The steam tug ''Echo'' operated in the early 1900s on

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

Construction

''Echo'' was built at Tacoma in 1900 by

Crawford and Reid The firm of Crawford and Reid was a ship building company that had a shipyard at Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest ...

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 Commencement Bay is a bay of Puget Sound in the U.S. state of Washington. The city of Tacoma is located on the bay, with the Port of Tacoma occupying the southeastern end. A line drawn from Point Defiance in the southwest to Browns Point in th ...

, 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 Foss Maritime (formerly Foss Launch and Tug Company), is an American tugging company. The company was founded in 1889 by Thea Foss (1857–1927) and her husband Andrew Foss. The company is now the largest tug and towing concern on the west coast ...

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 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 ...

. 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 Shilshole Bay is the part of Puget Sound east of a line drawn northeasterly from Seattle's West Point in the southwest to its Golden Gardens Park in the northeast. On its shores lie Discovery Park, the Lawton Wood section of the Magnolia neighbo ...

Notes

External links

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