:15 pm the crew landed safely at the Sylvan Beach pier.

The storm claimed the tug, three barges and one life.  Late in the afternoon three of the six barges in the tow was sighted floating, one off Scot Noose Park, one off Oneida Creek and the other near South Bay all listing badly.  If you were to drain the lake, this is the final resting place of the Thomas H and three barges, the Jackie Eagen, the Andy and the Margaret Hutton.