Eppleton Hall

The ships in our park's collection have been moved temporarily due to the Hyde Street Rebuild Project. They are now located at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard. Visitors are not currently allowed on the ships, but can view them from Mare Island. When the Hyde Street Pier rebuild is finished, the ships will be moved back to Hyde Street Pier.

Steam-powered sidewheeler built in 1914 in England. Designed to tow ocean-going colliers (coal-carrying vessels) on the River Tyne. She has two side-lever engines, also called grasshopper engines. These engines can operate each paddlewheel independently.

Eppleton Hall Quick Facts

Length: 100.6 ft
Beam: 21.2 ft
Depth: 10.8 ft
Gross Tonnage: 10.8 ft
Engines: Two-sided lever

Black and white photo of the steam sidewheeler ship Eppleton Hall on the water in 1914 — Eppleton Hall, in 1914
SAFR 21374, P93-065, Series 9, File Unit 7, Item I07.23738

A Steam Sidewheeler

Eppleton Hall was built in 1914 by the Hepple and Company of South Shields, England, for the Lambton and Hetton Collieries, Ltd. The vessel, named after the Lambton family's ancestral home, was designed to tow ocean-going colliers (coal-carrying vessels) to and from the port of Newcastle on the River Tyne. Coal was a booming business, and days of transit time were saved by towing the sailing vessels upriver to load. The vessel was also used to tow newly-built ships out to sea.

Eppleton Hall, a steam sidewheeler with side-lever engines, is the only remaining intact example of a Tyne paddle tug. A direct descendent of the first craft to go into commercial service as harbor tugs, the vessel was engaged on the Wear and Tyne rivers of northeast England from 1914-1967. In 1946, she was purchased by France Fenwick, Wear and Tyne Ltd., which operated her in the Wear River until 1964 (she is being restored to this period today).

Eppleton Hall's steam engines are descended from a type first developed in England in 1828. The two large side lever engines, often referred to as grasshopper engines, operate the paddle wheels independently, making the tug especially maneuverable in tight spots.

Another unusual feature of the Eppleton Hall is its hand-forged boilers designed to use seawater. Every six weeks the accumulated salt had to be chipped out of the boilers and rinsed away. The advantage was that large freshwater tanks did not have to be carried aboard.

In 1952, the tug was modified slightly to obtain a Passenger Certificate, so that she could transport officials from newly-launched steamers. Her last commercial owner was the Seaham Harbour Dock Board, which operated her from 1964 to 1967.

She was sold for scrap in 1967 and, while sitting on a mud bank, fire (part of the scrapping process) destroyed her wooden afterdeck and interior. For most of 1969 she underwent repairs, including modifications for an epic steam (via the Panama Canal) to San Francisco, passing through the Golden Gate in March of 1970.

The vessel was donated to the National Park Service in 1979 and berthed at Hyde Street Pier. Eppleton Hall was moved to the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in April 2025 for the duration of the Hyde Street Rebuild Project.

Audio Presentations

#16 Survival of an Underdog

Learn the story of survival for the steam tugboat, Eppleton Hall.

Audio Transcript

You’re listening to “Maritime Voices” from San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. I’m ranger Chris Edwards. In this episode, we’ll consider the history and survival of the steam tugboat, Eppleton Hall.

With her rounded paddle wheel boxes looking like bulging biceps and her tall smoke stack belying her steam power plant, the Eppleton Hall presents an image of strength. However, perhaps the best description for this small river and harbor tugboat is improbable. For, the Eppleton Hall is one of the last of her kind and her survival is the story of an underdog.

If you’d lived in the early days of San Francisco, the sight of a paddle steamer would have been common. Today, paddle boats are rare and paddle tugs even more so. By the time the founders of this park tried to save one there were none left in San Francisco Bay. They had to go far and wide and invest much more money, time, and work to bring the Eppleton Hall here to San Francisco. Her birth was in South Shields, England on the Tyne River. And that was the place to which her rescuers traveled to bring her to a new home.

However, the old tugboat they found in England was far from seaworthy. When they first started work on her she was a burned-out hulk and water freely flowed in and out of several holes in the hull. Through the miracle of perseverance, in little more than five months, the Eppleton Hall had passed all government inspections and was ready for her trip across the Atlantic Ocean to San Francisco.

Six months later, after several storms and one instance of running out of fuel, the Eppleton Hall steamed into San Francisco Bay. She was never designed to cross an ocean, and given her previously dilapidated condition, she had completed a trip that many would have considered impossible.

When she was new in the year 1914, no one would have thought the Eppleton Hall would survive to be one of the last paddle wheel tugboats and that her survival would bring her halfway across the world to San Francisco. “Improbable” they would have said. “Improbable.”

#17 On the Inside

Learn the inner workings of the steam tug, Eppleton Hall.

Audio Transcript

You’re listening to “Maritime Voices” from San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. I’m Park Guide Chris Poisant. In this episode, we’ll consider the inner workings of the steam tug Eppleton Hall.

Just like people, the uniqueness of a ship is often defined by what is on the inside. The heart of the Eppleton Hall is her propulsion plant, and it has a personality all its own.

This propulsion plant consists of two flue type boilers and two “grasshopper” type steam engines. In its most simple method of operation, the boilers operated like two giant tea kettles heating water and sending steam into the single cylinder of each engine. The pressure of this steam then pushed on the piston which in turn rotated a crank that turned one of the ship’s two paddle wheels.

During the voyage to San Francisco the engines, which came to be named “Nip” and “Tuck”, more than once showed how independent their personalities were. “Nip”, the port side engine, was always described as cheerful and loyal in its reliability. “Tuck”, however, was taciturn, strong minded, and fickle. Never reliable as to whether a task was going to be easy or challenging.

Imagine the stepping in to the engine room and being witness to these personalities interacting. Down below, the boilers, like lungs “…breath in great gobs of fire and exhale equally great amounts of steam…” Turning toward the engines, you see a Rube Goldberg like array of levers, rods, and cranks moving around and back-and-forth in astonishing harmony. Topping it off, the engines perform a mechanical symphony. “Thump-squeak-bang-bang-wheeze-whine-crash. Thump-squeak-bang-bang-wheeze-whine-crash.”

Stepping out of the engine room you feel the cool breeze on your face as the ship slowly steams across the surface of the water. The smoke rising from the stack is the only reminder of the invisible symphony beneath your feet. Ships, you realize, are like people. Often what makes them unique is the unseen.