Barge NISQUALLY with load of lumber, tug ARTHUR FOSS — 5/6/1940 — #17236_1
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Photograph Copyright Anderson & Middleton Company
United States — Washington (State)
The Lumberman
The ARTHUR FOSS was launched at Portland, Oregon in 1889 and remains the only wood-hulled tugboat of that century still plying the waters of the US. The tug, originally named the WALLOWA, is 129 feet long with a beam of 28 feet 7 inches and began her working life in the Columbia River. From1904 to 1929, she sailed between Puget Sound and various points on the Washington Coast, towing log rafts and barges. In 1929, the Foss Launch & Tug Company purchased the ARTHUR FOSS and she remained in service until 1970 except for two exceptional tours of duty. In 1933, MGM approached her owners with the request that she appear with Marie Dressler and Wallace Beery in the film “Tugboat Annie.” The second departure from her customary career occurred during the Second World War when she saw service in the US Navy. When Japanese forces attacked and captured Wake Island in January 1942, the last vessel to escape was the ARTHUR FOSS. In 1971, she made her way to Lake Union and over the decade that followed, she was restored to full working condition. Now sailed by a volunteer crew, she still plies the waters of Puget Sound, appearing at maritime festivals. The ARTHUR FOSS can be visited in her berth at Seattle’s Northwest Seaport Maritime Heritage Center. ARTHUR FOSS has been designated a National Historic Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
See also #17293.
Sam Talley adds this story: "A barge like this one capsized in a bad storm off Ocean Shores in the 1960's leaving a pile of lumber 6-feet high strewn on the beach for a mile. When the Coast Guard announced over local radio stations that the tangled up lumber debris was free for the taking, hundreds of people loaded their pickup trucks with as much as they could carry. I tried to rent a truck to haul some of it but all the Hertz type rental trucks in Aberdeen and Hoquiam were rented out to salvagers. A lot of the garages in Ocean Shores were built in part with that salvage."
