Veteran tug crew makes escort work look easy in Port of Oakland
- cwhitten7
- 5 days ago
- 7 min read
Published in Professional Mariner
On a drizzly Saturday morning, the 5,080-horsepower, 73-foot tractor tug Revolution spun tight circles just inside the Port of Oakland’s Outer Harbor, churning the water white. Capt. Tony Salazar began the rotations slowly and sped up, creating centrifugal force as the pirouettes progressed. “You’ll feel it start laying, you know what I mean? It will get you dizzy.” Salazar eventually centered the thrusters and had the z-drive harbor tug Revolution — part of the AmNav Maritime Corporation’s diverse, 5,000-plus horsepower, West Coast-based fleet — on its way, traveling in reverse into San Francisco Bay.
“These Dolphins, they fly backwards, too,” Salazar said, referring to the award-winning reverse-tractor Dolphin-class vessel designed by Robert Allan Ltd. Salazar spun Revolution once more so that it transited bow-first. The small, powerful tug joined three other AmNav vessels on their way to meet the containership Ever Magic inbound from Los Angeles and China prior to that.
Built in 2006 at the now-shuttered Foss Maritime Company shipyard in Rainier, Ore., Revolution underwent a four-month repower at the beginning of the year to install Tier 4 engines and a selective catalytic reduction system, making a modern tug out of a nearly 20-year-old vessel that helps move some 2.26 million TEUs through the Port of Oakland, the eighth-busiest container terminal in the U.S., each year.
Salazar and chief engineer/deckhand Angel Jimenez have worked for AmNav for about 35 and 45 years, respectively, and for about 20 years with each other, giving them an easy, joke-filled camaraderie laced with salty language. Despite the humorous ease with which they worked, Salazar and Jimenez were serious about safety and running a professional job for their customer.
Each man started “at the bottom of the anchor” and worked their way up the ranks and are now rounding out long, fulfilling careers on a boat that they know well. They’re both grandfathers. Two of Salazar’s sons work on other AmNav tugs.
“It’s a good job. I can’t wait to come back to work,” Jimenez said. His shipmate concurred.
“This is fun work,” Salazar said. “Sure, it’s a lot of sleepless nights. It’s tiring. But the outcome is awesome.”
Founded in 1976, AmNav specializes in ship-assist and harbor services in the San Francisco Bay Area, with expanded operations in Los Angeles and Long Beach. With some 13 vessels in the fleet and a few new tugs on the way, “AmNav continues to be a leader in ship-assist, tanker and barge escorts, marine construction support, salvage, emergency response, military operations, shipyard vessel assist, logistics for oversized equipment and vessel and barge towing services,” the company said. Ship assist accounts for about 75 percent of AmNav’s business.
Under cloudy skies, Revolution transited parallel to the east span of the Bay Bridge, a recently built section that opened in 2013 and is featured on the logos of San Francisco’s professional men’s and women’s basketball teams. The tug moved past Yerba Buena Island and its small, 150-year-old lighthouse, then hovered under the west span of the bridge as Ever Magic steamed through the heart of San Francisco Bay, en route to the Port of Oakland.
Revolution was joined by Z-Five, Sandra Hugh and Jamie Renea. Salazar approached Ever Magic slowly, falling into orbit on the ship’s port side behind Z-Five, which hovered near the bow. Moving closer to the 1,201-by-167 ship, the skyline and even the 10-lane bridge overhead seemed to disappear as the fully stacked vessel consumed the immediate view. The water around us turned the shade of distinct, trademark green that characterizes the Evergreen fleet.
“I’m gonna follow just a little aft of midships because if I get too close, I’m affecting his steerage,” Salazar said. Moments later, the captain held his fist in the air. “That’s my son right there,” he said, pointing at a deckhand, Adrian, or “AJ,” on Z-Five’s bow. The captain raised his fist again. “Let’s see if he gives it back …” AJ gave it back.
Salazar eventually spun Revolution 180 degrees and slowly — over the course of maybe three minutes — came into gentle contact with Ever Magic. He reiterated the delicacy of the operation. “It’s crucial when you’re alongside to not put any pressure on him whatsoever. You know what I mean?” Salazar said that pressure could push Ever Magic’s stern to starboard. “If you can see the tires, they’re not really squished,” the captain said. The tires rimming the tug were indeed their full, unencumbered shape.
