| 5-year-old christens tugboat with namesake |
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| Saturday, 02 February 2008 14:02 | |||
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By MIKE TOLSON Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle With a mighty swing of both hands — or as mighty as a 5-year-old's swing can get — little Kennedy Studdert christened her namesake with a dousing of sparkling cider Friday, moments after it was formally blessed by Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo. click READ MORE to read more The San Kennedy is the latest of Buffalo Marine Service's 13 towboats (think tug), and it will live out its life on the Houston Ship Channel pushing the company's refueling barges alongside cargo ships and oceanliners. The Kingwood kindergartner, who marked off the days to the big event on a special calendar with images of the vessel on each day, got the honor of having her name spread across its stern for the simplest of reasons: Her grandfather owns the company. 'It goes way back. We've always blessed all our tugs,'said Pat Studdert, whose father started the company in 1935. 'There's a higher authority that takes care of us and protects the seaman from the perils of the sea. Anyone I know who has a vessel has it blessed.' But not everyone has the fortune of an honest-to-God cardinal to do the blessing. Studdert, a devout Catholic, simply wrote a letter asking. DiNardo, the first cardinal from Texas and one of only 17 in the U.S., agreed and pulled his official Book of Blessings down from the shelf. 'I've never done one before, but it's all in here,'the newly minted cardinal said, patting the book. 'We have a large port chaplaincy. But this gives us a chance to show in a concrete way our concern is not just for the seafarers but anyone who works in the port. Where people are, that's where the church should be.' Buffalo Marine's blue-and-white boats can be seen pushing any one of 28 barges up and down the channel. Last month, for example, the company refueled 293 ships. A typical barge can hold 30,000 barrels of fuel, and for the record, DiNardo blessed the newest addition to Buffalo Marine's barge fleet as well. Statuettes of St. Brendan, patron saint of mariners, were blessed and taken on board for good measure. For those who keep track of such things, the 62-foot San Kennedy is not your grandfather's tug. Besides state-of-the-art navigation and computer equipment and the latest 1,200-horsepower Cummins engine, it boasts a full kitchen with granite countertops and berths with flat-panel televisions and a DVD system. Add a Spongebob DVD and even a 5-year-old could call it home. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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