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DELAWARE
Pictured as: the Big Daddy (Hays Tug and Launch) Photo by: Birk Thomas

Built in 1954, by RTC Shipbuilding Incorporated of Camden, New Jersey (hull #224) as the Delaware for the Reading Railroad Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The tug was later acquired by the Hays Tug and Launch Company of Wallingford, Pennsylvania. Where she was renamed as the Big Daddy.

In 2020, she was phased out of active service and she was "laid up" at Hays Tug and Launch's yard at Chester, Pennsylvania.

Powered by a single Fairbanks-Morse 6-38D diesel engine for a rated 960 horsepower.
(Paul Strubeck, Dave Boone)


  • Vessel Name: DELAWARE
  • USCG Doc. No.: 267129
  • Vessel Service: TOWING VESSEL
  • Trade Indicator: Coastwise Unrestricted
  • Call Sign: WY8462
  • Hull Material: STEEL
  • Hull Number: 224
  • Ship Builder: RTC SHIPBUILDING CORP
  • Year Built: 1954
  • Length: 87.5
  • Hailing Port: PHILADELPHIA, PA.
  • Hull Depth: 11.6
  • Hull Breadth: 25.7
  • Gross Tonnage: 169
  • Net Tonnage: 115
  • Previous Vessel Names:
    Delaware
  • Previous Vessel Owners:
    Reading Railroad Co., BIG DADDY TUGBOAT COMPANY