The ocean going steam tug Hercules is celebrationg her centennial this year. She is the only remaining example of her type in the USA.

Powered by a 1000 hp steam engine; she rescued broken down steamers at sea, towed log rafts, towed lock gates for the Panama Canal and even towed the CA Thayer and the Balclutha, sailing svessels now in the Maritime Park collection.

An exhibit showing her history is now open in the Park's Visitor Center at the corner of Hyde and Jefferson in San Francisco. It is open from 9:00am to 7:00pm daily.

Later in her career she towed car floats for the Western Pacific Railroad on San Francisco Bay.

Stop in for a look if you are in the area this summer!

Ted miles

Ted, I am adding a link to the description of the Hercules:

http://www.nps.gov/archive/safr/local/herc.html

MX (Obviously Not My Real Name)

And in the spirit of "thread drift", for those interested in machinery applied to tugboats, here is a link to a page with details of one type of ancient Winton diesel used in tug applications, two survive on the preserved tugboat LUNA in Boston:

http://www.tugboatenthusiastsociety.org ... ent-01.htm