Shelburne's Crane Problem
While Theodore was away on his big ocean job in Europe, the other tugboats in the Great Big Harbour had work through double duties.
Most of the time, it was Hank who worked with Emily or George to bring in big ships like Olympia and Clare. Foduck did his usual safety patrol with Constance or Nautilus. Also, Hank sometimes had to tow Barrington Barge across the harbour to make special deliveries.
One particular day, George and Emily were given the job to remove an old freight train boxcar that had fallen in the ocean a long time ago.
At the freight docks, Emily and George were deciding which barge to use for the job. "I suggest Brunswick barge," George said. "Will something disastrous happen?" Brunswick asked excitedly.
"No," Emily replied, knowing Brunswick's character, "Too risky. How about Bayswater?" "Nope," George replied, "And I'm not going for Barrington. So how about Shelburne?" "Ready to go," Shelburne replied in a slow voice.
"All right," agreed Emily. The two tugs hitched onto Shelburne and took him to the site.
Soon enough, the two tugboats arrived at a marker buoy. "This is the spot," said Emily. "The train car is at the bottom," said George. "Ready to go," said Shelburne. "Lower away!" commanded Emily.
Shelburne responded with a will and lowered his crane hook into the water slowly. "I'll fetch it for you," said Shelburne. At the bottom, there lies an old train car. A boxcar, to be precise.
Shelburne's crane hook grabbed onto the first part of the old car. "I got something," Shelburne said. "Raise it up!" said George. Shelburne did so, slowly. The first part of the boxcar that Shelburne hooked onto was one of the bogie carriages of the boxcar.
Because Shelburne worked so slowly, the bogie immediately broke off from the whole railroad car and Shelburne raised it out of the water completely. "Look what I got," Shelburne called out. "Good job, Shelburne," smiled Emily.
But George didn't give a complete smile and said in a mumbled voice, "Just a bogie truck. One of the many parts of that old train car."
Shelburne placed the bogie carriage in his deck and lowered his crane hook once again. A few minutes later… "Look now!" Shelburne said. "One of the boxcar's sliding doors," Emily said. "Oh," George replied.
Shelburne pulled up more of the boxcar's parts including an axel, one of its railings and the couplings. Soon enough, Shelburne's deck is full of scrap metal. "I'm full," Shelburne said, "I can take no more."
"Time to go to the junk dock," declared Emily. "Oh," groaned George.
The two tugboats took Shelburne to the junk dock to unload Shelburne. "Unloading," Shelburne called out and he started unloading the junk. "This is going to take a long time," George said.
"Don't worry," said Emily, "We'll have this job done in no time." "You mean hours," George scoffed. Emily and Shelburne just ignored George. Soon, the two tugs took Shelburne back out to the spot.
"Here we go again," said George. The two tugs passed Millie, who was on her way to a nearby fishing area. "Good day, tugboats," Millie called out. "You too," replied Emily. "Yeah," George agreed.
They returned to the spot when George had an idea. "Emily," he said, "Let me give the command." "All right," agreed Emily, "Which is?" "Shelburne, I want you to raise the whole thing!" George told Shelburne.
"All right," Shelburne replied and he immediately lowered his crane hook into the water once again. "George," Emily said, surprised, "Are you crazy?! He can't lift the whole wagon!" "Just watch!" said George, ignoring Emily.
Soon, Shelburne's crane hook grabbed the whole boxcar. "I got it," Shelburne announced. "Raise it up! Raise it up!" George ordered. Shelburne began to pull.
"George," Emily said in a worried tone of voice, "Think about it. This car might be too heavy for Shelburne!" "If we lift the whole thing," George said, "Instead of taking away part by part, this job will be done in a flash!"
"I don't know about that," Emily said, looking at Shelburne. She could see that Shelburne is struggling to lift the whole boxcar. "I don't think it's moving," thought Emily. "I'm trying," said Shelburne, but it was no use.
Shelburne ended up pulling as hard as he can. "Go for it, Shelburne!" George shouted as Emily heard an awful sound coming from Shelburne's arm.
"Oh no!" cried Emily, "Shelburne, stop! Stop!" "Ok," Shelburne replied, but it was too late. The sound of breaking metal happened. "Ahh!" cried Shelburne as a loud crack happened. "Oh no!" cried George. Shelburne's crane arm got bent out of shape.
All the frame supports inside snapped. "Barnacles!" burst out George. "The boxcar is too heavy for Shelburne!" Emily said to George, "Now look at what happened!" George could see that he had made a terrible mistake. "Sorry, Shelburne," George said softly.
The tugs had no choice but to take Shelburne to the repair docks and to use a different barge. "So any suggestions?" asked Emily. "Well," thought George. "You can use us!" Brunswick said. "Yeah!" agreed Bayswater. "All right," Emily and George said together, "Let's work together!"
The two barges cheered. Now it was Brunswick and Bayswater turn to help out.
With two barges, the job was quicker. But George did not order either one to lift the whole wagon out like he did with Shelburne. But it still took a long job.
"Well, it's better than nothing," smiled Emily. "You're right," agreed George. "Did something happen?" asked Brunswick barge. "Sort of," replied George. Bayswater removed parts of the old boxcar one by one. Brunswick, with a crane arm, too did the same thing.
Everyone had a fun time.
But it was midnight when the tugboats and barges finished the job.
After Emily and George took Brunswick and Bayswater back to their docks, they returned back to their docks. "Good night, Emily," said George. "Good night, George," Emily called back. They both fell fast asleep.
In 2 days, Shelburne had been repaired. That morning, George was the first to tow the big sea barge out a shallow cove. "Ready to go back to work?" George asked Shelburne. "Of course," Shelburne replied, slowly.
"Then let's go!" George said, tugging the big barge out into the ocean.
But George decided to work with Shelburne very slowly from now on, unlike the time when they tried to lift the whole boxcar out of the ocean!