Chickamauga was a wooden

tugboat A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, su ...

built in 1915 and operated in

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

throughout its service life. The boat sank on October 2, 2013, and was subsequently scrapped.

History

Chickamauga was a 70' long wooden tug boat built in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington in 1915. Chickamauga was designed by naval architect

Leslie Geary L.E."Ted" Geary (1885 - May 19, 1960) was a naval architect who grew up in Seattle, Washington. He designed and raced numerous competitive sailing vessels, and also designed commuter yachts, fishing boats, tug boats, and wooden-hulled freighters. ...

, and was the first diesel powered tugboat designed and built in the U.S.

Sinking & demolition

Chickamauga sank while moored at Eagle Harbor on

Bainbridge Island, Washington Bainbridge Island is a city and island in Kitsap County, Washington. It is located in Puget Sound. The population was 23,025 at the 2010 census and an estimated 25,298 in 2019, making Bainbridge Island the second largest city in Kitsap County. ...

on October 2, 2013. It was reported to have leaked over 300 gallons of petroleum products into the harbor.''Tug Chickamauga Sinking''
; Department of Ecology, State of Washington incident website; retrieved November 2015 The wreck was lifted from the water on October 10, 2013 by crane. The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) took possession of the Chickamauga on January 16, 2014 and offered it to museums for possible preservation. On January 30, 2014, Chickamauga was towed to a

dry dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

outside Seattle to await a decision regarding its future. The boat was eventually destroyed with the use of an

excavator Excavators are heavy construction equipment consisting of a boom, dipper (or stick), bucket and cab on a rotating platform known as the "house". The house sits atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. They are a natural progression fro ...

, and the wreckage was disposed of. The helm and throttle controls, however, were salvaged and donated by the DNR to the Foss Waterway Seaport Museum in Tacoma..

References

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External links

Image of Chickamauga in service
1915 ships Ships built in Seattle Tugboats of the United States