In Tugboats Illustrated, Paul Farrell traces the evolution, design and role of tugboats, ranging from the first steam-powered tug to today's hyper-specialized offshore workboats. Through extensive photographs, dynamic drawings and enlightening diagrams, he explores the development of these hard-working boats, always shaped by the demands of their waterborne environment, by an ever-present element of danger and by advancements in technology. Whether making impossible turns in small spaces, crashing through huge swells, pushing or pulling or prodding or coaxing or escorting, we come to understand not only what tugs do, but how physics and engineering allow them to do it.