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NUNC COCNOSCO EX PARTE

THOMAS J. BATA LIBRARY

TRENT UNIVERSITY
A HUNDRED YEARS OF TOWAGE
Messrs. Wieeiam Watkins, Ltd., 1833-1933
 Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2019 with funding from
Kahle/Austin Foundation

https://archive.org/details/hundredyearoftowOOOObowe
THE FIRST GENERATION: JOHN ROGERS WATKINS.
A HUNDRED YEARS OF
TOWAGE
A HISTORY OF
MESSRS. WILLIAM WATKINS, LTD., 1833-1933

BY

FRANK C. BOWEN

1933
PRINTED BY GRAVESEND AND DARTFORD REPORTER
HARMER STREET, GRAVESEND
By the same Author :—
The Golden Age of Sail
Ships for All
From Carrack to Clipper
Merchant Ships of the World
History of the Canadian Pacific Line
Sea Slang
The Ships We See
The King’s Navy
History of the Royal Naval Reserve
His Majesty's Coastguard
The Sea : Its History and Romance
Mail and Passenger Steamers
A Century of Atlantic Travel
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter I Introduction

Chapter II Harry Days

Chapter III The Business of Seeking

Chapter IV The Big Paddrers

Chapter V The Coming of the Screw

Chapter VI The Nineties

Chapter VII The Turn of the Century

Chapter VIII ... The War

Chapter IX The Tug To-day

Chapter X Post War Years

212645
 CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

THE THAMES IN THE THIRTIES.

ESSES. William Watkins, Ltd., was founded in

1833 by John Rogers Watkins, father of the
William Watkins who gave his name to the firm,
and although it was not the first towing business on
the Thames it was within a few months of the pioneer and it
has lasted with steadily increasing vigour and prosperity long
after every one of its old-time rivals on the London River has
gone and been forgotten.
William Watkins had just left school and was only 14
years of age when he joined his father in what was a real
adventure but he soon showed signs of unmistakable ability
and began to make his name in the London shipping world in
a period which contained many giants, the Wigrams, Greens,
Dunbars and a score of other shipping families whose names
have come down to us with a legendary position. John
Rogers Watkins and his son did not aspire to this hierachy but
there is ample evidence to show that they were very highly
respected London shipowners on a smaller scale, for in
addition to the tugs with which they are always associated they
owned several sailing ships, and very smart little ships they
were at a period when there were few intermediate ships
between the stately Indiamen owned by the aristocrats of the
industry and the merchant ship of ordinary quality which
was very often of a very poor quality indeed.
In order to understand the foundation of the house of
Watkins it is necessary to appreciate the position of British
8 HUNDRED YEARS
shipping, especially in the port of London, in the year 1833.
Overshadowing everything is the influence of the final teiruina¬
tion of the monopoly under which the Honourable East India
Company had run its ships for over two centunes and the final
dispersal of these ships to private buyers, many of them
owners who only a few years before had been bitterly
condemned as 11 interlopers ’ in the East Indian trade,
stealing a voyage in here and there against the monopoly and
always running the risk of ignoble capture by the Company’s
cruisers.
It was high time that the Company’s monopoly was ended,
but in justice it must be admitted that the Indian trade, and
through it the Indian Empire, would never have existed in its
present form had it not been for the protection thus afforded
by Queen Elizabeth and King James I. In those perilous
days a monopoly was necessary if any distant trade was to
develop on a large scale, particularly in the East where all
the nations were at loggerheads with one another. In order
to indulge in peaceful trading a powerful Navy was necessary
and no business concern would go to that expense were it not
sure of its ground. A monopoly was the only method of giving
this assurance and, safe with this exclusive right, the Company
was not only willing to maintain its Navy but to build ships
such as the Merchant Service had never known before.

To begin with the Company built and ran its own ships
and in the early 17th century launched one giant, the
Trade’s Increase, which would have been regarded as a very
big ship two hundred years later. But the time was not ripe
for such a ship and it took too long to collect her cargo on the
India coast, with the result that the Company soon went in for
tonnage of more reasonable size. They also found it far
cheaper to get private shipowners, known as “ ships’ hus¬
bands, to build ships to their specification in return for a
 OF TOWAGE 9
charter for a definite number of round voyages to the East,
generally six, on terms which made their trouble well worth
while. For years 499 tons burthen was the standard for the
East Indiamen, partly because it was a very handy size to
load and partly because their regulations definitely laid it down
that ships of 500 tons and over had to carry a chaplain and,
as it was put quite frankly, the Court of Directors had quite
enough to do to hear trial sermons from Chaplains being
appointed to their shore stations without having to consider
one for every ship.
In the mid eighteenth century and later, the size of the
East Indiamen began to increase rapidly, principally because
it was a period of constant war. The ships had to bring home
their cargoes somehow, shipping was at a premium as it always
is in war-time, crews were scarce with the Press Gang always
on the lookout for trained men for the Navy, and the East
Indiamen had to be big and strong enough to defend them¬
selves from French privateers and cruisers. So the John
Company’s fleet at the end of its days consisted of fine big ships
running up to 1,300 tons, and when these were sold to private
shipowners to compete with one another they brought into
being business considerations not unlike those of the present
day. That was the chance of the steam tug.
Whatever may have been the value of the East. India
Company’s work in building up a trade to the East, there is
no doubt that latterly it was most unbusinesslike. There was
no question of haste about their voyages; the only fast
passages made were when French frigates were chasing their
ships. It seems extraordinary, when all through the war
years there was a great shortage of tonnage and an enormous
demand in the Company’s trading commodities, that efforts
were not made to push these stately Indiam^en to the limits of
their sailing powers. These, it may he mentioned, were by no
means poor, for although they were not clippers they were
10 HUNDRED YEARS

good powerful ships which would stand up to a tremendous

press of canvas. But the Company’s routine was that they
should be snugged down to top-sails at nightfall, which
robbed them of all chance of making passages and both in
British ports and the Indian coast, where their masters were
Rajahs in a small way, there was any amount of time wasted
quite unnecessarily. Fast “ interlopers ” had been built for
many years to steal what trade they could from the Company’s
monopoly and to be safe from their cruisers, but the Company
itself would not stir from its established fashion.
By the time the last vestige of its monopoly, the business
to the China coast, was taken from it in 1832—the Indian
monopoly had been lost some years previously—the country
was seeing an enormous increase in trade at the end of the
slump which inevitably followed the Revolutionary and
Napoleonic Wars. This trade revival coinciding with the
private shipowners’ chance to compete openly for the Chinese
business, and the opportunity of buying the Company’s ships,
still the finest merchant ships in the world, at very low prices,
naturally led to keen competition, and competition meant
efforts at speed undreamed of even when the “ interlopers ”
had to have the heels of the Company’s cruisers.
Across the Atlantic the first clipper ship, Ann McKim, was
being built on the lines of the old Baltimore smugglers and
rumours of her remarkable sailing powers had come to
England. There was no thought yet of copying her, but
London shipowners fully realised that they would have to
make the utmost of the resources at their disposal and one
very obvious way was to cut down the time spent on the
voyage. They sailed through the night and hung on to canvas
long after it would have been taken in only a few years before,
but when it was realised that a passage was not really from
land to land, but from warehouse to warehouse, efforts nearly
as great were made to find a way to reduce the time wasted
 OF TOWAGE ii

at the ends of the voyage. That was the steam tug’s

opportunity.

Before the days of steam certain river ports were working

under a very distinct handicap as compared with rivals situated
nearer the open water. The navigation of the Thames, for
instance, was not easy in purely sailing ships against a foul
wind and as the size of ships increased, as it was bound to
do with improved shipbuilding methods and free competition,
it became more difficult still. The old East India Company,
having plenty of men and unlimited money, used to help
themselves along Navy fashion by hoisting out all the launches
and other big boats of their ships in port, often quite a big
fleet, and towing the ships by brawn, a process that was far
too expensive for the ordinary under-manned merchantman.

The idea of using steam tugs to help in such circumstances

was not by any means new. In the specifications for all the
weird and wonderful inventions for introducing steam power
patented in the 17th and 18th Centuries the advantage of
“ moving great ships in and out of port regardless of wind and
tide ” is constantly mentioned. Many of the earliest steamers
actually built were designed solely for towing sailing ships or
barges, although in most cases they were handicapped and
finally destroyed by vested interests. But definite progress
was being made, and even in those corrupt days it was im¬
possible to check it. In 1819 steam tugs were introduced on
to the Clyde by the Clyde Shipping Company, which is still one
of the biggest tug-owning concerns in the country. Their
ships were designed purely for craft work, towing lighters
from what was then the end of navigation for big ships up to
industrial Glasgow. The Tyne soon followed suit with its
almost incredible number of sailing colliers and its awkward
exit in Easterly winds, a condition which might hold up the
whole collier fleet for weeks while coal in London went up to
12 HUNDRED YEARS

famine prices and the first ships which slipped through made
a fortune out of their cargoes.
In due course the steam tug came down to the Thames.
The first attempt was apparently in 1832, when the Lady
Dundas was brought down from the Tyne. She was followed
by the Wear a few months later, a little vessel which had
started work at Sunderland in imitation of the Tyne. Her
North Country owners were very pleased to be rid of her, par¬
ticularly to buyers who were so enthusiastic over the towing
business that they did not even put her through a thorough
examination and trial. The result was that when she got
down to the London River it was found that she could not even
stem the tide, far less tow a heavy ship, and for the time being
the towing- business was in eclipse although the pioneer still
got a certain amount of work. Nobody wanted to invest
money in a new type of ship when they had the Wear as an
example of what she could not do.
Fortunately John Rogers Watkins was a man cast in
different mould. He decided that the steam tug was bound
to come on the Thames, and he used his professional eye and
experience to make sure that it was a g’ood one in which he
invested his little all. It was a daring move, for the building
and running of tugs was a very expensive business and he had
to compete with an established prejudice. But he had made
up his mind completely and went North for the first tug of the
Watkins’ fleet, while at practically the same time Mr. Thomas
Petley, who was to be Watkins’ great rival for a long- time
afterwards, started his towing business on the Thames and
within twelve months Mr. Forster, whose fleet was afterwards
known as the Shipowners’ Tug Company, was struck with the
same idea. But the Watkins’ fleet is the only one that
survives.
1833] OF TOWAGE 13

CHAPTER II

EARLY DAYS
John Rogers Watkins started the firm in the summer of
1833, apparently using as an office his home in Shadweli,
which then possessed many better parts than it does now.
He was born in 1790, the son of Captain Giles Watkins, a
coastal master mariner, who had married Judith Rogers, whose
maiden name was given to young John as a second Christian
name and persists in the family to this day. He was a Water¬
man and Freeman of the River, having served his seven years’
apprenticeship with James Croker under articles dated 1803,
and he was then given as living in Southwark although the
family hailed from Clerkenwell. He was registered as a Free
Waterman on the 3rd February, 1810, and between that date
and the start of his great venture as a tug-owner he appears
to have carried out the innumerable jobs which usually fell to
the lot of a London waterman, even more varied in those days
of sail than today, but he seems to have had an excellent
reputation and must have been a man of saving habits, for
even a small tug was a big investment for a waterman in the
early 19th Century.
He was married at Camberwell in 1814, and when he
started tug-owning he took into the business with him his
younger son "W llliam, who was born in 1819, and had just left
school. The lad seems to have been attracted by the business
side from the first, a side that was usually grossly neglected by
tug-owners, both then and later, although he was bound
apprentice to William Palmer in 1833 and was duly admitted
to the freedom of the Watermen’s Company when he attained
his majority. In those days, it must be remembered, the
14 HUNDRED YEARS [i833

Watermen’s apprenticeship was not always taken very

seriously and although the lads were bound for seven years
with innumerable pains and penalties for unseemly behaviour,
frequenting playhouses or many other offences which they
certainly committed, quite a number of them saw very little of
the actual river and were serving in deep sea vessels or in some
vocation ashore while their indentures were running.
John Rogers Watkins had an elder son John who also
served his time with the WTatermen’s Company on the Thames,
and who got in a lot of very miscellaneous experience at sea
and on the river, including the command of several of his
father’s vessels, before he went up to Liverpool and became
one of the early tug-owners on the Mersey, later returning to
the London River and ending his days as ship’s husband of
Watkins’ fleet and their representative at Gravesend. His
connection with the parent firm, however, was not nearly as
close as his brother William’s, who made it his whole life, who
seems to have shown marked ability at a very early age and to
have been given a considerable measure of control by his father
when they were struggling to make a living against odds that
would have discouraged many.
For one thing they could not have had very much capital
and steamboats were, comparatively speaking, very expensive
vessels, not only in their first cost and fuel bills but also in
their maintenance with the unreliable engines of those days.
Ihe price of coal also fluctuated terribly according to the
weather, ior it was all seaborne by very clumsy brigs which
were not conspicuous for their Weatherly qualities; a spell of
foul wind would collect a fleet of some hundreds of them in
Yarmouth Roads or off Cromer, while the price in London was
climbing to levels which made towing a very expensive
business.

Also, competition was beginning to grow. It is a little

difficult to get at the exact order in which the pioneer
THE SECOND GENERATION: WILLIAM WATKINS.
1833] OF TOWAGE 15
tugs arrived on the Thames, nearly all from the Tyne, but if
one put Watkins’ pioneer boat as the sixth or seventh on the
river it would probably be correct. Within a few weeks at the
most, before or after the date that saw Watkins’ venture
launched, Thomas Petley started and for the first quarter of
a century of Watkins’ work he was their great rival, starting
in a bigger way with much more financial backing, hut not
staying the course, and the next few months saw Forster start
his towing business, which became the Shipowners’ Towing
Company with powerful backing in 1836. Before he had been
in existence very long there were quite a number of tugs on
the Thames, mostly poor in quality it is true, but generally
run by small owners who commanded their own boats for
economy and were always ready to cut prices.
Not a single one of Watkins’ rivals during the first thirty
years of their career has survived to this day, even in the most
mutilated form. Watkins started with the single tug Monarch
which, when she came down from the North, was regarded
as one of the finest, if not the finest, tugs on the Thames.
Nowadays she seems a very quaint little vessel, a wooden
paddler 64 feet 10 inches long by 13 feet 11 inches beam with
a draught of 7 feet 5 inches. Her tonnage according to the
register of the day was 26 and some odd ninety-fourths. Her
hull was clench built with cut-away stem and counter stern,
she had a pole foremast and a tall thin funnel jutting straight
up from the fiddley without any rake. Such a refinement as
a bridge was unheard of.
Her single engine was registered at 20 horse power
nominal and was built by H. S. Wait of North Shields, who
had already engined quite a number of tugs on the Tyne.
Steam was supplied by a flue boiler and of course she had a jet
condenser; surface condensers did not come in until long after¬
wards. Her bunkers stowed a maximum of seven tons of coal
and as her boiler and condenser were both terribly extravagant
 HUNDRED YEARS

M't

THE PIONEER “ MONARCH,” THE CRACK OF HER DAY.

1833-5] OF TOWAGE i7

this did not last her very long when there was a big job to he
done, even when Limehouse was generally recognised as being
the limit of London towing in ordinary circumstances. On
one occasion, it is still told, she ran out of coal while towing a
ship to Gravesend and borrowed a few sacks from her tow in
order to reach her destination. But her draught gave her a
gv»od grip of the water and a lot must be allowed her as a
pioneer; in her day she was certainly very highly regarded.
She was built long before the days of double-engined tugs,
when they could turn on their heel by putting one paddle ahead
and one astern, and when rounding the bends of the river with
a heavy ship, or coaxing her out of dock, it is not surprising
that the tow would take charge. In order to get extra power
on one side or the other by immersing one paddle, and to check
the tendency of a heavy ship to heel the tug over until one
wheel was right out of the water, a simple but very ingenious
device known as the chain box was used. It was merely a
square box on wheels wThich was filled with chain cable and
run from one side of the deck to the other as required. Prior
to the invention of double-engined tugs its use with paddlers
was universal, but it is generally understood to have been
first applied to the little Monarch and to have been the inven¬
tion of John Watkins, Senior.
The little Monarch’s early business was with anything
that wanted the service of a tug, but a good deal of it was m
connection with the New York liners, sailing packets which
used the London River and which generally sailed from St.
Katherine’s Docks. As early as 1823 Messrs. Kish, Giinnell
and Company, the famous Swallow-Tail Line, had started a
London service in addition to their better-remembered Liver¬
pool one and were soon in keen competition with John Gns-
wald’s London Line and innumerable smaller concerns, some
of them crack lines which were regarded as being practically
on a par with the best of the East India Company’s successors,
i8 HUNDRED YEARS [i833-5
but many of them single-ship concerns which took hopeful
emigrants across the Atlantic in the most deplorable circum¬
stances. Beginning with very modest tonnage, the big
companies developed the sailing packet to a very high pitch
even before steam forced them into clipper construction, and
in the early ’thirties there were quite a number with a
burthen of over 1,000 tons, which was then considered a very
big ship.
These regular packets made every effort to get away to
very strict schedule time, no easy job from a point so high up
the Thames, and to get out of St. Katherine’s Dock and down
the river necessitated steam assistance. At a later date, when
tugs were further developed, their assistance was of still
greater value to the packets and the Australian passenger
clippers and the notice “ Taking steam to the Downs,” appears
in any number of their press advertisements.
In addition to this packet work the early tugs also found
plenty of employment with the shipyards which were then
plentiful right up the river to Limehouse and Bermondsey and
which were beginning to build steamers of quite considerable
tonnage, too big for the waterman to take charge of with their
pulling boats when they left the ways. So the steam tugs
came to their help and John Watkins had a wonderful stroke
of luck when he arranged for the little Monarch to attend the
P. and 0. steamer Iberia when she was launched at Messrs.
Curling and Young's yard at Limehouse and to tow her down
to the fitting-out berth in the East India Dock.
At the time it was probably regarded merely as a job to
pi ovule the Monarch with a day s work, for she was the first
steamer which the P. and 0. Company—although it was then
not e\en the Peninsular Line—had built for their own purposes
to their own ideas, and nobody could have foreseen the extent
to which it would develop. But the heads of the company,
and both Air. Wilcox and Mr. Anderson were shrewd Scots-
1835-8] OF TOWAGE I9
men who could form a very careful opinion of a man, were very
satisfied with the way the work was done and promised
Watkins all the towing work that they had to offer in the
London Liver. Their very early ships sailed from the Thames
it is true, but they soon transferred their terminal to South¬
ampton and their towing work was confined to launches and
dry docking work of no very great value. But in 1881 they
came hack to London with their whole fleet, by that time con¬
sisting largely of ships of a size which needed tug assistance
for docking, and the promise made in the pioneer days of the
two concerns was duly honoured, as it is to this day, to mutual
satisfaction.
In noting the big firms whose ships are handled by
Watkins’ tugs today, it is particularly interesting to see the
very large proportion in which the connection has existed since
the foundation of the line, or at least for many decades.
In the ’thirties the Navy had very much more interest in
the Thames than it has today; Woolwich and Deptford Dock¬
yards were in full swing and far more of the victualling and
other work was done on the river. They had their own fleet
of tugs—it was for towing that the steam engine was first
introduced into the Navy—but they seem to have been quite
inadequate for the work and the Monarch was constantly being
chartered by the Navy for odd jobs. She wms towing Nelson’s
famous line-of-battleship Teheraire up the river to be broken
up at Eotherhithe when Turner the painter, who was one of a
picnic party on the river bank, saw her and made a sketch
which developed into his famous painting “ The Fighting
Temeraire.” In kindness one must understand that the
famous line-of-battleship wras of far more interest to him than
the tug which was ahead of her and while he took considerable
pains over her technical detail, embellishing it a little it is
true, he could not spare much time on the Monarch, and his
picture must not be taken as an accurate portrait of her.
20 HUNDRED YEARS [1840-5

By the year 1840 father and son had prospered sufficiently

to increase their fleet and a second tug was built for them at
Limehouse. Previously practically all the tugs on the London
River had come down from the Tyne, but the W atkins saw that
conditions in the South differed appreciably from those in the
North and wanted a tug built specially for their work, also
under their supervision so that they could take very good care
that there was nothing wrong with her. Unfortunately no
details of the little Tiddler have survived, except that she was
a wooden paddler and that she had sufficient power to tackle
work that was too big for the little Monarch:.
Four years later John Rogers Watkins tried a sideline,
having the sailing ship Royal Exchange built for him by John
Gray at Newhaven, a builder who had a high reputation for
turning out first-class sailing ships of moderate size. She
was a barque of 234 tons register, with single deck and raised
quarter deck, and although small was apparently a first-class
ship used principally on the Baltic and “ Sou’ Spain ” trades.
She was built at a time when most ships were owned in sixty-
fourth shares, but John Rogers Watkins, who was still des¬
cribed in the register as being of Shadwell, Middlesex, was her
sole owner and John Watkins, who was apparently the elder
son, already mentioned, was in command of her for odd periods
in different years.
As will be seen later, the success of the Royal Exchange
tempted Mr. Watkins to go in for sailing shipowning on quite
a large scale, but he was still primarily a tug owner, and 1845
saw the beginning of a great improvement in his river fleet.
The pioneer Monarch was given a new tubular boiler in place
of her old “ haystack,” which greatly reduced her coal con¬
sumption and permitted her to get under way much more
quickly when she was wanted in a hurry and at the same time
she was otherwise modernised. A third tug, Lord Warden,
was built. In her case again, there is no authentic detail re-
1846-9] OF TOWAGE 21

maining except that she was built to her owner’s ideas, but her
engine at least must have been a very good one for when her
hull was worn out it was taken out and put into another tug
which it drove for many years.
In 1846 the first Punch was built, a little ship that was
afterwards sold to Constantinople, where she was one of the
pioneer tugs, and in 1847 the Paul Pry was built at Millwall.
She was a clench-built wooden paddler, 80 feet long by 15 feet
5 inches beam, which gave her a tonnage of 83 gross and 39
register, so that it is obvious that her hull must have been
very tubby.
In the following year, 1848, Mr. Watkins moved his office
from Shadwell to Savage Gardens, part of the site of the
present Port of London Authority Building. By that time he
was collecting quite a fleet for the Thames towing business
and an office in the heart of the shipping district was obviously
an advantage in fixing up his contracts which his fleet per¬
mitted him to accept without fear of being caught without a
boat to carry them out.
1849 was another year of great development. On the
sailing ship side the firm had the full rigged ship Bank of
England built for them by the Candlish of Sunderland, a very
much more elaborate ship than the pioneer Royal Exchange,
for she had a registered tonnage of 726, changed to 677 when
Moorsom’s modern gross tonnage measurement came into
practice. She was beautifully built and had quarter galleries
and a very fine figurehead. John Rogers Watkins was the
principal shareholder with forty of the sixty-fourth shares,
while his son William had eight and Mr. James John Thomp¬
son of High Street, Wapping, a shipowner and coal merchant,
was admitted into partnership with 16 shares. He had a con¬
siderable interest in other sailing ships owned by Watkins but
although a great friend he does not appear to have had any
interest in the tugs.
22 HUNDRED YEARS [1849-50

On the towing side two important additions were made.

The John Bull and the Uncle Sam, both of them tugs which
were destined to make a great name on the river. Both were
wooden paddlers, carvel built, the John Bull being con¬
structed at Millwall with dimensions 96 feet by 18 feet 2 inches,
giving her a gross tonnage of 114, while the Uncle Sam was
built by C. J. Mare and Company of West Ham, with dimen¬
sions 101 feet 7 inches by 18 feet 3 inches. Both of these tugs
were owned in equal shares by John Rogers Watkins and his
elder son John, who was then living at Honduras Terrace,
Commercial Road. He commanded the John Bull on the
river for some time while curiously enough the Uncle Sam was
commanded by Captain William Watkins, who was no relation
to the family whatever. With these tugs Watkins regained
the distinction of owning the crack tugs on the river.
Another tug was added to the fleet in 1850. The John
Lee was bought from the Southampton Dock Company in
December, when she already had a reputation as a first-class
boat although small. She had been built at South Shields by
Andrew Woodhouse in 1844, a clench-built wooden tug of the
usual type with dimensions 90.2 feet long by 17 feet beam and
nine feet depth of hold, her registered tonnage being 2S. She
was first of all run on the Thames by Mr. Mark Melville of
Shadwell, but he only had a small interest in her and her prin¬
cipal ownership wTas retained m the North Country, apparently
by the builders, who had only received the first instalment of
her cost. She was not a success on the Thames and in April,
1845, she was sold to the Southampton Dock Company for
handling big steamers in the Hampshire port, which even at
that time was visited by some of the biggest ships in the world.
Watkins bought her in December, 1850, did a certain amount
of work on her and after a time rechristened her Saucy Jack,
although she returned to her original, and rather more
dignified, name at a later date.
1852] OF TOWAGE 23

In 1852 the Britannia was built for the firm, the order
going to Money Wigram’s yard at INortham near Southampton.
That firm is, of course, best remembered for the stately Black-
wallers which it built and ran on the Indian and Australian
trades, hut it also had the Northam Yard as a sideline and the
Britannia was an excellent example of what they could do
there. She was a wooden paddler 100.5 feet by 16.7, with
figurehead and bowsprit, and was able to do a lot of hard
towing work not only on the river but also well down the coast.
It may be mentioned that when the Britannia entered the fleet
new a new hand entered the company’s service as her boy,
Edwin Scruton, who was later to become one of TV atkins’ best
known masters. It is true that he only stayed in her for five
days before moving on to the Ioiin Lee, but to the end of his
days as a farmer in Essex he claimed the Britannia as his
first ship with pride.
Shipping was in the depths of depression in that year and
the two Watkins decided that the Royal Exchange, which was
an expensive vessel to run with her full ship rig, was not worth
her keep and therefore disposed of the 48 shares which they
owned, half to James Thompson, who already owned sixteen
and half to John William Turner of West India Dock Road.
Before leaving the old ship, which was an unusually handsome
one, it may be mentioned that the Crimean War boom earned
a fortune for her owners and they were lucky when they sold
her at quite a big price to Australian owners in 1863, although
she did not last very long in their service, for she was
wrecked on that coast in 1868.
The normal limits of towing in the Port of London had
gradually been working down stream. Originally Limehouse
was regarded as the limit, then Blackwal! and then (xiavesend,
while by 1850 quite a number of ships were taking steam to
the Nore and tugs were going down as far as that to pick up
the incoming ships. Beyond that few of them dared go for
24 HUNDRED YEARS [1853

fear that some delay or foul weather would leave them with
insufficient coal to get home. But there was a Gravesend pilot,
Richard D. Ross, who was acting as Managing Owner of
Lloyd’s Steam Tug Company of Blackwall and Leadenliall
Street, which was beginning to collect a fleet on the river, and
he voiced his opinion that tugs could be built to be sufficiently
reliable and economical to work further down Channel and
that there were good sailing ships to be picked up in the
Downs, while outwmrd-bound ships towed there could be
reasonably sure of an offing. Therefore his company planned
to build tugs big enough to do that, but while they were dis¬
cussing it Watkins were acting and the first result of the new
policy was the Victoria, built in 1853.

