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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 2 |
| 1883 | 4 |
| 1884 | 1 |
| 1886 | 2 |
| 1888 | 1 |
| 1889 | 1 |
| 1891 | 2 |
| 1892 | 5 |
| 1893 | 9 |
| 1894 | 3 |
| 1895 | 5 |
| 1899 | 2 |
| 1904 | 2 |
| 1909 | 1 |
40 stories matching tugboat
- Local Tug Sold for Cross-Border Rivalry
A Port Townsend tugboat is sold to British Columbia interests to break the monopoly on regional towing business.
- The Captain Who Slipped the Marshal
A crew-hiring dispute lands a ship's master in irons in Port Townsend—until a death and a distracted guard give him a clear path to the sea.
- The $100,000 Tugboat Dispute
A steamship's distress call near Port Townsend has triggered a massive legal battle over salvage rights and the true peril of the Pacific.
- The tugboat blockade at Grays Harbor
A local editor exposes a corrupt tugboat manager for sabotaging a critical federal survey of the harbor bar.
- The Queen City gets a new tugboat
A festive launch of Stetson & Post's new tugboat ends in a brush with catastrophe.
- The Relentless Fate of the Tug Blanche
For the fourth time in a single year, a local tugboat has met a watery end at the Seattle Lumber company wharf.
- Tugboat Captains Sue for Massive Salvage Fees
A collision between the Willamette and the Premier led to a $20,000 legal battle over rescue services rendered near Whidby Island.
- Search for Missing Tugboat Crewman
Anton Anderson, a deckhand on the tug Holyoke, vanishes into the cold waters of Port Townsend after a night on shore.
- The Pirates of the Pacific: When Salvage Means Plunder
A biting critique from 1886 argues that maritime 'salvage' laws in the Pacific Northwest have transformed honest sailors into modern-day pirates who hold ships hostage for ransom.
- The Cross-Border Tugboat War
Canadian tugboat operators are fuming over an unfair trade imbalance as American vessels dominate regional shipping routes.
- The Tugboat Border War
A British tug is seized by U.S. authorities for towing a ship through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, triggering an international violation of maritime law.
- Steaming Through Deception Pass
A rare account of the steamer Washington braving the treacherous currents of Deception Pass to maintain mail service.
- The Seattle Fireboat is Not a Tugboat
Insurance underwriters warn that if the city uses the fireboat 'Snoqualmie' to tow garbage scows, property insurance rates will rise, sparking a debate over city efficiency and political patronage.
- A Foggy Collision in Seattle Harbor
The tugboat Mystic is sent to the bottom of Elliott Bay after a collision with the steamer State of Washington, but the crew miraculously escapes.
- The Diver’s Quest for the Sunken Mystic
An underwater salvage attempt on a Seattle tugboat encounters extreme darkness and technical difficulties at 190 feet.
- Mutiny on the Parthenia
A Norwegian ship captain enlists the help of neighboring vessels to suppress a crew revolt at sea.
- The Peril of the Deep
Divers and engineers battle immense pressure to raise a sunken tugboat from the depths of the bay.
- The Great Fleet of the Northwest
As Seattle's harbor crowds with vessels, a maritime shift signals a new era for local tugboat commerce.
- The tugboat captain who challenged a federal marshal
When the captain of the tug Tacoma ignored a U.S. marshal's order to stop a libeled ship, the law caught up with him at the McNeil Island penitentiary.
- The Cricket Gets Evicted from the Wharf
A minor tugboat war on the waterfront ends with a forced relocation, illustrating how exclusive agreements between shipping rivals shaped the Seattle harbor.
- Tugboat Crashes into Merchants' Wharf
A mechanical failure sends a tug steaming into the trestle, scalding a cook and shaking the vessel to its bones.
- The Battle for the Bark Elsinore
Striking sailors trail a tugboat in a high-stakes effort to prevent non-union labor from shipping out.
- The Great Tugboat Escape
A United States marshal is left stranded on the wharf while his prisoner escapes aboard a government tug to Port Townsend.
- Repairs for the Chinook on the Waterfront
A routine dispatch from the January 1891 docks captures the industrial heart of old Seattle, where the tugboat Chinook sits on the beach for repairs at the foot of Jackson Street.
- The Great Seattle Brick Heist
A local contractor chartered a tugboat to chase down a steamboat captain who allegedly stole a scow full of brick over a payment dispute.
Also about this, in other words
- The Tugboat Race to a Distant Sail
Off Cape Flattery, crews raced rivals for incoming ships and went months without seeing home — while rum-drunk gulls kept them company.
- The Tug That Sank at Her Own Moorings
The Defender goes down in ten feet of water off the Pend Oreille landing while low water ties up log barges on the bars and fog strands a sixty-passenger steamer below Boundary Island.
- Midnight Collision on the Sound
A steam tug towing a barge is struck by an ocean-going ship in the dark of night, leaving the tug's crew scrambling for their lives.
- The Battle Over the Waterfront Fireboat
City council debates whether the general public or wealthy industrial interests should pay for the city's new fire protection infrastructure.
- The Blast at Mason Slip
A steam tug carrying three crew members is obliterated in a freak explosion on the Seattle waterfront.
- The Salvage of the Mystic
After months submerged in the Sound, a sunken tugboat is finally coaxed from the mud.
- The Big River Never Came Back
A tug captain spots a wreck on the Grays Harbor bar and identifies it as the overdue schooner Big River, lost with five hands.
- Thirty Hours Adrift Off West Point, Waving a Coat at Half-Mast
A passing steamboat captain spots a dismasted sloop wallowing off the Magnolia bluff; the tug Mayflower goes out and brings back a man who had run out of food, water and luck.