In its heyday, the well-appointed Tug, owned by the City of Philadelphia, catered to the well-connected. The city sold the John Wanamaker in the 1950s to a private owner who relocated the tug to New England. From 1994 to 2002, the Tug was docked at One Harbor Place in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, serving as a portside restaurant. The tug was later taken to New Bedford, MA.

In the reduction woodcut, the John Wanamaker has a formal appearance with a tidy nautical red stripe just below the gunwale and a funnel resembling a top hat. The Tug sits beneath the towering Memorial Bridge, with an active sky above. In the foreground, the boardwalk includes descending access ramps to the Tug.