While square-rigged sailing ships, steamboats and ferries, and ever-larger cruise and cargo-carrying vessels have made their mark on Puget Sounds maritime history, no other vessels have captured the imagination of shore-bound seafarers like tugboats. Beginning in the 1850s when the first steam-powered tugboats arrived in the Sound from the East Coast via San Francisco, company owners and their crews competed fiercely for business, towing ships, log rafts, and barges. The magnetic attraction of powerful, tough tugs both large and small is unexplainable but enduring. This book, featuring about...

This engaging pictorial history tells of the tall sailing ships that came to the Pacific Northwest beginning in the mid-1700s. Met by native Salish people, the ships brought Spanish, British, Russian, and American explorers, as well as settlers and entrepreneurs, to the region. Over the next two centuries, during boom and bust periods, these majestic vessels have continued to ply the waters of Puget Sound. Today the proud tall ships operate in a training and education rather than commercial context; however, the commitment to preserving and promoting their heritage remains strong within the...