Portland, Sternwheel tugboat museum in downtown Portland, Oregon, US
The Portland is a steel-hulled sternwheel tugboat with a wooden superstructure, built in 1947 and moored at the Willamette River seawall beside Tom McCall Waterfront Park in downtown Portland. It is the last steam-powered sternwheel tugboat built in the United States and now houses the Oregon Maritime Museum.
Built by Northwest Marine Iron Works and delivered to the Port of Portland on August 29, 1947, the Portland was the last steam-powered sternwheel tugboat built in the United States. It was operated by Willamette Tug & Barge and Shaver Transportation until retirement in 1981, when larger oil supertankers and container ships with bow thrusters reduced the need for tug assistance. It replaced a 1919 vessel of the same name and has a steel hull and wooden superstructure.
The ship's name honours its home port, and its sternwheel appears at the end of the opening credits of the TV series Portlandia. It played the gambling vessel Lauren Belle in the 1994 film Maverick. Since 2002 the Oregon Maritime Museum's static displays have been on board, and the vessel is open for tours most days.
The vessel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and can be researched through historical archives. Documentation is available through the Oregon Historical Society and regional museum collections.
In 1957 two ships bound for scrap broke loose and struck the Hawthorne Bridge; two diesel tugs could only ease the strain, while the Portland pulled the ships free and towed them away. The Columbia River Pilots Association cited this rescue as vindication of its insistence on steam sternwheel propulsion.
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