A 120-year-old tugboat that worked Olympia's waterfront for nearly four decades is making her final voyage Tuesday, Aug. 18, when a crane lowers her onto a concrete pad next to the Olympia Farmers' Market.

The South Sound Maritime Heritage Association plans to move the 50-foot tugboat Parthia from the Port of Olympia's Swantown Boatyard to a permanent display site at the north end of Washington Avenue, with an estimated arrival time of 10 a.m., according to ThurstonTalk. Public viewing areas will be set up at a safe distance.

The move caps a nine-year rescue effort. After the 2016 Harbor Days festival, the Parthia was sold to a private owner who took her to Pleasant Harbor on Hood Canal. In August 2017, she accidentally sank at her moorage. The owner offered to donate the tug to anyone willing to salvage her, and SSMHA organized a 105-day recovery operation with help from the Puget Sound maritime community, bringing the Parthia back to Swantown Boatyard by mid-November 2017.

Built in 1906 by James Hall on Bainbridge Island, the Parthia was purchased in 1934 by Delta V. Smyth Tug and Barge Co. of Olympia and joined a fleet that included the Sand Man, another local icon now docked at Percival Landing. Foss Launch and Tug Co. bought her in 1961. In 1965, she ran aground near Priest Point in Budd Inlet while towing a raft of logs, reportedly because the skipper had fallen asleep at the wheel.

Foss sold her in 1975, and she passed through private owners before becoming a fixture at Olympia Harbor Days beginning in 1986. She appeared at the festival 26 times and was named the Harbor Days Logo Tug in 1992.

For the Tuesday move, the Port of Olympia's boat lift will hoist the tug onto a truck provided by Associated Boat Transport. Snell Crane will then lift her onto the waiting pad, where permanent support stands built by Zieglers Welding are ready. The tug has been repainted in her 1950s-era colors.

The long-term plan calls for a protective pavilion with signage, solar lighting, landscaping and visitor seating, designed by Thomas Architecture Studios and built by Forma Construction. Plans also call for an informational maritime walkway connecting the Parthia exhibit to the Sand Man at Percival Landing. But additional funding is still needed before pavilion construction can begin. Until then, construction fencing will surround the tug while she awaits the pavilion that will shield her from fall and winter storms.

Forma Construction, whose office sits adjacent to the Farmers' Market site, called the project "an important chapter in local maritime history" when it announced its role in December 2024.

As we reported July 23, the Port of Olympia is separately accepting applications for Sand Man artifacts, part of a broader push to preserve the region's tugboat heritage.

Olympia Harbor Days 2026 runs Sept. 4–6 at Percival Landing. For information about the Parthia move, call SSMHA at 360-790-6341.