The only specialised marine publication in Oceania that focuses on the maritime industry, from super yachts to small craft to large commercial ships, including coastal shipping, tugs, tow boats, barges, ferries, tourist, sport-fishing craft
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obituary Hugh Cabot Ware JANUARY 3 1927 – MAY 18 2013 A sad farewell to our USA correspondent BY KEITH INGRAM I t was with sad hearts that we received an email from an equally sad little Kiwi, Joan Ware, advising us of the peaceful and unexpected passing of her American husband, Hugh. Hugh joined Professional Skipper with his first column, "Beyond the Horizon", on August 29, 2002 and in the decade that followed never once missed a deadline. Over the years, Hugh acquired a solid readership following with his regular snippets from the other side of the world and will be sadly missed. When Hugh retired in 1992 after 27 years of his career working as an editor for Mitre corporation, a spin off from MIT University and a Boston nonprofit organization dealing with scientific and engineering issues, he said: "I wanted to keep pushing words around." At first he wasn't sure where he would focus his writing, but he knew he had always liked tugboats. "Tugboats are honest. They're like a bulldozer – there's no pretense," Hugh declared. "I'm nautically minded. I swear my blood pressure goes up and down with the tides." As president of the Tugboat Enthusiasts Society of the Americas and editor-in-chief of its quarterly journal, Tugbitts, Hugh developed a strong understanding of what makes tugs tick and the waterfront characters that man these study and hard working vessels. Tugboats are used to push or tow vessels such as barges or multiple barges and other craft on the waterways of the Americas. "They're systematically a floating engine, grudging accommodations for the humans," said Hugh. He once told us that the average American tug is 38 years old, but there are 100-year-old tugs still doing adequate work and helping a local economy that relies upon them. When Boston hosted its first tugboat muster, or parade, Hugh seized the opportunity and wrote an article for the local magazine, Messing About in Boats. From there, he began working on a book about tugboats, which took him to various conventions and aboard tugboats across the world. The first chapter of his book was an explanation of how Boston's iconic USS Constitution, one of the world's oldest naval vessels, travels up and down the Boston Harbour. The laborious process involves four tugboats – including radio calls to Logan Airport to ensure that lowflying planes won't interfere with the ship's mast as it passes the end of the runway. Shortly after he began his research, Hugh Ware broke a story about a new type of tugboat, the carousel, which prompted Pacific Maritime Magazine to take a chance on him. His newfound expertise led to regular tugboat-related writing and editing gigs. At the time of his passing Hugh was writing regular columns on the international maritime industry, which appeared in 8 Professional Skipper July/August 2013 four magazines published from Massachusetts in the United States to New Zealand. The columns, each to its own, required Hugh to stay on top of world tugboat and shipping news by scanning the Internet regularly. "If I'm not there for a day or two, I have a lot of homework," he used to say, adding of his work, "it's absolutely fascinating." Hugh admired the strength, reserve and majesty of the working ships and the people who sailed them, and he studied them constantly. He loved nothing better than going to Washington state to ride the tugs down river with the log rafts, or to escort an auto carrier into the port of Jacksonville, or to be on a barge headed down the Mississippi and then to be able to go home and relive the experience through his writing. Between writing the columns and editing Tugbitts, Hugh was kept plenty busy. It was fortunate that he could and did find time for his other love, his Kiwi wife, Joan. Hugh and Joan travelled frequently, many times to New Zealand and he loved the nautical seamanship and innovation of the nation. He admired the yacht racers of Auckland who would go out in 40 to 50 knots of wind to sail around the buoys. Wind speeds that would keep most racers back home at the dock talking about that time when… Hugh's daughter, Chris advised us that Hugh finished his last article the night before he passed on – which is exactly the way he wished to go, working toward the "bitter end" before he moved "Beyond the Horizon". Puns intended. Hugh once bemoaned the fact that for years he had been in search of a triple pun, before he realized that his own name, Hugh C. Ware, was a triple pun. "Did Hugh C. Ware I was yesterday," he would ask? Yes, we did, and we will all miss you. Hugh is survived by his wife Joan R. Ware, formerly Joan Ruve Worrall of Auckland, his three sons, their families with three grandchildren, Daniel, Victoria and Savanna, as well as adopted sons of the family: Daryl, William and Benjamin, who will all miss him dearly. In this issue we bid farewell to Hugh's last column "Beyond the Horizon", now that one of our most knowledgeable friends of tugboats and the international marine scene has quietly crossed the bar. Haere ra Hugh, ki tona okiokinga ki tua o te arai. I te takoto te moana. Farewell Hugh, to your final resting place beyond the veil of death. The sea is at rest. www.skipper.co.nz