Argonaut is Soon to appear in Kindle

June 22, 2020 ~ dwwooddell ~ Leave a comment

Argonaut – An Angel and Gabri Adventure

D. W. Welsh’s novella Argonaut – An Angel and Gabri Adventure is finally available on Kindle. This book takes the reader along with the two delightful and adventurous young French citizens on their travel to America by way of steamship during the high belle époque. Witnessing the wealth of New York, as well as the poverty of the immigrant tenements, these two encounter an experimental dirigible, a civilian submarine called a submersible in Baltimore harbor, and meet fascinating and powerful people of the age in 1897 United States. Then they escape with a fortune of the French government’s money and flee southward along the coast of the United States, heading for the tropical islands, pineapples, and of course, bananas.

The sequel, Angel and Gabri’s next adventure, The Banana War is due out later in 2020!

BOOK LAUNCH “The Inspection Tugboats Baltimore 1857-1980”

June 10, 2020June 10, 2020 ~ dwwooddell ~ Leave a comment

ANNOUNCING the publication of “The Inspection Tugboats Baltimore 1857-1980” by David W. Wooddell, 299 pages, B&W, at Amazon, May 2020.

The “Baltimore” (1906) was the last operating coal-powered steam tugboat in Baltimore Harbor. “The Inspection Tugboats Baltimore 1857-1980” is a richly detailed history of the two inspection tugboats named the “Baltimore” from 1857 to 1980. It’s a biography of the two city-owned inspection tugboats, as well as a history of Baltimore harbor and the iceboats that operated alongside the “Baltimore” to keep the harbor, the Patapsco River, and the Chesapeake Bay clear of ice. They towed vessels off the shore, saved men trapped and in desperate need, and they helped the harbor run efficiently.

They towed vessels off the shore, saved men trapped and in desperate need, and they helped the harbor run efficiently. The book begins with the building of the first tugboat “Baltimore” in 1857 by Murray & Hazlehurst at their Vulcan Works.

The narrative details the boat’s invaluable service to the city, mayor, port warden, and city council. In 1906 the second tugboat “Baltimore” was built for the city by the William H. Skinner & Sons Shipyard. The second “Baltimore” (1906) remains with us today. She served the city until she was transferred to the Maryland Port Authority, and not much later sold. Sam du Pont bought the boat and operated her as a yacht, winning awards for the historic vessel. She sank in 1979. After the “Baltimore” (1906) was brought up from the Sassafras River, Sam and Jeanne du Pont donated her to the Baltimore Museum of Industry (BMI).

This book ends with the “Baltimore’s” designation as a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service. Archival records, news reports, and interviews from ten years research inform the book.

David W Wooddell on Tugboat Baltimore Nov 2014 by Kat Forder

Photo by Kat Forder Photography,, Nov 2014, on the Inspection Tugboat Baltimore

This book is authored by former National Geographic magazine Research Editor

David W. Wooddell of Baltimore, Maryland.

Through the weeds and into the woods

April 27, 2019 ~ dwwooddell ~ Leave a comment

1 Tug log page

I’ve been spending a lot of time recently reading and transcribing log entries for the steam tugboat Baltimore. Yeah, fascinating – if you like that sort of thing. Not so much if you like your history condensed, slicked up, and pre-packaged already.

2 Tug Log 12 June 1984

When I started out trying to write history books, I had to learn that the good stuff – the information I was most interested in finding and possibly using in a book or an essay – was not already published. A lot of what I was finding published was the product of some other writer who’d already been through the information, or had at least glossed over it, and had taken a little of this and a little of that, but mostly had just researched from the writings of others. But the results were not pleasing to me because it didn’t bring anything new. For instance, when reading and researching the American Civil War, I discovered that many writers were depending on the same sources already written about third and fourth-hand. They were copying one another, rather than returning to the original documents, and rather than finding documents that had not been quoted or drawn from in the past.

3 Tug log 10 Nov 1996

Aha, I thought – that is the road I want to take. The one that has all the bumps and wends its way going across the field and into the deep weeds. The road without a track already made by the wheels of the previous follower. Through the weeds and into the woods, where you have to peel back the bark and look underneath for the juicy grubs of facts.

This winter, my book partner on the steam tugboat Baltimore project suggested I look into the log books of the tug. It was an excellent suggestion that horrified me because I hadn’t already done so, and thought I was done with primary document research on that project. Well, now I’ve gone through them, and learned a lot. I’ve incorporated some of it into the manuscript, and hopefully, Bob Pratt and I can now finish the layout of the book. He’s the graphic designer and layout artist for this book. I merely write the text.

4 Cover tug log IMG_1492 copy