The Victoria created quite a sensation on the river and

in shipping circles, for nobody had ever dreamed of a tug to
approach her power and general qualities. She was very
strongly built of oak and teak, metal fastened and iron trussed,
and her gross tonnage of 152 made her very much bigger than
most of her rivals, comparable, indeed, with the crack tugs
of several years later. She was a nice looking vessel with a
clipper stem, and in addition to her power was given such im¬
provements in design as a steam windlass, which was not only
a great boon to her men, saving the heartbreaking work of
getting up the anchor with the old up-and-down windlass, but
enabled her to get under way very much more quickly, which
was a big advantage for her work.

Another interesting feature about the Victoria was that

she was one of the early tugs to be given two funnels abreast,
a fashion which was later to become quite general with
paddlers, although only one or two screw boats were so fitted.
Wh en it was planned to semi tugs well down Channel the
matter of bunkers obviously became more and more important
and designers and engineers gave very careful consideration to
methods of conserving coal. Most of the old tugs had one
boiler only, even when they were getting quite sizeable, but
1853-4]
OF TOWAGE 25

about tlie ’fifties the custom started of fitting two boilers,

generally side by side with a funnel to take up the gases of
each, and obvious economy was effected by doing the running
and paddling under one boiler only, with the other banked
ready to raise steam should a sailing ship be sighted. It was
not so much the cost of the coal, although that had to be con¬
sidered in those days, but that the high consumption would
very often prevent a tug finishing the job of work that she had
set out to do.
With the advent of the Victoria two tugs were trans¬
ferred away from the river fleet. The John Btjll, which had
proved herself an exceedingly useful ship during the four
years which she had worked on the river, was transferred to
Mr. John Watkins, Jnr., who was then setting up as a
tug owner on the Mersey with headquarters at Birkenhead.
He was already half owner, and in this year his father trans¬
ferred to him the remaining thirty-two shares, and she was re¬
registered at Liverpool to work on the Mersey and its
approaches until 1859, when she joined the parent fleet again.
The other ship to go wms the little Lord Warden, about
which very little is known. Her hull was sold for breaking-upr
but her engine was apparently still in excellent condition for
in the following year it was installed into the new Punch,
which was launched for the firm by Money Wigram at their
Blackwall Yard, and saw service in her for many years after¬
wards. The Punch was a fine little ship, an iron paddler of
115 tons gross which drew 6 feet 6 inches of water with 30 tons
of coal on board. On her iron bow she had a rather finely
carved wooden figurehead of Punch, which was wrenched off
by a heavy sea when she was pounding down Channel in a gale.
It was recovered, and for many years graced a public house in
Newhaven. In her early days she was employed a good deal
working outside the Thames, but latterly she was confined to
the river for many years and before she was scrapped she was
regarded as a very funny old thing, so greatly had tug design
improved. But when she was new she was very highly
26 HUNDRED YEARS [1853-54
regarded indeed, and lier second-hand engine gave her what
was considered excellent power.
The enterprise of Mr. Watkins and his son in building a
ship that was capable of tackling what were regarded as very
long tows soon brought its reward and Watkins’ boats began
to be sought after for jobs which were far beyond the average
tug. Early in 1855 the Victoria and Britannia were put on
this work, but frankly it would nowadays appear to be very
poorly paid, although the owners seem to have been satisfied.
The first two long’ tows of which there is any trace were from
Deptford to Calais Roads, a bigger job than had ever before
been tackled, and for this the Britannia got £90 for towino-
the 735-ton Columbia and the Victoria got 100 guineas for the
1,070-ton Julia. Considering all things, particularly the coal
•consumed and the fact that Watkins had practically a
monopoly, these fees would seem to be extraordinarily low and
one can imag’ine that the two partners were very doubtful as
to whether they had been wise in laying out so much money on
the new tonnage if they were the best that could be expected
from it.

But good times were then at hand, for after a shipping

depiession, which had lasted for several years and which must
have hit the towing business particularly hard, trouble in the
East betrv een Russia and Turkey first of all led to a number of
British ships being chartered to take out munitions to the
Turks (some to the Russians as well, apparently) and finally,
when Britain and France came into the struggle on the side
of the Porte, there was a war on a scale which demanded an
unprecedented amount of tonnage. Not only were the armies
employed of immense size, and the distance far greater than
usual, but there was no living on the country, as had previously
nearly always been the case in war time, and practically every¬
thing that the troops required had to be taken to them over-
seas. British shipping, also, had to come to the assistance of
the French Transport Department, so that a great boom was
soon m progress and in the hustle to earn the high freights
WATKINS’ TUGS AT THE LAUNCH OF THE “ GREAT EASTERN.’
1854] OF TOWAGE 27

running- the services of tugs were employed as they never had

been before.
Except for the transport of regiments from the outlying
stations, which were conveniently near the coast, the trooping
and supply service for the Crimean War was concentrated
almost entirely on the London river, which was busier than it
had ever been before in the whole period of its existence. Far
more than half the total number of transports which left
Britain for the Near East started from Woolwich or Deptford.
Everybody on the riverside was working to capacity. One
famous Poplar stevedore, who had the reputation of getting
fifteen per cent, more cargo into a store-ship than any of his
rivals, had to face two charges of manslaughter in the process,
and one cannot help thinking that his value to the country had
something to do with his acquittal in each case.
Where possible the Admiralty, which was then in charge
of all transport arrangements, would arrange for its steam
transports to tow the sailing ships round the coast, but they
were far outnumbered and the tugs had a very busy time. Not
only were there ships to be taken up from the Nore to the
Docks, and back again to the Downs when they were ready,
hut there was a lot of shifting in the river, from the docks
where they had been loading clothing or stores from the manu¬
facturing districts to Deptford for their victualling stores and
then to Woolwich for ammunition or guns. Large flat-
bottomed pontoons were constructed for taking troops out to
the ships in the stream and these very often had to be towed.
A large proportion of the stores were carried by barge and
when there were signs of a ship being delayed a tug would be
hurriedly sent out to collect them as they lay becalmed in the
various reaches.
During the Great War, of course, the Government would
have requisitioned all the tugs and done the work itself, leaving
the owners to pay the taxation, but in the Crimean War the
towing business was left to its own devices, and the prices were
fixed according to the law of supply and demand. Perhaps the-
28 HUNDRED YEARS [1854

authorities were sufficiently farsighted to realise the inevitable

value of tugs in the post-war period and wanted to encourage
their construction; perhaps they merely had their hands full
with other things. Anyhow, the owners were left to work out
their own salvation and an enormous number of tugs of all
sorts and sizes, some of them up-to-date and some of them very
old indeed, were sent round from every point 011 the coast to
the Thames in order to share in the war boom. Watkins did
their utmost to keep their position at the head of the fleet with
regard to quality, but it was not easy.
Mr. John Rogers had seen the war boom coming at the very
beginning, before it was generally realised, and had two more
sailing ships built for him by Byers of Monkwearmouth,
Sunderland, before the price began to skyrocket. One was the
Royal Family, which was a very fine full-rigged ship of 915
tons, the other was Her Majesty, a full-rigged ship of rather
less elaboration with a tonnage of 848. Both ships were
owned in sixty-fourths as usual, the distribution in the case of
the Royal Family being John Rogers Watkins, forty shares,
William Watkins eight, James Thompson eight, and John
Watkins, Jnr., of Strand Street, Liverpool, eight. In the
case of Her Majesty John Rogers Watkins had forty, James
Thompson sixteen, and John Davison, a master mariner who
commanded her at sea, had eight. From the register of these
ships it is interesting to note that the firm of Watkins had by
then moved to Lime Street Chambers.

Her Majesty had a very short life, for she was registered
in February, 1854, at the beginning of the boom, and on the
first of March was taken up by the Government for war pur¬
poses, they paying 29s. per month charter, which was then
considered a very good price for a sailing ship without
passenger accommodation. Her first passage was from Wool¬
wich to Constantinople with artillery horses, ammunition,
fodder and four guns, making a reasonably good passage out
under sail. At, Constantinople she got her orders for Varna,
where she discharged her cargo and horses and then worked
1854-5] OF TOWAGE 29

backwards and forwards several times between Varna and

Constantinople, or other points on the Black Sea coast.
During the operations on the Alma she was used as a floating
post office for the Army, lying off the mouth of the river, and
was also close inshore during the action of Balaklava. Then
for no special reason, for she was light at the time, the trans¬
port authorities sent her to the crowded anchorage at Eupatoria
so that she was there during the disastrous hurricane of 14th
November, 1854, when she was driven ashore like so many
transports, light and laden, and became a total wreck.
Although she was quite a new ship and apparently tight as she
lay 011 the beach, she was literally hacked to pieces for firewood
by the soldiers, who had been left to face a Russian winter
without firing through the stupid confusion of the authorities.
Early in 1855, when it was by 110 means easy to find tugs
for sale, Watkins bought the little wooden paddler Don from
William Hughes, Jnr., intending to use her for river work
only. She was a clench built wooden vessel of 45 tons gross on
dimensions 72 feet 2 inches by 14 feet 9 inches, and she was
driven by a single one-cylinder engine. She had been built in
1841 and during her lifetime had not been by any means kindly
treated. It was in view of her condition that she was picked
up cheaply enough for £410, but it was necessary to spend
£1,400 on her before she was regarded as being up to Watkins’
standard.
Although most of the firm’s work was concentrated on the
business connected with the War, there was a certain amount
of long-distance towing- work, and the shoitage of tugs and
prosperity of the shipping industry combined to get rather
better prices. Eor instance, in 1855, the Victoria was paid
£300, in addition to £25 for the use of her hawser, for towing
the 750-ton sailing ship Admiral Tromp, the ship whose wreck
afterwards caused so much trouble by raising a slioal off the
Nore, from Portsmouth to the Texel, not a large price it is
true ’ but better than had been ruling previously. Such ex¬
aggerated ideas are popularly held as to the huge earnings o
3o HUNDRED YEARS [1855-7

these early tug's that it is as well to keep some of these prices

in mind.
Just as they had foreseen the war boom, the partners
foresaw the slump that would inevitably follow it, and very
wisely put the profits that they had made to increasing1 their
fleet on a falling market. They had sold the Britannia in
1855 to owners in Constantinople for a good price after she had
proved herself one of the most profitable tugs in their fleet, and
were on the look-out for a buyer for the sailing ship Royal
Family, when she was destroyed by fire in 1856.
The iron tug Defiance, a paddler with a gross tonnage of
81, was built for them at South Shields, and started work on
the Thames in the Spring of 1856. The Monarch, beginning
to show her age, but still a remarkably stout tug, was sent to
Wigrams’ yard at Blackwall and had £1,000 spent on her.
The engine, boiler, and hull were very thoroughly overhauled
and her towing efficiency greatly improved by the fitting of
patent paddles. The John Lee was also taken off service to be
reboilered and generally improved, emerging as the Saucy
Jack, while the tug Toby, which had been built at Greenwich
in the previous year for other owners, was purchased. She
was a composite paddler, 80.3 feet long1 by 17 feet beam, having'
a gross tonnage of 73 and a nett tonnage of 9. She had been
built during the war, when the great consideration was to get
new ships to work and was not a decorative ship, but she was
a good working vessel for her size, and Watkins found excel¬
lent use for her until she was sold to Jersey in 1862.

The year 1857 saw two more tugs added to the fleet, both
good little ships, and one of them remembered to this day on
the London river. She was the Napoleon, a carvel-built
wooden paddler, with what were then regarded as all the latest
refinements double engines, steam windlass, etc.—and
specially desig'ned to tackle the long' tows in which Watkins
saw there was a reasonable, if not startling, profit. She was
built at Southampton, had two funnels abreast as was by then
the fashion for all but the smallest tugs, and her gross tonnage
1857] OF TOWAGE 3*
of' 157 made her a big ship for the work. Iler trouble was, in
sailor’s parlance, that her heart was too big for her body, and
as she had very fine power and sea-keeping qualities, which
caused her to be hammered into any weather, her wooden hull
soon began to show signs of wear, and was a constant expense
for repairs. But she introduced the double-engined principle
to the Thames, making a huge difference to the towing
business, and although her end was tragic she did an immense
amount of work before it came and was very popular and
successful.

The other tug was not nearly so conspicuous, but was a

very profitable investment. She was the Antagonist, an iron
hulled paddler, 91.6 feet long, built by Lungley of Deptford
with engines by Stewart. She did an immense amount of
work in and around the mouth of the river, while the Napoleon
and her big consorts were looking further afield for their busi¬
ness. This river work was becoming more and more important
with the rapidly growing size of tonnage, for not only did the
big sailing ships find it impossible to get along without the
help of a tug, but the steamers were getting big enough to
demand the same assistance in and out of the docks, and for
moving from berth to berth inside them. In 1857 the little
Punch was chartered to the Victoria Dock Company at £5 per
day for handling ships inside the docks and many other
Watkins’ tugs were taken up in similar fashion at different
times.
1857 also saw the wreck, at Albrough on the 29th June, of
the sailing ship Bank of England, which was the last under
Watkins’ flag, and after that the firm was content to let the
sailing ship business alone. Taking it by and large they had
not done at all badly out of it, but towing was becoming more
and more important, and having fought their way into the very
first flight it was a full-time job to remain there in face of very
keen competition, often hacked by the shipowners or other
interests. Many of their old rivals had disappeared, it is true,
hut the Caledonian Company, of Poplar, and Barker, of
32
HUNDRED YEARS [1858-9

Wapping, with whom the Spicer family of Gravesend were

connected, had taken up the running with very fine material
and in addition to several London concerns there were a
number of syndicates at Gravesend, mostly centred round the
Trinity pilots, who were very keenly in search of any business
that was to be got and had very useful influence in getting it.
It was obviously necessary to keep the ships right up to
date, and the modernisation process continued. In 1858 the
little Punch was lengthened and generally modernised to fit
her for the heavy work that was then coming into the river,
and the Paul Pry, which had been laid up ever since the end
of the Crimean War boom as obsolete, was carefully surveyed
and, her hull being found absolutely sound and only in need of
overhaul, she was given a new boiler, patent paddles and
thorough repairs, which gave her another lease of life. In
1859 the Victoria was given new boilers and patent paddles
and in the following year the Defiance was reboilered and
modernised. The money that had to be spent on the earlier
paddle tugs which went seeking for sailing ships, especially on
their boilers, is significant.
These ships were mostly for the river side, but the long¬
distance work was becoming more and more promising and in
1859 the paddler Victor, a splendid clipper-stemmed ship, was
bought, having been built at Deptford two years previously
for another centre, but scarcely used owing to the post-war
slump. She was to make a great name for herself while she
carried the red-handed funnel.
This introduction of long-distance towing brought with it
the necessity of signing 011 sailing masters and certificated
engineers when the tug went outside coastal limits, that is to
say any part of the coast of Europe further South than Ushant
and further North than the Elbe, for the ordinary masters and
hands had no thought or ambition of taking certificates until
several years later. These sailing masters were paid ten
shillings a day and their food, but they were only shipped for
the sake of their certificates—which as a rule were the “ certi-
THE SECOND GENERATION: JOHN WATKINS.
1859]
OF TOWAGE 33

iicates of servitude,” which were granted by the Board of

Trade to men who had been in command before the examination
regulations came into force—and were thought very little of
in the tugs. Generally speaking they were elderly gentlemen
who were quite content to do nothing all day, and it is surpris¬
ing how many of the uncertificated tug masters proved them¬
selves quite capable of doing all the navigation that was
necessary. Frequently, in fact, they were better at the game
than the man with a ticket.
John Watkins, Jnr., who had set up as a tugowner on the
Mersey with his father’s assistance some time before and had
taken the John Bull with him, gave up that business and
returned to the London river in 1859, the John Bull returning
to the parent fleet at the same time as owned jointly by
William Watkins and John Watkins, Jnr. She was in rather
a bad state when she came round and was immediately given
new engines and boilers and a big hull overhaul, which bi ought
her up to the standard again. Her tonnage of 115 was inter¬
mediate between the two classes in Watkins’ fleet, and while
she was employed principally on river work she was also able
to do a certain number of deep sea jobs when the necessity
arose.
The firm still maintained the connection with the London
shipyards which have been mentioned in the earliest days, and
when those establishments were making shipbuilding history
Watkins’ tugs were well to the fore. In the ’fifties they must
have assisted at more important launches on the Thames than
the tugs of all the other London owners put together. At the
launch of the Great Eastern, for instance, and of the pioneer
ironclad Warrior at a rather later date, it was Watkins who
were entrusted with the job of seeing these giant ships safely
into their fitting-out berths, a ticklish piece of work that was
successfully accomplished.
Another opening which presented itself with the construc¬
tion of bigger tugs having bigger bunkers and capable of
longer effort, was the salvage business and the importance of
34 HUNDRED YEARS [1859-60

this grew steadily as time went on. Tugs had naturally been
used from their earliest days for helping ships which got into
difficulties, hut frankly there were not many jobs that they
could usefully do while their power was so low, and it was not
until they were given more powerful engines, and hulls that
would stand a lot of knocking about to fit them for long dis¬
tance jobs, that the salvage side became really important. One
of the first recorded cases in Watkins’ history is that of the
1,700-ton sailing ship Ailsa which got into trouble in
November, 1859, and which was towed into deep water and
saved by the Victor and Victoria who shared a £600 award
between them.

Having got the material, the firm set about getting the
jobs which other tugowners could not or would not tackle. It
was a period during which the tonnage of ships was growing
rapidly, with the result that many ports all over the world
were engaged in more active dredging operations than they
had ever considered before. British dredgers had a very high
reputation for efficiency, but it was a very awkward job getting
them to the scene of their activities. Underwriters had
suffered some comparatively heavy losses in the early days of
the movement and they were naturally particularly anxious
about the voyage out so took every precaution to protect their
interests by grading the premium charged in accordance with
what they regarded as the risk.
That was where AVatkms reputation told. There were
fine tugs being built, both on the London river and other
centres, but Watkins had been the pioneers of long distance
work and had made such a careful study of it that their record
of safe delivery was very satisfactorily high. They began to
get the benefit of this in 1860, when really valuable dredger
business began to come on the market. The Victor very soon
made herself a great favourite for this work and began in the
summer by towing the small dredger Navigator from
Grravesend to Cadiz for £752 10s. 0d., followed in November
and December the months selected show the faith that all
1860-1] OF TOWAGE 35

interests had in her ability—by the dredger Industrious from

Victoria Docks to Ferrol for £786 5s. Od., extra being allowed
for use of hawser on each occasion. With a tug of what would
be regarded as very small power nowadays the safe delivery of
an awkward tow like a bucket dredger through winter weather
was a very praiseworthy performance indeed.
Another good avenue of profit which opened out to the
enterprising tug-owner was brought about by the introduction
of the ironclad in 1860, which caused any number of the old
“ wooden walls ” to be regarded as obsolete at the same time
as many fighting ships which had been very hastily constructed
at the time of the Crimean War were being discarded as un¬
seaworthy. To a certain extent this work of towing hulks to
the scrapping yards, or to the naval establishments where they
were to be used for subsidiary purposes, was similar m its
difficulties to the dredger business, and Watkins got their full
share for cheerfully accepting the risk. Very often it was at
a very good price, either because other owners were nervous of
risking the work or because the underwriters insisted on a
Watkins’ tug—for instance, the Victor got £311 for towing
the hulk Enterprise from Chatham to Inverness although she
was only 350 tons displacement. Other jobs of the sort were
equally profitable, and the reputation of the firm was bringing
them in more and more commissions to tow sailing ships for
long distances which would, only a few years previously, have
made the greater part of the passage at least under sail. As
one instance out of many, in 1860 the Napoleon was sent down
to Plymouth to tow the 330-ton sailing ship Mantanzas to

Flushing. . ,
This steady access of business which appeared likely to be
permanent justified further expenditure on material In 1861
the Times was bought for £1,050, a wooden clench-bui
paddler of 78 tons gross, which had been launched at bout 1

Shields in 1857 but which was in excellent condition. At the

same time the Monarch was again given new boilers and her
hull considerably repaired. The whole fleet was fitted with
36 HUNDRED YEARS [1861

Clarke’s smoke consuming apparatus after Mr. Watkins and

every other t.ugowner on the river had been repeatedly pro¬
secuted for creating smoke. The fitting of the apparatus
satisfied the authorities, but it must be confessed that there is
not the least evidence that it made the slightest difference to
the amount of smoke created, at the same time it was heartily
disliked by everybody concerned and as soon as it could be
done without attracting undue attention it was quietly dis¬
carded from tug after tug.
Mr. Watkins got into further trouble in 1861, for he was
summoned on account of the Uncle Sam carrying the guests
of the P. & 0. Line ashore after the trial trip of the new
Mooltan without having a passenger license. It was a very
nice legal point, for she was not running on her owners’
ordinary service, but had been chartered by the P. & 0. Co.
to do whatever they wanted, but it was brought by the water-
men, who were very jealous of their monopoly for carrying
passengers on the London river, and it resulted in Mr. Watkins
being fined twenty shillings for a technical offence. It also
resulted in his taking out passenger certificates for certain
tugs, which were fully qualified for the work, and this was to
have a distinct influence on the business of the company later
on doing the watermen’s privilege infinitely more harm.
In 1861 the Victor continued with the dredger work at
which she was beginning to make such a name, taking one
from Victoria Docks to Cadiz and another to Carthagena. The
fees received were £1,034 and £1,817 respectively, but the
firm’s success in this business had attracted the attention of
their rivals, and after these two jobs there was such competi¬
tion that the prices were cut below the level which Watkins
thought worth while, and accordingly they retired from the
business for a spell, until the underwriters, having sustained
heavy losses, began to influence the placing of contracts with
them.
But there was plenty of other work to be had and a
start was made with tackling odd jobs which would at first
1861-2] OF TOWAGE 37

appear to be outside the sphere of a steam tug, but which she

-was quite capable of doing, with her power and seaworthiness.
The Victor, for instance, was chartered for £18 per day from
July 1st to the end of October, 1861, for repairing the tele¬
graph cable between Dieppe and Beachy Head, the charterers
paying for coals in addition to the agreed sum. Continued day
after day it was quite a profitable business, for it avoided the
long intervals which are usually the curse of the tug.
° Beside which it put the Victor nicely on the spot for
salving the 750-ton sailing ship Aithona, which she did m
-company with the Victoria and Uncle Sam at the end of July.
It, was a very meritorious service, and resulted in an award of
£1,250, the largest sum ever awarded for salvage services to
that date. Heedless to say it increased the keenness of owners
and men on the salvage side, and quite a number of minor jo s
were undertaken by the bigger tugs, in addition to a steadily
increasing volume of long-distance towing.
The fleet continued to receive constant attention, although
.one cannot help thinking that with the prices ruling for ton¬
nage at that time it would have been wiser for the owners to
have scrapped quite a number of their ships and bought new,
instead of constantly paying out money on patching. 1 e
Napoleon was given a very thorough engine room overhaul m
1862, while the Saucy Jack was off service for a considerable
portion of the year, receiving a boiler taken out of the
American and repaired, in addition to a general overhaul.
When she returned to service it was under her original name
of John Lee. The Don, which for some time past had given a
o-ood deal of trouble although she was very useful as a training
school for the future captains of the big ships, was laid up for
a very large part of the year, while the Victor was off service
for a considerable time after her telegraph job, being generally
modernised in her engine room and having her hull thoroughly
repaired. It was unfortunate that she broke her paddle shaft
on one of her first jobs after recommissioning.
By this time, as will have been seen, there was a very
38 HUNDRED YEARS [1862

considerable fleet flying the Watkins’ flag, and both in the

river and at sea the tugs were liable to be worked at very high
pressure for long periods. There were none of them economi¬
cal and burned large quantities of coal, so that the bunkering
problem was a very great one and demanded constant care. Not
only did the cost of bunkers count, but there was also the
necessity of being able to get them without an hour’s un¬
necessary delay when they were wanted. After a good deal of
consideration Watkins’ decided to go in for a hulk of their
own, and accordingly bought the iron sailing ship Venezuela
in 1862 to act in that capacity under the name Black Prince—
she was the first of that name—so that the supply of coal would
be economical and uninterrupted. She was given moorings
below Gravesend, and was such a success that the experiment
was followed almost immediately afterwards by rival tug
owners, and soon there was quite a line of hulks in the Reach,
the majority of them owned by tug interests.
Being offered a good price, the firm sold the little Toby to
owners in Jersey in 1862 and she left the river. It may be
mentioned that she was resold to France in 1879 and in 1882
was bought by Mr. James Watkins, 121 Fenchurch Street, the
shipbroker, nephew of Mr. William Watkins, who transferred
her in the following year to towing interests at Hull, where
she ran until she was broken up in 1904.
She was replaced in the fleet by two new ships, one being
the iron paddler Annette, so named in honour of Mrs. William
M atkins. She was built by James Ash of London with re¬
markable strength and was one of the most up-to-date little
tugs of her day. Her engines were by Stewart and were con¬
sidered the very last word in steam machinery with their 29-
inch cylinders. Particularly interesting from the marine
engineering point of view was the fact that her boilers were
fitted with superheaters at that early day, and that surface
condensers were substituted for the old jet type with a very
great improvement both in economy and efficiency. The
Britannia, which had been built on the Tyne in 1855, was also
 OF TOWAGE 39
1863-4]
purchased, her previous owners being J. Broder & Co. She
was a useful little paddler, her gross tonnage of 97 being re¬
garded as something like ideal for river work.
Almost as soon as she joined the fleet the Annette was
fixed up with quite a useful charter to run a ferry in which
Messrs. A. Brett & Co. were interested between Byde m the
Isle of Wight and Stokes Bay. Immediately afterwards the
little Antagonist was chartered by the rival Isle of Wig t
Steam Packet Company to run between Yentnor and Little-
hampton. Watkins’ tugs were also chartered for salvage
services, the firm making a special agreement with the Salvage
Association to lend their ships for so much per tide to attend to
vessels in distress or ashore. This method of doing salvage
business did not, of course, obtain the more sensational awards
which were becoming general, but with an excellent reputation
Watkins did very well out of them. One instance m 1863 was
the steamer Regina ashore at Dungeness, when the Victoria
was chartered at £25 per tide and the Uncle Sam and Britan¬
nia at £20 per tide each, to render all assistance possible and,
having refloated the ship, to tow her to Limehouse to be
repaired.
In 1864 the Victoria was given new boilers once moie,
those installed in 1859 having proved very unsatisfactory, and
in addition had engine and hull repairs, which brought the
total cost of the work up to £2,500. The Antagonist was
lengthened in order to give her a better grip of the water while
handling big ships and also underwent large repairs, while the
Times, which had only been three years in service, had to be
o-iven ’ new tubular boilers, which greatly increased her
■economy and at the same time had a thorough engine overhaul.
In that year also the firm bought the Express, an iron
paddler of 94 tons gross which had been built on the Tyne in
1856 and which was then owned by Edward Gregory, William
Gunn and John Wood, of Gravesend. Her dimensions were
.88.9 feet by 18.6 and she was a very useful little tug for her

:size and type.

