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Hercules (1907 steam tug)
Museum Ship / Preserved (undergoing structural restoration as of 2023–2025, temporarily moored at Mare Island, Vallejo, CA)
Hercules is a 1907-built ocean-going steam tugboat, now preserved as a National Historic Landmark and the only surviving steam-powered ocean tug in the United States. She is part of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park fleet, historically moored at Hyde Street Pier (currently relocated to Mare Island, Vallejo during a major structural rework).
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Plans
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Build logs
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Resources
+ Submit a resourceHistory & specifications
- Wikipedia: Hercules (1907 ship)Website
Overview of build history, ownership chain, specifications, and NHL/NRHP designation; good starting reference for a modeler.
Museums & archives
- NPS SAFR: Hercules Ship History PageMuseum
Official park service page with detailed specifications (engine, boiler, dimensions) and service history narrative, directly from the vessel's current owner/curator.
Plans & drawings
- HAER No. CA-62: Steam Tug Hercules DocumentationPlans
Historic American Engineering Record addendum with measured drawings, detailed construction specifications, rigging/masting notes, and ownership history useful for accurate scale modeling.
Photos
- Wikimedia Commons: Category Hercules (tugboat, 1907)Photo
Collection of freely licensed photographs of the preserved vessel at Hyde Street Pier, including the HAER photo set, useful for visual reference.
History
Specifications
Built of riveted steel, she measures roughly 150-151 feet in length overall with a 26-27 foot beam and about 17 feet depth of hold, with a gross tonnage near 409-414. She retains her original 1,000 hp three-cylinder triple expansion steam engine fed by an oil-fired Scotch marine fire-tube boiler, giving her a top speed around 10 knots; she carried two masts (originally rigged to set sail as auxiliary power) and a tall stack, with black hull/bulwarks and a red cabin.
Service history
Built in 1907 by John H. Dialogue and Sons of Camden, New Jersey for the Shipowners' and Merchants' Tugboat Company's Red Stack Fleet, she made a 13,500-mile delivery voyage to San Francisco via the Strait of Magellan while towing her sister ship Goliah. As an ocean-going tug she hauled sailing ships, lumber rafts, barges, and even construction caissons for the Panama Canal, and in 1919 helped tow the newly launched battleship USS California. From 1924 she was acquired by the Western Pacific Railroad and shifted to shuttling railroad car floats across San Francisco Bay until retirement around 1961-1962.
Notable facts
Hercules was saved from scrapping when the California State Park Foundation acquired her in 1975; the National Park Service took over restoration in 1977, and she was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986. Her steam plant remains operational and she is occasionally steamed on San Francisco Bay as a working exhibit, and she is reported to be the inspiration for the "Hercules" character in the children's TV series Tugs.