The 102-year old steam-powered, ocean-going tug Hercules is now in drydock at Bay Ship & Yacht’s Alameda yard for maintenance and repair work.
The sea-going tug is 156 feet long, with a beam width of 35 feet and a draft of 18 feet. According to Fred Sheppard, the project manager, “she is a really beautiful piece of machinery.” She is powered by a three-cylinder, triple-expansion steam engine that is still operational. The tug required a crew of 15: three firemen, three oilmen, a chief and two assistant engineers, three deckhands, a cook, two mates, and a captain.
Built in Camden, New Jersey, in 1907, the Hercules towed her sister tug through the Strait of Magellan around South America to San Francisco. There, she joined the Red Stack Fleet and towed barges, sailing ships, and log rafts between Pacific ports for many years. Eventually, the Hercules ended up with the Western Pacific Railroad towing railroad-car barges across San Francisco Bay.
