Two Fridays ago, my painting of the M. Moran docked at its home port — the walls of my great-uncle’s house — in its new-old frame (new for the painting, old in that the frame was built several years ago). It really brightens the room and ties in to the other colors and woodwork.

What’s more, my great-uncle was so pleased that he asked me to do another painting of one of his boats! This time around, it’ll be the Alice L. Moran, another “most powerful” tug.

While visiting, I found the “Marine News” pamphlet containing the picture I worked from. I opened the first page, and, surprise, surprise, — there was a small black and white image of the original painting, complete with the stern of the ship. Although it would have been nice to know what the back of the boat looked like, it was still fun to figure out how everything that was missing might look and to reinterpret the image to fit my great-uncle’s home & frame.

The original is 23.5″ x 16″ by marine artist Charles G. Evers, whereas mine is 22″ x 30″. The background is Diamond Head, HI.

To learn a little more about the specs of this tug and the history of the M. Moran line, click here to read an excerpt from the “Marine News” article. And here to see a photo of its initial tow to Korea.

On the way there (to my great-uncle’s house, not Korea), I passed through Savannah, Georgia, and went down to the river, where, lo and behold, were two Moran tugs! One was docked, the other pushing a steamer. A lovely coincidence.

Now that school is out and I’m back in town, I’ll update this here captain’s log more frequently with bits about the myriad projects I have queued this summer.

So long!