Historical Timeline of the Sand Man:
Click here for historical photos of the Sand Man



Construction
1908 – 1910designed and built by Crawford & Reid, Tacoma
wheel-house designed and built by the Long family, Olympia
1999 – 2000restoration of the hull by PT Shipwrights Co-op, Port Townsend
2000 – 2005 restoration of the cabins and engine, supervised by Paul Deranleau, Olympia, with help from many volunteers

Owners

1910 – 1925 Arthur J. Weston, owner of Olympia Sand & Gravel Co.
(Sand Man was used mostly to tow barges of sand and gravel)
1925 – 1955 Delta V. Smyth, owner of Delta Smyth Tug & Barge Co.
(Sand Man was part of a fleet of up to seven tugboats)
1955 – 1964 Fred Chadwick, owner of Capitol City Towing Co.
1964 – 1987 Franz Schlottmann, owner of Schlottmann Excavating & Towing
(last commercial operator of Sand Man)
1987 – 1997 Bob Powell, initial efforts to restore Sand Man
1997 – present The Sand Man Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization,
established for the purpose of restoring Sand Man

Highlights of the Life of Sand Man

1910 – 1987Commercially operated tugboat / towboat throughout Puget Sound; always locally owned and based in Olympia
1974Sand Man began racing in Olympia’s annual Labor Day tugboat races
1987 – 2005Restoration of the boat (minor work continues)
1998Listed on the National Register of Historical Places – Vessels
2005 – presentAfter being out of the water for nearly seven years, Sand Man was re-launched on Sept. 1, 2005.  Since then, she has been operated as a floating museum at Percival Landing, dedicated to the maritime heritage of Olympia and South Puget Sound.

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© The Sand Man. 2008. Creator: Matthew J. Bryan