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Tugboat

From Wikipedia, in a visual modern way
Tugboat CSS Teaser is captured by USS Maratanza.
Tugboat CSS Teaser is captured by USS Maratanza.
Justine McAllister, a tug boat in New York Harbor, January 2008.
Justine McAllister, a tug boat in New York Harbor, January 2008.
The tugboats Reid McAllister and McAllister Responder push the LPG tanker BW Volans into port at Marcus Hook on the Delaware River.
The tugboats Reid McAllister and McAllister Responder push the LPG tanker BW Volans into port at Marcus Hook on the Delaware River.

A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, such as in crowded harbour or narrow canals,[1] or cannot move at all, such as barges, disabled ships, log rafts, or oil platforms. Some are ocean-going, some are icebreakers or salvage tugs. Early models were powered by steam engines, long ago superseded by diesel engines. Many have deluge gun water jets, which help in firefighting, especially in harbours.

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Boat

Boat

A boat is a watercraft of a large range of types and sizes, but generally smaller than a ship, which is distinguished by its larger size, shape, cargo or passenger capacity, or its ability to carry boats.

Ship

Ship

A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished from boats, based on size, shape, load capacity and purpose. Ships have supported exploration, trade, warfare, migration, colonization, and science. After the 15th century, new crops that had come from and to the Americas via the European seafarers significantly contributed to world population growth. Ship transport is responsible for the largest portion of world commerce.

Harbor

Harbor

A harbor, harbour, or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term harbor is often used interchangeably with port, which is a man-made facility built for loading and unloading vessels and dropping off and picking up passengers. Ports usually include one or more harbors. Alexandria Port in Egypt is an example of a port with two harbors.

Canal

Canal

Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management or for conveyancing water transport vehicles. They carry free, calm surface flow under atmospheric pressure, and can be thought of as artificial rivers.

Barge

Barge

Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels. The term barge has a rich history, and therefore there are many other types of barges.

Oil platform

Oil platform

An oil platform is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platforms will also have facilities to accommodate the workers, although it is also common to have a separate accommodation platform bridge linked to the production platform. Most commonly, oil platforms engage in activities on the continental shelf, though they can also be used in lakes, inshore waters, and inland seas. Depending on the circumstances, the platform may be fixed to the ocean floor, consist of an artificial island, or float. In some arrangements the main facility may have storage facilities for the processed oil. Remote subsea wells may also be connected to a platform by flow lines and by umbilical connections. These sub-sea facilities may include of one or more subsea wells or manifold centres for multiple wells.

Icebreaker

Icebreaker

An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters, and provide safe waterways for other boats and ships. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller vessels, such as the icebreaking boats that were once used on the canals of the United Kingdom.

Salvage tug

Salvage tug

A salvage tug, known also historically as a wrecking tug, is a specialized type of tugboat that is used to rescue ships that are in distress or in danger of sinking, or to salvage ships that have already sunk or run aground.

Steam engine

Steam engine

A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be transformed, by a connecting rod and crank, into rotational force for work. The term "steam engine" is generally applied only to reciprocating engines as just described, not to the steam turbine. Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separated from the combustion products. The ideal thermodynamic cycle used to analyze this process is called the Rankine cycle. In general usage, the term steam engine can refer to either complete steam plants, such as railway steam locomotives and portable engines, or may refer to the piston or turbine machinery alone, as in the beam engine and stationary steam engine.

Diesel engine

Diesel engine

The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is called a compression-ignition engine. This contrasts with engines using spark plug-ignition of the air-fuel mixture, such as a petrol engine or a gas engine.

Deluge gun

Deluge gun

A deluge gun, fire monitor, master stream or deck gun is an aimable controllable high-capacity water jet used for manual firefighting or automatic fire protection systems. Deluge guns are often designed to accommodate foam which has been injected in the upstream piping.

Firefighting

Firefighting

Firefighting is the act of extinguishing or preventing the spread of unwanted fires, in order to protect human lives, property, and the environment. A person who engages in firefighting is known as a firefighter.

Types

Seagoing

Fleet tug USS Tawasa (1,255 tons, 205 ft) which towed a nuclear depth charge as it was detonated in Operation Wigwam in 1955
Fleet tug USS Tawasa (1,255 tons, 205 ft) which towed a nuclear depth charge as it was detonated in Operation Wigwam in 1955
Tug and barge connected
Tug and barge connected

Seagoing tugs (deep-sea tugs or ocean tugboats) fall into four basic categories:

