Welcome Aboard!

As you can see from the above photo -- and from looking around you -- SAND MAN is quite a beauty. She has plied the waters of the lower Puget Sound since her launching in 1910. According to her many skippers and crew, she always performed magnificently.

Now, after all these hard years, she has finally gotten her long overdue facelift.  The long, expensive restoration process is about 90% complete.  Details are elsewhere on this web site. But first....

SAND MAN's hull was laid down in 1908 by Crawford and Reid Shipyard in Tacoma, WA. The boat is 59' 10" long with a 14.6 foot beam, and weighs in at 19 tons. She draws 6.5 feet of water. The tug was launched in 1910 for service at Olympia.

There is a single bunk in the pilothouse. The oak wheel and the surrounding hardware and controls are original equipment.

Aft of the pilothouse, along the starboard side, doors lead to a small head and to the galley.

On the port side is the door leading to the engine room below. Originally, there were four bunks in the fo'csle.

On SAND MAN's stern is an ancient winch, driven by what was once was part of the motor on a Stanley Steamer automobile. When it is rebuilt, it will operate by compressed air.

While SAND MAN was being built, her owner, A.J. Weston attended the 1909 Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle., where he saw a demonstration of the new 50 hp Frisco Standard gasoline engine. The engine was the talk of the engineering world. Weston purchased that very engine, the one on display for his new tug. In fact, construction of the boat was held up until the end of the fair when he could take delivery of the engine!  

For the next 12 years, the new nickel plated engine performed flawlessly. SAND MAN hauled gravel and sand, fuel, logs --  performing virtually any job that came along.  There is an anecdotal story that she hauled oysters, but no hard evidence to back it up.

(Right)  SAND MAN is seen tied up at Percival's Dock, in Olympia, circa 1910. On the right is the stern wheeler, MULTNOMAH, and just ahead of her is the steamer, GREYHOUND, at the time, one of the fastest boats on Puget Sound. MULTNOMAH, a long time Olympia fixture, would later be moved to Seattle for service there, where in 1911, she would be rammed and sunk by the steamer, IROQUOIS. (University of Washington)

In 1922, Weston decided he needed more power, so the Frisco Standard was replaced with a  Fairbanks-Morse diesel engine rated at 100 hp. It is believed to be one of the first oil engines of this power and type to be put into service on Puget Sound. In an article on SAND MAN printed in Pacific Motor Boat magazine in 1930, Weston was quoted:

"It ran perfectly and consistently so. Without one bobble. I can't understand it personally, for the SAND MAN ran an an immense number of hours. The engine stood up fine and ran without a single mishap in five years."

In 1926, SANDMAN was sold to Delta V. Smyth who added her to his fleet of Olympia based tugboats. Here she is shown, fourth from the right, with Smyth's other boats lined up at Percival's Dock. (State Capitol Museum)