WEBVTT - Tugboats: Pushing Their Way Around Since 1803 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:10.360 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.200 --> 0:00:13.920 Dude do and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:17.360 there's Chuck and Jerry's here too for the present moment, 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:19.239 and this is stuff you should Know. 0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:22.799 That's right, another listener request. These are just kind of 0:00:22.800 --> 0:00:26.680 pouring in now, or rather, we're leaning on them more 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:30.120 than we have before, I guess, because they're great ideas. 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:32.880 But this one came also from the live show in Atlanta. Yeah, 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:35.040 and do you remember this guy? Do you remember his name? 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:38.880 Yes? I do. It was Thomas, because this episode is 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:40.640 Tugboats for Thomas. 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:43.800 Tug Boats for Thomas, and Thomas I believe works on 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:47.239 tugboats suggested it and this has turned out to be 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:50.200 just a bread and butter stuff you Should Know episode. 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:52.479 Yeah, I remember when he was at the mic asking 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:55.120 the question and making the suggestion. He kept moving around 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:56.240 because he still had a scene. 0:00:56.320 --> 0:00:59.640 Right, he's bumping into people. They're like, dude. 0:01:00.720 --> 0:01:03.760 So yeah, hopefully we'll do Thomas proud because we know 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:06.520 a little bit about tugboats now after researching them for 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:09.080 a little while. Big shout out to our friend Dave 0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:12.040 Ruse for helping us with this. You could do worse 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:15.360 than going to check out Ruse's podcast Bible Time Machine, 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:19.280 and that has nothing to do with tugboats. But let's 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:20.480 talk about that. 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:23.240 That's right, because we're gonna we're gonna sing the unsung 0:01:23.440 --> 0:01:25.120 like we like to do on the show, because no 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:28.560 one ever thinks about tugboats. You see them all the time. 0:01:29.040 --> 0:01:32.280 If you live near harbor or vacation or visit cities 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:35.240 that have harbors, you see those tugboats and those big 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:40.280 ships and barges get all the sexy headlines. But those 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:43.720 tugboats are doing the yeomen's work. That's why they call 0:01:43.800 --> 0:01:49.200 them nautical laborers early in their I Guess mission when 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:53.200 they first started coming online on c Yeah. 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:55.480 So we'll get to that in a minute about the 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:58.120 history of tugboats because it actually goes back way further 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:00.600 than you would think, or not as far as you think, 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:01.920 depending on what you're thinking. 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:07.520 But thirteen twenty Nope, not that far twenty twenty. 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:10.320 But one of the things that tugboats are that makes 0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:13.320 them like the workhorses of the sea, as you can 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:18.000 put it, is that they have really impressive power to 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:21.480 tonnage ratiows. Yeah, so the size of the tugboat. The 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:26.200 actual weight the tugboat weighs compared to the amount of 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:30.400 power output its engines can create, usually in horse power, 0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:37.320 is really lopsided, so that these fairly comparatively light boats 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:40.840 compared to like the horsepower they create, can pull pull, pull, 0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:43.920 and they can push push push, and they can do 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:47.119 all sorts of amazing stuff, which is why they can 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:52.160 move these enormous huge oil tankers and shipping tanker or 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:58.040 shipping container ships with just the mighty might of their 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:04.000 little hearts. You'd think I would have practiced something like 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:06.440 that because it would have been way better. 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:10.720 Yeah, I mean not to undersell tugboats. They are dealing 0:03:10.720 --> 0:03:13.040 with things that are floating in water, which helps. But 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:15.720 these are big, massive things floating in floating in water. 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:18.519 Like you could get in a in a lake, my friend, 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:21.680 and you could you could pull a rope attached to 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:25.640 a pontoon boat. What and you could pull that thing 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:27.720 around a little bit. You could swim that thing around 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:29.400 a little bit because it's floating in water. 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:32.880 What universe do you live in that maybe. 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:37.280 Where you max out you are the tugboat of the lake, Josh. 