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What follows is from a memoir, “Tug Boat Life,” soon to be published by Gerald Bell about his 50 years working on tug boats.

My first few months of work for Dunlap Towing were spent towing logs. One night we were departing Port Ludlow on the tug Vulcan with a tow that had several extra boom sticks tied along side. The sticks were fanned out from the tow, and we decided they needed to be tied in tight. The captain let me off on the tow with a pike pole and a flashlight and some tie line and continued towing out of the harbor.

Balanced out there on the log tow, I managed to get the center...