The tugboat, as a distinct vessel type, dates back to Scotland with the construction of the Charlotte Dundas (1801) for towing barges on the Forth and Clyde Canal.
The Staten Island ferry Nautilus inaugurated the modern towing and tugboat industries in the United States on January 26, 1818, when she towed the sailing ship Corsair through the ice-choked lower harbor of New York from one mile below the Narrows to the quarantine dock.
Other vessels quickly followed. In 1825, the wood-burning side-wheeler Henry Eckford towed Hudson River barges from New York to Waterford, the terminus of the Erie and Champlain Canals.
In port, Henry Eckford‘s crew docked and undocked sailing vessels. From that time on, towing became a part-time concern for many steamers operating in and around the harbors of the United States until it grew to be its own industry.
By 1880, there were more than 1,800 tugboats operating in different parts of the country, chiefly in the seacoast harbors and northern lakes.
Sidewheelers mobilized the towage service almost exclusively in the first half of the nineteenth century, guiding windbound whaling vessels, produce barges, and rafts of canal boats through or into the harbor.
The forerunner to today’s tug, the workhorse sidewheeler marked an evolution in steamboat design that significantly contributed to New York’s lighterage system.
Many of the first vessels employed in towing were converted passenger ferries. The Norwich was built in 1836 as a passenger vessel, and later was employed on the Chesapeake as a packet and between New York City and Rondout as a passenger nightboat. She ran as a towboat on the Hudson until 1917, and in 1923 was sold for scrap.
In 1828, the New York Harbor Dry Dock Company built the first boat designed solely for towing in the Port of New York, the sidewheeler Rufus B. King.
The hulls of these first towing vessels kept the lines of the passenger steamer, with its fine entrance and low freeboard. They also employed the same engine types, with the walking beam becoming the predominant later type.
With the first appearance of the propeller-driven vessel, the evolution of the towboat began. The unwieldy paddleboxes disappeared, and the hulls became shorter and narrower.
A standard tugboat profile developed, featuring a long, narrow, one-story deckhouse. The wheelhouse appeared at the forward end, raised a few steps above the deck, or stacked on top of the deckhouse on smaller boats.
Main decks developed a noticeable sheer, rising higher at the bow than the stern. Heavy moulding ran along the sides at deck level to withstand the constant buffeting by barges or car floats.
Records suggest that the iron tug R.B. Forbes, of Ericsson design, appeared as early as 1845. The tug, twin-screwed, registered about 300 tons, its size apparently adapted for rough water work. Screw-type tugs later appeared in Philadelphia in 1849.
Apparently an owner of two old paddlewheel towboats in the city saw the advantage of propeller tugs in the harbor. William Cramp of Philadelphia built the first propeller-type tug, Samson, on the Delaware River. The wooden-hulled vessel measured 80 feet in length, 17 feet in breadth, with a draft of 8 feet.
The success of the Samson drew a great deal of attention. Cramp departed from the idea of an entirely submerged screw, instead outfitting Samson with a 6-foot wheel, half of which remained below the hull, a three-foot keel protecting the screw.
A number of boats featured this configuration. The need for a light-draft vessel led to the removal of the broad keel, the wheel placed entirely above the bottom of the vessel.
By the late 1800s, propeller boats replaced the big sidewheel towboats. The construction of these new vessels called for heavier scantlings [timbers], with bigger frames, closer frame spacing, heavier fasteners, and thicker planking. One marine historian described an average steam screw propeller tug in 1880:
“The tug of our American harbors is a little propeller varying from 30 to 120 tons register. A few of large size range from 130 to 170 tons register, but the average tug is of about 80 tons, and is about 90 feet long, 18 feet wide on the beam and 9 112 feet deep in the hold. One of 170 tons would be 120 feet long, 22 feet beam, and 12 feet deep in the hold.
“The hulls of the tugs are sharp and deep, but not long, and float at about 8 feet draught. drawing a foot or two more aft than forward. Those that go out into rough water are given a good deal sheer forward. The stems are perpendicular; the stems are round and overhang from 6 to 10 feet.
