text: how much work, in joules, does the tugboad do? a tugboat exerts a constant force of 5.60  103 n on a ship moving at constant speed through a harbor. how much work does the tugboat do on the ship if each moves a distance of 2.00 km? first thing if you want an answer in joules, a joule is a nm, you you must convert the 2.00km into 2000m by multiplying by 1000.  w= fd w= 5.60102n x 2000m w= 11202.06j  the work done on the tugboat was 11202.06 j.