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:40.320 If you can do that to a pontoon boat because 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:42.760 these tugboats are a little compared to these huge barges 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:45.080 that are floating around. Does that is that making any 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:45.560 sense at all? 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:50.680 It's making too much sense. I've never considered myself the 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:52.600 tugboat of the lake. Can I be doing this with 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:54.880 my teeth? Can I be holding the rope with my teeth? 0:03:54.880 --> 0:03:57.320 Because that'd be much Uh, that's up to you. 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:00.240 Okay, that'd be better swimming with two arms. 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:03.840 We'll go do some some thirbig trials for it and 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:06.360 figure out the most the one right way to pull 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:07.480 a pontoon in a lake. 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:10.680 We should tell them what bollard pull is to because 0:04:10.680 --> 0:04:13.240 that's the other big sort of measurement when it comes 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:16.880 to tugging and pushing. A bollard first of all is 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:19.920 that big sort of chunky thing on a dock that 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:24.679 you'll tie a boat to the big daddies, And bollard 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:28.600 pull is the total amount of towing force generated by 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:32.480 a tugboat. And they measure that in killo Newton's. 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:37.200 They do, And I've seen that often converted to tons, 0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:40.520 and it's the same thing. The more killing Newtons you have, 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:43.279 or the more tons you have, the more pulling power, 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:48.840 towing power, pushing power that tugboat has. So there's this 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:53.160 one boat that Dave found called the Island Victory. At 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:56.640 least one article called the most powerful boat in the world. 0:04:57.120 --> 0:05:00.719 I saw other articles that name some other shipping contains vessel. 0:05:00.760 --> 0:05:04.320 But this, this tugboat, say, it's probably the most powerful 0:05:04.360 --> 0:05:10.040 tugboat around. The Island Victory has a ballard pull of 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:13.640 four hundred or four thousand, six hundred and eighty kilo newtons, 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:17.240 which converts to four hundred and seventy seven tons. A 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:21.360 typical harbor tug, which is nothing to sneeze at, has 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:24.840 a ballard pull between five hundred and six hundred kilo 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:28.839 newtons six hundred killing newtons converts to sixty one tons. 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:34.039 So this is an enormously powerful boat. And that's the 0:05:34.080 --> 0:05:38.640 whole point. They're not fast, they aren't pretty, they're cute 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:41.520 in a really weird way, but they can generate so 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:46.600 much power that they can push a shipping container vessel around. 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:50.080 More importantly, if you have a really high ballard pull. 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:53.560 The reason that this is this rating is even there 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:56.479 is to find out which tug you can connect to 0:05:56.600 --> 0:05:59.839 which vessel because of a vessel starting to go in 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:02.320 the wrong direction and it's about to crash into, say 0:06:02.360 --> 0:06:07.200 a bridge. The tugboat has to be able to go 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:10.000 from zero, not moving at all in the water, to 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:12.680 pulling that boat in the opposite direction away from that 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:16.360 bridge in a moment's notice, and it has to have 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:19.240 that much power, and they do. They do. 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:24.680 I think they are very attractive boats. You can tell 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:28.279 a tugboat because it has you know, they're built to 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:30.799 tug and push. So they have a very wide beam 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:34.240 which is the widest point of the boat. They sit 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:37.320 very low in the water, which is called a deep draft, 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:42.320 and you know they're little short, stubby, wide guys that 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:45.240 sit really low. I think they're adorable and cool looking. 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:49.320 They're very very stable. They're not tippy at all when 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:52.240 you know they're bumping against other things, they're pushing other things, 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:55.359 and so they have to be just super stable. And 0:06:55.480 --> 0:06:59.320 also love that they have beards that front bumper or 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:03.680 a or a balfender. They call it a beard in 0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:05.240 that lingo, and I think that's pretty great. 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:08.800 Yeah, that's it's just what they use. Like you said, 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:13.760 when they purposely or accidentally bump up against a larger ship. 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:16.440 You can't just have the tugboat like crack up so 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:17.680 you have a bender. 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:18.960 They're built a bump. 