tugboat Arthur Foss

Steam Tug
 
Built in 1889 as the Wallowa to tow sailing ships across the Columbia River Bar and into Astoria, the Arthur Foss enjoyed a long and storied career before making her way to Northwest Seaport. In 1898, she joined the flotilla of vessels bringing miners and supplies to Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush, then came to Puget Sound to tow logs to sawmills.
 

Diesel Tug
 
In 1929, the Foss Launch & Tug Company bought the old Wallowa. After being leased to MGM to star as the Narcissus in the 1934 movie Tugboat Annie, the Wallowa was rebuilt into the powerful coastal tug Arthur Foss. She set speed records up and down the Pacific Coast before being sent to the Hawaiian Islands prior to World War II. In early 1942, she became the last vessel to escape Wake Island before the Japanese invasion, and spent the rest of the war in the American Navy.
 
Following the war, the Arthur Foss returned to Puget Sound and Foss put her back to work towing logs. Based out of Port Angeles, she towed logs rafts until being laid up in 1968, a hard worker until the end. Foss decomissioned her and donated the venerable tug to Northwest Seaport, then Save Our Ships!, in 1970.
Heritage Tug
 
Since then, the Arthur Foss has traveled the Puget Sound area, venturing as far as Juneau, Alaska during the 1980s. In 1889, the vessel was declared a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service. Today, the tug is moored at Seattle's Lake Union Park and is open to visitors (see Plan Your Visit for details).