Tugboat Tom, the Great Lakes Sailor

They called him Tugboat long before he stood watch on a Great Lakes ship.

Tom Brey was nicknamed after his favorite childhood toy. It just happens to still fit.

Tom Brey, first mate of the Alpena, makes his living sailing on the Great Lakes, and said a life on the freshwater seas isn’t as glamorous as it sounds. Photo by Len Villano.

Brey is first mate on the Alpena, an oil-fired steamer that hauls cement from a factory in Alpena, Mich., to ports around the Great Lakes. He’s in charge of the ship’s daily operations, from maintenance to loading and unloading cargo. He stands watch for eight hours a day, either navigating the ship or working on deck. Before that, he spent five years on a tugboat.

For many of us on land, living on the freshwater seas sounds like a dream. On deck, it’s a different story. Although he loves the water’s beauty and the paycheck that comes after months on board, Brey said the life of a sailor isn’t as romantic as it seems.

A crew of 21 sailors makes the Alpena go. They navigate, load and unload cargo, communicate with ports and other ships, clean and maintain the ship while underway to make sure everything looks and runs the way it should. They live in close quarters, like brothers under one roof.

It’s up to two of the crew to determine how the rest get along – the cooks. And on the Alpena, they do a good job.

“There isn’t too many skinny sailors,” Brey said.

The Alpena’s galley, or kitchen, is stocked with food for the sailors. A typical breakfast spread has pancakes, waffles, eggs, ham, sausage, French toast, cereal, fresh fruit and juice. Lunches are usually soup, salad and sandwiches, and dinners have at least two entrée choices. Saturday nights are steak nights and Sundays are Thanksgiving dinners.

All that, plus a 24-hour salad bar and a cooler stuffed with drinks.

“What more can you substitute for being away from your family than having a home-cooked meal?” Brey said.

The crew turns into a family of sorts, maybe thanks to the home-cooked meals. Sailors typically spend two months at a time on the ship, sharing food, football games and colds with the rest of the crew.

“It’s not fun when you have someone that’s not pulling their weight, or a Maytag repairman that’s always stirring up the wash,” Brey said. “If you have a crew that gets along it’s a lot easier, but it’s just like any family. There’s always something going on with somebody, but the better you can get along the easier it is.”

But no matter how friendly the crew or bountiful the food, it’s not easy to be away from home for so long. Brey has been divorced twice. With the ship’s schedule dependent on a touchy economy and unpredictable weather, it’s hard to schedule vacations. When the boat sails, the crew sails.

“You miss birthdays, you miss holidays, you miss anniversaries, you miss weddings,” Brey said. “When you have a death in the family or someone’s hurt you’re not always going to be able to be there right away to comfort them.”

It’s all about sacrifice. What are you willing to do to put bread on the table?

Brey estimates he has 25 tugboats in his collection. Photo by Len Villano.

Brey started his life on the water in 1990, when he attended a maritime academy. His father, the man who first dubbed him Tugboat, had always wanted to be a sailor. He encouraged Brey to apply.

“I got accepted and I actually thought I’d end up flunking out,” Brey said. “I ended up passing, and once you’ve been sailing for five years you’re not fit to do anything else. An old captain told me that.”

While Brey has no intention of trying any other line of work, he doesn’t glamorize boat life the way others do. Boat lovers snap photos of the Alpena as it sails into port and track its movements on boatnerd.com – a popular website for shipping enthusiasts.

But for Brey, life on the boat is a job.

“It pays the bills,” Brey said. “It’s not for everybody, I’ll tell you that. There’s no calling in sick. If you’re sick, you’re off the boat. If you’re hurt, you’re off the boat. If you’re not sick and you’re not hurt, you’re working. There’s no such thing as calling in with a cold or calling in with the flu. Sorry, there’s nobody else to do your job, you have to go do it.”

Sailing may be a tough life, but there’s a little magic to it. Even Brey admits that. At work, he wakes up with the sunrise in one window and goes to sleep with the sunset in the other. Every day brings another striking image – like a cloud formation or a view of Door County from the water.

And whenever it’s his turn to get off the boat for a break, Brey comes back to Door County. He’s called Sturgeon Bay home for most of his life, and it’s where he keeps his namesake collection.

Brey collects tugboats. He’s got stuffed tugboats, a tugboat piñata, a tugboat teapot, a tugboat cookie jar, miniature tugboats made out of soap, glass and pewter. Friends and family add to the collection with every Christmas and birthday, and Brey guesses he’s got 25 tugboats now.

Or 26, including himself – Tugboat Tom the Great Lakes Sailor.