Steam Tug Baltimore

Steam Tug Baltimore was built in Baltimore at the foot of Federal Hill in 1906 at a cost of approximately $30,000, and served the city from 1906 to 1962. In 1963, Maryland Shipbuilding and Dry Dock sold the Baltimore to a family in Cecil County, who used it as a personal yacht until 1979, when it sank in the Sassafras River. In 1981, the Baltimore was raised from the Sassafras River and transported to the museum for restoration and preservation, and it was donated by Samuel F. duPont that year. From 1990 to 1999, it gave rides in the harbor with an all-volunteer crew. In 1993, S.T. Baltimore was granted National Historic Landmark status by the National Park Service, and in 2009, the Baltimore Museum of Industry received a Save America's Treasures grant to continue its restoration. Built by Skinner Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, the vessel had a gross tonnage of 81, weighed 144 tons, measured 88 feet 10½ inches in length and 18.6 feet in breadth, and used a hand-fired Scotch boiler with steam reciprocating propulsion producing 330 horsepower. Designed with a plumb bow, fantail stern, riveted wrought iron hull, and a Georgia pine and oak house with wood superstructure, it served as a towing vessel, inspection tug, and icebreaker. During winter months, when harbor ice built up, it was one of many tugs used to force through the ice and clear a path for commercial vessels coming to and from Baltimore. It was the last hand-fired, coal-burning operational steam tug in the U.S.

Baltimore, Maryland · United States