40 HUNDRED YEARS [1862-5

Among1 the miscellaneous charters in. 1864 and 1865 the

Don was taken up by the owners of the West India Dock for
handling ships inside the dock and as Watkins had recently
been finding very little use for her it was a welcome charter.
In August and September 1865 the Annette was chartered for
a whaling voyage to Iceland on a bare boat charter at £170
per month, the charterers finding everything that was
necessary.

At this time the firm changed its address from 11G

Eencliurch Street to 20 London Street, but 1864 and 1865 were
rather dull years except for a tremendous quarrel, shared with
all the London tug owners, with Trinity House. The Elder
Brethren had ordered a deduction in the pilotage fees in the
river when sailing ships were in tow, and naturally some of
the pilots were willing to take the added risk of accident and
delay in order to get their full fee. This not only hit the
shipowners but also the towing interests, and in the keen com¬
petition of the day it became a custom for the tug owner to
reimburse the pilot that portion of his fee which he lost by
“ taking steam.” Possibly it was not altogether a moral
practice but commissions were very general in the 60's and
every firm had to fall in with the custom or fall out of business.
Trinity House naturally objected to it and from expressing
their extreme displeasure began in 1864 to threaten and to.
declare that tugowners reimbursing this fee were liable to a
fine of £100. The result was a very pretty quarrel between
the tugowners and the House which lasted for a loim- time
afterwards.
1865 may be said to have ended an era in Watkins’ history..
They had explored various new branches of the towing
business and had done well in them, but they were invariable
immediately copied by their rivals and competition was in¬
credibly keen. This applied to all branches of the business,
but particularly to the seeking of homeward bound sailin<"
ships. Their owners were suffering more and more from the
competition of the steamer, and it was fully realised that their
1865] OF TOWAGE 41
business would not stand tbe delays, which m the past has
often run into weeks, caused at the end of their voyage by
beating up Channel against a foul wind. So the use of steam
extended rapidly and tug assistance was regarded as inevitable
instead of as a luxury. Then the tugowners worked further
and further down Channel in order to be the first to encounter
the homeward bound and in 1865 Watkins determined to get
the cream of this business by building the finest seeking tug
ever conceived, the famous Anglia. But before desciibmg hei
and her work it is perhaps advisable to give a general survey
of the business of “ seeking.”
42 HUNDRED YEARS

CHAPTER III

THE BUSINESS OF SEEKING

Although they were not the first London tugs to tow out¬
going sailing ships, and to seek for incoming ones, well outside
the London River, AVatkins’ fleet were among the pioneers and
once they had established themselves they took such an im¬
portant place in this business that it is of interest to review the
old job of “ seeking ” down Channel, a romantic job which
has now gone for ever with the disappearance of sail.
In the early part of the 19th Century overseas commerce
was a very much more leisurely business than it was later to
become. It is trae that the Blackwallers and other ships took
pains to make very much faster passages than the old East
Indiamen, to whom one round voyage in two years was quite
satisfactory and who snugged down to topsails every night for
comfort, but the passages were still long, and infinite time was
apt to be wasted when the ships had reached soundings and
were actually within sight of the English coast. It was some¬
thing of a concession that tugs were used in the river itself
to save the tedious job of warping the ships up, or lying at
anchor for an indefinite period until they should find a fair
wind, but the progress of steam in overseas voyages, and the
way commerce in general was speeded up by more modern
conditions, made it very necessary to consider time. When
steamers were developed to such an extent that they could
carry cargoes of all sorts, the sailing vessels were obviously
working under a very big handicap if they were content to
waste weeks at the beginning or end of a voyage.
It was a Gravesend pilot tug-owner, Richard D. Ross, who
began to send the tugs, which he managed for a syndicate,
as far down Channel as the Downs, there to await the arrival
 OF TOWAGE 43
of the homeward ships coming up Channel on a Westerly
wind. Formerly they had been content to anchor in the
Downs or off the North Foreland for weeks on end, but steam
tugs were an obvious advantage and his company soon reaped
the benefit. Within a matter of months Watkins’ far better
tugs were alongside his, the Victoria and the Britannia being
built in 1854 for that special purpose.

They started under a lucky star; the Crimean trooping

and Army stores work created a boom and then the Indian
Mutiny broke out and the authorities were just as anxious to
get the store ships away quickly from the depots at Woolwich
and Deptford. So these tugs, being the most powerful on the
river, had an excellent chance of getting a profitable tow down,
and when m the Downs they soon attracted the favour of
Australian clippers, which were still bringing home enormous
values in gold and which were naturally only too anxious to
get into dock. Other companies followed suit, with the result
that the more enterprising tugs gradually worked further
down Channel to meet the sailing ships, and the policy of
seeking became general.

All this time the efficiency of the steamer was steadily

improving, so that the sailing ships were more and more
anxious to take help to maintain their position. Steam tugs,
in fact, became a very important factor indeed in the economy
and running of the sailing ship; without them it would have
been impossible for the old-timers to compete with the
steamers for long. Most of the romance of this period is con¬
cerned with seeking the homeward bound ships, but a good
deal of the business was concerned with the outward bounders,
and it is interesting to note in the newspaper advertisements
of this period that the crack passenger-carrying windjammers
always added “taking steam to the Downs,” or “taking steam
down Channel.” “ Taking steam ” was then the invariable
expression used for employing a tug, the first question of the
skipper when he ranged alongside being “ Are you going to
44 HUNDRED YEARS

take steam, Captain?” although in the last days of sail there

was a tendency to change it to “ Are you going to tow ?”
This seeking business was not, of course, confined to the
London tugs, and although the greater part of Watkins'
business was to the Thames, they picked up a good deal of
work to Hamburg and Antwerp, and the methods employed
with ships bound to the London Kiver will illustrate them all.
When this seeking business rose to its full heights, round
about 1870 to 1875, there were already quite a number of screw
tugs in commission in the Port of London, but for sea work
the paddlers remained the favourites long after the newer
method had been introduced and proved practicable. For one
thing, most of the early screw tugs were designed to be far
too light, many of them with shallow draught, so that they
found the greatest difficulty in “ holding the water ” when
they were towing a heavy ship against the wind; some of them
were even given two-bladed propellers which were quite im¬
practical for their work.
On the other hand the paddler, although at her best she
can never tow as well as a good screw tug, could hold a ship
remarkably well and no matter how hard it was blowing, or
how big a sea was running, she always had at least half her
power in the water whereas a propeller was apt to be lifted
right out and to race. The old-time paddlers were also
wonderful seaboats, so that although the natural conservatism
of the sailor no doubt had something to do with the favour
that they retained for many years, it was also based on really
practical grounds. It may be mentioned that for river work
many experienced pilots preferred the paddle tug for long after
she had been labelled obsolete, for lashed alongside the ship
she had a wonderful power of taking the way off, or of turning
the ship by putting both paddles full astern.
Watkins and the other first class owners built tonnage
specially for seeking work down Channel, tonnage which was
remarkably efficient for its day, but it must not be thought
that all the tugs which went seeking out of the London
 OF TOWAGE 45

River were of this standard, for many of them were very poor
indeed, no more than “ toshers,” and many an unwary sailing
ship master who had engaged one of these tugs without any
knowledge of her power or towing ability had the mortification
of seeing a rival ship which had been well astern romping past
him in tow of a good tug and berthing at least a tide ahead.
Of the tugs in which it was necessary for the fireman to borrow
sea boots in order to go into the stokehold m order to raise
steam for the purpose of pumping out the boat, nothing
be said here, for although many of Watkins tugs lasted to
ripe old age they were always kept in good condition.
The competition was intensely keen. Watkins were by
then the premier London firm, but there were others which
approached them very closely. The Caledonian Company was
one Gibb’s Ben fleet was another. The latter s tugs came
the'green hulls of the Aberdeen clippers, and the shipowners
of the Granite City were financially interested m them which
gave them a big advantage in finding outward business but
then it came to seeking homeward-bounders they had to take
their ehanee with the others. Spicer's tug* wort*.I na -
iunction with and under the management of Barker of wap
pine The Black Ball tugs of Gravesend made a famous fleet
most of the shares being owned by the local pilots, until y
Tate to financial grief over a lawsuit. Dr. Brownfield the
head of the Poplar Hospital, owned Ins first tug as a ho J,
but then made it his business and put some very fine ships on
service These and many other companies, some of them
owning whole fleets and others only single ships, made the
competition very keen and kept both personnel and material
weTl up to scratch. The only pity is that the many authors
who have been writing on sail recently have not seen the
romance of the towing side of the business.
Only here and there is a hint given of the keenness of t e
tugs to find the sailing ships, but it must be remembered that
Jhfre was nearly as much keenness on board the homeward-
bound ship, and once they were within soundings eveiy
46 HUNDRED YEARS

smudge of smoke on the horizon was carefully examined in the

hope that there would be a tug to bring home nearer, although
often enough it was only a passing steamer. Once the tug
was alongside and a long argument started between the two
captains as to the price of the tow, all hands were very im¬
patient and in more than one case in later days crews were
known to make a “ tarpaulin muster ” to bridge the difference
and secure an agreement.

The tug captain was always given a free hand to make

the best bargain that he could, encouraged by a commission on
the gross earnings of his ship; sometimes the captains of sail¬
ing ships were free, at others very strictly tied. Most tug
masters made it a point of honour never to accept money out
of the crew’s pockets, however freely it was offered, although
they did not mind if the captain had to make up the difference
himself. He had so many more chances of reimbursing him¬
self from the owners.
One of the most remarkable facts about the whole business
was that the agreements were always verbal yet there is not a
single case recorded of either master going back on his word.
What the tug could get, and what the sailing ship could get
away with, depended entirely on circumstances. The former’s
great opportunity was at the end of the China clipper’s race
with the new season’s tea, when hours might decide the des¬
tination of the very valuable bonus, but they also looked
forward to the end of a spell of Easterly wind for that would
mean that all the sailing ships would arrive at once and the
price would go up with a run. Westerly winds would mean
them all anchoring to wait in the Downs or off the North
Foreland, for it was no use wasting coal when they knew that
the captain would simply point to his sails drawing well and
remark “ That’s my tug.”
Originally there were eight stages between Beachy Head
and London, and a standard price of £13 per stage was
arranged. I hat agreement did not last very long, for com¬
paratively few tugs were satisfied to wait off Beachy Head,
 OF TOWAGE 47

and although, they survived for some time for outward tows the
homeward ones were a matter of agreement only and generally
worked out considerably less than the stages would have done.
There was no saying what price might he asked or be
accepted. In 1836 the Oriana paid £75 from the North Fore¬
land to the London Docks, including a second boat from
Gravesend, but at that time there were plenty of other sailing
ships in sight and very few tugs. The Australian clipper
Cimba met a tug off the Eddystone who offered to tow lier to
London for £50, but her captain, knowing that he had a lair
wind up Channel, stubbornly refused to give more than £30
He sailed as £ar as the North Foreland, where he found a
number of rivals all clamouring for tugs and eventually had
to pay £60 from there. . n
P During the war, particularly in the submarine area, t
price went up with a run and £200 or more was often paid from
Dunkirk to London, but those were unusual days.
Some of the fees paid to tugs sound inviting enough, hut
it must not he thought that they were all profit for the ownei s.
Expenses were apt to be high, particularly when they had been
Lt for some time without any luck, and often there were many
, _ ___j. nf fee Some of these will oe
rnmmissions to come out ot tne iee. oui
described later, but in the mean time it ^ be mentione
that the pilot drew his regular commission out of the tub s
whether he was on board when the arrangement was made or
whether he boarded her long afterwards, when she already had
her canvas furled and had long been in tow Thisi pilot a
commission was referred to as “ smoke money and althoug
““ efforts were made to abolish it most tug owners were
content to grumble and pay, for on the next occasion the
pilot’s “ disinterested ” advice might well make the difference
between the tug being engaged or turned down as unsuitable.
Some London tugs such as the famous Anglia we
course well known to every shipmaster using the liver but
with others he had to take the advice of the pilot or find out
for himself. The story is told of a very anaemic-looking little
48 HUNDRED YEARS

tug who offered her services to a big German sailing ship

whose captain immediately asked “ Howt many horse power?”
The skipper promptly replied “ five hundred,” but added under
his breath that 490 of them were lame.

It is true that the tug owners could be consulted by tele¬

graph, but their skippers naturally wanted to avoid this as
much as possible and although the Post Office reaped a very
rich harvest out of the tug companies the real responsibility
was on the shoulders of the masters and although a very big
element of luck entered into the matter many of the old hands
showed uncanny skill in finding ships. They very seldom had
any sort of a certificate, but in the latter days they would often
work right down to the S.W. coast of Ireland in competition
with the Liverpool and Glasgow tugs, although formerly the
Scillies were generally the limit of their beat, quite far enough
for a little vessel whose boilers fairly ate her small store of
coal.

As competition became keener the owners had agents at

strategic points all round the coast—Deal, Eastbourne, the Isle
of Wight, Dungeness, etc.—to supply them with news of in¬
ward bound sailing ships. Some of these agents did nothing
else but many were publicans and the like, and the information
that they exchanged and telegraphed round the coast was very
valuable. They drew a commission on all business resulting
from their activities, but several often had to share this com¬
mission, one for getting the first news, another for amplifying
it and a third for attracting the attention of the tug and pass¬
ing it on. Deal and other boatmen were also paid a commission
on any news that proved valuable.

T\ hen the agent wanted to communicate he would run up

the house flag- of the owner at a conspicuous point of the front,
and the tug would immediately send in a boat or signal if it
were too rough or time was particularly precious. Naturally
all tugs kept a very keen eye on their rivals’ signals so that
each firm had a secret code and sometimes this was made still
 OF TOWAGE 49

more involved by arranging differences with different boats

of the same firm.
The agents were not only useful in reporting inward-
bound ships but served in a number of other ways. Some
skippers took money to sea with them, but others refused to do
this in case of accident and the agent would advance them
anything that was required for victualling or other purposes.
Details were telegraphed up to the owners and they paid five
per cent interest on these advances, even if they were repaid
next day, and shouldered this interest without passing it on to
the crew. The tugs victualled themselves and if he had infor¬
mation which he knew would send her racing down Channel
the agent would generally buy a stock of everything that he
considered necessary and take it down to the beach against the
arrival of the boat.
Apart from the agents the skippers had to depend very
largely on their own knowledge and in some cases instinct.
The Shipping Gazette was kept in every waterside tavern, or
indeed in every place where sailormen congregated, and the
tug skippers consulted it carefully at every opportunity. All
inward bound sailing ships were looked up and their times
carefully calculated on weather conditions and past peiform-
ances, while every steamer encountered coming up Channel
was spoken in the hope that she wmuld be able to give some
information about a sailing ship that she had passed.
Occasionally the skippers examining the Shipping Gazette
in company divided the prospective work amicably, but far
more frequently each man acted for himself and his owner.
Naturally enough they got to know the regular ships in¬
timately and they could identify them at extraordinary dis¬
tances, sometimes as soon as their royals were lifted above the
horizon. Even when work was scarce there were some ships
with reputations which caused skippers to avoid them like the
plague and go on in search of other prey.
When tugs were sheltering under the Isle of Wight, as
thev very often did when coal had to be eked out, it was the
50 HUNDRED YEARS

mate’s job to go ashore every day at daybreak and climb the

high land above Yentnor with glasses to see if there was any
sign of sailing ships coming np Channel.
In spite of the keenness of the competition the rules of the
game were always very carefully observed, and the young
skipper or mate who broke them in attempting to show how
smart he could be, very soon found that his life was an unhappy
one. Every trick was lawful between rival tugs until one had
actually made contact with a sailing ship ; then she was always
left in undisputed possession unless negotiations were defin¬
itely broken oil. But the great thing was to get lower down
Channel than any rival, and at the same time not waste coal
unnecessarily by going too far. In order to keep their move¬
ments secret skippers resorted to tricks which would certainly
have got them into very serious trouble had an accident
occurred, but they were such magnificent seamen that it very
seldom did. They would go down Channel without showing
any lights, or even on occasion with their lights reversed to
give the impression that they were on a small steamer coming
up, and a hundred other devices. When tugs were collected
in one of the regular gathering places—in the Downs, by
Beacliy Head, or off Yentnor—the great thing was to sneak
away from the fleet before dawn without being detected and for
that a really silent windlass was the greatest asset.
When the fleet of waiting tugs was lying outside the Isle
of Wight, each relying on her speed “ running ” to get her the
job when a sail appeared, a smart skipper would often take his
boat inside the island and steal a march on them all.
In such circumstances the living of a seeking tug was
bound to be uncertain. Some of them would be out for a
month on end and then not get a job, although it must be
admitted that their skippers were very seldom beaten entirely.
Some found the Erench fishermen, particularly the mackerel
men, a very useful sideline for one of their big boats full of fish
would be willing to pay quite a good price from the Chops of
the Channel to one of the Erench ports in order to save his
 OF
TOWAGE
5i

CAMBRIA: ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL “SEEKING” PADDLERS.

52 HUNDRED YEARS

market, but British fishermen could never be relied upon for

that.
It must be remembered that the machinery of these tugs,
particularly the old paddlers, were terribly extravagant and
quite apart from the skill and instinct of the skipper a lot of
her success would depend on the engineer and his ability to eke
out coal. They would only run at full speed if they had
definite information or if there was a danger of another tug
getting below them, otherwise they would paddle along as
economically as possible or frequently drive under sail with
their engines stopped. Usually a big mizzen was set abaft
the funnel, sometimes with a gaff and sometimes with a Ber¬
mudian cut, as well as a fore staysail. Occasionlly a trysail
was set abaft the foremast, and some of the paddlers had a

square foresail on a yard.

Every chief engineer would try to get his bunkers as full
as possible on leaving port, and topped them up anywhere that
was convenient. If there was the least suggestion that the
cruise would be a long one the tugs would leave the Thames
not only with their bunkers full but further coal in ‘ pounds
on deck. Sometimes the paddlers were thus so loaded down
that their sponson beams were level with the water, which
naturally reduced the efficiency of their paddles. Some of the
screw boats did not really possess the stability to carry coal
on deck, but in spite of that they had to sail with it, for all the
owners bad good coal contracts in the London River, and only
the better class had arrangements in outside ports. But the
first seas they met would generally carry the excess overboard,
or a good strong kick with a seaboot would do all the weather
damage necessary to a wooden bulwark, and the coal would go
through.
Having found their ship, and having enough coal to get
her safely in, the next thing was to drive the bargain. If it
were smooth the skipper would very often put out a boat and
pull across to the sailing ship, otherwise the bargain was con¬
cluded with the full strength of leathern lungs. Naturally
 OF TOWAGE ST
enough the tug'gees were remarkably shrewd at driving a
bargain and they also had a very good knowledge of how to-
prepare the way for one. The careful captain took good care
to take out with him as many newspapers as he could lay his
hands on, fresh potatoes, fresh bread and meat if they could be
obtained or spared. Newspapers were the great thing and the
first demand when a tug met a sailing ship was always for news
of the Derby and Boat Race. Ability to give this smoothed
the way for an agreement.
The skipper began by demanding a big figure, more than
he ever expected to get, and the shipmaster pursued just the-
same policy on the other side. Harrowing stories about bad
luck week after week and the appalling price of hunker coal
on the one side were met by the deplorable rate of freig'ht and
the hard-heartedness of owners in the matter of towing ex¬
penses. Gradually the two prices came together until finally
agreement was reached and the skipper returned to his boat,,
take up the tow and generally contrived to take with him some-
liquor, tobacco and “ salt horse,” of which last-named the tug
hands were not nearly so tired as the sailing ship men.
Having driven the bargain the next thing to do was to get
the rope across and start the work of towing. In calm weather
it was easy enough hut the weather was not always calm and
when it was blowing a gale on a dark night it wanted both skill
and courage. In normal circumstances connection was never
made by means of a boat, always with a heaving line which was-
o-enerally a light line with a sandbag on the end of it, but
occasionally the flag halyards were used. Throwing this line-
wanted a lot of practice; the man held a coil in each hand ant!
released them practically simultaneously.
The line was usually thrown from the bridge of the tug
to the bow of her tow, but this was not always possible. If
the ship were still travelling fast in bad weather the tug would
pass the line from her own bow to the quarter of the sailing
ship and then carry it along the side in order to keep well clear
of the yards and bowsprit. In very heavy weather the heaving:
54 HUNDRED YEARS

line was thrown under the quarter of the sailing ship and taken
forward, while the tug lay abaft her forecastle. Connection
having been made a messenger of two or two-and-a-half inch
rope was laid through a snatch block on the tug s mizzen and
made fast to the ship’s rope, being then led forward to the
tug’s steam winch. That was the only way to get the power
necessary to handle the heavy rope, for it must be remembered
that the tugs were not overmanned and such a rope wanted a
lot of handling in bad weather.

During these passing operations both tugs and tow had to

be handled with the very greatest care and precision, and if it
were blowing hard with a Channel sea that was not always
easy. The greatest danger that the tug man had to fear was
that the ship would alter course slightly in the dark without
being noticed, which generally meant that she would come on
top of the tug. That was what happened when the Oceana was
picking up the barque Wave Queen ; the ship took a sheer and
drove her dolphin striker right through the deck and counter
of the Oceana. Tugs’ funnels were constantly being dented
by the bowsprits of sailing ships and quite a number were
rolled over and capsized by the action of their tows. On the
other hand they had to be equally careful not to cause damage,
but their men were so used to the job that there was very little
chance of their going off the course in any way. The tug-
man’s greatest care was to prevent the passing line or tow
rope getting foul of his propeller or paddle.

Having got the rope across the tug had to be very careful
to take the strain very slowly or a broken tow rope would in¬
evitably result. The principle rvas to put the engines slow
ahead before giving them full power, but it was not always
easy to do this in a crowded anchorage like the Downs with the
chance of serious collision if the tow made any stern way before
the full power was felt. When bad weather made it impossible
to tow the ship ahead the tug with her engines going slow
would often make a sea anchor for her and wait for better
 OF TOWAGE 55

times, or occasionally slie would anchor and the tug1 would

relieve the great strain on her cables.

