In 1954, a tug boat known as Kevin B sunk off the north end of Great Captain’s Island.
Before the fire, the wooden 85 ft tug boat that ran barges of sand and gravel up into Port Chester for Buchanan Marine.
Numerous boaters over the years have wrecked on it.
Back in 1954 the wooden tug boat caught fire. The Coast Guard ran it aground and let it burn to the water line. Over the years the Kevin B’s propeller and portholes were salvaged. Eventually all that was left was its 4,000 lb, 15 ft long engine block, which was barely visible at low tide.
What was left of the wreck of the Kevin B was removed from the north end of Great Captain’s Island on March 21, 2018 contributed
Greenwich’s harbormaster Ian MacMillan said Patriot Marine removed the engine block, which took two divers four hours.
MacMillan said time was right because a giant crane was in town to remove the crane that fell off the barge in Old Greenwich during a recent Nor’Easter.
At the end of the day, both the crane and engine block from the Kevin B went to a Staten Island scrapyard.
An anonymous donor footed the $19,000 bill.
“Now that the Kevin B engine block is gone, we have one less hazard to navigation in the waters of Greenwich,” MacMillan said, adding that this has been one of his highest priorities for many years.
MacMillan was appointed harbormaster in December 2011. He was reappointed in 2014 and again in 2017 for a third term.