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:22.800 They are built a bump. And some tugboats aren't necessarily 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:26.480 built with a beard. They'll have tires strung along the 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:29.040 side to use as a bumper as well. 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:32.440 Yeah, I think those are additional. I think the front 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:33.880 always has a built in beard. 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:40.000 Okay, fine, So one other thing that you're going to 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:42.440 find about tugboats that will talk about more in depth 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:46.720 later is that they're extremely nimble. They're agile, they can 0:07:46.800 --> 0:07:50.720 move in a different direction very quickly. And that that's 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:53.200 a really important thing too, because one of the big 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:56.840 jobs that the tugboat plays in, say like a shipping 0:07:56.920 --> 0:08:01.000 lane at like a port, is to help avoid other 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:04.440 ships coming in or out. So they have to be 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:07.840 able to move not just pull a ship very easily, 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:09.880 but they have to be able to move quickly and 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:11.640 move that ship out of the way of say like 0:08:11.680 --> 0:08:12.360 another ship. 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:16.720 Yeah, exactly. And I say we take an earlier break 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:19.640 because we're at a great spot to break here before 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:22.040 we talk about the history of these things. You want 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:24.560 to do that. Let's break it all right, let's break 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:57.760 on three all right, I promise talk of history, and 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:01.720 here we go, because if you want to to invent 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:04.439 a tugboat, the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was a pretty 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:07.760 good time to do it because we were using sailing 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:12.240 ships at the time for transporting people and goods and 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:15.240 all kinds of things. And those things are gorgeous, beautiful 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:18.440 in the water. They sailed great out on the high seas, 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:22.439 but they did not do well, especially because they were 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:26.400 just sailing ships when they got around land in small, 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:29.040 tight spaces, so they would you know, you've seen it 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:31.640 in movies. They would dock or not dock, but they 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:34.319 would anchor, you know, a couple of hundred feet from 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:37.160 shore and then start shuttling people and stuff in little 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:39.520 tiny boats because that's about as close as they could 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:42.880 safely get, and that's not efficient. Taylor would be rolling 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:43.240 over in. 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:46.880 His grave, that's right. There was another problem too, Even 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:49.439 for a ship that could it was nimble enough to 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:51.880 kind of navigate its way into port, say like the 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:54.000 mouth of a river in a harbor or something, right 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:57.160 once it got in there, it had to wait for 0:09:57.240 --> 0:10:00.320 the wind to whip up again to set sail once more. 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:04.480 And this was not something that happened every hour on 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:07.760 the hour, even twice a day like the tide. Sometimes 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:09.680 you would have to wait for days or weeks for 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:12.079 the right wind to come up that you could catch 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:15.520 and ship back out to see again. Also not at 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:18.480 all efficient, So there was like a real need for 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:23.439 tugboats to be invented. But what's nuts is tugboats were 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:27.719 invented and then ignored for decades, and then finally the 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:30.520 guy who invented them, who was just totally made fun 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:34.520 of as we'll see for inventing tugboats, was vindicated. But 0:10:34.600 --> 0:10:35.680 I think he was dead. 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:39.920 Already, Yeah, I think he was. He was from England, 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:44.720 eighteenth century inventor. His name, no Lie, was Jonathan Holes. 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:45.760 That's nuts. 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:49.199 It is pretty nuts. And he thought it was like 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:51.000 a helper vessel is what he called it. It was 0:10:51.040 --> 0:10:54.120 powered by a steam engine. But we were talking about 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:56.439 was tugboats. It could tow a sailboat in and out 0:10:56.440 --> 0:10:59.240 of port. This was in seventeen thirty seven when he 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:01.840 filed for a patent. It was called a description and 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:05.360 Draft of a new invented machine for carring vessels or 0:11:05.400 --> 0:11:08.360 ships out of or into any harbor, port, or river 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:12.640 against the wind and tide or in a calm and 0:11:12.679 --> 0:11:17.520 it was totally genius, thirty years before James Watt's steam 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:20.800 engine hit the scene, and everyone was like, what a 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:21.480 dumb idea. 