Originally published Sunday, May 10, 2009 at 12:00 AM
Comments (1)
E-mail article
Print view
Share
Seattle Maritime Festival: All hands on deck — it's playtime!
A week after the recreational boaters had their fun on opening day of boating season, along Seattle's waterfront Saturday it was the turn of the working mariners. Aboard the Prudhoe Bay — a small, slow barge-like vessel with no chance of winning its Seattle Maritime Festival tugboat race — a full deck of marine workers and their friends partied all the way.
Seattle Times staff reporter
A week after the recreational boaters had their fun on opening day of boating season, along Seattle's waterfront Saturday it was the turn of the working mariners.
Aboard the Prudhoe Bay — a small, slow bargelike vessel with no chance of winning its Seattle Maritime Festival tugboat race — a full deck of marine workers and their friends partied all the way.
Operated by Global Diving & Salvage, of West Seattle, the Prudhoe Bay boasted an on-deck BBQ with hot dogs, hamburgers and beer, lots of happy children, flying water-balloons, a small but deafening cannon, and young women posing Kate Winslet-style as if on the prow of the Titanic.
"Man, we're really going now," shouted Global Diving co-owner Tim Beaver above the noise inside the wheelhouse as his vessel hit 7.7 knots and fell back to dead last by a big margin.
It was smiles all around and time for another round from the cannon.
"Family Fun Day" at the Seattle Maritime Festival was a treat for tourists lining the piers, but the real fun was on the water.
On the edge of Puget Sound, near the enormous Norwegian Star cruise ship looming over Pier 66, little black tugboats danced with one another.
Showing remarkable speed and agility for such worn and aged harbor workhorses, they touched prows, moved together delicately, then swung around 360 degrees and sped off to play with other working boats.
Drawing a crowd of onshore spectators, a Seattle Fire Department fireboat sounded its horn and sprayed water in a high-flying fountain of celebration.
From a standing start on the dock, competing teams of divers donned survival suits, jumped into the water and raced to a life raft.
A Coast Guard helicopter dropped a rescue swimmer in the water just off the pier, hovered overhead without wavering for five minutes, then winched him from the water back to safety.
Afterward, tugboats including the Prudhoe Bay raced from the Seattle Aquarium north to Elliott Bay Marina, churning through the waves, their decks loud with the cries of the chase.
![]()
The jobs of more than 111,000 people depend on the Seattle port. The Prudhoe Bay crew and guests, party crowd though they were, provided a snapshot of what serious maritime work entails.
Global Diving is the largest diving company on the West Coast and does more than $60 million worth of business a year. Its typical heavy-duty work involves constructing bridges, piers and dams; removing fuel or environmentally-hazardous cargoes from sunken ships; and laying and maintaining undersea oil pipelines.
The company helped build the Interstate 90 floating bridge. It's working now on the Hood Canal Bridge repair.
In 2002, it helped recover a Boeing Stratoliner that had ditched in Elliott Bay.
Mike Bradshaw, 29, is a diver for Global. Think of construction work, like pouring concrete. Now think of doing it underwater in a diving suit. That's Bradshaw's job.
"I love it," he said. "You have to do a lot of thinking, a lot of problem solving, underwater. You never know exactly what you have until you get down there."
The maritime professionals didn't have everything entirely their own way on their day of fun.
The survival-suit race was won by Compass Courses, a maritime training company based in Edmonds, which beat out competition from the Coast Guard, the Seattle Propeller Club, tugboat company Foss and, from Canada, the Queen's Harbour Master team.
But the four-man Compass team included only one actual employee: instructor Jason Svendsen. He recruited three young friends, gave them an hour's training swimming in the rubber suits, and their time of 1 minute, 15 seconds won the trophy Saturday.
"Thursday was our first time in a survival suit," said Compass team member Josh Zimmer, a 29-year-old carpenter from Edmonds.
Dominic Gates: 206-464-2963 or dgates@seattletimes.com
Copyright © 2009 The Seattle Times Company
NEW - 11:04 PM
Prosecutors prepare charges against suspect in police shooting
Jerry Large: Breaking out of our bubble
Bumper to Bumper: Is Mercer Mess getting messier?
NEW - 12:12 AM
Pakistani-American cafe, bar owner on verge of being Granite Falls mayor
For 80-year-old Maple Valley man, hoops aren't just a dream

Mourners gather at KeyArena for slain officer's memorial
Mourners gathered at KeyArena for the memorial service of Seattle police Officer Timothy Brenton on November 6, 2009.
nwjobs

Post a comment

Michelle Goodman blogs about work/life balance.
How to tell your office you're gravely ill
Post a comment
nwautos

Choosing a new sedan? Weigh the impact of your choice on your wallet and on the planet.
Post a comment
- Bombs, guns found at home of suspect in Officer Brenton's slaying
- How an underdog named Mike McGinn took City Hall
- 3 Cascade Mountain passes close due to snow; more rain, wind expected Sunday
- The birth of 'Grunge,' in photos by Michael Lavine
- Teenage serial burglar suspected in more Camano Island burglaries
- Steve Kelley | Huskies have to learn to finish
- Flags were key link to cop slaying, bombings
- U.S. House passes health plan
- Briefs | Soccer: New Mexico suspends hair-pulling player Elizabeth Lambert
- Seahawks overcome 17-0 deficit to win 32-20
- U.S. House passes health plan
378 - Bombs, guns found at home of suspect in Officer Brenton's slaying
299 - Grading the game
161 - Referendum 71 show's Washington's strategy for marriage equality is working
161 - Beavers open as 10-point favorites against Huskies
95 - How an underdog named Mike McGinn took City Hall
94 - Sounders FC-Dynamo playoff Game 2 thread
81 - Fort Hood shooting suspect had shown troubling signs
75 - Game thread: Detroit Lions at Seattle Seahawks, Nov. 8
74 - Landmark health bill passes House on close vote
72
- Suspect shot as city mourns slain officer
- Flags were key link to cop slaying, bombings
- The birth of 'Grunge,' in photos by Michael Lavine
- Bombs, guns found at home of suspect in Officer Brenton's slaying
- 10 ways to take control of your health
- Tlingit heritage helps glass artist Preston Singletary break new ground
- 10 investing missteps to avoid
- How an underdog named Mike McGinn took City Hall
- How do innovators think?
- Danny Westneat | Lee the Horse Logger found slow wagon shrank tumor










