Tugboat
A tugboat or tug is a
Types
Seagoing
Seagoing tugs (deep-sea tugs or ocean tugboats) fall into four basic categories:
- The standard seagoing tug with model bow that tows almost exclusively by way of a wire cable. In some rare cases, such as some USN fleet tugs, a synthetic rope hawser may be used for the tow in the belief that the line can be pulled aboard a disabled ship by the crew owing to its lightness compared to wire cable.
- The "notch tug" can be secured by way of cables, or more commonly in recent times, synthetic lines that run from the stern of the tug to the stern of the barge. This configuration is generally used in inland waters where sea and swell are minimal because of the danger of parting the push wires. Often, this configuration is employed even without a "notch" on the barge, but in those cases it is preferable to have "push knees" on the tug to stabilize its position. Model bow tugs employing this method of pushing nearly always have a towing winch that can be used if sea conditions render pushing inadvisable. With this configuration, the barge being pushed might approach the size of a small ship, with the interaction of the water flow allowing a higher speed with a minimal increase in power required or fuel consumption.
- The "integral unit", or "integrated tug and barge" (ITB), comprises specially designed Det Norske Veritas or several others. These units stay combined under virtually any sea conditions and the tugs usually have poor sea-keepingdesigns for navigation without their barges attached. Vessels in this category are legally considered to be ships rather than tugboats and barges must be staffed accordingly. These vessels must show navigation lights compliant with those required of ships rather than those required of tugboats and vessels undertow.
- "Articulated tug and barge" (ATB) units also utilize mechanical means to connect to their barges. The tug slips into a notch in the stern and is attached by a hinged connection, becoming an ColRegs.
Harbour
Compared with seagoing tugboats,
River
River tugs are also referred to as
Propulsion
The first tugboat, Charlotte Dundas, was built by William Symington in 1801. It had a steam engine and paddle wheels and was used on rivers in Scotland. Paddle tugs proliferated thereafter and were a common sight for a century. In the 1870s schooner hulls were converted to screw tugs. Compound steam engines and scotch boilers provided 300 Indicated Horse Power. Steam tugs were put to use in every harbour of the world towing and ship berthing.
Tugboat diesel engines typically produce 500 to 2,500
A tugboat is typically rated by its engine's power output and its overall bollard pull. The largest commercial harbour tugboats in the 2000s–2010s, used for towing container ships or similar, had around 60 to 65 short tons-force (530–580 kN) of bollard pull, which is described as 15 short tons-force (130 kN) above "normal" tugboats.[5][6]
Tugboats are highly manoeuvrable, and various propulsion systems have been developed to increase manoeuvrability and increase safety. The earliest tugs were fitted with
Kort nozzle
The Kort nozzle is a sturdy cylindrical structure around a special propeller having minimum clearance between the propeller blades and the inner wall of the Kort nozzle. The thrust-to-power ratio is enhanced because the water approaches the propeller in a linear configuration and exits the nozzle the same way. The Kort nozzle is named after its inventor, but many brands exist.
Cyclorotor
The cycloidal propeller is a circular plate mounted on the underside of the hull, rotating around a vertical axis with a circular array of vertical blades (in the shape of
Fenders
Carousel
A recent Dutch innovation is the carousel tug, winner of the Maritime Innovation Award at the Dutch Maritime Innovation Awards Gala in 2006.[8] It adds a pair of interlocking rings to the body of the tug, the inner on the boat, the outer on the ship by winch or towing hook. Since the towing point rotates freely, the tug is very difficult to capsize.[9]
Races
Vintage tugboat races have been held annually in Olympia, Washington, since 1974 during the Olympia Harbor Days Maritime Festival Tugboat races are held annually on Elliott Bay in Seattle,[10] on the Hudson River at the New York Tugboat Race,[11] the Detroit River,[12] and the Great Tugboat Race and Parade on the St. Mary's River.[13]
Ballet
Since 1980, an annual tugboat ballet has been held in Hamburg harbour on the occasion of the festival commemorating the anniversary of the establishment of a port in Hamburg. On a weekend in May, eight tugboats perform choreographed movements for about an hour to the tunes of waltz and other sorts of dance music.[14]
Roundups
The Tugboat Roundup is a gathering of tugboats and other vessels in celebration of maritime industry. The Waterford Tugboat Roundup is held in the late summer at the confluence of the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers in Waterford, New York. The tugs featured are river tugs and other tugs re-purposed to serve on the New York State Canal System.[15]
In popular culture
Film and television
To date, there have been four children's shows revolving around
- In the late 1980s, 13 episodes were made of TUGS, a series depicting the life of tugboats in the 1920s.