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:26.520 Yeah. Not only that, the people in his hometown of Gloucester, 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:30.960 they wrote a song about him. They wrote a song 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:33.920 they wrote like they thought this guy was so terrible 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:37.560 and just such a lousy inventor that there was a song. 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:42.520 I'm guessing people would sing in pubs about him, specifically, 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:45.480 his name's in the song. And when Jonathan Holds with 0:11:45.520 --> 0:11:49.319 his patent skulls invented a machine to go against wind 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:52.800 and stream, but he, being an ass, couldn't bring it 0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:55.440 to pass, and so was a shame to be seen. 0:11:56.160 --> 0:11:59.680 Can imagine sitting there nursing like your mead, Well, everybody 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:03.120 around you is singing that song about you. 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:05.839 You're not gonna try whip whip up a melody. 0:12:06.360 --> 0:12:11.079 Oh oh, Jonathan Holes with his patent skulls invented a 0:12:11.160 --> 0:12:15.199 machine to go against the wind and stream. 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:20.560 You should finish, okay, but you, being an ass, could 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:24.400 and bring it to pass, and so was ashamed. 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:28.160 To be seen. Wow, you went with the Gilbert and 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:29.040 Sullivan version. 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:31.480 I guess so all I know is We're getting kicked 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:32.840 out of his pub any second. 0:12:32.840 --> 0:12:35.760 Now, They're like, get out of Gloucester. 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:38.959 Yeah, I just stop it. We're gonna get so much 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:39.240 for that. 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:43.200 So yeah, Holes was definitely ahead of his time, but 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:47.240 it would be sixty years before the first steam powered 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:51.920 tugboats his invention were actually put into good use and 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:56.160 they were deployed in Scotland. Yeah. Yeah, and as we'll see, 0:12:56.200 --> 0:12:58.840 actually Scotland was where the tugboat got its name at 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:01.079 the time. I'm not sure what they call them, maybe 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:04.320 still helper vessels, I don't know. But one of the 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:08.520 first things they did was to start pulling cargo along canals, 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:10.839 because at the time, if you wanted to move cargo 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:13.760 easily over land, you did it over water that was 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:16.120 cut into land, and you would do it with a 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:20.079 donkey pulling your cargo along the shore. The donkey was 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:22.520 walking on the shore with the line going from the 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:25.520 donkey to a little barge that was being pulled down 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:28.200 a water filled canal. That was the state of the 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:29.199 art at the time. 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:33.160 Yeah. Have you ever walked along an old river way 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:35.520 that has those built up banks for that purpose? 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:40.960 Yeah. Toledo has something called the canal experience or historic 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:44.000 canal experience. There's some canals running through part of the 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:47.360 town from the early nineteenth century that you can walk 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:50.040 along and you're like, wow, this is an old donkey path. Huh. 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:53.200 Yeah. I had my experience doing that in Akron, so 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:57.120 that maybe an Ohio thing. I believe the waterway through 0:13:57.320 --> 0:14:00.480 sand Run is where that was. It was the same 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:03.360 deal and Emily or her mom or somebody you know, 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:06.360 because you're up higher and you know it's an obvious 0:14:06.400 --> 0:14:08.120 path and they're like, yeah, this this is where the 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:10.800 donkeys and pack horses would pull these things. 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:12.640 Yeah, you donkey. 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:18.480 There was a paddle steamer named Charlotte Dundas that was 0:14:18.520 --> 0:14:23.520 the first tugboat in operation towing for the very pert 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:28.920 strip I think two fully loaded sloops eighteen miles along 0:14:28.960 --> 0:14:33.440 the Fourth and Clyde Canal at Glasgow at scorching two 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:36.920 miles and per hour. Yeah, but still like it was working. 0:14:37.120 --> 0:14:38.920 That was the key, That's all that mattered. Yeah, they 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:40.520 had all the time in the world, right. 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:43.040 And you can bet that every donkey in Scotland was 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:46.240 like whow yeah, God they invented these things right. 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:47.400 Yeah. Probably. 