The steam tugboat Mathilda was built in 1898 in Sorel, Quebec, and for many years worked on the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes. Originally powered by coal-fired steam boilers, she was later fitted with an oil-fired, two-cylinder reciprocating engine. McAllister Towing bought Mathilda after using her in Montreal berthing ships and brought her to New York Harbor, where 1969 became her last year of active service. In 1970 McAllister donated her to South Street Seaport in lower Manhattan, but in January 1976 she sank at her pier there and was raised by the Century floating crane. Because the Seaport could not afford the needed repairs, Mathilda was moved to the former Cunard Line Pier 94 for dry storage. In 1983 McAllister Towing donated her to the Hudson River Maritime Museum and sent her to her new home on the Rondout on the deck of the Century crane barge, which placed her in the museum yard. In recent years Mathilda has been permanently stabilized, her appearance restored with authentic McAllister paints, her deck lighting restored and enhanced, her interior cleaned out, and a window opened for viewing her engines. As one of the last tugs in existence with a steam engine, she survives as an example of the kind of tug that served on the Hudson and elsewhere for nearly 100 years.

Photo: Michael Herrick

Photo: Michael Herrick

Photo: Michael Herrick

Kingston, New York · USA