Foss Maritime Company

Anyone viewing the ports of Tacoma or Seattle will be familiar with the green-and-white Foss tugboats directing huge ships into docks, scurrying alongside barges filled with products from around the world,
and patiently pulling rafts filled with logs to mills or to ships headed overseas. Since 1889, the Foss family has taken their business from rowboats to powered launches, eventually developing some of the most powerful tugboats in the world. Foss Launch and Tug is a true American success story of struggling Norwegian immigrants who came to the Pacific Northwest and parlayed a single rowboat sale into a vast fleet. Now known as Foss Maritime Company, the business has expanded well beyond its Tacoma-harbor birthplace to secure for itself a niche in the worldwide market.

Author Mike Stork has had a front-row seat to this industry growth, as his father was a captain for Foss Launch and Tug from 1946 to 1973. An avid maritime photographer, Stork has also taken numerous photographs for the company's newsletter, Tow Bitts. In this volume, he tells Foss' Always Ready story with more than 200 rare images and memorabilia contributed by the Foss Maritime Company archives, as well as by Foss families, friends, and employees. These images, combined with informative captions, pay tribute to one of the world's maritime industry leaders.