Hercules

 

The ships in our park's collection have been moved temporarily due to the Hyde Street Rebuild Project. They are now located at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard. Visitors are not currently allowed on the ships, but can view them from Mare Island. When the Hyde Street Pier rebuild is finished, the ships will be moved back to Hyde Street Pier.

 

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Hercules is a steam powered tug built for ocean towing. The 151-foot ship, of riveted steel construction, still contains her original triple expansion steam engine. Built on the East Coast in 1907, she towed her sister ship from Camden, New Jersey around South America to San Francisco. Hercules also towed sailing ships, disabled vessels, barges, log rafts, a cassion (a steel structure used for closing the entrance to locks) for a dry dock at Pearl Harbor, and a caisson to help build a Panama Canal lock. The tug usually carried a crew of three firemen, three oilmen, a chief and two assistant engineers, three deckhands, cook, two mates and a captain.

 

Hercules Quick Facts

• Length: 151 ft

• Beam: 26 ft

• Draft: 18 feet aft, 10 feet forward

• Gross Tonnage: 409

• Engine: 3 cylinder, triple expansion

• Cylinders: 17", 24", and 41" with 30" stroke. 500 Indicated Horsepower (ihp)

• Fuel Type: Oil Fuel

• Boiler: Scotch marine fire tube. 16' diameter, 11' 9" long. Four oil-burning furnaces

 

Hercules at John H. Dialogue's Shipyard in Camden, New Jersey, January, 1908

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Long Tows on the Open Ocean

John H. Dialogue and Son, of Camden, New Jersey, built Hercules in 1907. She had been ordered by the San Francisco-based Shipowners’ and Merchants’ Tugboat Company, to join their Red Stack fleet (named for their red-painted smoke stacks). When completed, Hercules towed her sister ship, the Goliah, through the Strait of Magellan to San Francisco. Both vessels were oil-burners; Goliah carried fuel, water and supplies for her sister.

Hercules towed barges, sailing ships and log rafts between Pacific ports. Because prevailing north-west winds generally made travel up the coast by sail both difficult and circuitous, tugs often towed large sailing vessels to points north of San Francisco. In 1916, Hercules towed the C. A. Thayer (another of San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park’s historic fleet) to Port Townsend, Washington. The trip took six days. She also towed the Falls of Clyde, now a museum ship in Hawaii. On trips back down the coast, Hercules often towed huge log rafts, laden with millions of board feet of Northwest timber, to Southern California mills. At other times, Hercules towed barges of bulk cargoes between other West Coast Ports, and to Hawaii. During the construction of the Panama Canal, she towed a huge floating caisson (a steel structure used for closing the entrance to locks) to the Canal Zone.

In her deep-sea days, Hercules usually carried a crew of fifteen-enough manpower for her Engine Department to stand three watches while underway. The deep, narrow hull made life uncomfortable at times, because it rode low in the water, and the main deck was often awash. However, the food was good and, for an experienced hand, the work was steady. Tugboat captains were generally well-paid and highly respected, for it took considerable experience to bring a tug and a heavy tow through high seas in bad weather--and good judgment to navigate the shallow bars and narrow entrances of West Coast ports.

 

Bay Tug

Hercules was eventually acquired by the Western Pacific Railroad Company. Her career changed significantly; she no longer served as an ocean-going tug, but shuttled railroad car barges back and forth across San Francisco Bay. She worked until 1962, when changing transportation patterns (the decline of the railroads) and the introduction of diesel-powered tugs sealed her fate.

 

Restoration

Hercules avoided the scrap yard, but languished until the California State Park Foundation acquired her for the San Francisco Maritime State Historic Park, in 1975. The National Park Service took over the task of her restoration in 1977, and in 1986 she was designated a National Historic Landmark. Hercules has been documented as part of the Historic American Engineering Record's Maritime Record.

 

Audio Presentations and Virtual Tour

 

Xplore Timelooper App - Hercules Steam Tug

Xplore Timelooper

Xplore Hercules Steam Tug

Xplore Hercules Steam Tug is a mobile app that provides a virtual tour through the historic 1907 tugboat Hercules, the only surviving steam powered ocean tug in the United States. Utilizing augmented reality, primary resources, 360-degree images, and videos of park rangers; the application allows visitors to create a self-guided virtual access to all parts of the ship. The Xplore Hercules Steam Tug mobile application employs modern technology to interpret the Hercules which was at the height of reciprocating technology in 1907 and to tell the story of strength and fortitude of sailors who survived terrifying storms at sea.

To find the app, visit the App Store or Google Play, and type in “San Francisco Maritime.” When you see “Xplore Hercules Steam Tug” and/or “San Francisco Maritime,” you’ve found the right one. The App will create an augmented reality version of the ship then start your adventure!

