Archaeology on the World's Oldest Wooden Tugboat: Documenting and Restoring M/V Arthur Foss

Author(s): Saxon T Bisbee; Nathaniel F Howe

Year: 2018

Summary

Northwest Seaport Maritime Heritage Center in Seattle is one of the oldest maritime heritage organizations in the US, and its fleet flagship is also one of the oldest of its kind. The historic wooden tugboat Arthur Foss (1889) represents Pacific Northwest wooden shipbuilding at its height, and a long tradition of maritime commerce on the Pacific coast. This vessel, while technically operational, has never had a major restoration or significant documentation of its construction features. No original plans or lines are known to exist. As Northwest Seaport prepares for a full restoration of the Arthur Foss, cutting edge recording and documentation techniques used in the nautical archaeological field are being applied to better understand the vessel's construction history and structural needs. All this information will provide a permanent record guiding future restoration work, operations, and research.

Cite this Record

Archaeology on the World's Oldest Wooden Tugboat: Documenting and Restoring M/V Arthur Foss. Saxon T Bisbee, Nathaniel F Howe. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, New Orleans, Louisiana. 2018 ( tDAR id: 441447)

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Keywords

Temporal Keywords
Historic

Spatial Coverage

min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 662