Tugboats on Puget Sound

While Square-rigged sailing ships, steamboats and ferries , and ever-larger cruise and cargo-carrying vessels have made their mark on Puget Sound's Maritime history, no other vessels have captured the imagination of shore-bound seafarers like tugboats. Beginning in the 1850's when the first steam-powered tugboats arrived in the Sound from the East Coast via San Francisco, company owners and their crews competed fiercely for business, towing ships, log rafts, and barges.