Boat School
This page will contain information that may be useful or of interest to model boaters who want to know more about boats and ships.
Types of Tugboats Marine Propulsion
Types of Tugboats
On the RC Groups Boats Dock Talk forum a question was raised about the definition of a tractor tug vs. a rotor tug vs. a regular harbor tug. I'm ( the website administrator) also a member of the Tugboat Enthusiasts Society. I passed along the question to Hugh Ware who is a writer on tugboat technology and TES President / TugBitts editor. He is currently writing a article for Pacific Maritime on developments in tugboat technology. He was kind enough to provide his expertise to address the above question. The information provided was a bit large for a single post on the forum so I am putting a link here for the file.
Tugboats 101 by Hugh Ware, MS Word doc 27kb Tugboats 101 pdf file format
Tugboat Enthusiasts Society of the Americas
Marine Propulsion
Propelling a vessel through the water has evolved over time from paddling with hands to advanced pod mounted azmuthing electric units. From the time of ancient Greece ships were equipped with dual propulsion in the form of sails and banks of oarsmen. Roman warships utilized one, two, or three banks of slave rowers. As more efficient sails were invented having large rowing crews aboard fell into disfavor. Spain and the Vikings were notable exceptions who maintained dual propulsion ships much longer.
Near the end of the 18th century the usefulness of live steam was being realized.
To be continued