Arthur Foss facts for kids
Arthur Foss in her slip at the Historic Ships Wharf at Lake Union Park, March 2021.
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| History | |
|---|---|
 United States |
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| Name |
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| Owner |
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| Builder | Willamette Iron and Steel Works |
| Launched | Summer 1889 |
| In service | Fall 1889 |
| Out of service | Summer 1968 |
| Identification |
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| Status | Museum Ship |
| Notes | Believed to be world's oldest wooden tug afloat |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Tugboat |
| Tonnage |
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| Displacement | 583 tons (unloaded) |
| Length | 120 ft (37 m) |
| Beam | 24.5 ft (7.5 m) |
| Height | 45 ft (14 m) |
| Draft | 16.0 ft (4.9 m) |
| Decks | 4 |
| Installed power | Washington Iron Works diesel, direct reversing 6 cylinder, 700 hp (520 kW), 18,382 lb⋅ft (24,923 N⋅m) |
| Propulsion | Direct-drive to 6 ft (1.8 m) diameter 3-blade propeller |
| Speed | 13 kn (24 km/h; 15 mph) |
| Crew | 7 (inshore tows) to 9 (coastal and oceanic tows) |
| Notes | Classic heavy wood construction with limited ice-breaking capacity |
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Arthur Foss (tugboat)
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| Location | Historic Ships Wharf, 860 Terry Avenue N., Seattle |
|---|---|
| Area | Lake Union Park, South Lake Union, Seattle |
| Built | 1889, Portland, Oregon |
| Architect | David Stephenson |
| Architectural style | Sawn old-growth Douglas fir, plank on frame |
| NRHP reference No. | 89001078 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | 11 April 1989 |
| Designated NHL | 11 April 1989 |
The Arthur Foss is a very old and famous tugboat. It was built in 1889 in Portland, Oregon, and was first named Wallowa. Many people believe it is the oldest wooden tugboat still floating in the world!
This tugboat worked for 79 years. It started by pulling sailing ships over the dangerous Columbia River bar. It finished its work in 1968, pulling huge rafts of logs on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Today, the Arthur Foss is a museum ship in Seattle, Washington. It is looked after by Northwest Seaport.
The Arthur Foss had a long and busy life in the Pacific Northwest. It even played a part in the exciting Klondike Gold Rush. In 1941, as World War II was starting, the tugboat was sent to Pearl Harbor. It delivered a large gate for a drydock there. Then, it helped build airfields on faraway Pacific islands. These airfields were important for the United States as it got ready for war.
In June 1941, the Arthur Foss was helping build on Wake Island. In November, it was still there, moving building materials from barges to the island. When the work was done, the tugboat was supposed to go back to Hawaii. It was going to tow two empty fuel barges.
The captain was worried about war warnings. He decided to leave Wake Island without getting more fuel. Another smaller tug, the Justine Foss, stayed behind to refuel. About twelve hours into its trip to Honolulu, the Arthur Foss crew heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor. The crew quickly painted the tug a darker color with any paint they had. They also kept their radio silent. People thought the tug was lost because it was late. But Navy planes spotted it, and it arrived at Pearl Harbor on December 28. It had less than a day's worth of fuel left! Sadly, the crew of the Justine Foss were captured when the Japanese took Wake Island. Most of them did not survive.
The Navy used the Arthur Foss as a yard tug from 1942 to 1945. They called it Dohasan. After the war, it was returned to Foss in 1947. It was fixed up and worked for the company for another 20 years. It finally retired in July 1968.
Contents
Building the Tugboat: Wallowa's Early Days
The Wallowa was built in 1889 in Portland, Oregon. It was made for the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company. A famous shipbuilder named David Stephenson designed its hull. The Willamette Iron and Steel Works built the hull and machinery. The tugboat got its steam engines from an older tug called Donald.
When it was built, the Wallowa was about 111.5 feet (34 meters) long. It was 23.75 feet (7.2 meters) wide and 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) deep. The whole tugboat was about 120 feet (36.6 meters) long. It was launched in the summer of 1889. By September, it was ready to go. On September 3, Captain George A. Pease, a very skilled pilot, took the Wallowa from Portland to Astoria, Oregon.
Captain R.E. Howes was the first master of the Wallowa. He was born in 1846 in Massachusetts. Captain Howes had also been the captain of the Donald. The Donald used to pull sailing ships across the dangerous Columbia Bar at the mouth of the Columbia River. The Wallowa took over this important job, working from Astoria.
