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Steam tugboat Echo
History
United States
Name	Echo
Owner	1900: Captain O. G. Olson 1916: Foss Launch and Tug Company
Builder	Crawford and Reid, Tacoma
Out of service	3 January 1938
Identification	USA official number 136791
General characteristics
Type	Tugboat
Tonnage	56 GT 38 NT
Length	66.5 ft (20.3 m)
Beam	18.2 ft (5.5 m)
Depth	7.3 ft (2.2 m)
Installed power	175 ihp
Propulsion	1 × screw 1 × marine steam engine

The steam tug Echo operated in the early 1900s on Puget Sound.

Construction

Echo was built at Tacoma in 1900 by Crawford and Reid for Captain O. G. Olson. Echo was propeller-driven and 66.5' long.

Operation

On August 16, 1906, the Foss gasoline-powered launch Lion caught fire in Commencement Bay, when a fuel valve mistakenly left open had spilled 30 gallons of gasoline into her bilges, which was ignited by the engine backfiring. Echo pumped water on board Lion until the fire was out, while a boat from the cutter Grant took off her crew and passengers.

Purchase by Foss Launch & Tug Co.

In 1916, Foss Launch and Tug Company bought Captain O.G. Olson's Tacoma towing business, including the steam tugs Echo, Elf, and Olympian. In 1921, Perry Moore became Echo ‘s chief engineer. Foss continued to operate Echo until 1930, when she was laid-up at the company's yard in Seattle. In 1938, Echo was described as unfit for further service, her documentation was abandoned, and she was reported to have been burned for scrap near Shilshole Bay.

See also

• Echo (sternwheeler 1865)
• Echo (sternwheeler 1901)

Notes

1. Newell, Gordon R., ed., H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, at 61, Superior Publishing, Seattle, WA 1966
2. McCurdy, at 61
3. McCurdy, at 127
4. McCurdy, at 265, 266 and 632
5. Skalley, Michael (1981). Foss : ninety years of towboating (1st ed.). Seattle, Wash.: Superior. p. 40. ISBN 0-87564-224-1.

External links

Historic images from the on-line collections of the University of Washington

• Elf in Tacoma Harbor (a similar steam tug, also owned by Capt. O.G. Olson and later Foss Launch & Tug)
• Olympian, another steam tug owned by Capt. O.G. Olson

v t e Puget Sound steam tugs
Tugs	Alice (1897) C.C. Cherry Cyrus Walker Duwamish Echo Elk Goliah (1849) Goliah (1907) Hector Rabboni Portland (1875) Richard Holyoke Ruth Wallowa
Firms	Foss Pacific Tow Boat
Persons	Thea Foss

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