Boston Harbor
Upon completion, Luna was delivered to the Mystic Steamship Company of Boston as the first diesel-powered tug in their fleet. All the other tugs in the Mystic Steamship fleet - commercially known as the Boston Towboat Company - were powered by coal and oil-fired boilers and steam engines. The Mystic Steamship Company could trace its roots to the Boston Towboat Company, which had been founded by Boston's maritime executives to assure salvage, icebreaking, and ship towing services in 1857. The Mystic Steamship Company operated coal-carrying colliers and coal barges to transport coal from railroad piers in New York Harbor, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Newport News. This coal was used as a fuel, and as the basis to make lamp gas from coal and coke. Later, Boston Towboat was operated by Eastern Enterprises, owners of Boston Gas and various maritime operations, which is active to this day as Eastern Enterprises.
Luna and her sister, Venus, were the most powerful, reliable, and efficient boats in the Boston Towboat fleet and therefore were the first boats to be assigned every day. The majority of the tug's work involved docking and undocking ships in every part of greater Boston Harbor, from Salem's coal-fired powerplants and industries in the north, to Plymouth harbor in the south. Most of the time, the tugs were busy pushing and towing tankers, freighters, refrigerated cargo ships, passenger liners, warships, and large barges within Boston Harbor. However their work could range more widely including far up the Chelsea Creek, the Mystic River, the Charles River, the Fort Point Channel, Island Creek, the Reserve Channel of South Boston, and the Boston Naval Shipyard. They occasionally operated on assignments as far away as Maine and New York.
Read more about this topic: Luna (tugboat), Operational History
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