  1. The standard seagoing tug with model bow that tows almost exclusively by way of a wire cable. In some rare cases, such as some USN fleet tugs, a synthetic rope hawser may be used for the tow in the belief that the line can be pulled aboard a disabled ship by the crew owing to its lightness compared to wire cable.
  2. The "notch tug" can be secured by way of cables, or more commonly in recent times, synthetic lines that run from the stern of the tug to the stern of the barge. This configuration is generally used in inland waters where sea and swell are minimal because of the danger of parting the push wires. Often, this configuration is employed even without a "notch" on the barge, but in those cases it is preferable to have "push knees" on the tug to stabilize its position. Model bow tugs employing this method of pushing nearly always have a towing winch that can be used if sea conditions render pushing inadvisable. With this configuration, the barge being pushed might approach the size of a small ship, with the interaction of the water flow allowing a higher speed with a minimal increase in power required or fuel consumption.
  3. The "integral unit", or "integrated tug and barge" (ITB), comprises specially designed vessels that lock together in such a rigid and strong method as to be certified as such by authorities (classification societies) such as the American Bureau of Shipping, Lloyd's Register of Shipping, Indian Register of Shipping, Det Norske Veritas or several others. These units stay combined under virtually any sea conditions and the tugs usually have poor sea-keeping designs for navigation without their barges attached. Vessels in this category are legally considered to be ships rather than tugboats and barges must be staffed accordingly. These vessels must show navigation lights compliant with those required of ships rather than those required of tugboats and vessels undertow.
  4. "Articulated tug and barge" (ATB) units also utilize mechanical means to connect to their barges. The tug slips into a notch in the stern and is attached by a hinged connection, becoming an articulated vehicle. ATBs generally utilize Intercon and Bludworth connecting systems. ATBs are generally staffed as a large tugboat, with between seven and nine crew members. The typical American ATB displays navigational lights of a towing vessel pushing ahead, as described in the 1972 ColRegs.

Harbour

Svitzer Tyr, a Danish tugboat, built in China in 2011, pictured in 2018 in Ystad harbour
Svitzer Tyr, a Danish tugboat, built in China in 2011, pictured in 2018 in Ystad harbour

Compared with seagoing tugboats, harbour tugboats that are employed exclusively as ship assist vessels are generally smaller and their width-to-length ratio is often higher, due to the need for the tugs' wheelhouse to avoid contact with the hull of a ship, which may have a pronounced rake at the bow and stern. In some ports there is a requirement for certain numbers and sizes of tugboats for port operations with gas tankers.[2] Also, in many ports, tankers are required to have tug escorts when transiting in harbors to render assistance in the event of mechanical failure. The port generally mandates a minimum horsepower or bollard pull, determined by the size of the escorted vessel. Most ports will have a number of tugs that are used for other purposes than ship assist, such as dredging operations, bunkering ships, transferring liquid products between berths, and cargo ops. These tugs may also be used for ship assist as needed. Modern ship assist tugs are "tractor tugs" that employ azimuthing stern drives (ASD), propellers that can rotate 360 degrees without a rudder, or cycloidal drives (as described below).

River

River tug pushing a log raft in British Columbia near Vancouver (May 2012)
River tug pushing a log raft in British Columbia near Vancouver (May 2012)

River tugs are also referred to as towboats or pushboats. Their hull designs would make open ocean operations dangerous. River tugs usually do not have any significant hawser or winch. Their hulls feature a flat front or bow to line up with the rectangular stern of the barge, often with large pushing knees.

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Operation Wigwam

Operation Wigwam

Operation Wigwam involved a single test of the Mark 90 "Betty" nuclear bomb. It was conducted between Operation Teapot and Project 56 on May 14, 1955, about 500 miles (800 km) southwest of San Diego, California. 6,800 personnel aboard 30 ships were involved in Wigwam. The purpose of Wigwam was to determine the vulnerability of submarines to deeply detonated nuclear weapons, and to evaluate the feasibility of using such weapons in a combat situation. The task force commander, Admiral John Sylvester, was embarked on the task force flagship USS Mount McKinley. Wigwam was the first atomic test in the deep ocean, and it remains the only test that has been conducted in water deeper than 1,000 ft (300 m).

Hawser

Hawser

Hawser is a nautical term for a thick cable or rope used in mooring or towing a ship. A hawser passes through a hawsehole, also known as a cat hole, located on the hawse.

American Bureau of Shipping

American Bureau of Shipping

The American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) is an American maritime classification society established in 1862. Its stated mission to promote the security of life, property, and the natural environment, primarily through the development and verification of standards for the design, construction and operational maintenance of marine and offshore assets.

Indian Register of Shipping

Indian Register of Shipping

Indian Register of Shipping (IRClass) is an internationally recognised, independent ship classification society, founded in India in 1975. It is a public limited company incorporated under Section 25 of the Indian Companies Act 1956. It is a Non-Profit organisation, Public undertaking and a member of the 11 member International Association of Classification Societies (IACS). It was inducted into IACS along with Croatian Register of Shipping (CRS) and Polish Register of Shipping (PRS).