It may be asked what manner of men were these tuggees*

in the old sailing days. As a matter of fact the period covered
a great change from the very rough and practically illiterate-
old-timer, quite unable to pass any sort of an examination,,
foul-mouthed and very liable to drunken orgies but a magnifi¬
cent man at his job to the present generation who are just as
skilful but who take their pleasures very differently. In
describing the old-timers in that way it must not be thought
that it applies to all of them by any means, for the old tug
masters of the Thames included a number of serious-minded
men who rose to considerable position, but there is no doubt
that the general standard was far rougher than it became in
later days. Only the skill remains unchanged, and the job
of towing- ships will always demand that m full measure.

On the surface it appears that there was far more need for
high skill in the old sailing ship days than there is now, but
that is a very moot point. It was a different job then, and
called for more endurance, but towing will never be anj em¬
ployment for the weakling or the fool. It must be remembered
that none of the old tugs carried very large crews. It was-
impossible for them to do so, but only a few of the poorer type-
of owner made the mistake of cutting down the crews too fai,
for shorthandedness was very poor economy especially when
it came to handling the tow rope.
Some of the big paddle tugs carried a crew of nine-
master, mate, second mate, deck hand, boy, engineer, leading
hand (engine room) and two firemen. Some of them had
ei<>'ht only and the smaller paddlers seven, there being only
one hand under the mate and one fireman. On exceptionally
long passages some of the big tugs would ship two extra hands,
one below and one on deck, which made eleven in all, and
when a tug had particularly awkward bunkers—as was the
case with some of them, in spite of the obvious necessity of
56 HUNDRED YEARS

an even flow of coal— she often shipped an extra boy in the

engine room as a trimmer.
The routine in the nine-hand tugs was to work three hours
on and six hours off, the mate taking his turn at the wheel,
while a deckhand took it while the master was on watch.
When the mate had to steer the ship he had a three-hour spell
of it, plus an hour and a half on watch which equalled four
and a half hours. In the newer nine-handed boats it became the
routine for the mate on deck and the leading hand below
always to take the afternoon watch, which gave the fireman a

chance to get eight hours off' and a proper sleep.

If this routine was all that could be managed by the
biggest tugs, it may well be imagined that conditions were
not comfortable in the little ones. Officially the routine in
seven-hand tugs was four hours on and four hours off, but in
the traditional tuggees’s phrase it was usually “ four hours on
and stop on.”
But no routine could show the hours which the skippers
put in when seeking. Success in that business depended
entirely on the master and until the tow rope had been passed
across he was on watch practically all the time, snatching what
sleep he could at odd moments on a locker, ready to be called
as soon as the lookout spied a ship’s royals lifting themselves
over the horizon.
In addition to his weekly wage the skipper drew two and
a half per cent commission on the gross earnings of the boat,
so that he was naturally anxious to do the best he could and
sleep was a secondary consideration. He was the only one
•on board who drew commission but the crew could often pick
up a number of tips for landing pilots and the like which all
went to the mess instead of to the individual. The owners
were very much against the crew getting tips of that sort,
partly because they feared that it would antagonise the long¬
shoremen who so often gave valuable information, and partly
Because there was the usual fear that the men would neglect
their Avork in order to earn them.
 OF TOWAGE 57'
On the other hand the standard rates of pay in those days-
were such that it was impossible altogether to blame the men
for augmenting it when they could, although it must be re¬
membered that the rates laid down were only the weekly
wages, and with a good tug under a good skipper they could
be multiplied many times by means of salvage. But in the-
’seventies the standard London pay was 35 shillings a week
for the master of sea-going tugs and 30 shillings a week on the-
river. Twenty years later it had increased to two guineas in
addition to a pound a month “ spending money.” In the old
days the mates got thirty shillings a week, increased to 35
in the next decade, while the second mates got 24 shillings, the-
deck hands 20 shillings and the boy 12s. 6d., the last named
never being charged more than 5s. a week for his food by his-
mess mates although he was generally possessed of an excellent
appetite.
It was rather necessary to have a good appetite in the old
tugs, for the boy’s first job when he went to sea was the
cooking and as he had no previous training the results were
apt to be strange. He also had to wash up the mess traps,
keep the brasswork and cabins clean and scrub the latter out
every other day, and also carry coals for the cabin fires. It
was only in some of the big eleven-hand tugs that an adult
cook was carried, when the boy was signed on to help on deck
as required. This he was always anxious to do for the sake of
training, for every boy who went to sea in a tug was a potential
master and had generally seen many of his own relatives—
tugging runs in families—get their command at a very early
age. As a general rule his only chance of learning was in the
afternoon watch with the mate, but some captains always made
a point of giving a boy the wheel while the tug was running
free in the daytime. When a seeking tug was lying at anchor
the boy took the lookout from five o’clock in the afternoon
to nine or ten, then had very special orders to turn in with no-
lying awake to listen to the conversation of his elders, which
was always concerned with tugs and towing.
 HUNDRED YEARS
58
The owners only supplied victuals when the tugs were
going outside home waters, otherwise the men contracted to
feed themselves. As a rule, the crew formed a little reserve
of emergency rations out of the biscuits, salt beef, etc., whic
was generally passed across by the sailing ships that they had
towed. For their ordinary living they made a pool, generally
a shilling per head per day, and this money was laid out by
the member of the crew whose turn it was to take a monthly
spell of catering. Latterly the custom arose that the leading
hand in the engine room should always do the catering hut
occasionally a volunteer would take on the job. There is the
well known story of the volunteer fireman of a London tug at
Port Talbot who took ashore the weekly contributions of the
whole crew and returned to the ship very apologetically with
the whole sum laid out in beer—inside him—and a 281b. barrel
of salt.
Altogether, by very careful catering, the crews of the tugs
whose boys were not too inexperienced contrived to live very
well indeed and when they encountered fishing smacks at sea
the diet could always be varied by the innocent question,
“ Can you dress a hat?” This meant, Can you exchange
fish which belongs to your owner for coal which belongs to
ours?” and there was seldom any difficulty in arranging it.
On the other hand some well known skippers always made a
point of taking a small trawl to sea with them and* tugmen
were expert fishermen whenever the boat was lying at anchor.
When a tug went outside home waters, which included the
Continent from the Elbe to Brest, she had to sign on a certi¬
ficated master, known as a sailing master. In many cases his
certificate was only a “ Certificate of Servitude ” granted by
the Board of Trade to men who had commanded ships before
the examination regulations came into force, and for this
service they were paid ten shillings a day and keep. Frankly
the tug skipper did not think very much of him and was
generally quite competent to do the work himself, although the
regulations had to be obeyed under penalty of a heavy fine.
 OF TOWAGE 59
On a good many occasions the skippers took the risk and one
cannot help thinking that the infrequency of their detection
was due to a very kindly attitude on the part of the Board of
Trade authorities who knew perfectly well that the ships were
safe in their hands.
The navigation of many of the sailing masters was more
than a little rusty and the story is told of a sailing ship being
towed from the Azores, with whose captain the sailing master
agreed to compare positions every morning. The sailing ship
would chalk the position on a blackboard that they had on
board, while the tug used a bunker hatch for the same purpose.
Every day the sailing ship’s navigator was gratified to see the
word “ same ” appear over the tug’s taffrail; it was not until
later that he discovered that it was painted permanently in
white paint and that the tug had been quite content to trust
to his skill.
Given sufficient sea room the tug would always allow as
long a scope of tow-rope as possible, for it gave an easier tow
in a swell, particularly when running before the sea, and did
not break so easily. For ocean towing the sailing ship would
often shackle one of her anchor cables to the tug’s wire, about
15 to 30 fathoms of cable to 100 fathoms of wire. The weight
of the cable gave an excellent spring and eased the shock.
When the cable was run out of one hawse pipe and into the
other it was called “ Liverpool fashion ” but it was also
extensively practised by London tugs.
Tow ropes were naturally one of the most important parts
of the old tug’s equipment, although the rule was for the
sailing ship to supply her own rope when suitable. As a rule
the tug’s rope was 90 fathoms of water-laid manila, from 12 to
16 inches in circumference, which was shackled to about 30
fathoms of three to three-and-a-half inch wire. The exact
measurements varied greatly with the personal opinions and
experiences of the tug skippers. In London tugs it was the
custom for the ropes to have an eye at each end and they were
changed end for end every time the tug put to sea. The
 HUNDRED YEARS

Liverpool tugs, in contrast, had permanent parcelling of

leather in order to take the chafe. Wire first came into use m
the late ’seventies and to begin with it was very cordially
fiated Watkins specially advertised “ no wire used. In
those days, of course, Bullivants and other firms had not per¬
fected the making of steel wire as they have today, and it was
not nearly so flexible, was constantly unravelling itself, and
the ends of the strands were constantly cutting the men s
hands and developing very nasty sores m salt water. The
development of wire rope was slow and steady, hut to the end
hemp was always used at sea to give spring and avoid tearing
out the towing hooks.
Although the tugs were always well equipped with tow
ropes—that was one item on which the wise owner never
economised but incidentally it was the one item which could
never he insured—it was usually the ship’s rope that was used.
If that broke there was always an argument, the maintaining
that it was of poor quality or worn out to begin with, while the
sailing ship stoutly maintained that it would have stood the
strain easily enough had the tug increased the power
sufficiently gradually. When the ship’s own rope was used
her people usually passed across a piece of old sail canvas for
parcelling it against chafe and this canvas was supposed to be
the perquisite of the tug’s people. Lnfortunately it was
generally worn right through before the job was over and it
was only fit to be sold by weight as junk. When the tug’s
rope was used the usual charge to the ship was £5 and there
were numerous arguments as to which rope should he employed
which was generally merely a handle for bargaining as to the
price of the tow. The charge for the tug’s rope would be
waived if the skipper did not trust the rope that was offered
him by the ship.
For convenience in passing over the bitts and avoiding
chafe to the head gear, the wire was usually put next to the
tow and not next to the tug, hut when they got into confined
waters the manila was taken in and the end of the wire placed
 OF TOWAGE 61

on the hook. Indian bass or coir rope was used as an alter¬

native to manila but it was very prickly to handle and coarse
coir was apt to stretch, the parcelling shifting as the rope got
thinner.
The tug’s own ropes were constantly examined and were
condemned at the least sign of weakness. Curiously enough
the ropes very seldom broke in a head sea, while even the best
were liable to part if a heavy sea were following the ship. If
the condemned rope was not too bad it would be unlaid for
making mooring ropes and fenders, or for parcelling, but a
good deal of it mysteriously disappeared. When a broken
tow rope was good enough to be repaired it was always joined
with two eye splices, never with a long or short splice, and in
the halcyon days of towing the companies maintained works
ashore or hulks in the river in which most of the rope work
was done.
Some sailing ships had a very bad reputation for breaking
tow ropes, and it was very interesting to note the difference
in their towing qualities. In the parlance of the old-timers
a ship would either “ tow like a boat ” or“ tow like a town,”
long ships being normally very much easier to tow than short.
A good deal of difference was also made by the way the crew
of the sailing ship treated the rope, German sailors having a
very high reputation for always helping the tug as far as they
could, putting grease in the hawsepipe, etc., and they were
closely followed by the Norwegians and the French. British
sailing ships were generally bitterly criticised by the tug men
for refusing to parcel the rope.
Some of these foreign ships, however, needed all the atten¬
tion that they could get both from their own people and the
crew of the tug. The traditional sad plaint of the Scandinavian
skipper who had been towed to London by a powerful tug was
“ Before you did come we did leak a little, now we leak a lot
all over.” But it must be remembered that some of the sailing
ships were kept on service until they were literally falling to
pieces, even necessitating their being frapped round and round
62 HUNDRED YEARS

with chains or wire. Matters were often made more difficult

for the tug by the sailing ship, particularly in the case of the
old ones where every possible economy was practiced, being
allowed to get very foul before they were dry-docked.
A big ship with a head wind coming up Channel would
occasionally arrange for a second tug from the North Foreland,
but where possible the master of the first tug would take care
to be given the arranging of this, very often by signal through
an agent as they passed his post, in order to keep the ship in
his own firm. Two tugs on a sailing ship at sea always used
two separate ropes, one longer than the other.
When the homeward bounder arrived at Gravesend it was
another job to tow her from there to the docks and the tugs
which did the river work were seldom those which went
seeking. On the other hand the agreement made between the
two captains down Channel very often included the engaging
of a second boat at Gravesend to tow alongside.
When more and more sailing ships were taken off the
regular routes and put on to tramping a call at Queenstown or
Falmouth for orders became the regular routine, for their cargo
might easily have changed hands twenty or thirty times on
the passage home. When this was done arrangements could
be made between the agents in London and the tug owners,
which saved a lot of coal and time by cutting out the seeking
business and sending the tug down to a pre-arranged rendez¬
vous when she was wanted and not before. Nowadays, when
the homeward hound sailing ships are practically confined to
the grain carriers from Australia, this call for orders is almost
universal and times are arranged accordingly. Similarly the
“ onkers,” the smaller sailing ships bringing short lengths
of firewood from the Baltic, can be reckoned upon within a
reasonable time as they are bound to be encountered by some
steamer or other which will report them by wireless or verbally
and tugs go out to meet them at the Sunk.
So seeking for sailing ships has disappeared altogether,
and as far as the romance of the tug man’s life is concerned its
 OF TOWAGE 63
disappearance means a very heavy loss. But there are com¬
pensations, particularly from the business point of view, and
although the days of seeking were the most romantic in the
whole history of towing, there still remains plenty of interest
in the tug’s everyday employment.
 HUNDRED YEARS [1866
64

CHAPTER IV.

THE BIG PADDLERS.

The advent of the famous Anglia in 1866, beginning the
era of the really first class paddle tug, gave to the towing
interests material which permitted them to do really big work
such as the “ seeking ” described in the previous chapter,, and
also long tows of what were then considered to be big liners
which had been far beyond the power of the older boats.
The Anglia herself was a particularly noteworthy vessel
and from the fact that she had two funnels abreast abaft the
paddles and a single one forward of them she was always known
as “ Three Fingered Jack ” on the River and was quite easily
distinguished at sea. Each funnel was over a boiler, the
original intention having been to fit her with four boilers, two
before and two abaft the engines, and four funnels m pairs.
With this arrangement she would undoubtedly have had great
towing power and a most impressive appearance, but liei
owners were practical men above all things and they soon saw
that, although the extra boiler power would permit her to do a
certain amount more work, and to hang on to her tow in the
worst of weather, the coal consumption would be so colossal
that she would always be tied by the heels for bunkers. So
they decided on the peculiar three-boilered arrangement,
putting extra big bunkers round the forward stokehold, and
there is no doubt that their decision was the right one.
What the Anglia would have burned had she been built in
the form originally proposed is difficult to say, for she was
always a coal eater as it was and on one occasion, when she was
tested, she burned 30 tons of coal between Gravesend and
Beachy Head. She had the biggest bunkers ever put afloat in
a tug, but with this consumption she needed them. Her
1866] OF TOWAGE 65

boilers were of the tubular type and her side lever engines
developed 700 indicated horse power, making her far and away
the most powerful tug on the Thames and for some time the
most powerful in the world.
She was a fine sea boat, and needed that quality with the
long distance work that she tackled, but she was given very
full” lines aft which made her exceedingly difficult to steer
and her success depended to a very large extent on the men who
had command of her. Happily the Anglia had a very fine
succession of masters, beginning with William Newman when
she was new. He had been in Watkins’ service since 1848,
when he shipped in the old Lord Warden as boy, and it was
only seven years later that he was given his first command,
which tells its own story of his efficiency- This command was
only the little Don, it is true, but he was soon moved to better
tugs and before the Anglia he captained the Napoleon and
Victoria with conspicuous success. He soon got to know his
new command and how to get the very most out of her; he was
a skipper who was willing to tackle any job that came along
and with the Anglia’s qualities he was able to carry out mosi
of them.
Her engineer, Eli Rothwell, who for some unknown reason
was always called “ Archie,” was also a great character and
remained in charge of the Anglia’s machinery for her whole
life as a tug. He came from the North fully qualified—he was
one of the few tug engineers of his day to hold a Board of Trade
certificate—and entered Watkins’ employ in 1856 as engineer
instead of working his way up from the bottom as most of them
did. After “ driving ” the John Lee for a few months he
had been transferred to the Victoria, where he remained until
the Anglia came out.
She was exceptionally strongly built of the finest material
and it is interesting to note that when she was over ten years
old, and might be expected to have been surpassed by newer
ships, her design was given the first prize for tugs at the
Naval Architects’ Exhibition at the Fishmongers’ Hall.
66 HUNDRED YEARS [1866

The advent of the Anglia gave the firm further oppor¬

tunity of examining the fleet, overhauling and discarding.
The Victor was given new boilers, her engines thoroughly
overhauled and modernised, and a surface condenser fitted
instead of the old jet one, which greatly improved her economy
and nearly doubled her utility for seeking and long distance
work although it was far from the standard of perfection later
attained. The Victoria also had to be taken off service for a
spell when she broke her shaft in December, but she was soon
back, and one cannot help thinking that AVatkins must have
had a very good arrangement wfith the repair works on the
River to have contrived the repair of such an accident so
quickly.
The John Bull was taken in hand and given new side
lever engines, at the same time being thoroughly overhauled
and modernised until a bill of no less than £2,500 had been
run up. Once again the question arises as to whether a new
tug would not have been a better investment than so many of
these repair jobs, but it must be remembered that the firm was
very busy up and down the river and that one or two powerful
new tugs could not have been in half a dozen places at once
like six old ones, sufficiently modernised to be able to give
service which was at least as good as that of their rivals.
At the other end of the fleet it was decided that three ships
were no longer worth their keep. The Paul Pry, on which
£408 had been spent on very necessary repairs in 1865, was
sold to Hockley, Gill and Company (the Commercial Towing
Company) for £500, to do a little more work on the river
although she did not last very long. The little Don, on the
other hand, only fetched £55 from the scrappers and the John
Lee, in spite of the money that had been spent on her, was
only worth £175 to Messrs. Beech and Castle. These two
ships were immediately broken up.
Watkins’ continued to accept odd charters for various
jobs which were normally outside a tug’s province and they
continued to do very well out of them. When she was brand
OF TOWAGE
68 HUNDRED YEARS [1866

new the Anglia was chartered to Reuters’, the news agency,

for £20 a day to repair their private cable across the North
Sea and the little Annette was taken up to help in laying
the Belfast cable. On her way up to Belfast she picked up
nearly £300 for towing the paddle steamer Monarch from the
Thames to Belfast, a side job which made the cable charter
very much better worth while.
The stranding of the 688-ton ship Golconda gave the little
Express a job for nearly three weeks at £10 per day, attending
on her in various ways, carrying gear and salvage officials,
and pulling when opportunity offered. There was a good deal
of discussion among London tugowners at that time as to
whether Watkins’ were wise in accepting this sort of work
from the Salvage Association at a set figure per tide, missing
their chance of a really large award every now and again, but
they were called in so often and it kept so many tugs busy
that there is little doubt as to their wisdom-
In this year, 1866, Mr. Rose Winans, an eccentric
American millionaire, was experimenting with a freak boat
built in the shape of a cigar which was to cross the Atlantic at
marvellous speed although one Captain Beadon claimed that
it only copied his idea patented in 1852. Mr. Winans, how¬
ever, had certainly embodied a number of very original ideas,
including the use of steel many years before it was seriously
considered for shipbuilding. He built two, the Walter S.
Winans and the Ross Winans. In appearance they were not
unlike the early submarines with long tapering ends and two
tall funnels added on a small promenade deck, having a screw
at either end. As for the accommodation, even the imagina¬
tive newspaper reporter of the day who was praising their
novel design could only say “. . . the saloon, which somewhat
resembles a railway tunnel . . . .” Wffien they were ready
to leave their builders Mr. Winans got into touch with Wfft-
kins for the necessary help. The Annette went across to
Havre to tow the Walter S. Winans from there to the West
India Dock and then she and Britannia were chartered to
1866-8] OF TOWAGE 69

attend tlie Hess Win an s during a long series of trials and ex¬
periments in the Lower Hope and off the mouth of the Thames,
experiments which were an utter failure for the promised high
speed was practically nil and they pitched to a really alarming
extent in a sea which left the tugs absolutely unaffected. So
the two little ships were laid up until their owner-inventor was
dead and they were sold for scrap for only £400 the two,
although they had cost a fortune to build.
The year 1867 was rather an eventful one as far as unusual
occurrences were concerned, although it was satisfactory
enough for the firm with the immense amount of sailing ship
work done under the leadership of the Anglia, which was
acknowledged to he the finest steam tug on the river and in
the Channel. She acted as a figure-head for the fleet and even
when she herself was not available her prestige secured a lot
of business for her owners’ other tugs- The Napoleon, which
was then being used principally outside the river, broke her
shaft in May and was off service for about a month while it was
being replaced and m December the old Victoria had a
peculiar accident when she rolled a funnel right out of herself.
The little Antagonist had been a very useful vessel for all
sorts of odd jobs, but in August 1867 she was sold to Amster¬
dam interests for £2,300, a very good price considering all
things. Messrs. Brett and Company were interested in the
purchase and it must be remembered that they already knew
the little ship and what she could do by her previous service
for them on the Isle of Wight ferry. In this year also it was
found necessary to give the Express very large repairs amount¬
ing almost to a reconstruction, although she had only been
running under the "Watkins’ flag for three years.
In 1868 the Punch was given new boilers, her old engines
taken out of the Lord Wtarden being still good for further
service after overhaul and a certain amout of modernisation,
and at the same time she was lengthened to permit her to do
rather more work in the estuary, although she was not suitable
for going right down Channel after sailing ships as Watkins’
7o HUNDRED YEARS [1868-9

tugs were beginning to do as a regular thing. The paddle tug

Friend to All Nations, a big-hulled, rather low-powered ship
of 168 tons which had been built at Newcastle on Tyne in 1851,
was bought in this year and added to the Watkins’ fleet as the
Albion. She was immediately used very largely for seeking
for sailing ships, going as far down Channel as Land’s End,
but she was not a very successful vessel. Indeed the tugs
which Watkins bought from other firms never seem to have
been as good as those which they designed for their own re¬
quirements and had built at one of the well known yards under
their own eye.
As an example of the towing work undertaken by the firm
at this period the case of the Victor, by 110 means a new boat,
may be mentioned. She picked up the 1,260-ton sailing ship
St Magnus in the Victoria Dock and towed her round to Liver¬
pool. The tow took 102-1 hours and then she ran back from
Liverpool to Swansea, where she picked up another sailing
ship for London, in 291 hours. During the job she burned
104 tons of c-oal.
On the salvage side the 1,240-ton steamer Forfarshire
was salved by the Britannia and Napoleon, working-
together, for which they received a combined award of £530.
It is rather noticeable that the salvage awards in those days,
in spite of the fact that the quality of the material threw a
greater strain on the shoulders of the personnel, were not on
the generous side and one can well understand that the tug
owners often enough found it better worth their while to seek
for sailing ships. Among miscellaneous work the John Bull
was chartered for a few- days to assist the cable steamer
Monarch in North Sea w-ork off Lowestoft.
1869 was a very important year in the history of the firm
for it saw the experimental introduction of the screw. The
idea of using screw propulsion for towing work had been in the
minds of its original inventors, and the first practical screw
steamers were tugs. But they had a lot to learn in the appli¬
cation of the propeller, and for many years the paddle was
THE THIED GENEEATION: WILLIAM WATKINS,
1869]
OF TOWAGE 71

pre-eminent in the towing field. There was no doubt about

the economy of the screw, hut for the tug’s work, especially
outside, it could not touch the older method of propulsion.
But it was steadily making progress and the specialists
were doing an immense amount of spade work. TV illiam
Watkins was in the prime of life; he had taken more and more
control off the shoulders of his father and he was as keen a
man as could he found in the Port of London for improving
the material with which he worked. He went into the matter
of the screw propeller fully and although he was quite willing
to admit the advantages of the paddle as shown in practice, he
saw that the newer method had possibilities which would m
time revolutionise the towing business, particularly on its
river side. Unless it was taken up by some enterprising
owner it would be slow in its development; he therefore took
the plunge and had the little Era built for him at Blackwall
.and driven by a screw propeller, so that he was able to studj
the problem in practice instead of theory.
She was a very small ship, only 30 tons gross, and her
mean draught of only five feet prevented her gripping the
water as well as she should have done for towing purposes.
This, it may be mentioned, was the principal fault of most of
the early screw tugs which were far too light for their work.
Her first propeller was of variable pitch, from 8 feet 6 inches
to 10 feet, but after two or three weeks’ service she was taken
off to receive a new and far more satisfactory screw.
She was fitted with a Stewart and Nicholson’s patent con¬
tinuous expansion engine which gave her a phenomenal speedy
To the end of her life she was very fast when running and could
generally approach the trial speed which caused such a sensa¬
tion ; she made 13 land miles per hour against the tide with a
coal’consumption of only If lbs. per indicated horse power
per hour, a consumption that would appear to be heavy enough
nowadays but which, compared with that of the old-time
paddlers, was simply wonderful. _
The little Era was used almost entirely for river work and
72 HUNDRED YEARS [1869-70

in any circumstances seldom went far beyond the Nore, for

after all she was only 30 tons. In her sphere, however, she
found plenty of employment and was a useful ship for many
years afterwards. Mr. "Watkins used to say m jest that the
great mistake that he made in her design was giving her a
dropping funnel; the firm had practically no work above
bridges to justify it but it gave the opportunity of demanding
her services on Boat Race days, so that she always spent them
carrying a party of family and business friends instead of
getting on with her work.
In 1869 also the Defiance was reboilered for the second
time. Careful preparation had been made in advance so that
she was only off service for sis weeks in the early summer, but
immediately afterwards she had to be taken off again in order
to take out some unsatisfactory smoke consuming apparatus
which was infinitely more trouble than it was worth and which
threatened to decrease her efficiency as a tug, a thing that her
owners would not have in any circumstances.
Two tugs were sold towards the end of the year. The
Annette was sold to Peter Acatos of Mark Lane, acting on
behalf of clients in the Danube grain area, for £3,300, and the
Albion fetched £5,000 from buyers who put her to good use
at Trieste, where the work of the tugs was not as arduous as
under Watkins’ flag.
By 1870 the success of the Anglia had pointed out a new
avenue of profit, and the firm set to work to design a new type
of tug which would combine most of her qualities with lower
running costs. The result was the Cambria, built by the
Thames Ironworks at a cost of £10,000, a far more economical
tug than the Anglia and in many ways something like perfec¬
tion, her great fault being that she steered badly. She had a
gross tonnage of 209 and two-cylinder side lever engines by
Stewarts. Like most of the paddle tugs of her day she had
two funnels abreast abaft the paddles, with the mizzen mast
close up against them, but she was rather peculiar in that she
had side houses on the forward side of the paddle boxes only.
1870] OF TOWAGE 73

She was designed to he as economical as possible and to under¬

take long cruises, with the result that she was given big cabins
in which the men slung hammocks Navy fashion. These
cabins, and her after hold which was convertible into a ladies’
saloon, proved exceedingly useful on passenger work from
time to time, and when she was later chartered as tender to
big yachts. She towed excellently and soon made heiself a
great favourite with the crack sailing ships.

