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THAMES TUGS

THE THAMES SHIP HANDLING TUGS

1833 - 2008

       

THE SITE

     Please imagine a summer afternoon in East London, about 1947. A four year old boy and his father are standing on the bascule bridge spanning the entrance to the King George the Fifth Dock, gazing at the might of the British Merchant Navy, moored at the quays, in places two deep. The bridgeman requests them to move, closes the barriers and the bridge lifts. The boy stands at the side of the bridge, fingers hooked in the filthy, soot encrusted metal trellis of the fence, wide eyed,  as into his view comes a much smaller vessel. A varnished upper bridge, a tall black funnel with a bright red band, a shimmer of heat and wisp of steam at its top, slowly appear. Then a long low after deck, and leading up from it a bar tight towrope, spurting water under the strain. His eyes follow the rope to the bows of a huge freighter. "That's the Highland Brigade, son" says dad, "She'll be bound for South America". The young lad makes no reply, his attention taken by a man in a white topped cap on that varnished bridge. A man who smiles and waves to him, before casually pulling the lever of  a gleaming brass telegraph. The pair watch while the tug, aided by another astern with a black topped blue  funnel guide the ship  skilfully into the lock. The bridge closes, traffic flows again, and the pair, the boy with black smudged nose, walk to the bus stop and catch the 101 bus for home.

     Yes, you've guessed, the boy was me and I was hooked. This fixation was reinforced just five years later when I, and probably most of the nation, clustered around the radio and scanned the newspapers, eager to learn about the latest heroics of Captain Dan Parker and Mate Ken Dancy of the tug Turmoil, and the lone Captain Kurt Carlsen aboard his ill-fated American freighter Flying Enterprise. The interest survived the teen years, despite discovering girls, and many notes were scribbled in grubby notebooks during the following years, details being gleaned from ABC's of British Tugs, Sea Breezes magazines, and anywhere and everywhere else the magic word 'tug' appeared. Then came computers, and the contents of the note books were transferred to floppy discs and then CD's. Retirement loomed and to keep the brain active I decided to try publishing a website. A steep learning curve followed but the frustrations and late nights have proved worthwhile, because of the tremendous support of you people out there.  The site is now edited and published from my home in the Medway Towns, Kent, and is entirely non-profit making and funded from my pension. Many friends have been made via e-mails and the input from Tugmen, past and present, and fellow enthusiasts have ensured the site did not become just a collection of boring statistics. Many different facets of what could normally be a dangerous life emerged and I am in awe of the tugmen's exploits during two wars and at Dunkirk in particular. A spin off has been enquiries from folk doing family history research and has led to interest in the riverside communities, especially Gravesend, where many of the tugs listed on site were based. The Roll Call pages contain the names of nearly 600 earlier Thames Tugmen, many from Gravesend and are dedicated to those lost at sea and on the rivers and also to those who made the ultimate sacrifice during wartime service.  

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NO RESPONSIBILITY WILL BE ACCEPTED FOR ANY PROBLEMS ARISING FROM USE OF ANY MATERIAL FROM THIS SITE AND WE HAVE NO CONTROL OVER THE CONTENT OF ANY SITES TO WHICH THERE ARE LINKS.