Seakeeping

Seakeeping

Seakeeping ability or seaworthiness is a measure of how well-suited a watercraft is to conditions when underway. A ship or boat which has good seakeeping ability is said to be very seaworthy and is able to operate effectively even in high sea states.

Articulated vehicle

Articulated vehicle

An articulated vehicle is a vehicle which has a permanent or semi-permanent pivot joint in its construction, allowing it to turn more sharply. There are many kinds, from heavy equipment to buses, trams and trains. Steam locomotives were sometimes articulated so the driving wheels could pivot around corners.

Bludworth

Bludworth

The Bludworth articulated tug and barge (ATB) ocean tug barge connection system was developed by Richard and Robert Bludworth during the 1960s.

China

China

China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and borders fourteen countries by land, the most of any country in the world, tied with Russia. With an area of approximately 9.6 million square kilometres (3,700,000 sq mi), it is the world's third largest country by total land area. The country consists of 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four municipalities, and two special administrative regions. The national capital is Beijing, and the most populous city and largest financial center is Shanghai.

Ystad

Ystad

Ystad is a town and the seat of Ystad Municipality, in Scania County, Sweden. Ystad had 18,350 inhabitants in 2010. The settlement dates from the 11th century and has become a busy ferryport, local administrative centre, and tourist attraction. The detective series Wallander, created by Henning Mankell, is set primarily in Ystad.

British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia, commonly abbreviated as BC, is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, forests, lakes, mountains, inland deserts and grassy plains, and borders the province of Alberta to the east, the territories of Yukon and Northwest Territories to the north, and the US states of Washington, Idaho and Montana to the south and Alaska to the northwest. With an estimated population of 5.3 million as of 2022, it is Canada's third-most populous province. The capital of British Columbia is Victoria and its largest city is Vancouver. Vancouver is the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada; the 2021 census recorded 2.6 million people in Metro Vancouver.

Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. The Greater Vancouver area had a population of 2.6 million in 2021, making it the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada. Greater Vancouver, along with the Fraser Valley, comprises the Lower Mainland with a regional population of over 3 million. Vancouver has the highest population density in Canada, with over 5,700 people per square kilometre, and fourth highest in North America.

Propulsion

A tugboat on the Arakawa River in Tokyo, Japan

The first tugboat, Charlotte Dundas, was built by William Symington in 1801. It had a steam engine and paddle wheels and was used on rivers in Scotland. Paddle tugs proliferated thereafter and were a common sight for a century. In the 1870s schooner hulls were converted to screw tugs. Compound steam engines and scotch boilers provided 300 Indicated Horse Power. Steam tugs were put to use in every harbour of the world towing and ship berthing.

Tugboat diesel engines typically produce 500 to 2,500 kW (~ 680 to 3,400 hp), but larger boats (used in deep waters) can have power ratings up to 20,000 kW (~ 27,200 hp). Tugboats usually have an extreme power:tonnage-ratio; normal cargo and passenger ships have a P:T-ratio (in kW:GRT) of 0.35 to 1.20, whereas large tugs typically are 2.20 to 4.50 and small harbour-tugs 4.0 to 9.5.[3] The engines are often the same as those used in railroad locomotives, but typically drive the propeller mechanically instead of converting the engine output to power electric motors, as is common for diesel-electric locomotives. For safety, tugboat engines often feature two of each critical part for redundancy.[4]

A tugboat is typically rated by its engine's power output and its overall bollard pull. The largest commercial harbour tugboats in the 2000s–2010s, used for towing container ships or similar, had around 60 to 65 short tons-force (530–580 kN) of bollard pull, which is described as 15 short tons-force (130 kN) above "normal" tugboats.[5][6]

Diagram of components
Diagram of components

Tugboats are highly manoeuvrable, and various propulsion systems have been developed to increase manoeuvrability and increase safety. The earliest tugs were fitted with paddle wheels, but these were soon replaced by propeller-driven tugs. Kort nozzles (see below) have been added to increase thrust-to-power ratio. This was followed by the nozzle-rudder, which omitted the need for a conventional rudder. The cycloidal propeller (see below) was developed prior to World War II and was occasionally used in tugs because of its maneuverability. After World War II it was also linked to safety due to the development of the Voith Water Tractor, a tugboat configuration that could not be pulled over by its tow. In the late 1950s, the Z-drive or (azimuth thruster) was developed. Although sometimes referred to as the Aquamaster or Schottel system, many brands exist: Steerprop, Wärtsilä, Berg Propulsion, etc. These propulsion systems are used on tugboats designed for tasks such as ship docking and marine construction. Conventional propeller/rudder configurations are more efficient for port-to-port towing.

Kort nozzle

The Kort nozzle is a sturdy cylindrical structure around a special propeller having minimum clearance between the propeller blades and the inner wall of the Kort nozzle. The thrust-to-power ratio is enhanced because the water approaches the propeller in a linear configuration and exits the nozzle the same way. The Kort nozzle is named after its inventor, but many brands exist.

