Tugboats' Historical Timeline
Here is a running history of the tugboat and its activities during the last couple of centuries.
| March, 1802 | The first towing vessel, Charlotte Dundas, makes a successful trip. |
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| 1817 | The first reference to the word tug. This is the name given to a small towing vessel built in Dunbarton as a ship assistant. | ||
| 1860 | Moran Towing was founded in New York. | ||
| March, 1861 | During the Civil War, the Union army employed tugs to save Fort Sumpter. Read about it here. | ||
| December 13th, 1864 | More tugs are used by the Signal Corps to direct fire upon forts along Georgia rivers and Hampton Roads, Virginia. Read about it here. | ||
| July, 1864 | Rear Admiral Lee sends the tugboats Belle, Martin, and Hoyt, fitted as torpedo boats, to Commander Macomb, commanding Union naval forces off New Bern, North Carolina. | ||
| 1889 | Foss Maritime is started up with the purchase of a single steam launch. Read about it here. | ||
| May 15, 1915 | In Waterford, New York, the Tug Schenectady was the first vessel to enter the Waterford Flight of Locks, marking the opening of the new Erie Canal from Waterford to Rexford. Read about it here. | ||
| 1939 | Little Toot, by Hardie Gramatky, is first published. It is a children's book about a little tugboat. It has been reprinted numerous times. | ||
| July 19th, 1942 | The steam tug Keshena is sunk by a mine off the Outer Banks while assisting two tankers that had been attacked by U-boats earlier. Read about it here. | ||
| May 10, 2001 | Tug Bay Titan sinks in the C&D Canal with loss of life. Read about it here. | ||
| January 18, 2006 | Tug Valour sinks off the coast of North Carolina with loss of life. Read about it here. | ||
| June 13, 2007 | Tug Huntington, an historic Norfolk, Virginia icon and towing industry standard was moved from its Nauticus berth in Norfolk to the Palm Beach Maritime Museum in Palm Beach, Florida. | ||
| 2008 | Foss Maritime build the first hybrid powered tug in America. | ||
| April, 2009 | The world's first "facet tug," Ruth M. Reinauer was delivered by the Senesco Shipyard in Kingston, Rhode Island. A facet tug is built entirely of flat steel with multiple chines replacing shaped steel. This design means that smaller shipyards can build bigger tugs at less cost. Read more here. | ||