On April 4th, the vessel operation sophomore class had to do a presentation about the vessels that Aaron, our vessel operation teacher assigned us. My partner, Evan and I were given the choice between the Sommer S. Shaver and a US coast guard vessel. We decided to work on the Sommer S. Shaver since it seemed more interesting and I never heard about this type of vessel before. The Sommer S. Shaver is a tug boat. The Sommer S. Shaver was built in 2012 by Diversified Maritime. This vessel is mainly used for barge shifting assignments and an escort tug on the Oregon side. An escort tug helps large vessels navigate through small rivers and channel by pushing or pulling either by direct contact or a tow line. This mostly means that the Sommer S. Shaver is able to go 360 degrees in any direction, all though other type of vessels are only able to go 180 degrees. This vessel has a 5,364 horsepower, is able to go up to 12.5 knots and has 2 z- drive propellers. Something I found to be interesting is that the Sommer S. Shaver has a displacement hull meaning much of the hull is underwater. The Sommer S. Shaver was named after the Steve Shaver’s sister. Steve Shaver is the owner of the company, and he named the vessel out of respect and memory of his sister. His sister Sommer was born in June 2, 1958 and passed away on April 10, 2002 at the age of 43. I believe that this investigation help me gain more knowledge about this vessel and could help me in the future.
-Margorie Cardenas