At the beginning of July 1870 the Napoleon was taken

off service and sent to Wigrams to receive new boilers and
such an engine room refit that her machinery might he des¬
cribed as almost new. Her hull was thoroughly repaired and
various improvements were effected, the total cost of the refit
being £4,000.

The Franco-Russian War broke out in that year and

Watkins’ tugs were employed on both sides. First of all the
Albion was chartered to cruise between Falmouth and the
Irish Coast to warn French ships of what was happening, after
which she was sent down to the Azores for the same purpose.
She was on this duty 74 days at £36 15s. Od. per day, and the
Cambria did similar work off the coast of Ireland for 84 days
at £31 10s. 0d., the total received by the two ships being well
over £5,000. Unfortunately the business was spoiled by cer¬
tain French officers insisting on appearing on the bridge m full
uniform, including decorations. This naturally attracted
attention in a tug and the matter came to the ears of the
Foreign Office, who drew her owner’s attention to the govern¬
ment’s declaration of neutrality. The services rendered to
'Germany were not so conspicuous or picturesque and no
objection was taken to them.

This Albion, the second of her name, had been delivered

in June, a little ship of 109 tons with Stewart engines giving
her a speed of 12 knots. In many ways she was an exceedingly
handy and useful ship, but her hull was rather too shallow to
grip the water properly when towing a really heavy vessel.
 HUNDRED YEARS [1870-1
74
For salvage services tlxe Cambria, almost new from the
builder’s yard, saved the 3,000-ton ship Willem III, for which
the courts awarded her £2,500, but unfortunately there was
not enough money available to pay this in full and she received
£2,333 6s. 8d. But even this was the highest salvage award
that the firm had received up to that date. In the case of the
Allahabad the Napoleon and Uncle Sam both got good
awards for assisting her when she got ashore near Boulogne
and then finding pumps at Blackwall and taking them down
to her. Eventually she was salved by the Victor and Uncle
Sam in company with the Spindrift of other ownership, the
first named towing her up to the V est India Dock for repairs.
The cigar ship Ross Winans was towed from the West
India Dock to Havre by the Anglia and J ictoria. The work
of towing obsolete men of war to the scrappers, particularly
the numerous gunboats built during the Crimean campaign,
also continued, but by that time other firms were beginning to
compete keenly for the contracts and the prices were cut badly.
As a rule about £80 was the price that was paid for towing
one of these g'unboats from Devonport to the Thames and in
this the Albion proved exceedingly useful. On the other
hand all the tug companies on the London River lost heavily
by the fact that the dock concerns ceased their practice of
“ paying towage ” in 1870.
The year 1871 was saddened by the death of Mr. John
Rogers Watkins at the great age of 82. In a measure he had
latterly been somewhat overshadowed by the brilliance and
extraordinary popularity of his son, but as he grew older he
was quite content to leave the business in his capable hands,
enjoying the evening of his days within the limits of physical
infirmities which compelled him to walk on two sticks, but
retaining his keen interest to the last and intenselj^ proud of
the magnificent structure that had been built on the founda¬
tions of his enterprise when tug-owning was an adventure
indeed.
On the business side it was a very dull year, noteworthy
1871-2] OF TOWAGE 75

principally for the sale of the old Defiance to the East and
West India Dock Company for inside use, Watkins getting
£1,300 for her. At that work she continued with great satis¬
faction, the dock company being so pleased with her that they
gave her name to the tug which replaced her when she finally
went to the scrappers. The Anglia was chartered on a daily
basis, the charterer finding coals and practically everything
else, to go up to the Firth of Forth to relay a telegraph cable
which had been picked up and destroyed by a schooner’s anchor
and the little Albion was sent as far afield as Cadiz to pick up
the 483-ton sailing ship Karkal and tow her to Shields, for
which she received £600. Considering her small size this was
quite a meritorious job and fully deserved a good fee.
But the Albion was not really suitable for Watkins’ work
on account of her shallow draught; in January 1872 she was
sold to Antwerp interests and within a week was replaced by
the Robert Bruce, a splendid and very popular tug which had
been built for the Caledonian Steam Towing Company of
Poplar in 1865 as a unit of the famous Fiery Cross class which
was distributed among the various London tug owners when
the Caledonian Company collapsed. The Robert Bruce was
a very powerful iron paddler of 192 tons and was conspicuous
by her enormous paddle boxes; she was an exceedingly useful
ship both on the river and for seeking although she was not
by any means economical.
The wreck of the steamer Electra off Dungeness gave
the Express a useful contract, for she was employed for several
weeks in May and June attending on the divers who were salv¬
ing what cargo they could, the contract being that she should
receive 15 per cent of the value recovered. She did fairly well
out of that and returned again in August and September. The
Anglia and Cambria together were employed in the salvage
of the steamer Baltimore which was beached at Hastings
after a collision. They got her afloat and towed her to South¬
ampton for which they received quite a fair award.
There were a good many longish tows carried out during
76 HUNDRED YEARS [1872-4

1872 but the most noteworthy was that by the Anglia

which went out to Vigo to pick up the steamer Richard
Cobden, 509 tons, and tow her to the Millwall Docks.
The fleet available not being sufficient for the volume of
river work that was coming in, a little tug named Atlas was
bought from Bristol in 1873. She was a wooden carvel-built
paddler of 100 tons gross built in 1854 but very well maintained
since then, a particularly pretty little ship which had been
given very large cylinders which made her very powerful for
her size but which handicapped her for sea work.
The Shall of Persia visited England in that year, and the
Anglia went down to the Spithead Haval Review held in his
honour with a number of her owner’s guests on board, while
the John Bull was chartered by the Harbour Master of London
as a tender during his visit, which included a thorough
inspection of the docks. She was also employed as a tender
during the yacht racing season of 1872, particularly in an
important race to Dover-
The Anglia picked up two rather interesting charters in
1873 at her usual daily rate. The first was for cable laying-
purposes in the Firth of Forth, a job for which she had already
proved herself to be admirably suited, and the second was to
search for the barque Emmeline which had been abandoned
by her crew in the Chops of the Channel but which could not
be found. Apart from these jobs the tugs were mostly em¬
ployed on the regular seeking business and one or two good
long distance tows, but nothing very out of the ordinary.
1874 saw the Hibernia and Scotia added to the fleet, iron
paddlers which followed the design of the Cambria very closely,
with side lever engines and gross tonnages of 238 and 236
respectively. These ships soon made themselves just as
popular as the Cambria, which is saying a good deal, and it is
doubtful whether Watkins ever had a better bargain than that
trio. For their type they were economical, but they were fine
sea boats and their towing power was amply sufficient for the
biggest sailing ships in any ordinary weather. At the same
1874] OF TOWAGE 77

time they continued to increase the fleet by purchase. The

Dundee tug Atlas, which had been built at that port in 1865,
was bought for river work, but as there was already an Atlas
in the Watkins’ fleet she was renamed Titan. She was a
curious looking vessel with small paddles which ran very fast,
her gross tonnage being 95. To begin with her machinery
gave a lot of trouble but a very thorough overhaul rectified this
and she proved herself quite a useful ship for river work.
The Renown, which had been built at Deptford in 1863
with engines by Stewart, an iron clipper-stemmed paddler with
a gross tonnage of 165, was also bought for seeking and first
class work, her light draught being an advantage in many
respects, particularly in salving ships ashore, although it
prevented her being as useful with a heavy ship in bad weather
as the tugs which Watkins had designed for themselves. She
was already well known on the Thames, having been first
owned by Mr. Mark Martin, but for some time before her
purchase she had been working out of Fleetwood.
On the repair side the Era was taken off service for several
months to receive new boilers and to be generally overhauled,
the Atlas was three months idle from February in order to
be given new feathering wheels and a general modernisation,
while the Victoria was off service well into the year 1875 for
new boilers and various alterations.
In May 1874 the Times was run down and sunk in the
London River and although she was very quickly salved the
hull had to be almost rebuilt and opportunity was taken to
overhaul her engnnes—they were practically reconstructed- at
a considerable cost. At that time the river work was getting
more and more important owing to the inci eased size of liners
which required more tug assistance to get in and out of the
docks, and Watkins had too big a share of it to run any risk
through unsuitable material.
The Victor took her turn at the cable work for which the
firm was getting well known by a daily charter laying the
cable across the River Tay-
;8 HUNDRED YEARS [1874-5

There were several very noteworthy long tows during 1874

which showed what Watkins’ tugs could do and which led
directly to very much more business of that sort. The
Victor went down to Lisbon and towed the 928-ton steamei
Uruguay to Millwall Docks and then with the Anglia went
down to Falmouth to pick up the steamer Ohio, 2,413 tons, and
tow her to Bremerliaven. Off the South Foreland the V ictor
was replaced by the Napoleon and the job finished, £1,040
inclusive being the price paid which opened the eyes of the
other owners and led to several fine tugs being built for the
Thames with the idea of sharing the business, although the
Anglia’s power was not equalled for some time to come and
Watkins’ reputation always stood them in good stead. In
November the Anglia and Scotia went down to Corunna to
pick up the dismasted sailing ship Duchess of Edinburgh, a
vessel of 1,600 tons, and tow her up to the South West India
Dock. The price paid was £1,400, at that time something like
a record for a straightforward tow but very soon beaten.
The stranding of the 1,022-ton sailing ship Victoria
Nyanza near Etaples gave Watkins a chance of salvage. The
Napoleon and Cambria were employed by arrangement to
serve the ship on tides, but they did more than that and got
her off the shore and safely into Boulogne, for which they
received a salvage award between them, in addition to the tidal
fees.
The year 1875 was principally known and remembered for
many years for tremendously long tows which further
enhanced the reputation that the fleet was making for itself,
but the fleet received attention as well. In the Autumn the
fug Pilot was purchased at South Shields, a wooden clench-
built paddler of 71 tons gross with a nominal horse power of 30.
She had been built in 1858 and had been worked hard; in spite
of the fact that she had received new engines and boilers in
1864 she was not in a good condition when Watkins bought
her. They got her very cheaply, only £220, and immediately
spent £1,900 in practically reconstructing her, apparently
1875]
OF TOWAGE 79
bringing her np to their standard. For a time she did excel-
lent work but her bull would not stand the strain of the power
of her engines and before Watkins had finished with her the
story was often told of how her engineer had to borrow sea
boots from one of the deck hands in order to go into the stoke¬
hold to pump her out before starting work in the morning.
The Britannia was sold to the scrappers in the summer;
her engines were broken up in her, but her boiler appeared to
be good enough for further service and accordingly it was
taken out, reconditioned, and stored for use when required.
In the same year the cargo steamer Cynthia was sold out of the
fleet after a very short career, the only cargo steamer that
Watkins owned.
The great tow of the year, which was described in every
shipping paper m the world and which made shipping history,
was that of the broken-down Union Liner Syria from St-
Helena to Southampton, by far the longest and most difficult
tow that had ever been undertaken up to that day and one
which greatly increased the already high reputation of the
Anglia. It was a colossal task considering her small bunkers
and extravagant engines, but she contrived it safely enough
and for it she received a fee of ,£4,800, including the use of the
hawser. Immediately afterwards she was employed to tow the
dredger Friend of all Nations from Cardiff to St. Petersburg,
the fee being £1,350.
She being a smaller ship than the Syria, when the steamer
Ariadne broke down at Madeira and had to be towed to Ant¬
werp to discharge her cargo and then on to London for lepairs,
the Hibernia seemed to be quite powerful enough at the job
and infinitely more economical. She started out, her bunkers
chock-a-block full and a further heavy load of coal on deck,
but in the Bay of Biscay she met bad weather and a colossal
sea stove in the front of her engine room, flooding it and the
stokehold. Had she not been a magnificent sea boat she would
certainly have foundered. By excellent seamanship she was
turned on the crest of a big wave and nursed back to Falmouth
So HUNDRED YEARS [1875

sadly crippled; the Anglia then went down to Madeira to do

the job for which £1,500 had been quoted.
The Turkish ironclad Messudieh, whose destruction was
later to win the first Naval Victoria Cross in the Great War,
was completed on the Thames in 1875 and was regarded as the
finest ship of her type afloat, hut there was a two months’
delay in her delivery which was apparently due to the Turks
finding it difficult to pay for her. During this period she was
lying in the Thames and the little Era was chartered as a
tender, carrying men, provisions, messages, etc., and doing
everything that was wanted. The John Bull was chartered
as a tender for the Duke of Bedford’s yacht Claymore during
the yachting season, the agreed fee being £10 per day for
which the charterers found coals and paid port charges,
pilotage, etc. It is typical of the old Duke that he carefully
had a clause inserted into the charter-party which stipulated
that if any salvage or towing jobs came her way during its
period the proceeds were to he divided. The money was not of
much importance hut the old sportsman would dearly have
loved to have been concerned in a salvage job and would
probably have insisted on going out in the tug himself had the
opportunity occurred.
Eor a large part of the year the John Bull, Titan and
Punch were employed towing obsolete men-of-war, mostly
Crimean gunboats which were then beginning to fall to pieces,
from Chatham and other naval bases to Charlton, where there
was a very busy scrapping yard. Unfortunately the work was
at very cut prices hut it kept the tugs busy while it lasted.
The Victor accepted a charter in May to pick up a submarine
cable at Lowestoft and take it down to the Isle of Wight to he
laid across the Solent, and later in the year she was employed
for some three weeks laying a new cable across the Channel
from Dover to Cape Gris Nez and also did cable repair work in
Cardigan Bay.
Among the distinctions which came to the Watkins’ fleet
during the year was the very high praise given to the little
 GENERATION: JOHN STEWART WATKINS,
THE THIRD
1875-6] OF TOWAGE Si

Express for the way she embarked the survivors of the training
ship Goliath when she was burned in the River and got them
down to Gravesend in safety. Had it not been for her prompt
measures several of the boys would certainly have died of
exposure.
In the year 1875, also, it is interesting to note that the
address of the firm was officially changed from Lime Street
Chambers to 75 Mark Lane, which was to remain for over half
a century.
In 1876 Mr- Alfred Watkins, the son of Mr. John Watkins
Junior and grandson of the founder, joined the firm. He had
already distinguished himself very greatly in the study of naval
architecture and was one of the first men in England to win
the right to put A.M.I.C.E. after his name. Everybody fore¬
told a particularly brilliant future for him, but his real interest
was in tugs and small craft and although he won the very
high praise of the courts on more than one occasion he was
generally quite content to busy himself on the material side
of the family fleet.

After the heavy expenditure of the Anglia the firm had

done very well with the much cheaper Cambria class and this
year they tried to take the same principle further by having
the India built by WAstwood and Baillie in London. In her
hull she was a slightly reduced edition of the Cambria class,
with a gross tonnage of 218 and side lever engines, but in her
design the great feature was economy, to enable her to go
further down Channel than any other tug in the search for
sailing ships. In principle it wms sound enough, but in
practice it was taken rather too far in the case of the India,
who, although she had many excellent points, had not enough
power to stand up to the jobs which she was often called upon
to carry out. Her original contract price was £4,265 with
Westwood and Baillie for the hull and £4,500 with Stewart’s
for the engines and boilers, but the actual cost was rather
more, £9,245 5s. 8d. in all.
 HUNDRED YEARS [1876
82

Her lack of power was her one great fault, and that
hampered her all through her career with the really kig jobs,
but for anything that was within her limits she was an excel¬
lent ship. She towed well, was fast running and was one of
the most phenomenally fine seahoats ever designed. She rode
the heaviest seas like a cork and could make her way through
any gale that blew. During the summer months, also, she was
capable of being made into quite a comfortable little excuision
steamer.
She was the only addition during the year but a good deal
of renewal work was done. The Napoleon was again taken
in hand and £3,000 was spent giving her new boilers and a
very thorough overhaul. Her former boilers were not con¬
sidered to be worn out and after a thorough repair were
installed in the Renown. The engineers claimed that they were
then as good as new, but they only lasted for six years after the
operation. The Victoria had £4,500 spent 011 her, having the
boilers installed in 1864 changed for new ones in addition to
engine and hull repairs, and considering their age and the
work that had been done 011 these two ships already one would
have thought that a second India would have been better
value; her cost would have been practically covered by their
repair bills. The Express also had a large refit and received
the boilers already mentioned as having been taken out of the
Britannia which had since been repaired and pronounced to
be as good as new.
At the other end of the fleet there was a change which
everybody regretted. I11 September the little Monarch, with
which Mr. John Rogers Watkins started his business over
forty years before, was taken in hand for repairs after a very
heavy river season, but as soon as she came to be examined
there was no alternative to condemning her. She had done
wonderfully well—43 years was a long life for a wooden-hulled
vessel which had tackled such hard work as she had—and she
was still held in affectionate regard by everybody connected
with the firm. For some time past all mates working up for
1876] OF TOWAGE 83

skipper’s rank had to handle her as practice, but now she was
past saving. So she went to the scrappers, an entry in the
firm’s hooks of £40 from Mr. Stewart the engineer showing
that her purchaser did not share the owner’s sentimental
regard. But against the entry, in Mr. William Watkins’ neat
writing, is written, “ with which my dear wife later bought
a silver tea and coffee service.” It is a delightful touch of
personality and Watkins’ business was never the worse for it.

Apart from these changes in the fleet the year 1876 was a
particularly busy one, as exemplified by the fact that the
Anglia had her record year. In the twelve months ending
with June she earned no less than £12,699 8s. 7d., against her
usual annual average of rather more than £5,000, and although
of course a good deal of this was accounted for by the long
tows which she undertook in 1875 it was a fine year and she
was a particularly busy trig.

She was ably backed by the other units of the fleet, both
in towing and salvage. On the former side the Anglia herself
went out to Port Said early in July and towed the steamer
Princess Amalie, 3,429 tons gross, to Glasgow for £2,650,
while equally interesting but less important was the Hibernia s
job when she was sent down to Portsmouth to tow the wooden
line-of-battleship Frederick William up to the Victoria Dock
As a man-of-war she was not wanted, having been rendered
quite obsolete by the advent of the ironclad, but in the Victoria
Dock she was converted into the training ship Worcester and
at Greenhithe she is still doing magnificent work preparing
the best type of cadet for the Merchant Service. The
Napoleon got the job of towing one of the first French torpedo
boats from London, where she had been built, to Cherbourg
and although she was of only thirty tons displacement, little
more than a launch, the fee was quite a good one. It may be
mentioned that, the political feeling of France being then very
strongly Republican, the Napoleon did not get quite the good
reception that she generally did when she visited a French
84 HUNDRED YEARS [1876-7
port, particularly if it was in open competition with
Butchard’s Wellington.
It has already been mentioned that the Duke of Bedford
chartered the little John Bull on several occasions to act as
tender to his yacht the CLxiYMORE. He had been well satisfied
with her but in 1876, having seen the Cambria on service, he
insisted on having her and accordingly she was given a white
hull and yellow funnels to make the round of the regattas.
In this paint she looked more <£ yachty ” than many of the
contemporary yachts and was often mistaken for one by lands¬
men. Twenty pounds a day was the charter money agreed
upon and she proved a really excellent ship for her purpose.
For one thing she already had good accommodation and for
another the after hold was very easily cleared out and com¬
fortably fitted as a ladies’ saloon. The result was that the
Duke did quite a lot of his entertaining on board the Cambria
instead of on board the Claymore.
Of this cruise the story is told of the Cambria’s deckhand
who afterwards developed into one of Watkins’ staidest and
most respected masters. Going ashore one evening in very
natty brass-bound uniform he contrived to give some admiring'
ladies the impression that he was the Duke’s nephew and had
the time of his life. Nemesis came next day when the ladies
put off to the “ yacht ” in a boat to renew the acquaintance
of their noble admirer and found him, in anything but a natty
uniform, slung in a boatswain’s chair painting the funnel.
On the salvage side the company was also tolerably suc¬
cessful, two cases being worthy of mention. When the
1,414-ton sailing ship St. Malo went ashore at Dungeness the
Victor and Cambria were employed by tides towing barges
and attending to her in various ways, while the Cambria
received a further sum for helping her when they got her into
Dover Harbour. The Bobert Bruce and Scotia were also'
employed on the salvage of the ship Sophia Joachim, for which
they received £1,100 as an award by the Court.
A very useful little vessel was added to the fleet in 1877
1877] OF TOWAGE 85
when the screw tug- Bristol was bought at the port after which
she was named, where she had been built only a year pre¬
viously. She was a neat little ship of 59 tons gross,
conspicuous with a hell-topped funnel, and her features seemed
to suit Watkins well, although it was soon discovered that
she wanted a lot of work done on her in spite of the fact that
she was comparatively new. While being delivered round the
coast, in fact, she broke down hopelessly and the India had
to be sent down Channel to pick her up and bring her into the
Thames. Although they could see work for her in the river
and events proved them to be very amply justified, she was
a little out of Watkins’ ordinary line so that when Captain
Russell Smith was appointed as her first master he was given
five per cent, of her gross earnings instead of the usual two and
a half and allowed something of a roving commission to find his
own employment, which he did most successfully.
The Fox was another tug added to the fleet but her life
was very short for she was only commissioned in October and
left in the following February. The old Titan was given new
boilers but was off service for a very short time for that woik
to be done. The firm was too busy to spare her for veiy long,
even for a job like that.
The famous New Zealand ship Crusader was stranded on
the Goodwins and looked like breaking up. Working by tides
instead of by salvage agreement the Napoleon and Renown
succeeded in refloating her and in November the Victoria
and Renown, working with the rival tug Macgregor, salved
the ship Aros Bay, 1,413 tons, for which they received £1,600
out of a total of £2,400 awarded. In November the India
worked very hard on the stranded ship Charles Davenport,
1,033 tons, but just when she had the right water and was
preparing for the final pull bad weather supervened and the
ship broke up, so that the India was only allowed £40 for her
towing services instead of the generous award that appeared
to be within her grasp.
In this year also was fixed up a contract which was of
 HUNDRED YEARS [1877-8
86
considerable importance. Under it Watkins tugs were
regularly employed in towing out the big sailing skips of the
New Zealand Shipping Company which at that time were
some of the finest on the London River. They had to see them
through the South West India Dock, swing them for compass
adjustment round the buoys provided for that purpose off
Greenkitlie and then tow them down to Plymouth at an agreed
fee of £95 each. Compared with the price that they usually
got from the homeward bound ships the fee was not a large
one, but it was very useful business as being absolutely regular
and gave most of the big tugs in the fleet jobs which put them
well down Channel for the purpose of picking up homeward
bounders. The business was carried out in such a satisfactory
manner that the two firms work together to this day and
Watkins’ tugs still handle “ The Company’s ” big steamers
and motorships whenever they are entering or leaving London.
On the personnel side this year and the preceding one were
rather particularly interesting. Captain John McCarthy was
appointed to the Victor, a command which he held until 1S94
and in which he did some magnificent work which brought him
the very strong commendation of the authorities on more than
one occasion. He was a mad Irishman, popularly known as
Jack my Hearty,” and was up to any prank or practical joke
when he was ashore, but in command of a tug he could not be
beaten. Captain Tom Fitcli was appointed master of the
Robert Bruce, a job which he retained until 1892, and S. R.
Reader of the A ictoria, which he did not give up until 1905.
The firm’s modern practice of keeping its servants for long
periods is not new: it was in full effect in the ’seventies and
there is little doubt that it had a big influence on the success
of the firm.
In August 1878 Mr. John Watkins Jnr., who since his
return from Liverpool had been acting as “ Ships’ Husband ”
at Blackwall and had also been looking after the Gravesend
fide of the business from his house in the Grove to which the
Captains had to go for their orders, died and his interests in
 *

AN HISTORIC TOW: CLEOPATRA’S NEEDLE (1878).

