Join us for a presentation about one of the most famous boats in the world, moored on Seattle’s own Lake Union. The history of the Arthur Foss is a long and storied tale and with any vessel as old as 129 years, there are many chapters. These include a variety of challenging tow assignments from the South Pacific to the Columbia Bar to Alaska. Taking on many characters over the decades, Arthur went to war in WWII, played a major part in an old movie, served at one time as a museum and got gold fever in Alaska. She earned many trophies in a long career of racing other working tug boats. She has caught on fire, endured many significant overhauls and had an unfortunate major accident when she fell over in dry dock while being towed from Honolulu.

Through it all she has persevered and in the summer of 2017 was brought to Foss shipyard on the Lake Washington Ship Canal. She remains home, safely berthed on South Lake Union.

About the Presenter

Richard Miller was acting project manager for the Northwest Seaport during the Arthur Foss haul out. Mr. Miller’s professional career includes 35 years as Bridge Engineer and Director of Transportation Capital Projects for the Seattle Department of Transportation. During his tenure at the City he had a multitude of responsibilities including the Bascule Bridge Electro / Mechanical Rehabilitations and overseeing SDOT’s Bridge Seismic Retrofit Program.

Mr. Miller’s maritime experience includes living on a sailboat for several years. He was commodore of the Puget Sound Cruising Club where he sailed to most ports in the Puget Sound/San Juan and Gulf Islands. He has offshore sailing experience to San Francisco and Juneau. He has also sailed in Hawaii and the Greek Islands. In his free time, he has participated in six Habitat for Humanity house builds in countries ranging from Nepal to North Vietnam to Romania.