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 that cannot move well on their own, such as those in crowded harbours or narrow canals, or those that cannot move at all, such as barges, disabled ships, log rafts, or oil platforms. The tugboat, for its size, is the most powerful craft afloat. Some are ocean-going, some are icebreakers or salvage tugs. Early models had steam engines, and modern ones have diesel engines. Many have deluge guns, which help in firefighting, especially in harbours.
Hercules is a 1907-built steam tugboat that is now preserved at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park in San Francisco, California.
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.
Seaspan ULC provides marine-related services to the Pacific Northwest. Within the Group are three shipyards, an intermodal ferry and car float business, and a tug and barge transportation company that serves both domestic and international markets. Seaspan is part of the Washington Companies, owned by Dennis Washington. Seaspan is run by his son Kyle Washington, as Executive Chairman, who has become a Canadian citizen. Seaspan ULC was formerly known as Seaspan Marine Corporation, and prior to that Washington Marine Group.
Crowley Maritime Corporation, is based in Jacksonville, Florida. Founded in 1892, Crowley is primarily a family- and employee-owned vessel management, owner, and supply chain logistics services company, providing services globally. As of July 2016, Crowley was ranked as the 13th largest private company in Florida, employing approximately 5,300 people worldwide with revenues of $2.2 billion. It provides its services using a fleet of more than 300 vessels, consisting of RO-RO vessels, LO-LO vessels, tankers, Articulated Tug-Barges (ATBs), tugs and barges. Crowley's land-based facilities and equipment include terminals, warehouses, tank farms, and specialized vehicles.
The Great Lakes Group (GLG) is an American full-service marine-related transportation company headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. The Great Lakes Group is the parent Company to The Great Lakes Towing Company, Great Lakes Shipyard, Tugz International L.L.C., Puerto Rico Towing & Barge Co., Soo Linehandling Services, Admiral Towing and Barge Company, and Wind Logistics, Inc.
The Santa Fe Railroad barged rail cars across the San Francisco Bay for much of the 20th century as there is no direct rail link to the San Francisco peninsula. In the post World War II period a fleet of three tugs moved the barges: the Paul P. Hastings, the Edward J. Engel, and the John R. Hayden. After cross-bay float service had ended and the tugs had been sold, the Hastings sank off Point Arena, California in water too deep to raise. The Engel sank off Alameda, California and is expected to be raised. The Hayden remains afloat and in service in Oregon.
Atlantic Salvor is a US-flagged ocean-going tugboat owned and operated by Donjon Marine of Hillside, New Jersey. Sailing under her original name Mister Darby until 1998, the boat was built by Halter Marine Inc. and launched on 1 February 1977. She was involved in the salvage operation following the wreck of New Carissa.
Luna is a historic tugboat normally berthed in Boston Harbor, Massachusetts. Luna was designed in 1930 by John G. Alden and built by M.M. Davis and Bethlehem Steel. She is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a U.S. National Historic Landmark. In 1985, the Luna was designated as a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission.
Marine Transportation Services (MTS) formerly Northern Transportation Company Limited (NTCL) is a marine transportation company operating primarily in the Mackenzie River watershed of the Northwest Territories and northern Alberta, and the Arctic Ocean using a fleet of diesel tug boats and shallow-draft barges. NTCL filed for bankruptcy in 2016 and its assets were acquired by the Government of the Northwest Territories later that year.
The NEPCO 140 Oil Spill took place in 1976 near Clayton, New York when the NEPCO 140 ran aground while traveling inland, spilling an estimated 300,000 US gallons (1,100 m3) of oil into the Saint Lawrence River.
Foss Maritime, often referred to as Foss Tugging, is an American shipping company. The company was founded in 1889 by Thea Foss (1857–1927) and her husband Andrew Foss. The company is now the largest tug and towing concern on the west coast of the United States.