“Although these little vessels sit low in the water, the deck being not more than 2 or 3 feet higher than the load-line, the bulwarks are always low. A house covers the machinery, which is placed amidships, and the pilot-house is either at the front of this cabin or on top of it at the forward end. Strong towing bills are placed forward and aft of the house.”
By the 1920s and 1930s, most of the old steam wooden tugs and towboats had been converted to diesel. In addition to technological improvements, diesel propulsion offered economic benefits.
In 1923, for example, the Moran Company converted their steam-driven 107-ton tug Eugenia M. Moran to diesel. With her new self-contained 2-cycle, 4-cylinder diesel engine, the Eugenia‘s fuel bill was reduced approximately 50 percent in just one month.
Over the course of a few months the Eugenia‘s monthly savings in operational expenses ranged from $490 to $825 per month.
The final technological development signaling the end of steam-driven wooden tugs was the introduction of the welded steel hull. Although riveted iron or steel tugs developed in the late 1800s, the welded steel hull did not achieve prominence until the 1930s.
Tugs are generally divided into two categories, harbor or short-haul tugs and oceangoing or long-haul tugs. These in tum have their own varieties.
Carfloat, Canal & Offshore Tugs
Among the larger propeller-driven harbor tugs are those specifically designed for moving car floats across the Hudson River and the Upper Bay. The upper deck wheelhouse, elevated 3 or 4 feet by an additional crawl space underneath, gave pilots greater visibility over a car float loaded with standard freight cars.
The New York Central No. 27, built in 1910, was a typical example, measuring 97 .5 feet in length and 25.6 feet in breadth, with a depth of hold measuring 12.2 feet.
The Newark, built at Elizabethport, New Jersey in ca. 1916, served as a carfloat tug for the Central Railroad of New Jersey. The steel-hulled vessel measured 110 feet overall, with a molded beam of 26 feet and a depth of hold measuring 14 feet, 6.5 inches. The lower and narrower after part of the deck house provided an unobstructed view of the stem from the pilot house.
After the completion of the New York State Barge Canal in 1921, goods were brought to the Port of New York from as far away as Buffalo in barges towed behind canal tugs. Because of height restrictions, the tugs used were long enough to accommodate the powerful engines required, but they also had a very low profile.
Wheelhouses were again lowered to the main deck at the forward end of the deckhouse. Many canal tugs featured hydraulic systems for raising their pilothouse where heights were not restricted.
The largest class of tugs moved coastwise barges, particularly the long strings of schooner barges that transported coal from New York and points south to ports in New England. Both wooden and steel-hulled, characteristics of this “seagoing” type are a series of steel-hulled boats built for the Reading Railroad around the tum of the century.
One of these, Catawissa (1896), survives as a steam-cleaning plant based in Mariner’s Harbor, Staten Island. The steel-hulled boat measures 158 feet by 29 feet breadth, with a depth of holding measuring 18 feet. Engines rated at 1,000 hp powered the boat. The seagoing tug featured a profile typical of tugs, but with two masts forward and aft.
Often employed in the offshore towing of schooner barges, the size of the offshore tug and its horsepower determined the number of barges the pilot could tow. Bigger tugs, with a pulling capacity in excess of 400 hp, could tow three or more loaded schooner barges.
Increased pulling power, larger loads, and stress on the bitts required a greater towing distance between barges. The greater the distance, the greater the probability for problems, especially during bad weather.
Wooden Harbor Tugs
The Emergency Fleet Corporation and the Consolidated Shipbuilding Corporation, formerly the Gas Engine & Power Company, built four l00-foot wooden harbor tugs for the USSB at Morris Heights, New York. J. Murray Watts, naval architect, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, designed the boats with lines similar to usual harbor tugs (100 feet).
By 1920, 42 of these tugs were built according to Murray’s designs. The boats were wooden built with oak frames (8 by 12 inches) and hard pine planking. The keels were oak, measuring 12 by 15 inches. The overall length of the tug was 100 feet 8 inches. The keelsons were built of l l-by-12-inch hard pine.