A RECORD TOW: “ TANCARV1LLE (19C5)

1878 ] OF TOWAGE 87

certain tugs passed to his widow Elizabeth from whom they

were soon after acquired by his brother William.
His work at Gravesend was continued by Mr. W. Judd
who moved his home down to the town from Peckham for that
purpose. He had entered Watkins’ office in January 1854 at
the age of 16 and he was to stay in it for a total of fifty-four
years in the various grades from junior clerk to manager.
On the material side the year was not conspicuous. The
first coal hulk Black Prince was sold to Castle’s, the ship-
breakers, for £50 and in her place was purchased a second ship
that was given the same name. She had been the Quebec-
built sailing ship Montezuma, launched 1846 with a tonnage
of 534, and only three years previously the Black Ball Tug
Company had bought her for conversion into a hulk and had
spent £1,400 on her altogether. Watkins got her for £370
and she was to prove exceedingly useful to them for many
years.
The great tow in the year was carried out by the Anglia,
which went down to Spain to pick up the steel pontoon built
specially to transport Cleopatra’s Needle to London which had
broken adrift from the steamer that was towing it from Alex¬
andria and had been taken into Ferrol by the Spanish fishermen
who found it abandoned. It was an awkward tow, not large
but giving quite as much trouble as a 2,000 ton ship, but the
Anglia tackled it for £500 and succeeded in bringing it to the
Thames. At Gravesend all the school children were given a
half holiday in order that they might see the wonderful sight.
Needless to say it was an excellent advertisement for the firm.
Mr. Alfred Watkins went down in her, also Mr. John and Mr.
Philip, sons of Mr. William Watkins, and the present heads of
the firm, who were then still at school and who thus got their
first practical insight into long-distance towing. The little
Era made practical use of her dropping funnel later by towing
it up from the docks to its present position on the Thames
Embankment.
As the Duke of Bedford did not intend to do very much
88
HUNDRED YEARS [1878-9

in the yachting season he was content with the John Boll

instead of the Cambria as his tender, but then his plans had to
he abandoned altogether and being surplus to Watkins’
requirements the ship was sold for £1,150. She was later to
do quite a lot more useful work on the river, particularly
during the construction of the Tower Bridge when she was
bought by the contractors to prevent barges committing
suicide against the piers and workings.
The Cleopatra’s Needle was not the only noteworthy tow
of the Anglia in 1878. She and the India got £1,000, plus
£30 for the use of hawsers, for towing the broken down North
Herman Lloyd liner Neckar from Falmouth to Bremerhaven,
and in November she went down to Corunna again and towed
the steamer Portena up to Havre for something like the same
fee. An interesting charter on a very minor scale was that of
the Bristol which was taken up by the Thames Conservancy
for surveying work round the Nore at £10 per day.

In 1879 two rather important repair jobs were carried out

to Watkins’ tugs. One was to the Robert Bruce, one of the
tugs that they had acquired from a rival firm, which npt only
went through a very thorough repair but also had her hull
specially strengthened wherever possible. Mr. Watkins was
working his fleet hard, for he had the cream of the work of the
port despite the efforts of several doughty rivals and fully
realised tlinat they had to be kept fit for the job. At the same
time the Atlas was given two second-hand tubular boilers
which had been purchased from the Rainbow and they proved
sufficiently satisfactory to last her until she was broken up in
October 1887.

Prices seem to have taken an upward turn this year, for

quite reasonable fees were paid to the Anglia for towing a
small steamer, the Ville dtj Havre, from Vigo to Havre and
for towing the 322-ton Blamey Brothers from Crookhaven to
Bremerhaven. Even these fees, however, were not large
according to modern ideas and do not in the least accord with
1879] OF TOWAGE 89
the ordinary person’s idea of the big money that tugs used to
make in the old days.

The Anglia did a lot of cable work in connection with, the

Humber cable, being chartered as usual at =£20 per day, while
in November the Scotia went to the assistance of the famous
sailing ship Blair Atholl and received £650 salvage.

In connection with the year 1879 there was one trivial but
interesting incident which is worth recording. Captain David
Glue who was then in command of the Anglia always had a
very large brown retriever dog on board with him, the two
being inseparable companions. One night off Newhaven this
dog fell overboard and his disappearance was not noticed for
some time. Naturally his master and the other hands thought
he was gone for good hut he was picked up not far from Calais,
still swimming gamely, and being well known to everybody
connected with shipping in the Channel he was returned to
Captain Glue with a brand new silver collar recounting the
circumstances.
All this time the big paddlers were being kept very busy on
sailing ship and other work, but Mr. Watkins was looking
ahead and saw the inevitable coming of the screw piopeller in
connection with tug work. At the same time his long ex¬
perience and habits of careful observation told him that it
was not going to he an unmixed blessing to the owners, for
such screw tugs as had been sent to sea found themselves veij/
unpopular with the average sailing ship master, who infinitely
preferred the paddler. It must be remembered that many of
them were built rather too lightly for their purpose, and had
too little draught, with the result that in pitching their
propeller was constantly out of the water and the tow rope was
subjected to a series of jerks. In the circumstances one can
scarcely blame the masters for considering that the paddle tug
with her steady pull was infinitely better, for she always had
half her power in the water no matter how heavily she was
rolling.
90
HUNDRED YEARS [1879

But sail was more and more dependent on tugs for

catching a reasonable market, which meant that the steam¬
boats had to go further down Channel to find them. No matter
what improvements were effected, the paddler could^ never
compete with the screw boat in economy and Mr. Watkins
appreciated the inevitability of the change. At the same time
the Gamecock Company was being started in Gravesend as a
loose syndicate among a party of pilots and they wrere going in
for the screw from the first. Therefore, after a lot of very
careful thought, the first of the modern screw tugs built by
Watkins for sea work came out in 1880 and the advent of the
little Canada marked a new era in the firm s history that
demands a new chapter.
i88o] OF TOWAGE 91

CHAPTER V

THE COMSNG OF THE SCREW

When the little Canada was built at Blackwall, the first
unit of Watkins’ modern fleet, she attracted great attention
for although they had already owned the screw Era and Albion
the former was little more than a launch and the latter was
before her time, while the Canada was a real and practical
attempt to meet what was obviously a pressing problem for
tug-owners, the economical towing of ships for considerable
distances. She was only small, 72 tons gross, and nowadays
would appear to be suitable only for river work, but she was
a fine little sea boat for her size and was very frequently em¬
ployed on long tows down Channel, into the Irish Sea and
along the Continental coasts. It is probable that she would
have been built with rather bigger dimensions had her owners
and other tug interests of that realised that the screw boat had
limitations just as much as the paddler and that it required
weight to handle a big ship. Considering her small size,
however, the Canada did wonders and she is still in existence.
One of her most interesting features, fitted by way of an
experiment, was the two cylinder simple engine of what was
then regarded as high pressure with both cylinders of the same
diameter, 19 inches, with a stroke of 18. It was considered
that this would mean a big saving of fuel, but it proved itself
unsuitable for towing work and was soon changed to something
of more normal design. She was, in fact, re-engined twice
within a very short period, first with compounds and then with
triple expansions.
The coming of the screw did not mean an immediate
revolution in the fleet; there was still a big fleet of paddlers at
work and although the owners hoped great things of the screw
92 HUNDRED YEARS [1880

it was the paddler that was in the greatest demand. So the

Anglia was taken in hand to he given new boilers, shafts, etc.,
■at Somes’ dry dock, the work costing a large sum hut turning
her out a vastly improved ship with apparently a new lease of
life. The old Victor, by now a veteran, was also given new
boilers and large repairs, while the Express, which had been
bought in 18G4 and worked hard, was sold in October to Mrs.
Caroline Jackson of Milford who ran her in the Welsh port
until she finally had to be broken up in December, 1898.
Needless to say, she was not worked there as hard as she was
under Watkins* flag.

Some very big jobs were tackled in the year 1880.

Between June and October, the Anglia, having been modern¬
ised as described, tackled one of the biggest contracts for that
date, the dredging material required for the improvement of
the port of Malaga. Although the individual vessels to be
taken down were not nearly as large as the tows that she had
contrived on many occasions, they were numerous and the job
was not by any means an easy one.

The first tow was the tug Colonel, a dredger and a steam
lighter from the Hook of Holland to Malaga, the trip including
six days at Dover and two at Plymouth. Then the steam
lighter No. 4 was steamed down from the Hook of Holland,
but needed escorting and was in constant danger in the open
sea. The Anglia then had to go round to Eiume for two tugs
and nineteen lighters in batches, many of wdiich were quite
unfit for such a passage and were lost. The total fee for this
job was nearly five thousand pounds and it was certainly
earned .

Another dredging job was carried out by the India and

Hibernia, which went up to Shields and picked up a dredger
and five hoppers for Swansea. It may be mentioned that in
the following year this material had to be towed back from
Swansea to Shields for which the Cambria, India, Anglia and
Scotia were employed.
i88o] OF TOWAGE 93
The year also saw some very useful salvage work. The
hest remembered case is that of the Pareora, one of the fine
sailing ships of the New Zealand Shipping Company’s fleet
which was outward hound with numerous passengers. She
anchored in the Downs to wait for the weather to moderate
hut instead it suddenly increased to hurricane force and both
cables parted. She escaped driving on to the Goodwins by a
miracle—had she done so it is doubtful whether a soul could
have been saved in that weather—and was still driving hard
towards the Gabbards, seriously damaged aloft, when she was
picked up by the Cambria near the Galloper. l?or this £2,000
was awarded for the weather was still terrible and the ship
would certainly have encountered more trouble and would
probably have been destroyed had the Cambria not come up
at that time and taken charge of her in very difficult circum¬
stances. Then the India picked up the derelict sailing ship
Sorideren off the Scilly Islands and towed her into Plymouth
but she was only 328 tons and her value was small so that the
salvage was limited to £350.
The Loudon Castle, a 2,472-ton steamer belonging to
Skinner and Company, stranded on the Mouse and was helped
off by the Scotia and Uncle Sam, the latter afterwards towing
her up to Gravesend. Owing to the weather the award was
small. Finally the sailing ship Carrick Castle, 879 tons, was
towed off the shore at Shoeburyness by the Napoleon, Titan
and Bristol but they were working by contract at so much a
tide.
Another disappointing salvage case was that of the
steamer Mabel which got herself into trouble and which was
rescued by the Victor and India. The Admiralty Court gave
an award, which seemed small enough, but her owners took
the matter to the Court of Appeal and it was still further
reduced. Considering the risks run by the boats and the coal
consumed by the old paddlers there was not as much in the
salvage business as is generally supposed in the bad old days
when every claim was strenuously opposed and many short-
 HUNDRED YEARS [1881
94
sighted underwriters regarded the tugs as enemies instead of
invaluable friends. , , t
Tbe year 1881 is principally noteworthy for the fact that
the P. & 6. Company returned to London as its base after using
Southampton for many years. When the Iberia was launc e
in the ’thirties the then heads of the concern promised W atkms
their towing work on the Thames and they had found it quite
reasonably profitable to attend on P. & 0. ships when they took
the water from one of the Tliameside yards or had to be handled
in and out of drydock for repairs. But on ordinary commercial
service the river saw very few of their ships, while at Sout
amp ton they were assuming more and more importance as they
grew in size and speed. When they came back to the Thames
again and decided to use the Royal Albert Dock as a terminal
they wanted a lot of help from tugs and they became one of
Watkins’ most important clients.
On the personal side Mr. Philip Watkins joined the him
straight from school at the age of 17 but unfortunately his
health broke down after some years of office life and in 1887 he
was forced to give up the family business and go in for a life
which kept him in the open air. But when his health was
built up he returned to the work when there was a vacancy in
the firm in 1913 and he is still one of the partners.
Watkins’ boats had tackled all sorts of big jobs from the
earliest days of the company, when they were so small that it
appeared dangerous to send them out on many of their com¬
missions, but they had kept remarkably clear of serious
casualty. Some had been sunk in collision it is true, but that
was generally in na’rrow waters where collisions were in¬
evitable with the way some ships were then handled. 1881
brought the first real tragedy by one of their ships foundering
at sea, the famous old Napoleon. With the Victor she was
going to the assistance of James Nourse’s sailing ship
Allanshaw in distress in a gale of hurricane force and
foundered with all hands, Captain William Houghton and
eight men. Just how it happened is not known; between
FAMOUS “ ALLANSHAW ” RESCUE.
i885] OF TOWAGE 95

squalls she was seen from the other tug hammering down
against a heavy sea to the assistance of the distressed ship and
in the next clear patch she had disappeared. Nothing could
be done hut in the meantime there was the Allanshaw and her
crew to he saved and the Victor was assisted by the Hibernia
which had been sheltering under the land. Together they
carried out a particularly fine piece of work which resulted in
the ship and all hands being brought to safety when their
plight was desperate. For this they were later awarded £3,000
salvage, £2,000 going to the Victor with the Court’s very
highest praise for the gallantry and skill of Captain McCarthy,
which indeed deserved everything that could be said of them,
and £1,000 to the Hibernia who took a good part.
The deep sympathy of the shipping world for this disaster
was shown by the spontaneous raising of a big subscription
for the benefit of the widows and orphans, gifts coming from
people in all stations of life. One of Mr. Philip Watkins’ first
jobs in the office was this fund.
The Allanshaw salvage was not the only one tackled by
the firm’s tugs during the year, although it is the one best
remembered. The steamer India went ashore on the Oaze Sand
and the Punch and Uncle Sam went down to her help. The
former was employed carrying the captain and officers to and
from Sheerness and afterwards the two tugs were engaged by
agreement in helping her afloat and getting her to a place of
safety. The steamer Flamingo, 1,209 tons, was ashore in St.
Margarets Bay and the Hibernia and Renown were employed
on a tidal basis to attempt to tow her off, the Canada also
finding quite a good job towing barges between her stranding
place and Beckton while she was being lightened.
Another tidal salvage job was that of the steamer Hector,
1,589 tons, on which the Renown and Victoria were employed.
Yet another was the sailing ship Hertha, ashofe on the
Maplins, while the well-known sailing ship Celestial Empire
was far better worth while, the Court later awarding substan¬
tial salvage to the Robert Bruce, Anglia and Cambria, while
96 HUNDRED YEARS [1881-2
the case of the Wilson steamer Yeddo in distress, with whom
the Hibernia and India spent two days in April, netted
another comfortable award. The manner in which salvage
work seems to have come in waves is to he noted, but a good
deal of it depended on the state of the shipping industry at the
time. A boom in freights, and plenty of work to be obtained,
led to far more ships being at risk and it also generally meant
sailing ships “ cutting corners ” and tonnage values that
made salvage services worth while.
1881 also saw some important towing work. The Anglia
got the disabled Red Star Liner Belgenland, 3,692 tons, from
Plymouth to Antwerp and there was also a good deal of
business with dredging* material. The India, Hibernia and
Canada towed a dredger and five hoppers from Shields to
Swansea but a very moderate fee included the use of hawsers
etc., and showed how this dredging business was being cut
into by the other tug owners whc had followed Watkins’ lead.
Another job was by the India and Cambria, who towed the
dredger Clyde and three hoppers from Slioreham to the same
work at Swansea, while at the end of the year a lot of this
material had to be towed back.
It is interesting to note that during the year the veteran
Punch was chartered by the Victoria Dock Company to handle
ships inside the dock for half as much again as she got for
doing precisely the same job in 1857, when she was practically
new and was regarded as one of the best little tugs on the river.
Tug work must always find payment on the basis of the state
of the shipping industry rather than the actual value of the
work done and a study of the prices obtained makes it obvious
that many years were very lean indeed and that the firm could
only have carried on by careful finance when shipping was
prospering.
lhe Canada having proved that a screw boat could do
leally excellent work in spite of her small size, Watkins
determined to repeat the experiment but with good sea-going
hulls, relying on the greater economy of the engines to permit
 OF TOWAGE
97

AUSTRALIA: THE BIGGEST LONDON SCREW TUG IN HER DAY,

98 HUNDRED YEARS [1882

them to go very much further down Channel and to do better

work. Accordingly the Australia and Zealandia were built
in Holland, single screw ships of about 128 tons gross which
were towed across to Greenwich to receive their engines from
Messrs. Appleby. Their size made them the most noteworthy
screw tugs on the London River at that time but there was
still a good deal to be learned and compared wuth Watkins’
later ships they were disappointing in their work. This was
partly due to the rather complicated engines first fitted, which
were very soon changed for something more reliable.

The paddler India was sent across to Holland to tow the

hulls over to receive their engines and entering the river she
found the British India Liner India ashore. She immediately
offered her services but the Captain thought she would come
off easily enough by herself and refused them. The result was
that she stayed on for a considerable time.
The Renown was taken in hand and the boilers which had
been given her from the Napoleon were taken out and replaced
by new, the engines being modernised and the hull thoroughly
repaired at the same time until a very big bill had been run up.
The little Era was sold in May for £800, going to a Green¬
wich firm which did a lot of the craft work for which she was
eminently suited, but in which Watkins took very little
interest. It was said, in fact, that her only virtue at this time
was that her dropping funnel permitted her to go above bridges
to the University Boat Races and that was apt to be a nuisance
to her owner.
A certain amount of salvage work came the w*tt r.f +L~
1882-3] OF TOWAGE 99

the mouth of the Thames. The Titan and Punch were

chartered and employed conveying boilers and portable pumps
from Blackwall to the ship, making themselves generally
useful during the salvage operations and finally helping to tow
her off.
In 1883 Mr. William Watkins Junior, the eldest son of Mr.
William Watkins and grandson of the founder, joined the
firm and remained a very active member in it until his death
in 1913. When he had left school he had been put by his father
into the office of his cousin Mr. James Watkins for a spell to
learn shipbroking and all the miscellaneous knowledge which
goes with it. This was followed by a voyage round the world
to observe other people’s methods. A keen observer and a
man of untiring energy, he made the very most of these
opportunities when he joined the family firm. His father was
quite capable, with the rather exceptional office staff^ that he
had trained, of managing the Mark Lane part so ‘ Master
Willy ” devoted most of his time to the Blackwall end, with
Mr. Alfred Watkins, and also to the supervision of new ships
building.
The Blackwall establishment was on Stewart s Wnarf,
John Stewart the engineer being a very old and close friend of
Mr. William Watkins who christened his son, the present head
of the firm, John Stewart Watkins after him. Here they had
workshops, a paint shop, a shipwright’s department and stores
and here they did any number of odd jobs on the tugs in
addition to a good deal of rope work which is nowadays done
before the rope is delivered.
The little Canada having proved so successful the addi¬
tions to the fleet in 1883 included the Tasmania, an iron screw
tug of 81 tons gross which was built at Hull and with com¬
pound engines of good power proved an exceedingly useful
vessel. Her first cost was <£3,168, so that it was not only in
running expenses but also in overhead charges that the screw
boats saved very considerably on the big paddlers. For purely
river work the little Malta was built, also at Hull, an iron
 100 HUNDRED YEARS [1883

screw vessel of 59 tons gross with engines working at what was

then regarded as the high pressure of 80 lbs. per square inch,
one of the prettiest tugs ever employed on the Thames with
the lines of a yacht. She was somewdiat similar to the Bristol
in type but designed on long experience of the river and a much
more satisfactory little ship.
As has already been mentioned, the firm had long been
running coal hulks in Gravesend Reach, but in this year it
was decided to have a second hulk at Blackwall for the purpose
of storing tow ropes, stores etc. in addition to the depot on
Stewart’s Wharf described above and accordingly the sailing
ship Oero was bought for the purpose and moored off Black-
wall, where she lasted for many years until pushed out to make
way for barge roads. During that period she was exceedingly
useful. At the request of the Salvage Association, for whom
W atkins were doing an immense amount of work on the tidal
basis, she was afterwards fitted with a very complete set of
portable pumps and all the gear likely to be used for salvage.
This meant a great help in prompt salvage measures, for the
petii could be reached at all states of the tide: m any shore
stowage available for the purpose that was quite impossible.
The famous paddle Hibernia was taken in hand for
large repairs and was given new boilers, the total cost being
T2,760, although she was to be sold in the following year to
owners at Havre. As she fetched T7,000, however, in the
condition to which she had been broughtfthe outlay was very
well worth while. It is interesting to note that after many
changes she was to come back to her original owners in her
extreme age through Watkins Petrie and Company.
The little Pilot had become very expensive in repairs and
ue , even for the river work to which she was confined, and
she was therefore laid aside in August and within a few weeks
was sold to the scrappers. She had been a good little ship in
ie: day but she was no longer up to the jobs that were beino-
tackled. 0
Ihe Anglia and Cambria were chartered to search for the
THE THIRD GENERATION: PHILIP WATKINS.
1884] OF TOWAGE 101

North German Lloyd Liner Habsburg which had been reported

by an incoming sailing vessel to he broken down oh the Scillies
and when she had reached port they were employed for towing
her from Falmouth to Bremerhaven to be repaired.
Another awkward tow was the grain elevator Inter¬
national, which had to be taken from the West India Docks
to Antwerp. The tower was no less than 80 feet high, the hull
was as awkwardly shaped as it usually is in such craft, and
none of the other tug owners in London cared to tackle the
job as the risk appeared too great. Watkins accepted it with
the Hibernia and Titan and carried the job through safely.
Fortunately it was quite calm although misty, but the job was
naturally a very anxious one for the owners ashore waiting
for news.
On the salvage side the Cambria was duly rewarded for
assisting the 396-ton German iron barquentine Margaretha
Gaiser, the Victor, Uncle Sam, Canada and Bristol divided
FI,000 salvage between them when the famous old Australian
clipper ship Collingrove was on fire, and nearly double that
sum came the way of the Scotia and Australia for the services
that they rendered to the German steamer Carl Woermann.
But the Scotia made a very much better thing out of the
salvage of the sailing ship Earl oe Dumfries, ashore at Cape
Boca near Lisbon. She began by accepting a commercial fee
for taking down the necessary pumps and salvage material
from London, then got nearly as much for attending on the
ship, towing her off and escorting her safely into Lisbon, while
detention, use of gear and other matters brought the sum up
to quite a respectable total, very well worth the trouble.
Of the seagoing screw fleet the Canada and Tasmania
■were wonderful" little ships but handicapped by their size,
while the Australia and Zealandia, although for a time
better than any other screw tug on the Thames, left a good
deal to be desired by owners who insisted on reliable material.
But they all gave exceedingly useful experience in a type that
was still regarded as a novelty and Mr. William Watkins
102 HUNDRED YEARS [1883-4

Junior was showing himself a genius for making the utmost

use of practical experience. So in the year 1884 they took
advantage of it to build two new screw tugs, far better than the
normal, in Holland. They were the Hibernia, which is still
one of the most popular tugs on the London River in spite of
her age and one of the most phenomenally successful vessels
ever built, and the Columbia. In most respects they were
sister ships but the Hibernia was given an iron hull which is
still sound today while in the Columbia they tried the experi¬
ment of steel construction which was then in its infancy and
had not yet been tried for towing work. It was certainly
light and the Columbia was a conspicuously good-looking ship
which sat the water like a sea bird, but the experiment proved
rather disappointing for she did not tow as well as her
heavier-hulled sister and did not last nearly as long.
These ships were given powerful compound engines, big
bunkers and everything to permit them to tackle towing jobs
on a scale which had never before seemed possible. They
soon made a very great reputation and the Hibernia's history
alone would fill a book. Their only fault was that for long
peiiods they had some slight difficulty in maintaining a full
head of steam owing to the awkwardness of getting a constant
supply of coal from the bunkers. But they were undoubtedly
the finest screw tugs then afloat.
The the same time the Canada had her original patent
simple engines converted to compounds of normal design, very
stui dy, which made her a much more useful vessel for the
ordinary towing work on the river. The sale of the paddler
Hibernia, within a few months of the delivery of her screw
successor, has already been mentioned.
In spite of this new tonnage the veteran Anglia, kept in
a fine state of repair, still did some long tows. When the
Union Liner Spartan broke down she was sent out to Madeira
to tow her home to Southampton; then came the job of going
down to Gibraltar for the Potter steamer Claymore, 2,554
tons, and towing her to Liverpool. At the end of the year she
1884] OF TOWAGE 103

earned a reasonable fee for picking up tire steamer Cassius at

Liverpool and towing her to Havre.

The steamer Duke of Westminster, 2,427 tons, which

was ashore at Atherfield, Isle of Wight, provided a very useful
little salvage job. The Cambria and India divided one award
for their work while she was ashore and then the Scotia and
Victor got a further sum between them for helping her off
and getting her to a safe anchorage off Cowes.