Cyclorotor

The cycloidal propeller is a circular plate mounted on the underside of the hull, rotating around a vertical axis with a circular array of vertical blades (in the shape of hydrofoils) that protrude out of the bottom of the ship. Each blade can rotate itself around a vertical axis. The internal mechanism changes the angle of attack of the blades in sync with the rotation of the plate, so that each blade can provide thrust in any direction, similar to the collective pitch control and cyclic in a helicopter.

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Arakawa River (Kantō)

Arakawa River (Kantō)

The Arakawa River is a 173-kilometre (107 mi) long river that flows through Saitama Prefecture and Tokyo. Its average flow in 2002 was 30m³/s.

Tokyo

Tokyo

Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital and most populous city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 million residents as of 2018; the city proper has a population of 13.99 million people. Located at the head of Tokyo Bay, the prefecture forms part of the Kantō region on the central coast of Honshu, Japan's largest island. Tokyo serves as Japan's economic center and is the seat of both the Japanese government and the Emperor of Japan.

Japan

Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north toward the East China Sea, Philippine Sea, and Taiwan in the south. Japan is a part of the Ring of Fire, and spans an archipelago of 14,125 islands, with the five main islands being Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa. Tokyo is the nation's capital and largest city, followed by Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kobe, and Kyoto.

Charlotte Dundas

Charlotte Dundas

Charlotte Dundas is regarded as the world's second successful steamboat, the first towing steamboat and the boat that demonstrated the practicality of steam power for ships.

Horsepower

Horsepower

Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are the mechanical horsepower, which is about 745.7 watts, and the metric horsepower, which is approximately 735.5 watts.

Power (physics)

Power (physics)

In physics, power is the amount of energy transferred or converted per unit time. In the International System of Units, the unit of power is the watt, equal to one joule per second. In older works, power is sometimes called activity. Power is a scalar quantity.

Cargo ship

Cargo ship

A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. Cargo ships are usually specially designed for the task, often being equipped with cranes and other mechanisms to load and unload, and come in all sizes. Today, they are almost always built of welded steel, and with some exceptions generally have a life expectancy of 25 to 30 years before being scrapped.

Locomotive

Locomotive

A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, motor coach, railcar or power car; the use of these self-propelled vehicles is increasingly common for passenger trains, but rare for freight.

Propeller

Propeller

A propeller is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon a working fluid such as water or air. Propellers are used to pump fluid through a pipe or duct, or to create thrust to propel a boat through water or an aircraft through air. The blades are shaped so that their rotational motion through the fluid causes a pressure difference between the two surfaces of the blade by Bernoulli's principle which exerts force on the fluid. Most marine propellers are screw propellers with helical blades rotating on a propeller shaft with an approximately horizontal axis.

Bollard pull

Bollard pull

Bollard pull is a conventional measure of the pulling power of a watercraft. It is defined as the force exerted by a vessel under full power, on a shore-mounted bollard through a tow-line, commonly measured in a practical test under test conditions that include calm water, no tide, level trim, and sufficient depth and side clearance for a free propeller stream. Like the horsepower or mileage rating of a car, it is a convenient but idealized number that must be adjusted for operating conditions that differ from the test. The bollard pull of a vessel may be reported as two numbers, the static or maximum bollard pull – the highest force measured – and the steady or continuous bollard pull, the average of measurements over an interval of, for example, 10 minutes. An equivalent measurement on land is known as drawbar pull, or tractive force, which is used to measure the total horizontal force generated by a locomotive, a piece of heavy machinery such as a tractor, or a truck,, which is utilized to move a load.

Paddle steamer

Paddle steamer

A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans.

Rudder

Rudder

A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium. On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw and p-factor and is not the primary control used to turn the airplane. A rudder operates by redirecting the fluid past the hull or fuselage, thus imparting a turning or yawing motion to the craft. In basic form, a rudder is a flat plane or sheet of material attached with hinges to the craft's stern, tail, or after end. Often rudders are shaped so as to minimize hydrodynamic or aerodynamic drag. On simple watercraft, a tiller—essentially, a stick or pole acting as a lever arm—may be attached to the top of the rudder to allow it to be turned by a helmsman. In larger vessels, cables, pushrods, or hydraulics may be used to link rudders to steering wheels. In typical aircraft, the rudder is operated by pedals via mechanical linkages or hydraulics.

Fenders

Red Cloud (foreground), a type V2-ME-A1 tug, alongside USNS David C. Shanks, at the Golden Gate at San Francisco, California, 1950s. On the bow is a tugboat fender, also call beards or bow pudding, which are rope padding to protect the bow.
Red Cloud (foreground), a type V2-ME-A1 tug, alongside USNS David C. Shanks, at the Golden Gate at San Francisco, California, 1950s. On the bow is a tugboat fender, also call beards or bow pudding, which are rope padding to protect the bow.