MV Algonorth was a Seawaymax lake freighter built in 1970 and completed in 1971 by the Govan Division of Upper Clyde Shipbuilders Ltd. in Govan, Scotland as the bulk carrier Temple Bar. Her original owners were Lambert Bros. Shipping Ltd., of London, United Kingdom, sold the vessel in 1976 to Nipigon Transport Ltd., who had her hull lengthened and installed a new power plant for Great Lakes service. Re-entering service as Lake Nipigon, the ship was renamed Laketon in 1984 before returning to the name Lake Nipigon in 1986. In 1987, the lake freighter was sold to Algoma Central Railway which gave the ship its final named, Algonorth. In 2007, the ship collided with a dock in Toledo, Ohio. The ship was scrapped in 2012.
Bruce Hudson was an oil tanker which mainly carried petroleum products on the North American Great Lakes. She was built in 1935 by the Horton Steel Works Ltd. of Fort Erie. Originally Bruce Hudson, and sister ships, were unpowered tank barges, that relied on tugboats to tow them from port to port. This did not prove very workable. In July, 1935, Bruce Hudson capsized in high seas off Cobourg, Ontario, while being towed from Montreal to Port Credit, Ontario, with a load of crude oil. She was towed upside-down to St. Catharines, Ontario, siphoned out, righted, and returned to service. In November 1935, the crew of Bruce Hudson were removed from the barge in high seas, again off Cobourg, when the tug Ethel ran low on fuel and had to leave the vessel adrift on Lake Ontario. The steamer Brulin took the barge in tow and won salvage fees in Exchequer Court of Canada.
SS Brulin was a lake freighter that worked the North American Great Lakes routes from 1924 to 1960. She was renamed Outarde in 1939, and James J. Buckler in 1960, shortly before she ran aground and sank during salvage operations. Brulin was built by Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Hebburn-on-Tyne and launched on 31 July 1924, for the Montreal Forwarding Company. She was built to the maximum dimensions of the canal locks that preceded the St Lawrence Seaway.
The SS St. Marys Challenger is a freight-carrying vessel operating on the North American Great Lakes built in 1906. Originally an ore boat, she spent most of her career as a cement carrier when much larger ore boats became common. After a 107-year-long working career as a self-propelled boat, she was converted into a barge and paired with the tug Prentiss Brown as an articulated tug-barge. Before conversion, she was the oldest operating self-propelled lake freighter on the Great Lakes, as well as being one of the last freight-carrying vessels on the Great Lakes to be powered by steam engines.
Sause Bros., Inc., a pioneering Oregon ocean towing company founded in 1936, is a privately held, fourth-generation family company serving routes along the West Coast of the United States, Hawaii and other islands of the South Pacific, as well as Alaska. It maintains a sixty-vessel fleet of tugboats and barges, employing approximately 400 people at its facilities in Coos Bay, Portland, and Rainier, Oregon; in Long Beach, California; and in Honolulu and Kalaeloa, Hawaii.
Seaforth Channel is a channel in the Central Coast region of the Canadian province of British Columbia which is part of the Inside Passage - the 950 miles (1,530 km) passage between Seattle, Washington and Juneau, Alaska. The marine highway goes through Seaforth Channel on the way to Milbanke Sound, one of the open sea portions of the Inland Passage. Seaforth Channel which is part of the Prince Rupert/Port Hardy BC ferry route, extends in a westerly direction from Denny Island to Milbanke Sound between Denny Island, Campbell Island and the Wright group of islands on the south. In October 2016, a Texas-owned tug/barge transiting the Canadian waters of the Inside Passage without a local pilot was hard grounded on a reef at the entrance to Seaforth Channel in October 2016. More than 100,000 l of fuel contaminated the coast, coves and shores 20 km (12 mi) west of Bella Bella, the core community of the Heiltsuk Nation as well as the environmentally sensitive Great Bear Rainforest - Canada's contribution to the Queen's Commonwealth Canopy (QCC), a network of forest conservation programs. Clean up response and salvage was criticized by the Heiltsuk, B.C. Premier Christy Clark and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In November in Vancouver the Prime Minister announced a $1.5B ocean protection plan to "create a marine safety system, restore marine ecosystems and undertake research into oil spill cleanup methods."
Samuel de Champlain is a large, twin-screw tugboat currently under the ownership of Lafarge North America and the management of Andrie Inc. The vessel is paired with the cement barge Innovation, transporting cement products between Lafarge facilities across the Great Lakes.