On September 23, 1889, the new tugboat made its first inspection trip across the bar. It left Astoria at 3:00 AM. Many officials from the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company were on board. They found the Wallowa to be perfect for the job. For the next nine years, the tugboat successfully worked in this risky area.
Adventure in the Klondike Gold Rush
In 1898, many ships were needed because of the Klondike Gold Rush. The Oregon Railway & Navigation Company rented the Wallowa to the White Star Line. The Wallowa was to tow a large paddlewheel ship called Yosemite north to St. Michael, Alaska. St. Michael was a main entry point to the gold fields, reached by the Yukon River.
On its way back to Seattle, the Wallowa was towing a large sailing ship called Columbia. On November 1, 1898, a strong storm almost caused the Wallowa to be lost. A powerful gale pushed the tugboat onto the shore near Mary Island in Alaska. Luckily, the Wallowa was not damaged. It floated free on the next high tide. But three days later, the Columbia got stuck at the mouth of Portland Canal and was completely lost. The Wallowa safely finished its stormy trip back to Seattle.
The Wallowa's strong build continued to help it. The tugboat made many trips up the Inside Passage. It carried supply barges and building materials for the mining camps. By 1900, the Wallowa was working for the Pacific Clipper Line. It carried mail and supplies between Juneau, Haines, Skagway, and Seattle. In 1903, the tugboat returned to Puget Sound. A year later, it was sold to a company that worked with timber.
Working in the Timber Industry
In 1904, a lumber boss named Mike Earles bought the Wallowa. He owned the Puget Sound Mill & Timber Company (PSM & T Co.) in Port Angeles. For the next 25 years, the tugboat pulled huge log rafts. These rafts went from the Port Crescent "booming grounds" on the Olympic Peninsula to sawmills in Bellingham.
Soon after buying the Wallowa, Mike Earles had it updated. It got a new boiler and a new steam engine. This new engine replaced the old, worn-out ones. The Wallowa became much more powerful. It could tow much more than before. It worked reliably for the PSM & T Co. without long breaks. The only major repair was after a fire in 1927. During this time, Captain Frank Harrington was usually in charge.
In early 1929, Mike Earles sold the Wallowa. It was bought by Merrill & Ring Logging Company. This company was started in 1886 by two families from Michigan and Minnesota. They came to the Pacific Northwest and bought large areas of timberland. The Wallowa did similar jobs for Merrill & Ring. It mostly worked between Pysht and Port Angeles. But after less than a year, Merrill & Ring decided to sell the tugboat.
Becoming Arthur Foss: A Movie Star and Flagship
Foss Launch & Tug Company (Foss) bought the Wallowa in late 1929. It was one of the first big, seagoing tugs the company bought. To help pay for it, Foss gave Merrill & Ring some free towing services. Then, in 1931, Foss rented the Wallowa to MGM Studios. It was used to film the 1933 movie Tugboat Annie.
That movie was the first major film made in Washington state. It was a huge hit! The Wallowa became a movie star, unofficially called "Narcissus" during filming.
After the movie, the Wallowa went back to Foss. In 1934, Foss rebuilt and modernized the tugboat at their headquarters in Tacoma. The biggest change was a new, powerful diesel engine. It was a 700-horsepower engine from Washington Iron Works. This made the tugboat the most powerful on the West Coast.
When it was relaunched, Foss renamed the tugboat Arthur Foss. This was to honor the company president, who was the oldest son of the company's founder, Thea Foss. After successful tests, the Arthur Foss became the main tugboat for the Foss company. In 1937, a power-steering system was added. This was probably needed because the new, stronger engine made steering difficult for one person.
For almost three years, the Arthur Foss mainly towed things along the coast to California, Oregon, and Alaska. It was usually based in Tacoma. The tugboat set new records for speed and how much it could tow. In 1936, Captain W. B. Sporman commanded the tug. The Arthur Foss towed a large sailing ship called Commodore, loaded with 1.5 million board feet of lumber. They battled bad weather but reached Los Angeles in a record seven days. The tug also often towed log rafts, ships, and barges along the Inside Passage, just like it did during the gold rush.
On February 18, 1937, a serious fire broke out in the front crew area. To save the Arthur Foss, Captain J.M. Bowers purposely steered the tug into shallow water near Discovery Bay and sank it. This put out the fire. Other boats came to help. The Arthur Foss was refloated and taken to Tacoma for repairs.
