On the Line
Tug Edmond J. Moran Rescuing T-2 Tanker Orion

oil on canvas, 24" x 36"

SOLD

A friend of the Artist Marek Sarba, named Frederic Kent Dezendorf, captained U.S. Liberty Ships in WWII at the age of 27.  In 1950 he took a job as a deckhand for Moran Towing. By the time he left in 1964, he was their General Manager.

He lived in Melbourne, Florida, and was the pilotage founder at Port Canaveral, where he piloted until he was 70 – climbing ladders up the sides of ships in the middle of the night to get to the bridge and bring the ship safely into port. He shared many stories from his life and Sarba often painted from these stories. There were occasions when he directly commanded the tug in the open ocean in addition to his administrative functions with Moran.

Here Sarba depicts one of those stories when the Dezendorf commanded the largest rescue tug "Edmond Moran" intercepting a T-2 tanker that lost its propulsion. This type of action, especially establishing contact between the tug and the ship in bad conditions, is a very dangerous situation as illustrated in this dramatic painting.