Iron Shipwright 1/350 scale 143’ ATA/ATR, by Felix Bustelo

A few months ago, I was surprised to see a small box from Iron Shipwrights among my mail. I opened it up to find a pair of tug hulls and packets of small resin parts. I contacted Ted Paris and he told me they were test castings of their forthcoming 143’ US Navy Auxiliary Fleet Tug /Ocean Rescue Tug (ATA/ATR) kit. Ted and Jon Warneke knew how much I enjoy tugboats so they thought I would like to build this pair.

I checked out the www.navsource.org website to see if there were any photographs of these tugs and I found a good one of ATR-47 in a Measure 22 scheme. Further research uncovered that post-war, this tug was sold to Moran Towing and was modified for civilian service as the Joseph H. Moran II. So I then decided to build them steaming side by side in both liveries.

I added the gun tub and ammo locker to the ATR-47 model and I modified the kit to build the Moran version. The photo etch was not yet designed so I used parts from leftover other sets to detail the models. They build up into neat models and they will be a welcome addition to anyone’s tug or auxiliary fleet.

I would like to thank Bob Santos for printing the small white "Joseph H. Moran II" decals for me and saving my sanity.