Towing in the Open Ocean

The Hercules was an "outside" tug built to live and pull in the open ocean. She could steam for 30 days or 8,000 miles without refueling, and her crew could travel from bow to stern without exposure to rough weather. Few West Coast boats could match Hercules' strength and stamina on ocean tows. Between 1908 and 1924 Hercules towed sailing ships, schooners, disabled steamers, and heavy equipment like dredges and dry-docks to distant ports including Papeete, Tahiti, and Jacksonville, Florida. In her early years, she moved ship-sized barges of crude oil to San Francisco Bay refineries. Later she towed massive cigar-shaped rafts of logs down the coast to Southern California, and barges of coal from the Pacific Northwest to San Francisco.

San Francisco, California · United States