Steel-Hulled Tugs
The Central Railroad of New Jersey had two steel-hull tugs built, the Bethlehem, built by Staten Island Shipbuilding Company for lightering service, and Newark, used for the carfloat service.
In designing the tug, builders made sure of interior accessibility, primarily for painting and scraping. The forefoot and deadwood aft is cut away, enabling the tug to turn full circle within a short radius. The tug is fitted with a side-plate balanced rudder.
The fitted keelson extends from the collision bulkhead to the after-end of the engine room. Longitudinal strength is provided by side keelsons and stringers, “the side stringer being deep and formed of intercoastal plates and clips, between frames, with a continuous angle along the outside of the frames.”
The bulwark section aft is set in, cast steel protecting three fitted chocks. This sequence minimized the breaking of bulwarks.
The space between the first and second fender guards is filled with solid wood from the stem to amidships, reducing damage to the hanging fenders. The deck is steel, covered with “litosilo.” The after part of the deck house is narrowed and lowered to allow an unobstructed view of the stern from the pilot house.
Military Tugs
The Army operated several thousand tugs during World War Two, in four broad categories: (1) seagoing or large tugs designated as LTs (usually 92 feet or longer); (2) harbor or small tugs, designated STs (about 52 to 92 feet in length); (3) motor towing launches, known as MTLs (40 to 54 foot length); and (4) motor towboats or marine tractors, designated MTs (less than 40 feet).
(These measurements are general; several older vessels designated STs by the Army measured longer than 100 feet, and the MTL size often received ST designation.)
Oceanic military operation and transportation during and after the Spanish-American War increased the need for tugs and towboats. By the turn of the century, Army tugs fell under the jurisdiction of the Quartermaster Corps.
In 1909, the Army built four ship-class 98-foot tugs. Towboat construction preceded this class. Early tugs featured War Department designations “Passenger, Auxiliary or Artillery, and Freight” vessels. These boats served in various capacities.
The Army operated a number of tugs in World War One. These boats, built to various size specifications, included the oceangoing tug, which towed barges to Europe.
During peacetime, the Army’s tug fleet remained stagnant. However, World War Two in Europe expedited U.S. naval construction. The pre-WWII buildup included tugboat construction, particularly harbor tugs.
These workhorses assisted in the movement of ships and lighters at embarkation ports. The Army tried several designs, building one or two tugs in each class, finally deciding on the previously mentioned basic types in 1943.
As plans for European invasion and amphibious Pacific landings materialized, the Army ordered hundreds of tugs in each size.
By the end of the war the Transportation Corps determined that 746 tugs operated under the designation LT or ST, 1,065 tow launches were designated MTL, and 1,113 were designated marine tractors or MTs.
One hundred sixty-seven LTs or STs, 287 MTLs, and 295 MTs served in the European Theater. In the Southwest Pacific, 171 STs and L Ts, 260 MTLs, and 180 MTs served.
The Harbor Boat Branch of the Transportation Corps usually operated the tugs, though late in the war some fell under jurisdiction of other departments, particularly oceangoing tugs.
The Coast Guard provided crews for most of the live-aboard LTs. Civilians generally operated the STs. Both civilian and military personnel crewed smaller harbor boats, usually day boats.
Read more about tugboats in New York.
This essay is excerpted with minor editing for clarification from Target Investigations in Connection with the New York and New Jersey harbor Navigation Project, May 2004, prepared for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District, by Andrew D.W. Lydecker and Stephen R. James, Jr. of Panamerican Consultants, Inc.
Illustrations: New York Harbor tug boats painting by Peter K Eagleton; the Stella, a wooden steam sidewheeler tug in England (Sussex Archaeological Society Marlipins Collection); The tug Frances (photo by Tim Dufel); Cornell Steamboat Company Docks with several tug boats, ca 1948 (Hudson River Maritime Museum); Moran Company’s first tug converted to diesel power, Eugenia M Moran, ca. 1923; an Erie Railroad car barge and tug boat; The Catawissa built for the Reading Company in 1897; Central Railroad of New Jersey’s tug Newark; and a World War Two US Army LT-5 tugboat moored near the H Lee White Maritime Museum in Oswego Harbor.
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