- An American adaptation using edited footage from Tugs followed: Salty's Lighthouse.
- In the 1975's Soviet short animation musical film В порту/ In the sea port a tugboat sang a song: "Through a harbour area"
- One of the creators of Tugs went on to direct Theodore Tugboat.
- Animated preschool series Channel 5 Milkshake! in 2014 and on Cartoonito in 2015, with a Welsh-language version airing on S4C Cyw.
"Tugger" is a tugboat in the
Literature
(Alphabetical by author)
- The children's book Scuffy the Tugboat, written by Gertrude Crampton and illustrated by Tibor Gergely and first published in 1946 as part of the Little Golden Books series, follows the adventures of a young toy tugboat who seeks a life beyond the confines of a tub inside his owner's toy store.
- The Dutch writer Jan de Hartog wrote numerous nautical novels, first in Dutch, then in English.
- The novel Hollands Glorie, written prior to World War II, was made into a Dutch miniseries in 1978 and concerned the dangers faced by the crews of Dutch salvage tugs.[16][17]
- The novella Stella, concerning the dangers faced by the captains of rescue tugs in the English Channel during World War II, was made into a film entitled The Key in 1958.[18]
- The novel Murmansk Convoy, sold over a million copies.[19]
- Its 1986 sequel, The Commodore, features the narrator captaining a fleet of tugs in peace-time.
- The novel
- Little Toot (1939), written and illustrated by Hardie Gramatky, is a children's story of an anthropomorphic tugboat child, who wants to help tow ships in a harbour near Hoboken. He's rejected by the tugboat community and dejectedly drifts out to sea, where he accidentally discovers a shipwrecked liner and a chance to prove his worth. This story was animated as part of the Disney movie Melody Time.
- Farley Mowat's book The Grey Seas Under tells the tale of a legendary North Atlantic salvage tug, the Foundation Franklin. He later wrote The Serpent's Coil, which also deals with salvage tugs in the North Atlantic.
Gallery
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Titanic with tugboats, doing sea trials in 1912
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Swedish harbour tug Svitzer Freja in tug-operation (3,600kW / 453 gross register tons(GRT))
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Dutch river tugboat "Mascotte II"
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German harbour-tug and DDR quick-freighter Karl Marx at Rostock harbour
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The tugboat Woona inSydney Harbour, Australia
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Danish Svitzer Tyr in Ystad harbour 2018
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Danish Baltsund in Ystad harbour 2019
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Tugs towing an oil tanker (VLCC)
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Tugboat Nancy Anne assisting a tug and barge docking in Rogers City, Michigan
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Oceangoing tug Smit Rotterdam arriving at Rotterdam (1987)
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Dutch tugboat Watergeus towing a barge in the locks at Kiel-Holtenau
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Ship surrounded by tug boats, Sydney, 1942]
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Eppleton Hall, a paddlewheel tugboat, in San Francisco
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Tugboat VB Malabata in Tangier Arbor on 30 october 2023
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Tugboat Delta Cathryn at Port of San Francisco (2023)
See also
- Admiralty tug
- American Waterways Operators
- Azipod
- Barrier Boat
- Charlotte Dundas
- E3 Tug Project
- Fish tug
- HydroTug
- Maritime pilot
- PS Comet
- Pusher (boat)
- Switcher, rail analog
- Tugboats in New York City
- Type V ship
Notes
- ^ "How Pygmy Tugboats Dock a Giant Liner." Popular Science Monthly, March 1930, p. 22-23.
