The Rod Morrison Collection Atomic through the decades. Rod's dad Angus J. Morrison and brother Cliff Morrison were captains of the Atomic. The photos from top to bottom were taken by: Cliff Morrison (my brother). He is a tug captain who sailed the Atomic and also the tug Amherstburg for McQueen Marine... Burt Johnson (deceased). He was a Windsor Star photographer and he worked at McQueen Marine. He would have taken all or most of the early publiciy pictures that were taken in the 40's and 50's of the Atomic... Rod Morrison... Cliff Morrison... Herb Miller (my late stepfather) taken in the Thames River while breaking ice... Cliff Morrison... Rod Morrison... Rod Morrison... Cliff Morrison... Cliff Morrison... Rod Morrison... Vince Spearing... Les Hudson ?? mechanic at McQueen's... unknown taken by a friend of the family and sent to my mother in 1948... Bill Hoey (I think) owner of Gaelic Tugboat Co.... Rod Morrison... Cliff Morrison... The photo in the wheelhouse was probably taken by B. Johnson as well. Most or all of the early photos in the ice were taken by him. He would get out on the ice and lay down and take the pictures.   Atomic   1946 Atomic in the ice. Photo by Cliff Morrison. 600 pixels wide   1024 pixels wide   600 DPI Atomic   1946 Atomic in the ice again. Photo by Burt Johnson. 600 pixels wide   1024 pixels wide   600 DPI Atomic   1946 Atomic in Kingston, ON. Photo by Rod Morrison. 600 pixels wide   1024 pixels wide Atomic   1946 Atomic on Lake Erie. Photo by Cliff Morrison. 600 pixels wide   1024 pixels wide   600 DPI Atomic   1946 Atomic port side. Photo by Herb Miller. Thames River. 600 pixels wide   1024 pixels wide   600 DPI Atomic   1946 Atomic port side. Photo by Cliff Morrison. 600 pixels wide   1024 pixels wide   600 DPI Atomic   1946 Atomic in 1966, Amherstburg, Ont. Photo by Jack Ouellette. 600 pixels wide   1024 pixels wide Atomic   1946 Atomic propellor damage. 600 pixels wide   Atomic   1946 Atomic with smokestacks in background. 600 pixels wide   1024 pixels wide   600 DPI Atomic   1946 Atomic on the river Thames. 600 pixels wide   1024 pixels wide   600 DPI Atomic   1946 Atomic as seen from the wheelhouse of the tug Amherstburg, going up the Detroit river. 600 pixels wide   1024 pixels wide   600 DPI Atomic   1946 Atomic beside Glenevis, Toronto. 600 pixels wide   1024 pixels wide Atomic   1946 Photo by Vince Spearing of the Atomic in the 1978 tugboat race at Windsor. Cliff Morrison was captain. 600 pixels wide   1024 pixels wide   600 DPI Atomic   1946 Atomic pulling the English River. 600 pixels wide   1024 pixels wide   600 DPI Atomic   1946 Atomic and Patricia McQueen in Southbaymouth in 1948. The P.McQ had been aground and almost lost on Scotchy shoal at SBM and the Atomic towed her back to Amherstburg for repairs. My dad had been captain on the Patsy and we lived in SBM. We moved to Amherstburg aboard the tugs at that time. I was 14 months old. 600 pixels wide   1024 pixels wide   600 DPI Atomic   1946 Atomic in August 1977. 600 pixels wide   1024 pixels wide   600 DPI Atomic   1946 Atomic in 2005. 600 pixels wide   1024 pixels wide   600 DPI Atomic   1946 Atomic in Québec City. 838 pixels wide   RM PHOTO   Atomic in Erieau, Ont., with a bent prop. We had hit something. We pulled her up sternfirst and repaired her. Roller on stern was for pulling anchors for the Nordrill. 600 pix 600 pix 600 pix 600 pix Rod Morrison comments: The Nordrill was a converted canaller. She was the Simcoe owned by CSL. Had been self propelled but they got in trouble with her and she ended up being towed. She had an anchoring system that would rotate to keep her nose to the wind. Four sets of anchors. We would set one set in each direction. We would hook on to one anchor and pull it out, then attach a cable from an anchor on the stern of the tug and run out from under it, then attach a can buoy to it and over the side with it. Same for all four anchors. When picking up we would grab the can and bring it aboard and then raise the anchor and pull it over the roller and down the ramp, hook on the next anchor and pull it free of the bottom and they would pull us back to the drillrig. They would lift the anchor off the tug and we headed out again. It was quite a procedure and we had to be very careful with all the cables and the ramp would be muddy from the anchors. We had to keep hosing the mud away. That is sort of a brief description of the way that we did it. Most of the time it was done with 2 of us and the engineer on the tug was always watching us and helped if we needed him. 600 pix 600 pix 600 pix 600 pix

From McKiel.com April 2007. More McKeil Russels: Glenevis and Progress (ex P.J. Murer).

Atomic became Jarrett M. in the spring of 2007. GAO Photo.

ENLARGE to 1024 pixels wide

 

This model of the Atomic was built and photograghed by Jim Turner of Amherstburg, April 2007.
Jim notes: The Atomic was the nicest tug that McQueen had, other than the Amherstburg, which came later. I worked on the Aburg mostly, and occasionally on the Atomic. My friend Gary Lacey and I decided to build the Atomic after we had started to make a Glen Class tug. While we where in the throws of making the hull he asked me if we should be making the Atomic instead of the Glenevis. He thought we had more of an attachment to the Atomic. My Dad used to chum with Capt. Angus Morrison and rode on the Atomic at the races and other events. The most important thing that I remembeer about the Atomic was that when we were out there working, we had the best food, prepared by the best cooks ever. We couldn't have built this tug without the help of Rod and Cliff Morrison who sent us plans and drawings. We followed them meticulously and it turned out pretty well fo a scatch built, first model.

800   1600	800   1600	800   1600	800   1600	800   1600
800   1600	800   1600	800   1600	800   1600	800   1600
600   1200	600   1200	600   1200	600   1200	600   1200
600   1200	600   1200	600   1200	600   1200	600   1200

 

Contents: drop down & click!HOMERussel Vessel ListingFamous Russel BoatsRussel Company HistoryR-H News and BrochuresLogging Boat OperationBoat Photo CollectionsBoat Designs & BlueprintsRussel Video InterviewInside Russel Bros.Hull Number Index

For more Russel exhibits visit Owen Sound Marine & Rail Museum 1165 1st Ave West, Owen Sound, ON N4K 4K8
(519) 371-3333     http://marinerail.com