Tugboat fenders are made of high-abrasion-resistance rubber with good resilience properties. They are very popular with small port craft owners and tug owners. These fenders are generally made from cut pieces of vehicle tires strung together. Often the fendering on the sides of the tug is composed of large heavy equipment or aircraft tires attached to or hung on the side of the tug. Some fendering is compression moulded in high-pressure thermic-fluid-heated moulds and have excellent seawater resistance, but are not widely used owing to the cost. Tugboat bow fenders are also called beards or bow puds. In the past they were made of rope for padding to protect the bow, but rope rendering is almost never seen in recent times. Other types of tugboat fender include Tug cylindrical fender, W fender, M fender, D fender, and others.[7]

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Type V ship

Type V ship

The Type V ship is a United States Maritime Commission (MARCOM) designation for World War II tugboats. Type V was used in World War II, Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Type V ships were used to move ships and barges. Type V tugboats were made of either steel or wood hulls. There were four types of tugboats ordered for World War II. The largest type V design was the sea worthy 186-foot (57 m) long steel hull, V4-M-A1. The V4-M-A1 design was used by a number of manufacturers; a total of 49 were built. A smaller steel hull tugboat was the 94-foot (29 m) V2-ME-A1; 26 were built. The largest wooden hull was the 148-foot (45 m) V3-S-AH2, of which 14 were built. The smaller wooden hull was the 58-foot (18 m) V2-M-AL1, which 35 were built. Most V2-M-AL1 tugboats were sent to the United Kingdom for the war efforts under the lend-lease act. The Type V tugs served across the globe during World War II including: Pacific War, European theatre, and in the United States. SS Farallon, and other Type V tugs, were used to help built Normandy ports, including Mulberry harbour, on D-Day, 6 June 1944, and made nine round trips to Normandy to deliver Phoenix breakwaters.

USNS David C. Shanks (T-AP-180)

USNS David C. Shanks (T-AP-180)

David C. Shanks was a troop transport that served with the US Army during World War II as USAT David C. Shanks, and during the Korean War with the US Navy's Military Sea Transportation Service as the USNS David C. Shanks (T-AP-180).

Golden Gate

Golden Gate

The Golden Gate is a strait on the west coast of North America that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. It is defined by the headlands of the San Francisco Peninsula and the Marin Peninsula, and, since 1937, has been spanned by the Golden Gate Bridge. The entire shoreline and adjacent waters throughout the strait are managed by the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Carousel

A recent Dutch innovation is the carousel tug, winner of the Maritime Innovation Award at the Dutch Maritime Innovation Awards Gala in 2006.[8] It adds a pair of interlocking rings to the body of the tug, the inner on the boat, the outer on the ship by winch or towing hook. Since the towing point rotates freely, the tug is very difficult to capsize.[9]

Races

Vintage tugboat races have been held annually in Olympia, Washington, since 1974 during the Olympia Harbor Days Maritime Festival. Tugboat races are held annually on Elliott Bay in Seattle,[10] on the Hudson River at the New York Tugboat Race,[11] the Detroit River,[12] and the Great Tugboat Race and Parade on the St. Mary's River.[13]

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Olympia, Washington

Olympia, Washington

Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is 60 miles (100 km) southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region.

Elliott Bay

Elliott Bay

Elliott Bay is a part of the Central Basin region of Puget Sound. It is in the U.S. state of Washington, extending southeastward between West Point in the north and Alki Point in the south. Seattle was founded on this body of water in the 1850s and has since grown to encompass it completely. The waterway it provides to the Pacific Ocean has served as a key element of the city's economy, enabling the Port of Seattle to become one of the busiest ports in the United States.

Seattle

Seattle

Seattle is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The Seattle metropolitan area's population is 4.02 million, making it the 15th-largest in the United States. Its growth rate of 21.1% between 2010 and 2020 made it one of country's fastest-growing large cities.

Hudson River

Hudson River

The Hudson River is a 315-mile (507 km) river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between New York City and Jersey City, eventually draining into the Atlantic Ocean at Lower New York Bay. The river serves as a physical boundary between the states of New Jersey and New York at its southern end. Farther north, it marks local boundaries between several New York counties. The lower half of the river is a tidal estuary, deeper than the body of water into which it flows, occupying the Hudson Fjord, an inlet which formed during the most recent period of North American glaciation, estimated at 26,000 to 13,300 years ago. Even as far north as the city of Troy, the flow of the river changes direction with the tides.