- ISBN 0-7277-3228-5.
- ISBN 87-573-0023-2.
- ^ Bilinski, Marcie B.: "The Workhorse of the Waterways" Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management, Coastlines 2007
- ^ "Rotor Tug "RT Zoe"". Marineline.com. 13 September 2006. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
- ^ "Western Marine to build tugboat, vessel for Ctg port". The Independent. 4 June 2012. Archived from the original on 15 April 2016. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
- ^ "Tugboat Fender Types and Application - Marine Fender System".
- ^ novatugnews. "Novatug.nl news". Novatug. Archived from the original on 2007-09-08. Retrieved 2008-01-18.
- ^ novatugprod. "Novatug.nl product information". Novatug. Archived from the original on 2008-01-19. Retrieved 2008-01-18.
- ^ "Port of Seattle". Portseattle.org. Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Retrieved 2012-02-18.
- ^ "In search of the toughest tug," by Laurel Graeber, New York Times, August 29, 2008.
- ^ "tugrace.com". tugrace.com. 2013-06-22. Archived from the original on 2014-04-17. Retrieved 2014-03-23.
- ^ "The Great Tugboat Race". Archived from the original on 2011-08-28. Retrieved 2012-06-13.
- ^ "Schlepperballett: Kaiserwalzer der Kolosse – SPIEGEL ONLINE – Nachrichten – SPIEGEL TV". Der Spiegel. Spiegel.de. 19 May 2002. Retrieved 2012-02-18.
- ^ "Waterford Tugboat Roundup". Tugboatroundup.com. Retrieved 2022-03-08.
- ^ "Hollands glorie". IMDb. Retrieved 2008-01-20.
- ^ Mel Gussow (September 24, 2002). "Jan de Hartog, 88, Author of His Own Life". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-01-20.
- ^ "The Key". IMDb. Retrieved 2008-01-20.
- ^ "Hartog, Jan De [1914 – 2002]". New York State Library. Retrieved 2008-01-20.
References
- Jane's Ocean Technology 1979–80 / Jane's Yearbooks, 1979 – ISBN 0-531-03902-1.
- On Tugboats: Stories of Work and Life Aboard / Virginia Thorndike – Down East Books, 2004.
- Under Tow: A Canadian History of Tugs and Towing / Donal Baird – Vanwell Publishing, 277 p., 2003 – ISBN 1-55125-076-4
- Pacific Tugboats / Gordon Newell – Superior Publishing Company 1957, Seattle Washington.
- Primer of Towing / George H. Reid – Cornell Maritime Press, 1992.
Further reading
- Lehman, Charles F (2009). A riverman's lexicon : in Lehman's terms. Florissant, MO: J.R. Simpson & Associates. ISBN 978-0-9841503-0-4. Nautical terminology specific to towboating on inland waterways.
- Farrell, Paul (2016). Tugboats Illustrated History, Technology, Seamanship. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-06931-0. A gorgeously detailed guide to the evolution, design, and role of tugboats, from the earliest days of steam to today’s most advanced ocean-going workboats.
External links
- A site for boatmen.[permanent dead link]
- At the Port of Felixstowe
- Beacon Finland Ltd JAK®-ATB Coupling System
- Compagnie Maritime Chambon
- "Docking The World's Great Liners" Popular Mechanics, May 1930, article on docking large ships in the first half of the 20th century using tugboats
- Intercon ATB Couplers Archived 2012-03-18 at the Wayback Machine
- NYC's Annual Tugboat Races
- Tugboat Enthusiasts Society Archived 2013-09-10 at the Wayback Machine
- University of Wisconsin–La Crosse Historic Steamboat Photographs Archived 2010-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
- Voith-Schneider Propeller
- Waterford Tugboat Roundup