The Tugboat Race to a Distant Sail

When not towing a vessel, the tugs of Puget Sound cruise about the coast, sometimes going out 100 miles. When another tug of an opposition company is about, the fight for the strange sail is fascinating and thrilling. The town of the ocean is before them. When a dark speck is discovered on the horizon all is activity. The cry goes round: “A sail! A sail!” The race for the incoming ship begins, and continues for two or three hours before the vessel is reached, the first tug on the scene generally reaping the reward and securing the work of towing her to her destination.

For months at a stretch a tug’s men may not be at their homes or see their people. A man on the Wanderer told of a young fellow who joined the crew on the Sound and worked three years there without ever having an opportunity to see his parents, although they lived in a Sound town not over thirty miles away.

The crews find much amusement in the sea gulls that follow the tugs. One big gull, fed bread soaked in rum, grew so drunk he could hardly contain himself. He would pull great beaksful of feathers from the tails of the other well-behaved gulls, and soon had about ten feet of the deck all to himself, his wives, brothers and sisters remaining at a safe distance and watching his capers. The next day he returned, sober enough, and the presence of sea gulls makes life worth living for the men who man a tug boat, for their presence is always agreeable and their ceaseless amusement.

During the summer months, while cruising off Cape Flattery for incoming vessels, the crews find much pleasure in fishing, the entrance to the strait affording much sport. All kinds of deep-sea fish abound.