Tamaroa Maritime Foundation is rebranded. Now we're the Zuni Maritime Foundation

[Salba]

49 degree roll on the Ingham.  On watch... strapped into my watch chair copying code... the roll started, and continued, and continued, and continued...  stayed at 47-49 degree like forever... long enough to convince me we were going turtle... but we didn't...

I have great respect for those MC1 pipes now...  "all hands standby for heavy rolls"...  they mean it!

 

Best Wishes

[ollie]

I want my thread back!!! All kidding aside, I've run into an interesting phenomenon.  We have received several emails from senior Coast Guard Officers expressing dismay at our decision to restore the Tam as the Zuni and name her the Zuni-Tamaroa.  Some of them are retired 0-6's.  For people that have held such high positions of responsibility, some of them appear to be clueless. They want to know why we are doing it since the CG had her for 48 years and the Navy 3. The standard answer is that we have been begging for CG help for the last 5 years and hardly any officers bothered to help out. Now when she is about to lose her CG identity, everyone is up in arms. Where were they when we needed them??? Where was their money and support????

I am a former DC3 basically telling O-6's that because they didn't help out and the Navy has helped out, we are going gray instead. Its simple economics, you go where the money and the interest is. apparently most Coasties don't give a darn about the history of their service, or else they would have supported us. Its real easy to be a critic, but come forth and donate your time or your money if you really want to see us succeed.  I was the lone hold out and waited til the end hoping to paint her in the 1950's style of Coast Guard vessels. But in the end I had to capitulate and vote for her Zunification, kind of like the lone juror who gets pounded upon by the 11 other jurors. And I hate to admit it but they are right.

For whatever reason and we still really don't know why, the Coast Guard has not supported our effort. Ironically, when Zuni became the dominant name, everything started to fall in place. So you won't be able to convince me that the CG did not want the name Tamaroa still out their navigating the waters. Our intent all along was to make her operational. She will not be a static museum tied up to a dock 24X7.

ollie

[EX-CG-GM]

Paint everything on the port side CG colors, everything on the starboard side Navy colors.....from the waterline to the top of the mast.

 

Damn shame the CG can't spring for some of this.

[Jack]

Ollie (Bill) - As much as I would love to have the Tam wearing her Coast Guard colors (plain white hull) I realize the difficulty of your situation and just how hard it had to be to start calling her "Zuni" another proud name but not the one she carried for 48 years. I will continue to support your cause from afar as the important issue is that she remain for future generations to visit and learn first hand of her proud history thru out her career.

As for those "senior officers" if they want to help they can [1]  send money (one less cup of starbucks or one less martini would provide a nice sum monthly) [2] support it verbally and in writing to their fellow officers be they active or retired. They should be reminded that they can be part of the problem or part of the cure.

I intend to bring this up at the next meeting of the local CPOA and ask for their support and encourage all CPOA members that read this to do so also.

Enough sermonizing, hate to do it but sometimes you must, Bill, as is often said the check is in the mail.

 
 

[ollie]

Thanks Jack, your effort on our behalf is really appreciated.

ollie.

[LTGunner]

Thought this article would be of some interest; it was item #15 in the Federal Government's edition of the Early Bird:

The Mighty Z
The veteran rescue vessel of WWII Zuni-Tamaroa needs a little TLC
By MARK ST. JOHN ERICKSON 247-4783
November 25, 2007



Photo: The USS Zuni served as a fleet tug in World War II, saving numerous damaged ships and earning four battle ribbons. (Mark St. John Erickson, Daily Press / November 12, 2007)

For most of its 64 years, the stout little ship known as the Zuni, the Tamaroa and the Mighty Z has worked hard to save other vessels — and always performed like a hero.

During its Navy days in World War II, it strapped itself to the sinking hulls of two different cruisers — one injured so badly its fantail went awash — and pulled each to safety through hundreds of miles of enemy-filled waters. It shepherded the wrecked and stranded landing ships at the wave-torn beaches of Iwo Jima, too, pushing in so close that it almost perished after fouling its prop and broaching in the surf.

Most other vessels might have called it a career after the broken keel and busted hull the Zuni suffered. But the tough fleet tug rebounded not much more than a year later, stubbornly embracing a second and much longer life as a Coast Guard cutter.


Stationed in New York, the re-christened Tamaroa saved dozens of fishing and pleasure boats during its search and rescue days, not to mention the crews of a freighter and container ship that went down before it could reach them. It helped the ocean liner Stockholm limp into port after its fatal 1956 collision with the Andrea Doria. It braved the 40-foot seas of a legendary 1991 nor'easter, saving a sailboat crew and a downed air-rescue helicopter team in a feat later chronicled in the Hollywood film "The Perfect Storm."

