The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-07-21
A BIG TUG
IS COMING
Towboat Company for
Honolulu.
A SPREGKELS ENTERPRISE
The Fearless. Staunchest Craft of
Her Kind on the Coast, to
be Here.

Honolulu is to have the best tugboat
on the Pacific Coast. Within a few
weeks a towboat company will be es-
tablished here to do all business offer
ing in the port and with an equipment
that viii afford unprecedented advan-
tages to shipping men. The Spreckels
Towboat Company, long a great San
Francisco institution is to come to Ho-
nolulu and will send next month as the
first of its boats the Fearless, a sea-
going tug which is we'll known for
speed, strength and fittings.
For a long time there has been need
of tug of sufficient capacity to han
die all kinds of work here and more
than once the lack of such boat has
caused much money loss. The Govern
ment has a tug of limited size and
with old-fashioned equipment which
has practically done all the towing for
many years, but the demands have far
exceeded the supply in towage facili-
ties for long time and San Francisco
has evidently seen the opportunity.
w. M. Giffard, of w. G.. Irwin &
Company, was asked yesterday con-
cerning the matter and said that the
statement as to the Spreckels estab
fishing a towboat company was true.
He said that nothing had been given
out in the matter as the company
would not begin business for some
weeks.
'The Spreckels Towboat Company
informs me that it will enter into busi-
ness here" said Mr.. Giffard yester-
day. 81 do not know under just what
name or who will compose the COM
pany but there will be a separate office
and firm from any now here. The tug
Fearless will be sent here very shortly
and another smaller boat will follow.
The company will do towing and any
other work requiring the services of a
powerful tug for anyone who desires.
Until the Republic passed into the
Territory the Government had mo-
nopoly of this towing business but now
| anyone may enter it. There is neces-
sity for such a boat as the Fearless.
/ If vessel is partly loaded and wants
to go to another island for the rest of
her cargo the Fearless can tow here in
good style. For wrecking, searching
for ships, diving purposes, fires, ETC.,
the Fearless will be valuable. She was
built at the Union Iron Works in April.
1899, and is of steel. Her length is 1O9
feet overall and her breadth % feet q
inches.
s'The depth of the Fearless is IL feet b
Inches and her engines are 20" AZ "x24' .
When the Oceanic Company's big ships,
the Sierra and the Ventura come here,
what with the narrow harbor and the
peculiar wharf situation they will need
a tug to turn them around So will
other great vessels stopping here. l do
not know whether the Fearless and the
tug to follow here will bring their own
crews to stay permanently. The Fear
less will of course come here unassisted
from San Francisco as she can go any
where under her own steam. These
) are all the details / have of the new
institution.
! Mr.. Giffard is not over-commun1ca-
tive and had to be asked a good many
questions to elicit the aforegoing facts
The news will be of intense interest te
. shipping men in Honolulu as it means
that they will have at their disposa
the staunchest tug on the Coast Tht
Fearless has electric lights, search
light and can throw six streams OF wa
ter at once. In case of a fire on the
: front the Fearless might save millions
of dollars.