By this time a number of the early ironclads, some of

which had scarcely been to sea in their whole lives, were
becoming quite useless as fighting ships and were going to the
scrappers. Once ag’ain Messrs. Watkins were the most
enterprising towing firm in working for this business, for the
ships made very awkward tows and most tug-owners were
rather chary of undertaking the risk. Messrs Castle were
then doing a lot of this scrapping work on the Thames and
Watkins entered into a regular contract with them to tow all
their purchases round the coast. The Anglia towed the battle¬
ship Albion from Plymouth to the scrapping berth at Charlton
by herself, but H.M.S. Royal Albert, over the same course,
proved particularly awkward for her hull was thick with
marine growth. The Scotia did most of the towing but off
the Royal Sovereign Shoal it was necessary to get the Renown,
which was down there seeking for sailing ships, to help her as
the ship was so very difficult to keep on anything like a course,
and within the narrow and crowded waters of the river she
became so unruly that she demanded all the care of the Robert
Bruce and Uncle Sam. But she eventually arrived at Charlton
without mishap. The fee for this job was certainly well
earned, but the tugs got great kudos for its successful accom¬
plishment.
Watkins’ tugs were still proving a very useful reserve
to the cable people and in this year the Anglia was chartered
by the Post Office to replace the Firth of Forth cable which
Fad again been broken by a sailing vessel’s anchor.
io4 HUNDRED YEARS [1885

Early in 1885 Watkins’ took delivery of one of tlie very

few real failures that have ever featured on their list, the
Mona. She was built in Holland, designed to be intermediate
between the little ships of the Canada class and the big-
Hibernias, a steel screw tug with a gross tonnage of 119. The
contract for the engines went to Charles Burrell at Thetford
in Norfolk, about the last place where one would expect to
hear of marine engines being built. It was probably due to
his inexperience in such work that they turned out a failure,
for they were constantly breaking down.
Her first contract was to tow the steamer Niobe from
Havre to Glasgow, but she had scarcely started the work when
her machinery gave out hopelessly off Cherbourg, and she
became a salvage case herself, while the reliable old Anglia
went down to complete the tow. The Mona was towed home
and patched up, but although she did one or two other little
jobs she was always giving trouble and after a few months’’
service she was sold to the Cowes Steam Tug Company for a
very low price, £2,300. They spent a lot of money on her
and contrived to get many years’ service out of her.
The Victoria, whose hull w-as still in excellent condition,
was given a new steel boiler in 1885 which lasted until the end
of her days.
The Columbia and Hibernia soon proved themselves ex¬
cellently adapted for the long distance work for which they
had originally been designed, and this year got the contract
to tow two dredgers from the West India Dock to Alexandria.
The Columbia towed Egypt No. 1 while the Hibernia, Egypt
No. 2, the former being very lucky on the way home to pick
up the yacht Latona at Algiers to be towed home to Plymouth
although the job involved a good deal of detention.

The Hibernia was also used, in company with the Anglia,

to go down to Eerrol to pick up the steamer Chateau Leo-
ville, which had lost her rudder and stern post, and to tow
her to Bordeaux.
1885-6] OF TOWAGE io5
The work of towing obsolete battleships to the scrappers
continued, although unfortunately the other tug companies
were beginning to get over their nervousness and brought the
price down with their competition for jobs that were outside
Castles’ agreement. The Anglia towed the old Caledonia
from Plymouth to the Albert Dock and H.M.S. Royal
Soa7ereign from Portsmouth to the same destination, but in
the latter case the Zealandia helped her up the Channel and
the Robert Bruce and Titan took charge of her in the river.
When the ship Mangosteen stranded off Boulogne
Watkins’ were too busy with their own tugs to send down to
attend to her and had to charter the Brittania from another
owner, but the ship had got off before she could arrive.
The Australia was chartered at quite a good price during
the summer of 1885 for a pleasure cruise round the Channel
ports of both England and France.
For many years Gibb’s Ben tugs had been one of Watkins’
greatest rivals, particularly for river work, but in 1885 that
firm had got into financial difficulties and early in the following
year Watkins bought three of their tugs. The Benachie was
comparatively small and was renamed Malta, the Ben Lomond
and Ben Nevis were sisters and were renamed Burmaii and
Iona respectively, the latter surviving in Watkins’ fleet to be
the last paddle tug on the River Thames. As these three ships
were not up to the firm’s standard they were immediately sent
up to Scotland for a very thorough overhaul and they did not
do much work before 1887.
Of the existing fleet the Uncle Sam was given new steel
boilers and was still quite capable of doing a lot of useful work
on the river, being particularly popular for handling ships in
and out of dry dock, while the Punch was similarly treated, her
new steel boilers having a pressure of 25 lbs. to the square
inch, and at the same time she was given new engines and a
thorough overhaul of her hull which ran the firm into a bill
of £2,500. The Times, on the other hand, was adjudged to be
past further patching and was sold to Stewarts, the engineers,
106 HUNDRED YEARS [1887

to be broken up at their yard during- a slack period when they

wanted to keep their workmen together.
The Hibernia carried out some very useful contracts for
the towing of dredging material both in 1886 and the following
year. They began with the dredger Portugal from Amster¬
dam to Oporto, followed by the Rotterdam from the Hook of
Holland to Passajes in Spain, and later a dredger and three
barges from Antwerp to Lisbon. The Anglia towed the tug
Werkerdam and a lighter from Dover to Aviles for dredging
work.
There were two noteworthy salvages; in the case of the
sailing ship Western Monarch which stranded near Dunge-
ness the Victor was awarded £1,000 by the Court, while the
work on the steamer Persian Monarch, ashore on Portland
breakwater, was arranged by tides with her owners, who were
towing clients in the river. The Renown went down with
pumps and other gear and rendered her all the assistance
possible, finally towing her off the breakwater and clear of her
consort Grecian Monarch. Unfortunately Watkins had to
arrest the ship to ensure their getting the salvage. A week
later the owners went into the bankruptcy court, an unlimited
company largely financed in Nonconformists circles in the
North, whose failure brought distress to many small homes.

Towards the end of 1887 the Atlas, which had been dry-
docked for survey, was found to require so much work that her
owners decided that it was not worth while and she was
accordingly sold to the scrappers.
Her sale was the only change made in the fleet during the
year which was principally interesting for a number of rather
unusual charters. The India was taken up to carry passen¬
gers from the I resh Wharf by London Bridge, round the
Victoria and Albert Docks and then down to the new docks at
Tilbury, which were inspected before she returned to London
Bridge. The Royal Naval Review at Spithead on the occasion
of Queen Victoria’s jubilee brought a good deal of business
to Watkins. Mr. William Watkins invited a large party of
1887 ] OF TOW AGE 107

guests to see the display from the Anglia, while the Cambria
was chartered by Mr. Maudslay, the famous Thameside
engineer, to carry his friends for the same purpose. The
Burmah was taken up on a daily rate attending on the P. & 0.
Liners Rome and Victoria, the latter the latest unit in their
fleet, which were attending the display with large parties on
hoard.
On the occasion of important yacht races in and around
Gravesend, including those to Harwich and Dover, the
Tasmania, India and Canada were taken up to carry the
committee and sightseers and for two months at the end of
the year the Tasmania was chartered, the charterer finding
coals and one hand with local knowledge, for towing fishing
smacks in and out of the port of Yarmouth. The Canada was
chartered for attending on the dredger Dublin which was at
w’ork improving the port of Holyhead and towing the hopper
barges out of the harbour to deposit their spoil. This job
lasted well into the following year. The Anglia was again
chartered for telegraph service, this time by Siemens, to lay
cables from Penzance and was so satisfactory that she was
again taken up in 1889 and 1890, in each case longish jobs
which were particularly welcome to the ships’ company with
every night “ in ” and a day’s rest whenever there was the
least sign of bad weather. Tugmen were not used to that
sort of thing in the ’eighties and they appreciated it
accordingly.
During 1887 the Cambria was arrested at Cherbourg on
a charge of violating the French law which reserved all their
coastal trade to French ships, an offence that was committed
quite unwittingly through the fault of the French agent. She
had only towed a vessel from Dunkirk, but the event caused a
great stir at the time and some enterprising firm in Paris ran
special excursions down to view “ the bold smuggler.” There
was no need for any such fuss and the matter was soon closed.
A good deal more dredger towing came the way of the
firm, particularly in connection with the work going on at
io8 HUNDRED YEARS [1887

Lisbon. The Hibernia took a dredger and three hoppers from

Antwerp to the Tagus in July and in the following year a big
lighter, while the Columbia and Zealandia took a dredger and
three hoppers from Port au Bassin. Otherwise the most note¬
worthy long tow was the Hibernia’s job of taking the steamer
Neutwater from Sables D’Olonne to Newcastle-on-Tyne.
When the steamer Chateau Margaux, 3,109 tons, was
reported overdue in the bay of Biscay it was the Anglia which
was sent out to search for her for ten days, but before wireless
it was like looking for a needle in a haystack and eventually
the Cunarder Atlas happened upon her quite by chance
wallowing without a propeller and towed her in to Queenstown.
In the case of the steamer Charles Morand ashore on the
Black Tail Sand the Tasmania and Renown were sent down
from London by the tide, the Tasmania worked for three and
the Renown for four tides on this basis, but in addition the
latter got a fee for finally towing the ship off the sand.
The troubles of the Red Star Liner Waesland, originally
the crack Cunarder Russia of twenty years before, resulted in
a total salvage award of £2,100, of which the Burmah, the only
Watkins’ tug to be present, received £600 as her share. Later
the North German Lloyd Liner Werra was in trouble, on
which occasion the Victor had the luck to be one of three ships
employed, the others being one of the Dover Harbour tugs
and a rival from Gravesend. £750 came her way for that
work.
In 1887 also a very minor job, but rather an interesting
one, came to Watkins’ fleet and was to continue for many
years afterwards. The disposal of contraband tobacco which
was not worth selling or sending to the workhouses was always
something of a problem to the Customs authorities and they
finally decided to throw it into the sea, chartering tugs for the
purpose. Several Gravesend tugs had already done this work
but in this year they started favouring Watkins by hiring the
little Malta. Customs officials went down stream in her to
the Nore to make sure that none of the tobacco was landed.
 OF TOWAGE 109
1888-9]

although by the time the department had decided that it was

too had even to he sent to the workhouses it would have wanted
a very brave man to have smoked it, and as soon as the ebb
began it was dumped overboard into the water to be carried
out into the North Sea.
Two of the tugs were disposed of in October, 1888. The
Malta, bought two years previously as Gibb’s Benachie,
broke her port paddle shaft in September, and as she lay
waiting for it to be repaired she attracted a Newcastle tug-
owner and was sold for £1,350. In the same month the Titan
was sold to John Batey of North Shields, whose particular
business on the narrow northern rivers found good use for
small paddle tugs, and after spending a good deal of money
on her and improving her in various ways he found employ¬
ment for her for many years afterwards.
The Canada had the engines which were compounded in
1884 converted into triple expansions in this year and at the
same time was given new boilers. Although she was only a
small tug she had been worked very hard and her boilers had
not received the kindest treatment; few tug boilers did, for
that matter. On the salvage side the steamer Akaba employed
a number of tugs but the Columbia was the only one of
Watkins’ fleet to be concerned, receiving £1,600 out of a total
of £5 000 The only long tow of interest during the war was
the steamer Malek, 1,553 tons, which the Hibernia towed
from Gibraltar to London without a propeller, but by that time
the fees for such work were being cut into badly with increas¬
ing competition.
If the year 1888 was a comparatively uneventful one, 18851
was certainly busy. Four very useful tugs were added to the
fleet.
Two of them were sister ships, the Mercia and Burma,
the changed spelling of the latter name preventing confusion
with the paddler sold at the same time, and were iron screw
tugs with a gross tonnage of rather less than 100 and very
economical triple expansion engines. They were built on the
no HUNDRED YEARS [1889

Thames by Westwood, Baillies and intended primarily for

river work, although like the Canada they proved themselves
capable of doing a lot of outside jobs and doing them well in
spite of their small size.

The third was a much more noteworthy vessel and was,

indeed as conspicuous in her day as the Anglia had been
twenty odd years previously. She was the twin-screw
Oceana, built by Gourley and Company of Dundee, the onU
twin screw tug that the firm ever owned themselves and the
biggest and most powerful on the London River. She had a
gross tonnage of 311, which was exceptionally large for any
British tug at that time, and powerful compound engines.
Originally she had two tall masts but the mainmast proved
very inconvenient by catching in the rigging of sailing ships
when she was coming alongside them on seeking work, and it
was accordingly unshipped. With the two masts she was an
exceptionally fine-looking vessel and although rather unhandy,
as was only to be expected from her size, she was very powerful
and a magnificent sea boat. As befitted a vessel which was
specially designed to tackle long tows she had excellent
accommodation, the crew forward and the officers aft, and
although Watkins never repeated the experiment of her
construction she was an undoubted sucess. Her first master,
who had her for some years, was Captain George Buchan.

There are many photographs and pictures of the Oceana

extant which show her with a white hull, and she carried this
for several years. Originally, however, it was painted
AY atkins’ ordinary black, being changed for a tropical job and
looking so well that it was allowed to remain.

The fourth tug was a purchase and entered the Watkins’

fleet as Guiana. Originally she was the Plymouth tug Power
and fully lived up to her name, but shortly before she entered
YVatkins’ fleet she had been bought by a syndicate of Graves¬
end interests headed by Mr. Tolhurst, the solicitor, and it was
from him that she was bought by Watkins.
 OF TOWAGE
hi

OCEANA: THE FIRM'S FIRST TWIN SCREW TUG BUILT FOR OCEAN WORK.
112 HUNDRED YEARS [1889

Her engines were peculiar, and before installation had

aroused great interest in the engineering section of the
Bristol Exhibition. It was maintained that two cylinders out
of the three could break down and the third drive her at slow
speed with perfect comfort, but this necessitated complications
in the engine room that were not at all desirable in a tug and
in any circumstances the object could not have been attained
after a few years’ service.
As soon as the Oceana was delivered she was fixed up for
the job of towing the ship Cape of Good Hope from Leith to
London, a job that was not soon forgotten by those who went
down in her. Every possible trouble was encountered but
the work was carried through safely and the ship delivered.
Almost immediately afterwards she was sent down to Lisbon
to pick up the steamer Argentino, of 1,432 tons, and tow her
to Sharpness.
In consequence of the advent of this new tonnage the
Burmaii, one of the purchased Ben tugs and sister to the Iona,
was sold to Bilbao owners for rather less than £3,000 and was
renamed Bilbao. Before she went, however, she carried out
a very useful job at tidal rates, taking down boilers, pump
and salvage gear to the ship Sir W. Raleigh, stranded near
Cape Gris Nez, and helping her afloat.

In spite of the fact that the Jubilee Year of Queen

\ ictoria, 1887, had been made the occasion of a Naval display
at Spithead in which all the naval might of Britain was
collected, including a few ships which had to be fitted with
wooden “ Quaker ” guns in order to make a show, another
was held in 1889 in honour of the visit of the late Kaiser
Wilhelm II of Germany, accompanied by a section of his very
new fleet. The P. & 0. Company sent the liners Oceana,
Oriental, and Massilia down with passengers and the
Cambria was chartered to attend to these, while the Btjrmah
went down to look after the Orient Liner Ormuz.
One job which the Columbia got during this year was a
good example of the way British tugs benefitted by the French
1889] OF TOWAGE ii3

subsidy bill of 1881, which offered generous help to sailing

ships though the Navigation Bounty paid at so much per ton
per hundred miles travelled, irrespective of purpose. The
only proviso that was made was that they should call in at a
French port with the result that “ subsidy jobs ” were
eagerly anticipated by all the tugs as the payment from the
State was so generous that their owners did not worry very
much about the expenses of getting it. On this occasion the
Columbia picked up the French sailing ship Dunquerque, of
3,100 tons, at sea and towed her in to Havre in order that she
might qualify for the bounty before taking her on to Cardiff
which was the port to which she really wanted to go in the
first place in order to pick up a carg'o. This was only one job
out of many of this kind and when the subsidy act was revised
in 1893 it was of still greater benefit to the tugs.

On the salvage side the most conspicuous operation was

the way in which the gallant old Cambria saved the Anderson,
Webster barque Mandalay from the Goodwins after 36 hours
particularly hard work, a job for which she was afterwards
rewarded with £750. This award seems little enough when
one considers the difficulty and danger of the operation and
the real gallantry displayed by all hands when they hung on
to her after they had every excuse to let go and think about
their own safety.
Most of the other salvage jobs of the year were under
the tidal agreement with the Salvage Association, including
the cases of the sailing ship Benavon ashore on the Dutch coast
near Scheveningen which employed the India and Victoria,
the 1,790-ton steamer Principia which stranded on Coal House
Point and required the exertions of the Anglia, Cambria, Vic¬
tor, Bobert Bruce and Victoria to salve her, the steamer
Astronomer ashore on the Blyth Sand which was refloated
by the Scotia and Iona, and the 1,151-ton steamer Hasland
which stranded near Limehouse and employed the Canada,
Britannia, Renown and Punch. In all these cases, it may
be mentioned, Watkins’ operations were successful.
114 HUNDRED YEARS [1889

The end of the decade saw Watkins’ business in a very

good position, for their reputation was higher than it had ever
been and they had a large number of very noteworthy jobs to
their credit to commend them to underwriters and brokers
while their reliability kept them good friends with the owners
whose ships they handled regularly under contract. Their
fleet was in the transition state it is true, and some of the older
units were showing signs of age, but it included the finest tugs
on the River Thames and the personnel was second to none.
At the same time they had to face more competition than ever.
Many of their old rivals on the London River had collapsed and
gone under, but their places had been taken by firms which
were at least equally enterprising. In addition there was
competition for the sailing ship business from owners on tlie
continent who had never been seriously considered before, but
who were now beginning to nibble at the business which the
British firms had regarded as their freehold.
1890] OF TOWAGE 115

CHAPTER VI

“ THE NINETSES 55
The last decade of the Nineteenth Century began with the
construction of the Nubia, a further development of the
Canada type. She was a very economical little steel screw tug
drawing 11 feet of water, having quite powerful triple expan¬
sion engines which at 135 lbs. pressure only demanded 6 cwt.
of coal per hour while towing a 900-ton ship against light
head winds. She was an exceedingly useful all round tug;
under Captain Morris, her first master, she did quite a lot of sea
work and in the river she was sufficiently powerful and handy
to tackle practically any job that might come her way. The
famous “ Jubilee ” ships of the P. and 0. Line for instance,
the latest vessels to be added to their fleet, were very much
bigger than their predecessors and wanted a good deal of
manoeuvring to get comfortably up to and into the Albert
Dock, for that was before the terminal of the company had
been transferred to Tilbury and the ship channel up to Wool¬
wich was not dredged as it is today.
1890 was a very successful year for the new Oceana in
long-distance towing, although the prices were not as good as
they might have been. She began by towing the steamer
Connemara without power from Dungeness to Swansea.
Another job was to take the dredger Alexandra from Milford
Haven to Gibraltar in the month of February. That was a
very ticklish job indeed, for the Alexandra was very short and
awkwardly built and her crew had a terrible time when at sea.
Before the Oceana picked her up she had been seven weeks
trving to make the passage from Greenock to Milford under
her own steam. The Oceana contracted to tow her to Gibraltar,
Malta or Alexandria, but the dredger’s people paid her off at
n6 HUNDRED YEARS [1890-1

Gibraltar and considered that they could do the remainder of

the voyage by themselves, a decision which they afterwards
haci good reason to regret.
She went down to Teneriffe to pick up Stephens’ 1,558 ton
steamer Mimosa to London by way of Madeira and Lisbon and
she also towed the steamer Stakesby, 1,421 tons, from Lisbon
to Rotterdam.
In 1891 Mr. .John Stewart Watkins, son of Mr. William
Watkins, joined the firm after having had a spell in the whole¬
sale seed business. Although he came into the family concern
a little later in life than some of his relatives, he was very
keen on the river side from the first and was later to become
the head of the firm, as he is at the present time. When he
joined the firm he went down to Blackwall to learn the business
thoroughly, moving to Nelson House on the dock side to which
his father had moved when he was only six weeks old and in
which he had spent a large part of his boyhood. He immedi¬
ately relieved his brother William of the “ tide work ” there,
routing the various tugs and apportioning their work. Mr.
William Junior, who had been covering the engineering side
under Mr. Alfred Watkins for some time past, was thus able
to devote himself solely to the machinery which he loved.

In addition to his towing interests Mr. John Watkins

takes a very keen personal interest in the little farm around
his home at Staplehurst in Kent, a home which has been
described as the ideal country house, and is a very keen Livery¬
man of the City of London and a prominent officer, Past
Master, of the Vintners’ Company.
On the material side it was necessary to spend a good deal
of money on the old paddlers in order to keep them well up to
their work, the Cambria being re-boilered and having large
repairs, and the Iona, originally one of the Ben tugs, having
over £3,000 spent 011 her until her owners were at length
satisfied that she was well up to Watkins’ standard and would
not let them down. The Scotia, which had proved a great
success with the sailing ships, was sold to owners in Havre for
SALVAGE SERVICE : THE “ CAMBRIA ” AT WORK ON A WRECK.
1891] OF TOWAGE n7

£3,250, by no means a bad price considering her age and how

hard she had been worked. For a time she flew the French
flag as the Surcouf, but in 1900 she hoisted the Red Ensign
again and was destined eventually to come back to Watkins*
interests in a rather peculiar way that will be recounted later.

The India was a magnificent little ship in some ways but

she always felt her lack of power in “ seeking ” for the biggest
sailing ships, while she was far too good to spend all her time
on the river or “ onker ” services. In the summer of 1891
an idea came to her owners for her profitable utilisation. She
had a good speed, good appearance and roomy decks; her
accommodation below deck was not sumptuous but was suffi¬
cient. A little bar was very easily installed under the bridge
and she went down to Margate to carry excursionists for trips
to sea from the jetty. Naturally the local interests were very
jealous of this intrusion but she was a success from the first
and carried a large number of trippers in this and the succeed¬
ing years. Incidentally, she was handy for the salvage oppor¬
tunities which were always likely to crop up between the South
Goodwin and the Nore and she made the very most of them.
The fleet had a very unfortunate year for accidents.
During 1891 the Tasmania was sunk by the steamer Bengal,
the Oceana was sunk by one steamer and the India off Shoe-
buryness by another vessel. In each case they were salved
without difficulty and repaired without delay, rejoining the
fleet little or none the worse for their adventures. But three
accidents of that sort in a year was something like a record
for the firm. In each case, it may be mentioned, the W atkins
tug was not to blame; the India, for instance, being hit by a
steam collier which was economising by running through a
main traffic channel without her side lights.
On the Other hand, some very profitable business came to
the tugs. The Oceana carried out a seven weeks’ telegraph
charter for Messrs. Siemens at a good rate with the charterer
paying for various extras, and was so successful working on the
cable off Sennen Cove that she became a great favourite with
n8 HUNDRED YEARS [1891-2

the firm and was again chartered in 1892 and 1894. The crew
thoroughly enjoyed this wTork. When there was any sea
running there was a day’s holiday and being landed to dig sand
to make a trench for the cable, with the charterers paying for
all such extra work, made a very welcome change from the
routine towing job.

Among the salvage services for the year were the help
given to the Cockerill Company’s steamer Prince Philippe,
when the Anglia and Hibernia drew an award from the
Courts, while the Iona and Hibernia afterwards arranged for
the job of towing her from the Downs to Antwerp. She was
a steamer of 1,735 tons gross.

When the Ariadne was in distress at the beginning of

December the Burma and Mercia joined in the salvage and
got nearly two-thirds of the total award. Then on the last day
of 1891 and New Year’s day 1892 the firm’s tugs were parti¬
cularly busy on salvage work. The sailing ship Warwick¬
shire, G47 tons gross, stranded and wanted the help of the
Anglia and Robert Bruce, and it was so promptly and
effectively granted that the courts made an award of £2,250,
while the boatmen "who also assisted received £750. On the
same day the American four-masted schooner Maria 0. Teel
got into difficulties and was helped by the Victor, who received
£350 salvage.

1892 was particularly interesting for another diversion

from the ordinary business of towing. The India had done
so well on the Margate excursion service that the firm deter¬
mined to build the Cynthia ; she was an excursion steamer pure
and simple and not a tug which acted as a passenger carrier in
the summei while fulfilling’ her normal functions in the winter,
as so many people suppose. She was built at Eltringliam’s
yard at South Shields, one of the prettiest little paddle
steamers ever built and with her iron hull a real seaboat instead
of being one of the “ paper boats ” which such ships are
generally supposed to be. Watkins tugs were all magnifi-
1892] OF TOW AGE 1x9

cently built and it would liave been against tbe grain for them
to commission anything flimsy.
Altogether she cost over £8,000, which, considering her
size, was proof that she had good work in her. She drew
6 feet 10 inches with full bunkers, 48 tons, and according to
all reckonings she should have been a great success running
between the Kentish coastal resorts and across the Channel to
the French ports. Unfortunately she met the fate of so many
other vessels which have attempted to run a single-ship
service, no matter whether it is on the Atlantic Ferry or the
Margate excursion traffic, and paid very poorly. During the
winter months she was laid up in the JYest India Dock while
rival vesels like the Conqueror earned their keep by towing
and the purely excursion steamers alongside her all belonged
to fleets which could make far better use of the opportunities
of the summer season. In spite of this lack of financial profit,
however, she was exceedingly popular and an excellent little
ship which survives to this day in Irish waters despite many
adventures which include sinking at her anchors in a hurri¬
cane.
The Cynthia’s first captain was “ Old ” Jack Jones,
invariably so called to distinguish him from Young Jack
Jones.
In spite of the money spent on her the Robert Bruce had
been giving’ a good deal of boiler trouble and it was found that
to put things absolutely right would be an expensive job. She
was according^ laid aside in 1892 and sold to Castles for £180
to be broken up. Instead of doing so they took the engines
and boilers out, containing much valuable metal, and resold
the hull to the Port Sanitary Authority of London who moored
it off Gravesend as the medical hulk Hygeia. She was capable
of doing this work for nearly twenty years, not being broken
up until 1910 when she was replaced by the present ex-
schooner.
Although the idea of building the Cynthia had been due
to the success of the India, and it was intended that she should
120 HUNDRED YEARS [1892-3

replace that ship which was after all only a makeshift, the
India was again fitted out for passenger work in 1892, not
doing such ambitious trips as the Cynthia, and still enjoyed
her full measure of popularity with the Margate holiday¬
maker.
A tow which attracted very great attention in 1892 was
in August when the Oceana was commissioned to take Nelson’s
famous old line-of-battleship Foudroyant from Plymouth to
shipbreakers at Swinemunde to be broken up. It will be re¬
membered that the sale of such an historic ship to be broken
up in Germany, with whom there was already beginning to be
a certain amount of feeling, aroused great indignation and
public opinion forced the Admiralty to rescind the sale and
reimburse the buyers. The Oceana was then sent out to
Swinemunde to bring her back to the West India Dock, and
under the affectionate care of the late Mr. Wheatley Cobb she
was restored to something like her original form as an
exhibition ship until she was wrecked off Blackpool some five
years later.
There were a certain number of longish tows during the
year 1892 but it is principally noteworthy for its salvages.
The steamer Eton, one of the earliest tankers, was ashore on
the Goodwins and was refloated principally by the agency of
the Cambria and Canada, which received £950 and £350
respectively. The salvage of the sailing ship Cosmo brought
a fair award to the Guiana ; another came to the Hibernia for
the Eggeestone Abbey case. The Oceana received £075 for
salving the Theana, and in the case of the sailing ship Glen-
cairn the Iona and Mercia divided £650.