Available for download on the Apple App Store and Google Play

 

• #23 The Last of Her Kind

  
  

  Explore the last surviving steam powered ocean tug in the United States, the Hercules.
  Audio Transcript

  You’re listening to “Maritime Voices” from San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. This is Park Guide, Chris Poisant. In this episode, we’ll explore the Hercules, the last of her kind.

  Built in 1907, the Hercules is the last surviving steam powered ocean tug in the United States. Her story combines technology and humanity in a way that no other surviving vessel can do today.

  Technologically, her ocean-going capability is often a big surprise as most people consider tugboats to be small harbor-bound vessels that only assist big ships in docking or undocking. However, with her size, design, engine power, and 8,000-mile cruising radius anything that could float could be towed by the Hercules on the open ocean. Just like harbor tugs, though, in order to do this job Hercules had to have a powerful propulsion system. In fact, approximately two thirds of Hercules’ interior is occupied by this system. In this way, she aptly fits the tugboat metaphor of being “an engine with a hull around it.”

  The technical side of Hercules’ history, however, in no way overshadows her human history. In fact, on any particular voyage Hercules was packed with humanity. On her first voyage her crew list records 17 people on board! Imagine living in such close quarters. Few comforts would be available with so little privacy and even fewer secrets could be kept. This way of life was made all the more challenging during the periodic bouts of bad weather. Documented crew accounts tell of horrendous waves that Hercules encountered during storms. At one point during her first voyage, these waves actually resulted in five feet of water flooding into the tug!

  This combined story of technology and humanity accompanied the Hercules throughout her career. Her preservation as a national landmark ensures that it will be sure to captivate park visitors far into the future.

 

• #24 The Good and the Bad: Life Aboard Hercules

  
  

  Explore the challenges and excitement of life aboard the steam tug Hercules.
  Audio Transcript

  You’re listening to “Maritime Voices” from San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. I’m ranger Mark Neuweld. In this episode, we’ll consider life aboard the steam tug Hercules.

  Life on Hercules was a mix of experiences and emotions. Although a voyage offered a sailor the opportunity for solid employment and adventure, this could be tempered by discomfort if a storm was encountered during the trip.

  On her first voyage, Hercules sailed from Camden, New Jersey around South America and then back north to San Francisco. This trip lasted 72 days and took her through two big storms.

  Harry Frank, one of her crew, wrote a letter to his girlfriend in which he stated “Friday… the boat was rolling so much that one could hardly walk. In going from one place to another we had to hang on to anything we could get a hold of.…in the mess room when the mess boy would give you anything on a plate, you could not set the plate on the table but had to hold it in you hands [and] while sitting at the table you had to brace yourself or it would be no time at all before you were under the table or lying in some corner.”

  Later, Harry reflected on one of the pleasures of the trip when he stated… “…we have seen flying fish by the thousands. At night lots of them land on deck. They are fine eating. Some nights we caught as [many] as two dozen of them.”

  In the end Harry Frank summed up his Hercules voyage to his girlfriend by saying “Dear if you…would ask me ‘how did you enjoy your trip?’, there are two answers to that question. I enjoyed the trip very much and I am not anxious for another experience like this…”

 

• #25 Power and Danger

  
  

  Learn of the danger that came with working aboard the steam tug Hercules.
  Audio Transcript

  You’re listening to “Maritime Voices” from San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. In this episode, we’ll consider the danger of work aboard the steam tug Hercules.

  On her delivery voyage, Hercules towed her sister ship Goliah 13,500 miles from Camden, New Jersey all the way to San Francisco. It took power and strength to do a job like this. In this one act, Hercules proved that she and the propulsion system inside of her to accomplish practically any tow. However, with such great power also comes danger.

  At the heart of this system is a 500-horsepower triple expansion steam engine. Of the two crewmen normally on duty in the engine room, one of them had the responsibility of oiling all the moving parts. Imagine the dangers of this work while at sea in a storm! With the deck heaving beneath your feet and the engine hissing and clanking at full power you reach in between the flashing and churning engine parts to add the right amount of oil to wherever it is needed. “Don’t slip!” you say to yourself. In fact, one manual you had read warned… “…many fingers have been lost doing this job.” In this case, you are worried about more than just your fingers.

  Forward of the engine room, deep within the Hercules’ belly, is the boiler room. In this room stands a 14-foot-tall scotch fire tube boiler. This boiler was the source of all of Hercules’ strength, but like the engine, it too offered danger. Although equipped with many safety devices, if improperly cared for it could become a potential time bomb. With only one crewman on duty at a time, at night during a storm this job could be very unnerving. Consider such a situation. With Hercules behaving like a rollercoaster on the waves, up and down, up and down, and more light coming from the licking flames in the furnaces than the light bulbs down below, you would be working in an unstable world of flickering shadows. Steam gauges, water level gauges, and fuel temperature gauges must always be monitored and any adjustment to machinery instantly applied. Neglect could result in the eruption of a deadly steam explosion.

  From her engine to boiler, with her potential of power and danger, the crew of the Hercules could not afford to be careless.