New York Tugboat Race

New York Tugboat Race

The New York Tugboat Race is a contest for working tugboats held on the Hudson River every Fall on the Sunday before Labor day. It was founded in part by Captain Jerry Roberts, who also serves as its chief announcer. Boats race one nautical mile from 79th Street to Pier 84 at 44th Street in Manhattan. The race is the occasion for a dockside festival.[1] Events currently include nose-to-nose pushing competitions, a line toss competition, and best mascot/costume contests between the crews. After the award, the spectators of the race can compete in events that include a knot tying competition, an on land line toss competition and a spinach eating competition. The spinach eating competition is in honor of the Popeye the sailor cartoon character. Spectators can also pay to get a seat on a tug boat during the events.

Detroit River

Detroit River

The Detroit River flows west and south for 24 nautical miles from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie as a strait in the Great Lakes system. The river divides the metropolitan areas of Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario—an area collectively referred to as Detroit–Windsor—and forms part of the border between Canada and the United States. The Ambassador Bridge, the Detroit–Windsor Tunnel, and the Michigan Central Railway Tunnel connect the cities.

St. Marys River (Michigan–Ontario)

St. Marys River (Michigan–Ontario)

The St. Marys River, sometimes written St. Mary's River, drains Lake Superior, starting at the end of Whitefish Bay and flowing 74.5 miles (119.9 km) southeast into Lake Huron, with a fall of 23 feet (7.0 m). For its entire length it is an international border, separating Michigan in the United States from Ontario, Canada.

Ballet

South African Naval tugs perform a "ballet" when welcoming a new member of the fleet.
South African Naval tugs perform a "ballet" when welcoming a new member of the fleet.

Since 1980, an annual tugboat ballet has been held in Hamburg harbour on the occasion of the festival commemorating the anniversary of the establishment of a port in Hamburg. On a weekend in May, eight tugboats perform choreographed movements for about an hour to the tunes of waltz and other sorts of dance music.[14]

Roundups

The Tugboat Roundup is a gathering of tugboats and other vessels in celebration of maritime industry. The Waterford Tugboat Roundup is held in the late summer at the confluence of the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers in Waterford, New York. The tugs featured are river tugs and other tugs re-purposed to serve on the New York State Canal System.[15]

In popular culture

Tugboat Annie was the subject of a series of Saturday Evening Post magazine stories featuring the female captain of the tugboat Narcissus in Puget Sound, later featured in the films Tugboat Annie (1933), Tugboat Annie Sails Again (1940) and Captain Tugboat Annie (1945). The Canadian television series The Adventures of Tugboat Annie was filmed in 1957.

Film and television

Theodore Tugboat, the titular hero of a children's show, was popular enough that a fullsize replica was constructed
Theodore Tugboat, the titular hero of a children's show, was popular enough that a fullsize replica was constructed

To date, there have been four children's shows revolving around anthropomorphic tugboats.

"Tugger" is a tugboat in the animated series South Park. He appears in the episode "The New Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer" as a sidekick for Russell Crowe in a fictitious television series entitled Fightin' Round The World with Russell Crowe. Tugger follows Crowe as he engages various people in physical conflicts, providing emotional support and comic relief. At one point Tugger even attempts to commit suicide, upon being forced to hear Russell Crowe's new musical composition.

Literature

(Alphabetical by author)

  • The children's book Scuffy the Tugboat, written by Gertrude Crampton and illustrated by Tibor Gergely and first published in 1946 as part of the Little Golden Books series, follows the adventures of a young toy tugboat who seeks a life beyond the confines of a tub inside his owner's toy store.
  • The Dutch writer Jan de Hartog wrote numerous nautical novels, first in Dutch, then in English.
    • The novel Hollands Glorie, written prior to World War II, was made into a Dutch miniseries in 1978 and concerned the dangers faced by the crews of Dutch salvage tugs.[16][17]
    • The novella Stella, concerning the dangers faced by the captains of rescue tugs in the English Channel during World War II, was made into a film entitled The Key in 1958.[18]
    • The novel The Captain (1967), about the captain of a rescue tug during a Murmansk Convoy, sold over a million copies.[19]
    • Its 1986 sequel, The Commodore, features the narrator captaining a fleet of tugs in peace-time.
  • Little Toot (1939), written and illustrated by Hardie Gramatky, is a children's story of an anthropomorphic tugboat child, who wants to help tow ships in a harbour near Hoboken. He's rejected by the tugboat community and dejectedly drifts out to sea, where he accidentally discovers a shipwrecked liner and a chance to prove his worth. This story was animated as part of the Disney movie Melody Time.
  • Farley Mowat's book The Grey Seas Under tells the tale of a legendary North Atlantic salvage tug, the Foundation Franklin. He later wrote The Serpent's Coil, which also deals with salvage tugs in the North Atlantic.

Discover more about In popular culture related topics

Puget Sound

Puget Sound

Puget Sound is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and two minor connections to the open Pacific Ocean via the Strait of Juan de Fuca—Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and Deception Pass and Swinomish Channel being the minor.