More than a dozen years after its last patrol, however, the Zuni-Tamaroa is tied up at the docks in Newport News, looking more like a ship that needs to be saved than a hero. Flaking paint has opened a thousand rusty scars on its old deck and hull, while an unfinished coat of Navy gray only partly covers its still bulldogish-looking superstructure.

She's the last of her kind, former Navy fleet tug sailor Harry Jaeger says, and she needs a new home if she's going to survive for a third career as a historic ship and Sea Scout training vessel. But he and his nonprofit foundation are betting on the sturdy little ship that many former crew members call the "old girl."

"This is a work in progress," Jaeger says, surveying the 205-foot-long expanse of aging World War II steel. "So we're not going to make any excuses for what she looks like now.

"You'd look like this, too, if you were 64 and had been through what's she's been through. She's been in many a battle — and she's traveled many a mile."

Read More + Video: http://www.dailypress.com/features/dp-gl_zuni_1125nov25,0,4459825.story?page=1

News to use
The Zuni Maritime Foundation can be reached at 804-273-0247 or snafu.manor@verizon.net. Log on to www.zunimaritime.org for more info.

[ollie]

UPDATE

I just published an article about rescuing the Tam in a magazine called Sea History. It is published by the National Maritime Historical Society. Its in the spring quarter issue. They did a nice job.

Also we are in Newport News, hopefully we will make an announcement soon about a permanent home port. After 12 years of trying, things are finally gelling. Stay tuned for more info................

Thanks,

ollie

[Bugsey]

 Remember the tam 1963/67 if you were part of that crew in those day you never left thedock in Base St. George you got up in the morning worked alday on the tam day in day out the ship was almost completely rebuilt after it sunk then on it,s maiden voyage to burmuda it caught fire an had to be towed during my career in the guard ion the halfmoon she was at the dock when we left an at the dock when we returned,it was definently not the ship to be station on from 63/67 an then a long came the perfect storm an she became a queen again,i saw her tied up in N.Y. pier over by the bouey tender the LILLOCK then i was driving down 95 an i saw her again on a dock i think i MD or Va. not sure i will tell you one thing about the tam she was one of the most heavy duty ship ever built they youse to say if the tam ever ran into you you where definetly going to the bottom. lots of luck restoring it but you where right it would have made a nice flooding school.
                                                                                       BUGSEY
                           

       

[BuoyJumper]

Hey Bill,

I came across this old slide of the TAM being auctioned
off on ebay and I thought you might like to have it for your website.



Enjoy,
Ron

[ollie]

Ron Beautiful shot Thanks!!

Bill

[ollie]

Hey everyone, After a lengthy absence i'm back!! Sorrry I've been away for so long; however, much has happened in my life. I work for a financial firm so when the economy tanked, I became very very busy. I'm on the facilities side so as the lay offs increased so did my hours regarding moves, churns and consolidations. Things are calming down a little now..... But other things continued to harass and harangue me like I just recovered from a bout of Squamous cell skin cancer after several treatments and last but not least the Zuni Tamaroa website has been updated. The ZuniTam is in Little Creek Virginia right now. We're at the Navy base. If you go to our web site (new address) www.zunitamaroa.org and go to the support page, you can find all sorts of ways to help us. Also the title page contains a link to our newest newsletter. This one's a little thin, but things are picking up and we anticipate good things starting to happen toward the end of June.

Thanks,

Bill D.

[LTGunner]

Bill, about that 3"/50 Gun Mount:

Here's a document I found on line:  The 3"/50 Gun. NAVPERS 10110

ABSTRACT: The document has been designed to provide enlisted men assigned to the 3"/50 gun with a self-study, on-the-job-training source for shipboard use. The material covered includes general description and operation, functions of various components, disassembly and reassembly, maintenance, and operational casualties of the 3"/50 gun. Detailed photographs and drawings accompany the text. (AG) Source: Education Resource Information Center (ERIC)

Additionally, I've been in contact with LT Rob S. (USCG, RET) about a potential restoration project for the Gun Mount.  Quite a few USCG / US Navy Gunners are interested in this project.  The Gunner at the USCG Yard has located a series of publications in support of the project.  We're making arrangements to review the publications. 
I'll continue my dialog with the LT and provide more details on our plans as they develop.  We've got a few more links to connect; but I think we're ready to go.