A different kind of Life.
It takes a certain kind of person to work on the tugboat, 'Hours and hours of boredom, interrupted by moments of sheer terror.' It is not a job for the faint hearted, crews are expected to go out in all weathers and work on the outside of the boat with the chains even in very rough seas.
The tugboat is designed with a glass tower for the crew to see all around them at all times. In 1900 two classes of tugboats were introduced and improved paddle and a steamer and these were no real changes until 1950. In the war years 1939-45 there were some adaptions made to handle larger warships and older boats started to be withdrawn.
In 1950 boats went from steam to the diesel and so ended the 'days of the 'Puffing Billy.' With post war shipping and the introduction of the Super Tankers new designs had to made to handle these huge sea vessels. It has been a slow history for the tugboat, because there were no big changes in the shipping world until the late 1950s.
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