Captain Tugboat Annie

Captain Tugboat Annie

Captain Tugboat Annie is a 1945 second sequel to the classic Tugboat Annie (1933), this time starring Jane Darwell as Annie and Edgar Kennedy as Horatio Bullwinkle. The film was directed by Phil Rosen, and is also known as Tugboat Annie's Son.

The Adventures of Tugboat Annie

The Adventures of Tugboat Annie

The Adventures of Tugboat Annie is a 1957 Canadian-filmed comedy television series starring Minerva Urecal as Annie Brennan, the widowed captain of the tugboat "Narcissus", and Walter Sande as Horatio J. Bullwinkle, the captain of the "Salamander". The syndicated series lasted for 39 episodes.

1957 in television

1957 in television

The year 1957 in television involved some significant events. Below is a list of television-related events during 1957.

Theodore Tugboat

Theodore Tugboat

Theodore Tugboat is a Canadian children's television series about a tugboat named Theodore who lives in the Big Harbour with all of his friends. The show originated in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada as a co-production between the CBC, and the now defunct Cochran Entertainment, and was filmed on a model set using radio controlled tugboats, ships, and machinery. Production of the show ended in 2001, and its distribution rights were later sold to Classic Media. The show premiered in Canada on CBC Television, then went to PBS, was on Qubo in the United States, and has appeared in eighty different countries.

Episode

Episode

An episode is a narrative unit within a larger dramatic work or documentary production, such as a series intended for radio, television or streaming consumption.

Salty's Lighthouse

Salty's Lighthouse

Salty's Lighthouse is an American animated television series for preschoolers. The series was produced by Sunbow Entertainment and aired from October 3, 1997, to June 26, 1998, on TLC. in association with the Bank Street College of Education in New York. The show centers on a young boy named Salty, as he plays and learns with his friends in a magical lighthouse. As well as the animated adventures of Salty and his friends, the series uses live-action footage from the British children's television series Tugs for various segments. 40 episodes were produced in the series.

Toot the Tiny Tugboat

Toot the Tiny Tugboat

Toot the Tiny Tugboat is a British 2D-animated preschool television series developed from Sebastien Braun’s Toot and Pop! picture book by Lupus Films and animated by Cloth Cat Animation. The series has been airing on Channel 5 Milkshake! since October 2014, and started showing on the 9am time slot from October 2015. Additionally, the series broadcasts on the Cartoonito channel, with the Welsh language version airing on S4C Cyw. The series is also available on UK Netflix.

Milkshake!

Milkshake!

Milkshake! is a British children's television programming block on Channel 5 and is currently aimed at children aged 3–7.

Cartoonito

Cartoonito

Cartoonito is a brand name used by Warner Bros. Discovery for a collection of television networks and programming blocks aimed at preschool children. The name combines the "cartoon" with the Spanish suffix "ito", meaning "small".

S4C

S4C

S4C is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speaking audience. S4C's headquarters are based in Carmarthen, at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David's creative and digital centre, Yr Egin. It also has regional offices in Caernarfon and Cardiff. As of 2019–20, S4C had an average of 101 employees. S4C is the fourth-oldest terrestrial television channel in Wales after BBC One, ITV and BBC Two.

Cyw

Cyw

Cyw is the name of a Welsh-language children's television block from S4C, which launched on 23 June 2008.

Gallery

Discover more about Gallery related topics

Gross register tonnage

Gross register tonnage

Gross register tonnage or gross registered tonnage, is a ship's total internal volume expressed in "register tons", each of which is equal to 100 cubic feet (2.83 m3). Replaced by Gross Tonnage (GT), gross register tonnage uses the total permanently enclosed capacity of the vessel as its basis for volume. Typically this is used for dockage fees, canal transit fees, and similar purposes where it is appropriate to charge based on the size of the entire vessel. Internationally, GRT may be abbreviated as BRT for the German "Bruttoregistertonne".

Rostock

Rostock

Rostock, officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock, is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, close to the border with Pomerania. With around 208,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest city on the German Baltic coast after Kiel and Lübeck, the eighth-largest city in the area of former East Germany, as well as the 39th-largest city of Germany. Rostock was the largest coastal and most important port city in East Germany.

Australia

Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. Australia is the largest country by area in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country. Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils. It is a megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with deserts in the centre, tropical rainforests in the north-east, and mountain ranges in the south-east.

Ystad

Ystad

Ystad is a town and the seat of Ystad Municipality, in Scania County, Sweden. Ystad had 18,350 inhabitants in 2010. The settlement dates from the 11th century and has become a busy ferryport, local administrative centre, and tourist attraction. The detective series Wallander, created by Henning Mankell, is set primarily in Ystad.

Oil tanker

Oil tanker

An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined crude oil from its point of extraction to refineries. Product tankers, generally much smaller, are designed to move refined products from refineries to points near consuming markets.

