Tugboats Illustrated

Tugboats may not have the glamour of warships, passenger liners, or classic freighters, but without them most commercial harbours could not function. Precise, powerful, and pugnacious they take on critical tasks such as manoeuvring large ships into tight places, pushing huge rafts of barges up and down rivers, and towing oil rigs into place. In this history, Paul Farrell traces the evolution, design, and role of tugboats from the first steam-powered workhorses to modern offshore support vessels.