The Steam Tug

About the Book

The Steam Tug is a historical read about the evolution of the steam engine and steam tug. Developed and patented in England in 1737, the author takes the reader to the end of the roaring 1850s in New York Harbor. It was not until 1807 that Robert Fulton introduced the first commercially successful steamboat the “Clermont” on the Hudson River in New York. In the early 1800s sailing ships entering the harbor would lie at anchor in Sandy Hook for days and weeks waiting for wind to power them into the harbor so they could offload their cargo. Due to the expansion of shipping and commerce during the mid 1800s, sailing ships realized that small steam ferries operating between Staten Island and lower Manhattan could tow them into local wharfs to discharge their cargo and begin loading domestic goods to distant ports abroad saving valuable time. With the advent of large clipper ships, increased commerce and advanced steam boats, would lead to the rise and birth of a new industry, The Towing Business.

About the Author

George Swede loved history and never missed a chance to write about it. He was a marine chief engineer aboard harbor tugs in New York for over twenty-five years, as well as a marine photographer. He was a charter member of the South Street Seaport Museum and wrote letters to the Masters of the Tall Ships in the mid 1960s some ten years before our bicentennial to allow countries time to prepare their ships to sail to New York. Unfortunately, George died of cancer in 1969 at the age of fifty-five and never saw the parade of tall ships entering the harbor and sail up the Hudson. The research for this book took over ten years and continued trips to the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and the New York Historical Society. His manuscript lay dormant for over forty years until it reached the hands of a publisher. His wish was to have his research published, allowing anyone interested in marine history to understand how the towing industry began and its early evolution. In the early 1930s he built a Heath Parasol monoplane from a set of plans he sent away for and spent the next two and a half years building it. Powered by a Henderson 4B motorcycle engine, the plane flew but was underpowered. Eventually the plane was sold. Several years later, again he sent away for a set of plans to build a 31 ft. sailboat, steaming each plank into place by hand. Some four and a half years later, his project was completed, and he eventually sold it to a man, who sailed it to Florida and lived aboard for over a decade.