By late 1937, the Arthur Foss was back at work with its new power steering. It also had a very skilled new captain, Martin Guchee. In November, both the tug and Captain Guchee were praised for towing the broken motorship Eastern Prince from Yakutat, Alaska, to Seattle in just six days.
Captain Guchee was also at the helm when the Arthur Foss helped build two famous landmarks in the Northwest. In 1938, the tug made a long tow from San Francisco. It pulled a giant barge, Foss No. 64, which had been used to build the Golden Gate Bridge. This barge was needed up north for the Tacoma Narrows Bridge construction, which started in September 1938. This bridge was finished in 1940. But after only a few months, it collapsed in strong winds. Students still study this famous event today.
In January 1939, another famous bridge began construction on Lake Washington. This was the Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge, connecting Seattle to Mercer Island. Before building, engineers tested the strength of the pontoons for nine months in 1938. An experimental barge, like the planned bridge, was anchored in the lake. The most powerful tug on the West Coast, Arthur Foss, was hired to test it. Captain Guchee drove the Arthur Foss at full speed around the test barge. He made four-foot waves, like strong lake conditions. Engineers watched and took notes. The anchoring system held strong. Captain Guchee then put the Arthur Foss's bow against the barge and used "full power." The anchoring system still held! Using the information from this unusual test, the world's first floating highway bridge was finished in 1940. Today, there are only five similar floating bridges in the world, and three are in Washington State.
After helping with these famous bridges, the Arthur Foss went back to its usual towing jobs. Captain Vince Miller was in command then. In late 1940, it set a record by towing 1.8 million board feet of lumber to Los Angeles. On February 8, 1941, the tug left Tacoma for Oakland, California. It was going to pick up a barge carrying a huge gate for one of the United States Navy's dry docks at Pearl Harbor. The Arthur Foss and its tow left for Hawaii on February 15, 1941. They arrived safely two weeks later. The crew thought it was just a normal job and they would soon go home.
World War II Service: A Brave Escape
The Arthur Foss successfully delivered the drydock gate to the navy yard at Pearl Harbor in early March 1941. Instead of returning home, the tug was rented by a group of civilian engineering companies. This group, called Contractors Pacific Naval Air Bases (CPNAB), was building military bases on islands like Wake Island. The Arthur Foss's first job was towing gravel barges for airport runways.
This work lasted until June. Then, the tug was assigned to regularly tow barges of building materials and military supplies between Hawaii and Wake Island. The United States was quietly getting ready for war. In November, as tensions grew between the U.S. and Japan, the tug was sent from Honolulu to Wake again. Captain Oscar Rolstad was in command, towing two fully loaded barges.
When they arrived, the Arthur Foss joined a smaller tug, the Justine Foss, in the atoll harbor. The two tug crews spent weeks unloading the barges and moving equipment ashore. When the work was done, the Arthur Foss was scheduled to return to Honolulu. It was to tow two empty fuel barges. They expected to leave Wake in the first week of December.
The work finished on time. The Arthur Foss needed to refuel for the 2,300-mile (3,700 km) trip back to Hawaii. But Captain Rolstad and his crew were very eager to leave quickly. By the early morning of December 8, 1941 (December 7 in the U.S.), three war warnings had been broadcast on the radio. Captain Rolstad decided to leave without refueling. He took the Arthur Foss and its tow out to sea.
Twelve hours after leaving Wake, they heard news of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Japanese forces also attacked Wake Island at the same time. The Arthur Foss was painted a bright white and green. It was an easy target, standing "out like a chain of coral islands on the empty sea." Captain Rolstad knew they could be bombed or attacked. While sailing, the crew quickly mixed all the white paint they had with engine grease. They repainted the tug dark gray to blend in with the ocean. All lights were turned off, and the Arthur Foss sailed in radio silence.
Still towing the two barges at a very slow speed, the crew wondered if they should go to Alaska or Hawaii. No one was sure if they had enough fuel to reach either place. They also didn't know if the enemy would be in control when they arrived. They decided to follow their original orders and head to Honolulu. They went at a reduced speed to save as much fuel as possible.