Rogers City, Michigan

Rogers City, Michigan

Rogers City is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 2,827 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Presque Isle County. The city is adjacent to Rogers Township, but is politically independent.

Rotterdam

Rotterdam

Rotterdam is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the "New Meuse" inland shipping channel, dug to connect to the Meuse first, but now to the Rhine instead.

Eppleton Hall (1914)

Eppleton Hall (1914)

Eppleton Hall is a paddlewheel tugboat built in England in 1914. The only remaining intact example of a Tyne-built paddle tug, and one of only two surviving British-built paddle tugs, she is preserved at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park in San Francisco, California.

San Francisco

San Francisco

San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California, with 815,201 residents as of 2021, and covers a land area of 46.9 square miles, at the end of the San Francisco Peninsula, making it the second most densely populated large U.S. city after New York City and the fifth most densely populated U.S. county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs. Among the 91 U.S. cities proper with over 250,000 residents, San Francisco was ranked first by per capita income and sixth by aggregate income as of 2021. Colloquial nicknames for San Francisco include SF, San Fran, The City, Frisco, and Baghdad by the Bay.

Source: "Tugboat", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, March 16th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tugboat.

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See also
Notes
  1. ^ "How Pygmy Tugboats Dock a Giant Liner." Popular Science Monthly, March 1930, p. 22-23.
  2. ^ Thoresen, Carl A (2003). Port Designer's Handbook: Recommendations and guidelines. Thomas Telford Books. p. 116. ISBN 0-7277-3228-5.
  3. ^ Poulsen, B Lund; et al. (1971). Teknisk Leksikon [The Technological Encyclopaedia] (in Danish). Vol. 2. København: A/S Forlaget for Faglitteratur København/Oslo. pp. 163–190. ISBN 87-573-0023-2.
  4. ^ Bilinski, Marcie B.: "The Workhorse of the Waterways" Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management, Coastlines 2007
  5. ^ "Rotor Tug "RT Zoe"". Marineline.com. 13 September 2006. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
  6. ^ "Western Marine to build tugboat, vessel for Ctg port". The Independent. 4 June 2012. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
  7. ^ "Tugboat Fender Types and Application - Marine Fender System".
  8. ^ novatugnews. "Novatug.nl news". Novatug. Archived from the original on 2007-09-08. Retrieved 2008-01-18.
  9. ^ novatugprod. "Novatug.nl product information". Novatug. Archived from the original on 2008-01-19. Retrieved 2008-01-18.
  10. ^ "Port of Seattle". Portseattle.org. Retrieved 2012-02-18.
  11. ^ "In search of the toughest tug," by Laurel Graeber, New York Times, August 29, 2008.
  12. ^ "tugrace.com". tugrace.com. 2013-06-22. Archived from the original on 2014-04-17. Retrieved 2014-03-23.
  13. ^ "The Great Tugboat Race". Archived from the original on 2011-08-28. Retrieved 2012-06-13.
  14. ^ "Schlepperballett: Kaiserwalzer der Kolosse – SPIEGEL ONLINE – Nachrichten – SPIEGEL TV". Der Spiegel. Spiegel.de. 19 May 2002. Retrieved 2012-02-18.
  15. ^ "Waterford Tugboat Roundup". Tugboatroundup.com. Retrieved 2022-03-08.
  16. ^ "Hollands glorie". IMDb. Retrieved 2008-01-20.
  17. ^ Mel Gussow (September 24, 2002). "Jan de Hartog, 88, Author of His Own Life". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-01-20.
  18. ^ "The Key". IMDb. Retrieved 2008-01-20.
  19. ^ "Hartog, Jan De [1914 – 2002]". New York State Library. Retrieved 2008-01-20.
References
  • Jane's Ocean Technology 1979–80 / Jane's Yearbooks, 1979 – ISBN 0-531-03902-1.
  • On Tugboats: Stories of Work and Life Aboard / Virginia Thorndike – Down East Books, 2004.
  • Under Tow: A Canadian History of Tugs and Towing / Donal Baird – Vanwell Publishing, 277 p., 2003 – ISBN 1-55125-076-4
  • Pacific Tugboats: / Gordon Newell – Superior Publishing Company 1957, Seattle Washington.
  • Primer of Towing / George H. Reid – Cornell Maritime Press, 1992.
Further reading
  • Lehman, Charles F (2009). A riverman's lexicon : in Lehman's terms. Florissant, MO: J.R. Simpson & Associates. ISBN 978-0-9841503-0-4. Nautical terminology specific to towboating on inland waterways.
  • Farrell, Paul (2016). Tugboats Illustrated History, Technology, Seamanship. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-06931-0. A gorgeously detailed guide to the evolution, design, and role of tugboats, from the earliest days of steam to today’s most advanced ocean-going workboats.
External links


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