View of the old tug boat "Enchantress" in Fidalgo Bay with Mount Baker towering above in the background. Built in 1944, she was first named LT495 and was commissioned by the U.S. Army. 61 similar class tugs were built on both coasts. She was one of 10 completed on the East Coast. After WWII, she was purchased and renamed the "John Michael" by a Baltimore company. She was then sold to an Alaskan oil company in 1950. That company ran into financial trouble and she was seized by officials in Seattle, then in 1951, Foss Tug bought her in auction. Foss named her the "Leslie Foss" under which name she spent 17 years plying Puget Sound and Alaska. She was bought and sold and renamed at least four more times, eventually being purchased by Richard Carnes. Carnes, of Sedro-Woolley, is suspected of abandoning her here in 2000. The next year, Carnes was fatally shot by his business partner in a dispute involving timberland, his partner later committing suicide (per AP report). Source: The Seattle Times, February 7, 2008 (condensed).

A (final) Tribute to the tug Enchantress