Salazar hails from New Mexico and travels to his home in Taos when he’s not working his two-week stint on Revolution. He operated excavators before he came from the high desert to the Bay Area. Jimenez, whose son also worked at AmNav but has since gone on to work in law enforcement, trained Salazar some three-plus decades ago.
Being the senior crew, I ask Salazar and Jimenez if they had dibs on some of the new tugs coming to AmNav. “We do, but this is my retirement boat,” Salazar said, adding that he has about five years left as captain. “You have your preference, you know what I mean? I like this boat,” Salazar said. “For two people, they’re very comfortable. We’ve been on this boat for a long time. I’m not leaving,” Salazar said.
The chief engineer could not have agreed more with his shipmate. “I’ve had the privilege of the company trusting me with every new boat, but those new ones are a little more than I want,” Jimenez said. “This is our little baby, our little goose.”
Jimenez’s family moved from Mexico when he was age 6, eventually settling in Half Moon Bay, a farming town south of San Francisco and home to the legendary big wave break Mavericks. He picked green beans with his father but didn’t care for the work. “My dad said, ‘I don’t care what you do; just bring money in and make an honest living.’”
Jimenez worked as a security guard for SS Monterey, a 1930s-built Pacific Ocean liner berthed in San Francisco, and was offered a job at Pier 42 on the Embarcadero, rebuilding engines on the dock. He eventually took a job on a boat. “Coming off the street and trying to work your way up,” Jimenez reflected, “you earn your spot and you earn your job — there’s no way around it. If you didn’t cut it or meet the criteria for the company, you wouldn’t last very long.”
Ever Magic and its four escort tugs came parallel to the Ben E. Nutter Terminal at the northwest tip of the Port of Oakland. Salazar eased away from the port side of the ship as the other tugs began the slow process of spinning the vessel 180 degrees in the Outer Harbor turning basin so that the ship would ultimately be moored bow out, port-side to.
Revolution came around Ever Magic’s stern to the starboard side, then eased in. Donning a hard hat and sunglasses, Jimenez went to the bow, motioning to the containership’s crew who sent a line down, then — after Jimenez tied a quick bowline — hauled up the head of Revolution’s 500 feet of 8.5-inch 12×12 plasma line connected to its Markey DEPGF-42 electric winch.
Instructions started pouring out of the VHF. Revolution helped to pull Ever Magic through its half rotation and parallel to berth 35; the winch line was then released, and the tug began pushing the ship into the dock and holding it in place.
The pilot asked for a combination of thrust, sometimes at 45 degrees, sometimes straight on. “Revolution, half-torque,” the pilot said. The tug’s engines whirred, and a little vibration pulsed through the wheelhouse, but the crew said that the vessel’s new engines were much smoother and quieter than their predecessors.
“Prior to the Tier 4s, we had to yell in here,” Salazar said, adding that only the turbo was audible with the new engines.
Jimenez emphasized the point: “One time, an operator said, ‘Hey, you need to front up the engines.’ I said, ‘What do you mean, you want me to shut them down and start them back up again?’ He couldn’t hear it.”
Both Revolution and AmNav’s Sandra Hugh, built in 2007, were repowered early this year and returned to duty in April. “We are happy to have them back in service keeping America stocked and not polluting our beautiful Bay Area air,” AmNav said in a social media post.
“Under Ever Magic’s stern, mooring lines were lowered and floated on the water, then pulled out of sight and made fast.
“Nice job; appreciate it,” the pilot said over the VHF. “We’ll see you on the next one.”
Back at the dock, as we ate lunch in Revolution’s cozy galley, Salazar and Jimenez talked about all aspects of their long careers, from the innumerable dangers to the sustained rewards. The crew said that there are many dull dangers lurking around every corner, such as an undogged door, a slippery handrail or a sneaky wake. There was maintenance work to be scheduled and fatigue to be managed. “This is a great job,” Jimenez said numerous times. “I can’t wait to come back to work.” His shipmate could not have agreed more.
“This type of work is like a hidden gem,” Salazar said, adding that he especially enjoyed the sunsets and sunrises over the Port of Oakland, or the firework shows across the bay on the Fourth of July. “All you need is a GED and an MMC credential. And you need the energy — you know what I mean?” •
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