“Motivator” tugboat

Behold a 2015 photo of a cherished tugboat, moving itself into lock E-14 of the NYS canal, and below is a model currently in a museum halfway around the planet. Specifically, it’s in the Grand Canal Museum in Lingqu, China. That is 12,700 air miles from JFK International, a flight time of about 20 hours.…

will van dorp

November 24, 2025

1–2 minutes

2026 World Canals Conference, Canal Society of New York, CSNY, Guilin China, ship models, Upcoming events

Behold a 2015 photo of a cherished tugboat, moving itself into lock E-14 of the NYS canal, and

below is a model currently in a museum halfway around the planet. Specifically, it’s in the Grand Canal Museum in Lingqu, China. That is 12,700 air miles from JFK International, a flight time of about 20 hours. You can indulge in spotting differences between the vessel in the two images, but I’ll leave that to you.

A friend took this photo in Port Gibson NY in October 2014, and–yes–that’s me standing on the stern, and

this is stern view of the model in Guilin.

Here is stern view of the “motivator” tugboat on the hard in May 2022, where it currently remains. You might be wondering why I use the term “motivator.”

The label accompanying the model should explain. This model exists because in early September 2026, the World Canals Conference–hosted by Buffalo NY two months ago–will take place in Guilin, China. More about the museum and the area near Guilin can be found here. Much more info about the conference and venue can be found here. For what it’s worth, Guilin is about 950 miles WSW of Shanghai; for reference, that’s about the same as Port Byron NY to Paducah KY.

More details will be forthcoming. Anyone interested in taking surface transportation from Shanghai to Guilin?

One response to ““Motivator” tugboat”

Lee Rust

November 25, 2025 at 11:13 pm

It seems like a few details got lost in translation. The model boat may be a fait-accompli, but the label could still benefit from some input from those of us who have first-hand knowledge of Urger. China’s Grand Canal is thousands of years older than our Erie and much more extensive, so an excursion to the Guilin conference would be a fascinating voyage to take next September.

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