American Girl

Summary

The American Girl is a 40-foot diesel tug identified in June 1971 as a purchase of Gillespie’s Sales and Service, bought alongside the 28,000-gallon tanker barge Oil Queen to move the island’s fuel supply from barrel handling to bulk handling. A July 1973 report names the tug in the towing and righting of the capsized Oil Queen, and later notices show it also carrying islanders on excursions to Charlevoix and High Island.

History

The June 1971 Beacon reports that Gillespie’s Sales and Service had “added another facet to their operation” with the purchase of the diesel tug American Girl and the 28,000-gallon tanker barge Oil Queen, replacing barrel-handled fuel oil and gasoline with bulk handling.

In June 1973, while Jewell Gillespie was towing the fully loaded Oil Queen partway between Charlevoix and St. James, heavy seas shifted the barge’s deck load and rolled it over; Gillespie towed the capsized barge into Sand Bay, where Coast Guard inspectors surveyed the damage before granting permission to tow it on to St. James for righting. The fuel cargo was pumped off by plugging the vent pipes and removing the bottom drain plugs and transferring it to nearby storage tanks; cables were then run under the barge to two cranes and a winch truck, with an additional cable to the American Girl and to the Eager Beaver. On a signal from Coast Guard Chief Quartermaster A. J. Gallagher, son of John A. and Lillian Gallagher, the machinery righted the barge with only a few gallons of spillage — see Oil Queen capsizing and righting, 1973 for the full account.

By August 1976 the tug was also being used for passenger trips: a Beacon sports note records the island softball team traveling to Charlevoix “via the American Girl” for a tournament weekend hosted by “Gillespie Oil & Transit, Inc.” — a name not otherwise attested for the Gillespie fuel operation in the sources held here — and a family-reunion letter in the same issue describes Elvira Gillespie Supernaw taking twenty relatives to High Island aboard “Gillespie’s 40’ American Girl,” which is the only source giving the vessel’s length.

Navigating on the Shamrock’s windows

A June 1988 Beaver Beacon item records an unofficial use of the tug’s home harbour. Under the heading that “The Shamrock is more than just a restaurant and bar, it also is a channel marker,” Johnny Gillespie is quoted saying he had for years guided the American Girl in on the two red lighted signs in the Shamrock’s front windows: “The window to the left says ‘Liquor’, the one on the right says ‘Beer’.”¹

The pairing is not recorded anywhere as an aid to navigation, and no held source says the bar kept the signs lit for that purpose. It is reported here as the skipper’s own account of how he ran the entrance.

Evidence and limits

The held reports establish this fuel-transport, salvage, and excursion context, and one length figure (40 feet), but no registry number, build date, beam, tonnage, or complete ownership and service history. Whether “Gillespie Oil & Transit, Inc.” (1976) was the same legal entity as Gillespie’s Sales and Service (1971), a renamed successor, or a related but distinct operation is not established by the sources read for this article.

Added 1 August 2026 · revised 3 August 2026. Recent changes