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:50.080 So there was also as we talked about one of 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:55.320 the big problems with sailboats as shipping vessels was that 0:14:55.360 --> 0:14:57.560 they had trouble getting in and out of harbors. They 0:14:57.600 --> 0:14:59.760 had trouble navigating, They had to wait for the wind 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:03.920 so very quickly. It seemed kind of obvious that you 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:06.720 could if you could get one of these boats into 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:09.520 port into harbor, which you could use a tugboat for, 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:13.520 you could also pull it up river. It wouldn't have 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:15.720 to navigate any longer because you could just pull it 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:19.320 by a helper vessel into some of the cities that 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:22.840 were not located on the coast, but they were located 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:25.640 on a river. One example I can think of is 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:27.120 London and the Thames. 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:30.880 That's right forty miles inland, so that was a huge 0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:34.200 boon for London. At the time. There was a steamship 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:38.520 called the Majestic that worked with the East India Company 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:42.640 towing things back and forth up the Thames, and Liverpool 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:45.160 had one as well, so they were getting in on 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:46.240 the game there in the UK. 0:15:47.080 --> 0:15:50.360 They were so like I said, it was in Scotland 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:54.119 that tugboats got their name back in eighteen seventeen in Dumbarton. 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:59.120 I think I'm saying that, right. Okay, oh, well, how 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:02.000 would you say it? I would say Dumbarton, but I don't. 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:02.480 I don't know. 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:06.840 I'm just kind it's gotta be Dumbarton. Okay, okay, well 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:09.200 we'll go with one of those two. How about that? Sure, 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:13.520 somebody built a steamship a tug boat that they named 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:17.480 tug They weren't called tugboats until this time, and I 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:21.119 guess that name stuck because it also makes sense practically 0:16:21.120 --> 0:16:24.440 you're tugging a boat behind you, so that from that 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:26.880 henceforth on they were known as tugboats. 0:16:27.160 --> 0:16:30.720 Yeah, and you know, earlier I was saying that they said, oh, 0:16:30.760 --> 0:16:32.840 this idea is so dumb. I don't know if it 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:35.520 was that it was so dumb, But steam power and 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:37.720 stuff that came along a little bit later, Like they 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:39.720 didn't have steam engines at the time, so they wouldn't 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:42.160 have even known it was dangerous. But when they did 0:16:42.320 --> 0:16:46.040 come online? Why do keep saying that, I don't think 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:46.920 it fits right. 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:50.239 It's a little anachronistic. 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:53.600 I think so. But online doesn't mean just on the internet. 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:56.560 Online just means like it's beginning to function right as 0:16:56.600 --> 0:16:56.880 a thing. 0:16:57.240 --> 0:17:01.120 Yeah, remember that Simpsons where Lenny goes little kid. Lenny's like, oh, 0:17:01.160 --> 0:17:03.440 he just logged onto my internet because he pooped his 0:17:03.440 --> 0:17:05.720 pants out of he pooped his bathing suit with the 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:10.400 little interneting. So he said he logged onto his internet. 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:20.399 Oh that's so good. That's a good line. Oh boy, Lenny, 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:26.680 and he logged onto my internet. Where was that? 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:26.879 Oh? 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:29.720 Yeah? Steam engines were dangerous. They would blow up a lot. 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:35.159 There was you know, when tugboats first started using you know, 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:38.119 coming online using that steam. They were like I don't know, 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:40.040 I mean, is it is it better to have this 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:44.480 thing that might blow up a port? Right? 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:46.560 And then the owners were like, well, we don't go 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:48.840 on these boats. We just owned them, so sure, I 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:51.320 mean that's fine, they can blow up. But yes, they 0:17:51.320 --> 0:17:54.679 were viewed skeptically, I think, right like it was. It 0:17:54.760 --> 0:17:57.040 was not just a done deal that these things were 0:17:57.080 --> 0:18:01.040 like gonna save the industry or shipping. Yeah, but there 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:04.000 was a proving ground what ended up being a proving 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:08.199 ground on the Tyne River that connected Newcastle to the 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:13.480 North Sea. They were facing a problem, right. They had 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:17.919 these barges that were they were called colliers and they 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:20.760 were sailboats, but they were coal movers because Newcastle was 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:24.119 a huge coal producer, and these colliers could do a 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:27.760 lot of damage because they were hard to navigate. They 0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:30.840 had all the same problems that any sailing vessel had. 