Northwestern US bar tugs

[WayneS]

In the 1930's and '40s a number of tugs were stationed along the Pacific Northwest coastline to assist ships in crossing the bar into the harbor.  They were usually called "bar tugs," and other than that I have little information about them.  The attached picture of the "Port of Bandon" indicates that they were of good size.  This example looks very capable.

I'm sure that some of them were Mikis, but some, like this one, were purpose built.

Anyone have any information on their characteristics?  Anyone know what happened to this one?  Thanks for any news.

[Kyle Stubbs]

Hi Wayne,

From what I was able to dig up, I found that the PORT OF BANDON was built in 1938 at Prosper, Oregon on the Coquille River by Victor Lavio. She was 80' in length, 84 GT, and powered by a 500 hp diesel driving a single screw. She was lost on May 24th, 1961 near Kure Atoll in the Pacific, presumably after having been sold to new owners.

To my knowledge, up until World War II, the majority of bar tugs, which arose to aid lumber schooners and other sailing vessels cross the difficult Northwest river bars, were older tugs which had their long-distance towing days behind them. Many famous Northwest tugs such as the GOLIAH, WANDERER and TATOOSH would up in such roles at some point in their careers.

The shipbuilding boom of World War II brought along cheap replacements for most of the old steam tugs. However, the need for tugs to aid at the bars also started coming to an end around the time of the war. Not only had the sailing vessels been replaced by more powerful and reliable cargo ships, but the lumber trade started into its downturn as well, limiting the traffic to many of the small ports with tricky bars, such as Bandon.

Kind Regards,
Kyle

[davidships]

Wayne - worth getting hold of a copy of Gordon Newell's "Pacific Tugboats"
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=pacific+tugboats

[WayneS]

Kyle and Davidships:  Thank you for that excellent information!  I've ordered that book from Amazon.