Tugboating

Tugboating
90 minutes - $24.95

This DVD includes the three programs described below.

Puget Sound Old Tugboats
30 minutes -1965

In 1965, the Exploration Northwest crew spent a work day aboard the CAROL FOSS. This black-and-white program also includes an interview with Henry Foss (photo at left) and a glimpse of the historic ferry boat KALAKALA. Many other vessels are seen as cameras tell about their daily chores on waters of Puget Sound. Includes film of a ship fire and fireboats.

Here's an excerpt from the show by writer/narrator Don McCune: “Six hours off and six hours on, around the clock, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, two weeks straight. The Captain's job is moving millions of dollars of cargo and logs in an infinite variety of water-borne shapes and sizes, and where, quite of ten, the water is completely obscured in thick layers of dense fog! One wrong move in a bad place can put a freighter and its cargo in trouble. Misjudge the weather and a tow of logs could be scattered from here to breakfast!” Originally aired under the KOMO title “Harbor Tug."

Puget Sound Tugboats
30 minutes - 1979

This 1979 program, filmed in color fourteen years after an earlier 1965 program about the CAROL FOSS, spends another work day aboard her, one of the many tugboats moving large vessels in Puget Sound. An interview with a veteran tugboat captain adds history. Originally aired under the KOMO title “Harbor Tug”.

Tugboating The Aleutians
30 minutes - 1981

This show takes you aboard the "new" LESLIE FOSS, as she tows a barge carrying 38,000 barrels of fuel across the Bering Sea from Dutch Harbor to the Kuskokwim River at Bethel. The Aleutian Islands breed some of the worst weather in the world. The history of World War II in the Aleutians is told through abandoned artifacts.

Here's an excerpt from the show by narrator Don McCune: "Strung out behind you is a barge loaded with 38,000 barrels of fuel bound for Bethel, Alaska. And ahead of you on the north side of Cape Newenham, they're getting winds up to 80 knots an hour. Winds of 120 MPH are common during the season and the season is all-year long! North of the chain, the Bering Sea produces storm patterns that influence the weather as far away as Kansas. And fighting the storm track of the Aleutians takes fuel! Lots of it. All of it comes in by tanker to Dutch Harbor, which is the only tank farm in the Aleutain Islands Chain. What leaves here for distribution elsewhere is transported by tug barge and hauled by towboat LESLIE FOSS skipper Bob Burns, whose work season begins as soon as the ice leaves his delivery route, which extends over a thousand miles and crosses the International dateline." Originally aired under the KOMO title “Aleutian Long Tow."

The "new" LESLIE FOSS was built in 1970 by the McDermott Shipyard in Amelia, Louisiana. It was the second tug of its class to be built by McDermott for Foss. These tugs are 112 feet in length, have a 31 foot beam, 3,000 horsepower, and a fuel capacity of 96,000 gallons. The LESLIE FOSS was on the oil run out of Dutch Harbor from May to October in 1980 and 1981.

Our thanks to Mike Skalley of Foss Tug and Barge Company for photos and information about the CAROL FOSS and the LESLIE FOSS.