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:34.840 So there was a guy named Joseph Price who in 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:37.199 eighteen eighteen was like, I think I've got a solution 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:39.760 to this. I'm going to buy some of these steamships 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:42.720 that they're now being called tugboats, and I'm going to 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:46.919 have them pull these colliers, these coal ships up and 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:50.000 down the tyne, and I think it's going to revolutionize shipping. 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:53.720 And Joseph Price was right on the money. The price 0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:54.240 was right. 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:57.560 Oh man, you almost had it right out of the gate. 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:01.920 So now you could get four hundred ton ships because 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:03.159 you know, I don't know if we mentioned they were 0:19:03.200 --> 0:19:06.320 loading like railroad cars onto these things for the first time, 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:09.040 so it was very very heavy stuff. They could go 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:12.199 to Newcastle for the first time. All of a sudden, 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:17.479 people in more distant places could get coal. So it 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:20.639 wasn't just like hey, it made, you know, make things 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:23.440 cheaper and more efficient. It like it was literally changing 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:25.920 like lives all over the world, right, And. 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:28.160 These new towns that were getting coal for the first 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:31.800 time were able to give up having to burn dried 0:19:31.840 --> 0:19:34.359 donkey poop that they scraped up off the donkey trails 0:19:34.359 --> 0:19:35.399 along the canals. 0:19:35.600 --> 0:19:37.720 It was huge for them, totally. 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:40.679 So yeah, Joseph Price Price proved of the world. Like no, 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:44.000 these things are extraordinarily valuable, so much so that they're 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:47.280 going to completely change shipping from this point on. And 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:50.400 they definitely have and they're still just as useful as ever. 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:54.080 And they they made a name for themselves so much 0:19:54.119 --> 0:19:57.800 that the when the Royal Navy purchased their first steamships 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:02.760 of any kind, they were tugboats. Yeah, the Comet and 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:06.720 the Monkey, Comment and Monkey. And I can't decide whether 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:09.960 it's a band name or a cartoon name. 0:20:11.400 --> 0:20:13.840 Comment and Monkey. That'd be a fun cartoon. I'd watch 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:20.679 that or drug. I'd also take that comment Monkey, just kidding. 0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:25.359 So yeah, they definitely proved their worth pretty early on. 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:27.480 I mean, this is eighteen eighteen, and the first ones 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:29.840 were used shortly before that. 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:32.560 Right, Yeah, And these were paddle boats by the way 0:20:33.119 --> 0:20:36.119 up until the late nineteenth century. If you're picturing like 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:38.200 your little friendly tugboat in your mind as we talk 0:20:38.200 --> 0:20:42.080 about all these stories, erase that and now picture a 0:20:42.320 --> 0:20:46.639 tugboat with two paddles on both sides. It wasn't like 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:48.399 the big paddle in the back, like the sort of 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:50.320 fun things you ride around on at Stone Mountain Park 0:20:50.320 --> 0:20:51.280 here in Georgia. 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:53.680 Sure, that's where they're most famous. 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:58.119 They were paddle wheels on both sides, which seems a 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:01.000 little wider and more cumbersome, but that really really really 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:05.399 made them much more maneuverable and able to steer in 0:21:05.480 --> 0:21:08.800 tighter places, and to steer in two different directions like 0:21:08.800 --> 0:21:11.159 a right, I got one of those zero turned lawnmowers. 0:21:11.160 --> 0:21:13.760 You put those things in two different directions and you're 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:14.640 just spinning like a top. 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:18.719 It's the exact same thing, because those two paddle wheels 0:21:18.720 --> 0:21:20.919 were able to be moved independent of one another. And 0:21:20.920 --> 0:21:23.600 once you can do that, yes, you just start doing 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:26.159 doughnuts to show off in the harbor, you know. 0:21:26.960 --> 0:21:27.600 Yeah. 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:32.399 So the nineteenth century came and went and those paddle 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:35.879 wheel tugs were replaced with screw propellers, which is another 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:38.080 term for a propeller like you see on a ship 0:21:38.800 --> 0:21:41.520 like that's just called screw propeller. So like any ship, 0:21:41.560 --> 0:21:47.879 they were propelled by propellers and then diesel engines came along, 0:21:47.920 --> 0:21:50.520 and that's when everything really kind of changed, because when 0:21:50.560 --> 0:21:52.560 you have a diesel engine, you can get some amazing 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:55.520 horsepower out of it, way more than steam. It's also 0:21:55.600 --> 0:21:57.680 less dangerous. I think we talked about all this in 0:21:57.720 --> 0:22:02.560 our Rootolf Diesel episode, and that's when the tugboats became 0:22:02.880 --> 0:22:05.520 started to become the tugboats that we think of today. 0:22:06.480 --> 0:22:08.840 That's right, Shall we take our second break? 0:22:09.119 --> 0:22:09.680 You bet? 0:22:10.200 --> 0:22:11.800