U.S. Navy planes spotted the Arthur Foss and its tow. They escorted it into Pearl Harbor on December 28, 1941. Admiral Claude Bloch praised the crew for their brave actions. Because they went so slowly, they were a week late and had been thought lost. According to Captain Rolstad's log, they had less than 500 gallons of fuel left when they docked. This was almost empty, as the engine used about 42 gallons per hour.
The Arthur Foss was the last vessel to escape Wake Island. Japanese forces captured the island on December 23, 1941, after a long and difficult fight. After the Arthur Foss left, only a few Pan Am flying boats carrying employees managed to escape. The crew of the Justine Foss, which had stayed behind to refuel, were captured. They were forced to work. The Justine Foss itself was sunk by the Japanese. Most of the crew members were later killed in 1943.
The United States Navy started using the Arthur Foss in early 1942. They renamed it Dohasan and called it YT-335 (harbor tug) and later YTM-335 (district harbor tug, medium). The tug continued to tow supply barges between bases in the Hawaiian archipelago. It even went as far as French Frigate Shoals, 500 miles (800 km) northwest of Oahu. The Dohasan towed a large grab dredge to the Shoals on August 8, 1942. This was for building an emergency landing strip there. The tug then stayed to help the dredge as it removed material from the lagoon to build up a runway.
The tug returned to Hawaii after three months. But after that, it seemed to be idle a lot. Navy crews were not familiar with how to operate its main engine. After the war ended in September 1945, the Dohasan stayed in Navy service until February 7, 1945. It was then stored in Honolulu through 1946. The tug was finally returned to Foss Launch & Tug Company in fall 1947. It was renamed Arthur Foss again. To get the worn-out tug back to the West Coast, CPNAB put it in a floating drydock and had it towed to Los Angeles. During the stormy trip, rough seas knocked the Arthur Foss off its blocks, badly damaging its hull. When it arrived back in Tacoma, Foss began a major repair project. This lasted until August 1948.
Post-War Service and Retirement
After its repairs, the newly fixed Arthur Foss was sent to Foss's Port Angeles division. Its job was to tow log cribs and later bundled log rafts in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It mostly worked for companies like Crown Zellerbach, Rayonier, and Weyerhaeuser. Each raft had about 750,000 board feet of timber.
The Arthur Foss worked between Neah Bay, Sekiu, Clallam Bay, Pysht, Port Crescent, and Port Angeles. It did this work for 20 years, setting a record for the longest continuous towing service in the Straits. During this time, Captains Lynn Davis and Arnold Tweter were almost always in command.
In 1964, during its yearly check-up, the tug was renamed Theodore Foss. This was to honor Thea Foss's oldest brother-in-law. A brand-new oceangoing tug took on the respected name Arthur Foss that year. When it retired in July 1968, the Theodore Foss was moved to Tacoma and sat idle for two years. In 1970, Foss Launch & Tug Company donated the vessel to Northwest Seaport. It was renamed Arthur Foss once again, since it was no longer part of the commercial fleet. Henry Foss himself, the youngest and last surviving son of Thea Foss, was at the official transfer ceremony.
A Historic Museum Ship
Volunteers at Northwest Seaport cleaned and organized the tug's inside. They also fixed the main engine piece by piece. The first time it officially started up as a museum ship was in 1980. After that, the Arthur Foss regularly cruised the waters of Puget Sound during the summer. It had a volunteer crew and took part in tugboat races, boat shows, and other maritime events until 2001.
The tug's trips ended that year because of higher fuel and insurance costs. There were also more safety concerns after the 11 September attacks. Volunteers also felt tired, and the organization needed to grow. Plus, the tugboat needed major restoration work. Over the years, there had been small, non-professional repairs. But starting in 2004, larger, focused restoration projects were done by professionals. However, a full restoration has not happened yet.
After a lot of surveying and hull maintenance in 2017, plans and fundraising are now underway. The goal is to restore the vessel to how it looked in 1940. They also want it to be able to cruise again.
The Arthur Foss was named a National Historic Landmark in 1989. It is also on the National Register of Historic Places and is a Seattle Landmark. In 1989, it was also named a Washington State Centennial Heritage Flagship. Both the tug and the state celebrated their 100th "birthday" that year.
Today, the Arthur Foss is docked at the Historic Ships Wharf at Seattle's Lake Union Park. It is a popular attraction and is open for public tours most summer weekends, or by appointment. Visitors of all ages can get a peek into life aboard one of the oldest and most historic vessels in the United States.
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