- Thea Foss
Thea Christiansen Foss (
8 June 1857 –7 June 1927 ) was the founder ofFoss Maritime , the largest tugboat company in the westernUnited States , and the real-life person on which the "Tugboat Annie " series was based.Thea came to the
United States fromEidsberg ,Norway and married Norwegian immigrant Andrew Foss inMinneapolis, Minnesota . In 1889 she started the Foss Launch Company, which eventually became theSeattle -based Foss Maritime.Thea and Andrew Foss had three sons: Arthur, Weddell, and Henry. Henry became a civic leader in
Tacoma, Washington . Thea died in Tacoma on the day before her 70th birthday.The Thea Foss Waterway, a 1.5 mile (2.4 km) mile inlet in Tacoma's industrial area, and connected to
Puget Sound , is named after Foss. The USS "Amber" (PYc-6), which had served as a patrol vessel inWorld War II , was renamed the "Thea Foss" after being purchased by Foss Marine Company.References
*Skalley, Michael. (1981) "Foss: Ninety years of towboating". ISBN 0-87564-224-1
* [http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=5045 Thea Foss launches the future tugboat firm on the Tacoma waterfront in the summer of 1889] - Historylink essayExternal links
* [http://www.foss.com/about_history.html History of Foss Maritime] - official company history
* [http://daughtersofnorway.org/dnThea45.html Thea Foss Lodge #45, Daughters of Norway] includes biography
* [http://www.findingthea.com Finding Thea] is a recent documentary film on Thea's life and legacy.
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