02-04-2025
70-Year-Old tugboat finds new life as an artificial reef
BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) – Since 1956, the 'Captain Hornblower' has been a working tugboat, mainly as a ship-assist tug.
'She worked in the New York harbor area and some years later, moved down to Charleston and worked there in the harbor, moving naval vessels and submarines about. And we purchased her there in 2005. And she's been working in the harbor of Panama City here ever since' owner of 'Captain Hornblower', Chuck Knowles said.
The Knowles family is excited for the 'Hornblower to continue its life.
'It means a lot. I grew up on that boat. I engineered on it, decked it that it eventually ended up being running. So, you know, I cut my teeth on her so she got to has a special place in my heart. And so it's going to be neat to have her on the bottom instead of going to get cut' co-owner of 'Captain Hornblower', Russell Knowles said.
The total cost of this deployment is $65,000, with support from the Florida Fish and Wildlife foundation.
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'We want to really thank Florida Fish and Wildlife for getting involved and putting their money toward this project. Bay County has not alone, by itself, deployed anything in over sixteen years. So we are extremely happy. This boat is going to be deployed about 12 miles off the coast. So it will be in federal waters. It will be easy to find. The coordinates will be publicly given as soon as it's dropped' Clair Pease, Bay County Commissioner, District 5 said.
During fishing and diving season, Bay County's tourist industry brings in $207 billion a year. This vessel will benefit the community and ecosystem.
'Bay County, we have a division that is in charge of reef building reefs and looking for vessels to deploy or writing grants to get vessels out there to deploy. And those vessels not only are for fishing and diving, but also for fish habitat. So we're growing baby snapper, baby grouper. And it's exciting to see them go down and to see how the habitat grows quickly,' Pease added.
The deployment of this vessel is set for April 9th.
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