Although sea-going screw tugs had been very steadily

rmpioved since the days of the Canada, most of them had been
•on the small side, but when, in 1893, Watkins went to Ander¬
son Laverick and Company for the Scotia it was for a rather
more ambitious ship with a gross tonnage of 136. The story
of her construction is rather curious for Messrs. Stewart, who
had done so much busines for Watkins since their early days,
 OF TOWAGE 121
1893]

had the misfortune to have left on their hands a very fine set
of tug- engines, said to he the finest ever constructed for that
type of vessel. The Scotia’s hull was built to take this
machinery and although it was a somewhat unorthodox way of
getting a new tug her owners never had any reason to
complain, for she was a splendid little ship and did an immense
amount of work.
In 1893 they disposed of the hulk Black Prince, the
second of the name it will be remembered. A movement was
on foot to start a cooperative bunkering scheme among the
tug owners and Messrs. Watkins were persuaded, somewhat
against their better judgment, to come into this scheme instead
of doing their own bunkering as they had for several years
past. Great economies were promised, and these were no
doubt effected, but the satisfaction of having their own supply
was missed for a long time afterwards. As for the hulk, she
only fetched <£35 from Castles, the scrappeis.
The Trench subsidy law which had been passed in 1881
was drastically revised in 1893 and brought the tugowners,
particularly Watkins on account of their reputation for long
distance work, any amount of extra jobs. First there was the
demand for tugs to tow the sailing ships to a French port in
order that they might qualify for the subsidy when their
business did not take them there at all—scarcely the purpose
for which the subsidy was intended—secondly the payment was
so generous that there was no inclination towards strict
economy and thirdly there was the fact that, owing to very
serious mistakes in drafting the law, it paid French ship¬
owners very much better to get ships built in British yards and
then towed uncompleted across to France in order to draw the
equipment and navigation bounties. Watkins had always
done a good deal of business with our neighbours across the-
Channel' and they took every advantage of this new oppor¬
tunity.
They were also just as ready to tackle jobs of an unusual
nature as they always had been. The Manchester Ship Canal
122 HUNDRED YEARS [1893-4

was nearing completion and although there were few who

would have dared to prophesy anything like its present
standard of business, the canal authorities were very anxious
to have it well equipped and they began by installing floating
docks for their own vessels. There were two of them to be
towed round from Shields to Ellesmere Port and the Hibernia
and Guiana were told off to do the job, the first in 1893 and
the second in the following year. In the long towing business
the Oceana was sent down to Ferrol to pick up the disabled
steamer Turbo and take her to Liverpool; it was a job which
only secured a small fee because she was in a state to help with
her engines occasionally, but the Oceana was economical
enough to show a fair return for it. The sailing ship Cortez
from Plymouth to Hamburg by the Hibernia, and the disabled
North German Lloyd Liner Eider from Southampton to
Gravesend for repairs after her stranding on the Isle of Wight
by the Anglia, Cambria and Victor were other jobs during
the year which are still remembered.
On the salvage side there were two useful ventures under
the tidal contract and one which was rewarded by the Court.
The t ictor was sent across to Boulogne when the steamer
\ alkyrie stranded there and attempted to tow her off, while
the Tasmania found a job on her own doorstep when she was
taken up by the Salvage Association and successfully refloated
the steamer Lumley which had gone ashore at Erith.
A case that was outside the agreement with the Salvage
Association was that of the big Beaver Line steamer Lake
Ontario in February, when she got into trouble and had the
luck to be seen by the Victor and Zealandia which were out
seeking, a very smart little job earning an award of £700.

I he Scotia, whose somewhat unorthodox manner of con¬

struction has been mentioned under the previous year, was
delivered in 1894 and immediately showed herself to be an
exceedingly useful tug, an excellent sea boat which towed well
and whose extra tonnage was very well worth while by the
-extra work that she was able to tackle. She was first com-
1894] OF TOWAGE 123

manded by Captain Fitch for a short time but he soon passed

on to another job and was succeeded by Captain William
Anning who had her for several years. No matter what master
has been in command, and the old Scotia has had a good many
in her time, she has always proved a most satisfactory vessel
in every way and had a considerable influence on the design of
the tugs which followed her.
At the same time there was a general modernisation of the
fleet which cost a lot of money but which increased its earning
capacity. The Columbia was given new boilers and had her
engines tripled at Stewart’s yard, the work keeping her off
service from April to June, while the Burma and Guiana
were reboilered in the ordinary way. The Tasmania was re-
boilered and at the same time given iron bulwarks in place
of the wooden ones that she had formerly carried, a deck house
which greatly improved her comfort, and many other altera¬
tions. The Mercia was given a new boiler made by Eltring-
hams on the North East Coast and installed by Stewarts on the
Thames, her pressure being increased to 160 lbs. to the square
inch. The Nubia, which had only been on service for four
years, had her original boiler replaced by one taken from the
Mustang and thoroughly repaired. The result was a very
distinct improvement in the efficiency of the fleet but it was
an expensive business.
At the same time three of the old favourites were sold.
The Victor had been worked very hard in all weathers
throughout her long life and was now beginning to get very
shaky, so that she was taken off service and laid up at Black-
wall until a buyer should present himself. Castles, the
scrappers, bought her almost immediately but it was only for
£200. On the other hand the India was a much newer ship
and in far better condition, but she did not suit Watkins’
strenuous work so well on account of the original mistake of
underpowering her for the sake of economy. She fetched
£1,000 from Constants, no bad price considering that the
paddle tug was coming to be regarded as obsolete, and after a,
124
HUNDRED YEARS [1894

■spell of further work on the Thames under Spicer’s flag she

went to the Tees, where paddle tugs still have a fine oppor¬
tunity owing to the impossibility of using sizeable screws
on quite a number of jobs, and did good work until she was
made into a hulk in 1904. Her owners may have made some
error of judgment in designing her machinery when she was
new in the ’seventies, but they certainly did not begrudge
money on good construction, as has been proved by her long
life.
Most famous of all was the Anglia, pioneer of the real
long-distance tugs. Since she was built in the sixties engine
•design had been revolutionised and no paddle tug e\ei designed
could stow the coal to carry out the jobs that were bj then
coming the way of the owners, especially not at the prices that
had to be accepted. So the splendid old ship was condemned
as obsolete and was sold to Constants at the same time as the
India. But it was not to be the end of her career by any
means. Despite its age and the hard work that it had done
her hull was still in wonderful condition. Messrs. Palmers,
the shipbuilders and ironworkers on the North East Coast,
■examined her very carefully and decided that she was well
worth buying. They scrapped her engines, boilers and
paddles and converted the hull into a towing lighter to carry
their iron from the Tees to the Tyne. She was still in com¬
mission when war broke out and throughout the struggle was
kept busily employed working backwards and forwards
between the North East Coast and France, generally in tow of
a French man-of-war, carrying coal for our Allies’ munitions
works and railways.
Cable repairs off Finisterre by the Telegraph Construction
and Maintenance Company gave ivork to the Columbia, firstly
for taking the cable out there and then acting as a telegraph
•ship while the work was being done.

Towing jobs between Britain and the various points in

Europe were getting so usual by 1894 that they do not call for
.any special comment, but the Oceana had to go down to Las
1894] OF TOWAGE 125

Palmas to pick up the disabled Donald Currie Liner Dunbar,

Castle which had broken her shaft and to tow her to the East
India Dock for discharge and repairs. Another job which fell
to her lot was the steamer Tanicerville from Lisbon to St.
Nazaire.
1894 was a particularly satisfactory year for salvage, and
Watkins’ tugs were well to the fore. They began in January
when the Columbia helped the tugs of other concerns in the
salvage of Shaw Savill and Albion’s four masted barque
Lindfield, a particularly praiseworthy piece of work for which
the Court first awarded no less than £7,500. Unfortunately
this was cut down to £5,000 by the Court of Appeal,
Watkins’ share being thus reduced from £2,500 to £1,700,
although nobody denied the excellent way in which the work
had been done.
When the steamer Netley went ashore at Harwich the
Renown and Scotia were chartered to help her under the old
tidal agreement and got her off safely. The Hibernia was
awarded £1,425 for the salvage of the Hamburg American
Liner Steiniioft in which she was lucky in that she happened
to be lying in Dartmouth Harbour when the big ship stranded
in Start Bay during a fog. A messenger on horseback carried
the news and by prompt action and splendid handling the
Hibernia was able to prevent the liner, which had over 150
passengers on board at the time, either embedding herself in
the sand or breaking her bottom plating or back in the heavy
sea that was running. The Scotia picked up £225 for the
salvage of the Emma Parker, the small amount being due to
her small tonnage, and the Tasmania and Mercia finished up
the year satisfactorily by an excellent award for their assist¬
ance to the sailing ship Firth of Solway, the Tasmania
getting two-thirds and the Mercia one-third.
The Tower Bridge was opened in June 1894 and the little
old Punch was the first merchant ship to pass through on her
commercial work after the bridge was declared open, following
close under the stern of the Trinity House yacht Irene.
126 HUNDRED YEARS [i895

On the personal side 1895 was marked by the retirement

of Mr. Alfred Watkins, grandson of the founder, who had
joined the firm in 1876 and had always interested himself in
questions of material. His influence, and his brilliant ideas
in naval architecture, were to continue in the firm although
they were occasionally too ambitious and expensive for a tug
company.
Two excellent ships were added to the fleet, one of which
was to sell at a very good price and the other to have a long
life. They were the Manila and the Arcadia, steel screw
tugs with a gross tonnage of 180 which was considered large
for river work, built at Hull and driven by triple expansion
engines. The sailorman will always maintain that a ship’s
utility goes with her appearance, in which case the remarkable
success of these ships was amply justified by their looks,
for they were very handsome vessels, sitting the water like
seabirds. They were also splendid sea boats and could ride
through anything, while the Arcadia was proverbially lucky
with salvage services, no matter who her master might be, and
paid for herself many times over in that way.

Curiously enough she began her career with an incident

which, according to sea superstition, should have blighted her
luck for the whole of her life. While the builders’ men were
still in charge on her preliminary trials a very awkward revers¬
ing gear, from which trouble had already been prophesied, sent
her full speed ahead instead of full speed astern and she hit a
stone wall sufficiently hard to shift her boiler bodily and to
delay her delivery by several weeks.
The advent of these two new ships was balanced to a
certain extent by the sale in April of the Mercia. In spite of
the fact that she was capable of doing excellent work and had
just cost a good deal of money for new boilers, the Manchester
Ship Canal authorities put forward such a tempting offer that
she left the river. It was more than the sum at which she
stood in W atkins’ books, but her long life and excellent towing
THE THIRD GENERATION: ALFRED WATKINS.
I^95] OF TOWAGE 12 7

power have since then given her purchasers no reason to be

discontented with their bargain.
The Canada was reboilered for the second time in 15 years,
and the expense to which the firm was constantly put for new
boilers showed one of the inherent weaknesses of the towing
business. The nature of the work puts a tremendous strain on
the boiler and the nature of the labour employed firing it did
not always help, although the pick of the firemen worked their
way up to be excellent tug engineers and could not be beaten
for their particular work.
But the decision to give the Hibernia a boiler taken out
of her sister the Columbia was undoubtedly a mistake. It
had been given a new inside and was passed by the engineers
as being as good as new, but as soon as it was installed the
Hibernia’s people had a different story to tell and it was not
nearly as good as the one that had been taken out. Soon after
it was installed she was towing the sailing ship Winlatter
when it gave out completely, as it had already done several
times, and the sailing ship towed the tug for nearly a day in
order to make sure of not losing her.
In November the famous old Punch was sold to owners in
North Shields and the fact that no less than £1,600 was paid
for a ship of her age shows how well she had been kept up
under Watkins’ flag. But she was far from being worn out,
for although she changed hands several times in the North she
was kept hard at work until October 1911 when she was sunk
in collision off Shields and although salved was scrapped
immediately afterwards.
The Great Frost on the Thames in the early days of 1895
caused serious inconvenience to the towing business. The
paddle tugs were being concentrated more and more on the
river, where their power of going full speed astern at a
moment’s notice was fully appreciated by those who had
to handle ships in awkward corners, while the far more
economical screw boats were doing more of the seeking and
coastal work outside. But it was impossible to run the paddle
128 HUNDRED YEARS [i895

tugs with so much ice on the water and several of them were
forced to lie up in the various docks, while the Nubia and other
screw tugs were recalled from seeking to take their places.

A good example of the way Watkins’ men carried out the

firms’ proud tradition when they were towing a ship was given
in this year, when the Oceana agreed to tow the steamer
Ganges from Corcubion Bay to Havre. Off Brest they
encountered an Easterly gale. The tug could stand it all right
and her tow, although in sad plight, was also coming through
it well enough when the tow-rope parted and in the darkness
it was imposible for them to keep touch. The steamer was
blown away bodily to the Westward with the tug vainly trying
to find her and was finally picked up and taken into Queens¬
town. Thither the Oceana traced her and delivered her safely
according to contract. Another long tow was the steamer
Orion from Yigo to the Tyne by the Columbia.
But 1895 was primarily a salvage year and Watkins’ tugs
did particularly well. In February the Scotia and Mercia
went to the help of the sailing ship Oronsay, for which the
Court later awarded <£600, two-thirds to go to the Scotia and
one-third to the Mercia. In the case of the Lady TV olseley
the Ramsgate tug Aid and two life-boats were having more
than they wanted to do and were assisted by the Burma and
Zealandia, the Nubia later coming up. For this service the
two first-named Watkins’ tugs received £400 each, while the
crew of the Nubia were encouraged with £15.
But the little Nubia had better luck in the case of the sailing
ship Alexander Yates, one of the fine softwood vessels built
in New Brunswick in the ’seventies, who was sheltering in
West Bay, Dungeness, after having refused the Nubia’s offer
to tow her up to the London River. She reckoned that tugs
would soon be congregating there and that she would have her
chance to get a very cheap tow, but it came on to blow hard
and she dragged her anchors until she was in very serious
danger. Then the Nubia appeared and the sailing ship was
only too glad of her assistance helped by the Gravesend tug
1895-6]
OF TOWAGE 129

Conqueror, tlie former being finally employed to tow her up

to Gravesend. The owners of the Alexander Tates—they
had only a short time previously bluffed two tugs into a £200
towing contract without their discovering that she had lost
one anchor, was dragging the other and had smashed her
windlass—paid £1,065 into court but this offer was refused
and quite a good award was finally obtained.
The year finished up with a very meritorious salvage case
on Boxing Day, when the 1,057-ton German barque Atalanta
outward bound with a general cargo, got ashore on the Long
Sand in very bad weather. The Nubia and Cambria heard
of the incident and immediately hurried to her assistance,
other tugs and lifeboats later joining them. They had five
days’ hard work in the worst of weather, made more
difficult and dangerous by the fact that the Atalanta
had jettisoned a number of iron rods which were sticking
upright out of the sand and threatened to go through the
bottom of any tug in the neighbourhood. Finally they got
her off the sand and up to Gravesend leaking badly, for which
a total salvage of £2,200 was awarded, Watkins’ two boats
receiving £566 13s. 4d. each.
The most interesting change in the fleet m 1896 was the
company’s decision to get out of the excursion business. The
little Cynthia was fitted out for the passenger service and had
run for a week at Margate when they got a good offer for her
from South Shields and immediately decided to accept it. She
afterwards came back to the London River and was on various
services before going to Dublin, where she foundered in a gale
as recently as the beginning of 1933 and when brought to the
surface was found to have her hull in excellent condition.
But towing was a full-time job on the scale of Watkins
operations and there is no doubt that they were wise to devote
their whole attention to it.
The sisters Australia and Zealandia had never been
altogether satisfactory and in this year they were taken m
hand and practically reconstructed with numerous improve-
 130 HUNDRED YEARS [1896

ments and alterations which made for economy and added

efficiency. Externally the great change was that they lost
their two appallingly ugly tall funnels placed close together,
a feature which distinguished them from all other London
tugs, and instead were given a single stack each. In the
middle of August the Guiana, doing excellent work but still
rather foreign to Watkins’ normal practice, was taken off
service and sent to Eltringhams of South Shields to receive a
new boiler, various modifications to her engines and other work
which was completed in the first week of October and which
returned her a much more satisfactory tug.

At that time a lot of business was being done by the

owners of the “ convict ship ” Success which was exhibited
in various ports round the coast and always towed from place
to place by Watkins’ tugs. She began at St, Katherine’s
Lock, was shown at Gravesend, then went to Ramsgate and
Then on to Southampton and other centres, where she always
attracted attention by her fascinating but somewhat gruesome
exhibits and her wonderful history showing how she had been
built well back in the eighteenth century and had been used for
the transportation of felons to Australia in the bad old days.
As a matter of fact she was built at Moulmein in 1840 and her
nearest approach to being a convict ship was when she was a
hulk in Melbourne and was used as an overflow to the local
gaol for the accommodation of week-end “ drunks,” but that
was not generally known until later.

The Oceana undertook some profitable long tows the

dredger Xsmalia di Chio from Rotterdam to Ohio near Smyrna
and the Portuguese man-of-war Alfonso D’Albuquerque from
isbon to Bow Creek when she wanted reconstruction. The
Columbia picked up the steamer Orion at Vigo and towed her
to Wallsend while at the end of the year the two paddlers
L LlBERTY were towed from Erith to Las Palmas
by the Manila and Arcadia respectively. On the way home
the Manila was lucky enough to pick up the steamer Inga at
1897] OF TOWAGE 131

Vigo and tow her to Gravesend for a good fee but the Arcadia
had to come home light.
On the material side the only events of importance during
1897 were the reboilering of the Columbia by Stewarts, the
boiler installed in 1894 being anything but satisfactory, and
the sale of the Tasmania to Hill and Company of Liverpool in
the summer. They named her Heathercock and she proved
an exceedingly useful tug on the Mersey for some years before
she was sold to Scotland, where she is still active under the
ownership of the Leith Salvage and Towage Company.
Several interesting minor jobs were carried out. For the
Diamond Jubilee Naval Review at Spithead the old Iona was
chartered by the P. & 0. Company to attend on their steamers
that were carrying passengers and the Scotia was engaged for
the same purpose by the Glen Line which had sent down the
steamer Glenarthy. The Cambria went down with her owners’
own party of friends and much to the Navy’s annoyance she
managed to slip inside the patrol and followed the Royal
Yacht, at a respectful distance, right down the line of salut¬
ing warships.
The Oceana was chartered for a deep-sea oceanographical
expedition which sailed from Silvertown to the South Coast
of Ireland under Professor Murray with a party, returning to
Penarth. Her excellent sea-keeping qualities and good
accommodation made her very suitable for this work, which
was to have quite important scientific results.
For well over three months the Tilbury Lighterage
Company chartered the little Canada for towing hoppers and
lighters in connection with the dredging work necessitated by
the extension of the naval works at Devonport and the Cambria
was busy during the very extended trials of the Japanese
battleship Fuji, which had been built on the Thames and which
was the first capital ship of the new Navy which was to defeat
the Russians so decisively seven years later.
While the Dutch Government pilots off the Scheldt
were building a new steam cutter as an experiment, the Guiana
132 HUNDRED YEARS [1897

was chartered by them to carry on the service and to give them

experience; her handiness permitted her to do it very satis¬
factorily for a matter of six months at a price which fully
satisfied her owners.
In the long towing business there were several jobs that
were particularly noteworthy. When the New Zealand
Shipping Company’s liner Ruapehu was chartered to tow the
new floating dock out from the Tyne to Havana the Oceana,
as being the finest and most economical ocean-going tug
afloat at that time, was also chartered to help her, particularly
in the steering. The agreement was on a daily basis and
including detention at Havana she was employed for well over
two months, after which she ran home to Cardiff for a lump
sum.
Another job which she carried out during the year was to
tow the steamer European from Penarth to Madeira where
she was to be used as a hulk. The steamer Croft gave the
firm some useful work, the Columbia being sent out to Las
Palmas to tow her to Rotterdam for a good fee, after which she
went down to Lisbon and almost immediately afterwards
employed the Oceana to tow her to Liverpool. The Columbia
also towed the 2,298-ton Portuguese steamer Oevenum from
St. Michaels to Newport, Mon., and the Hibernia went down
to Lisbon and picked up the steamer Avalion for Hull. These
tows, it may be mentioned, were the pick of the long distance
business offered to European tugs during the year, for
Watkins’ name still stood pre-eminent in that business and
the Continental owners had not yet worked down their costs
to the low level which they afterwards contrived.
On the salvage side the tugs again distinguished them¬
selves. The Columbia, with the Shamrock of another owner¬
ship, helped the big Milburn steamer Port Victor after she
had been damaged by collision in the Channel. An award of
£2,200 was shared, but later they got a further award on the
Government stores which the ship was carrying at the time.
Another important case was when the Rangatira of the Shaw
1897-8] OF TOWAGE 133

Savill and Albion Line caught fire; the Cambria, Columbia

and Manila helped extinguish it and had no reason to be
dissatisfied with the return.
On the personal side the most interesting event was on
the last day of the year, when Captain George Wood was
transferred to the command of the Hibernia which be
retained for well over 20 years with great distinction both in
peace and war.
One of Watkins’ very few peace time losses occurred in
February 1898 when the little Bristol, steaming off the Nore
on her way to seek for inward-bound timbermen in the North
Channel, was run down and sunk by the steamer Winslow.
Captain Anscombe had only been relieved at the wheel for a
few minutes by the deck hand in order to get his breakfast.

On the other side of the account was the disaster to the

sailing ship Blengeell, which was blown up by the accidental
ignition of her naphtha cargo in the Downs. The Simla was
not far off at the time and immediately went to her assistance
in spite of the obvious risk, being responsible for the rescue
of most of her crew who survived. The authorities showed
their appreciation of this action by several decorations to
Watkins’ people for their gallantry.
In long distance work it was again the Oceana who dis¬
tinguished herself in 1898, towing the Norwegian Kommandor
Svend Foyn from Cardiff to Dakar for nearly £1,000; putting
into Corunna for coal on the way back she was lucky enough
to be engaged by the British Consul to transport twelve ship¬
wrecked British seamen home to Plymouth. The fare paid in
such circumstances was not a large one but enough to help with
her coal.
She also went down to Fayal to pick up the 3,408-ton
steamer Vulcan and tow her to Havre, another job was the
steamer John Sanderson from Gibraltar to Rotterdam, and
she also went down to St. Michaels to bring the disabled sailing
ship Morialta, declassed clipper, to the London Dock.
134 HUNDRED YEARS [1898-9

The salvage account was rather disappointing, the most

important event of the year being the Salvage Association’s
charter of the old Cambria for 28 tides to help with the 669-ton
steamer Ballisteros which was ashore near Cape Barfleur.
The last year of the century saw a good deal of money
spent on the old Iona, which was generally modernised and
given new steel boilers with a pressure of 40 lbs. to the square
inch by Stewarts of Blackwall. She was still a very popular
tug for many purposes in addition to the special excursions
and expeditions whose people appreciated her unusual accom¬
modation, although latterly her ordinary towing work had
been confined to the river while the more modern screw boats
did the seeking. In her sphere, however, she still did
exceedingly well, the P. & 0. pilots, for instance, preferring
her to more powerful ships. She was also exceedingly useful
as second boat when big sailing ships were towed from Graves¬
end to their dock, being lashed alongside in such a position
that she could put the press of her paddles going astern to the
best use in swinging the ship into the entrance.
The summer of 1899 was an exceptionally hot one and as
the artificial ice industry in Britain was then still in its
infancy the hospitals were very hard hit when the sailing ships
which usually brought the ice across from Scandinavia in
dozens were becalmed somewhere in the North Sea. The
matter was becoming serious when the Canada was specially
chartered to search for them and tow them up to the Surrey
Docks as quickly as possible. The Burma was chartered
during the summer for a month’s yachting cruise iu the
Channel from Seaford and seems to have pleased her party well
enough; she was a fine little seaboat with a good turn of speed
although she had not the accommodation of the old paddle
tugs.
The dock companies—that was before the days of the Port
of London Authority and all the docks were under separate
and private ownership—were also very useful clients to
Watkins during this year. The Uncle Sam was twice
1899] OF TOWAGE 135

chartered, in January for £5 10s. Od. per day for work in the
East India dock and in October for £8 10s. Od. in the South
West India Dock. The Victoria put in several months’ work
“ inside,” first in the Royal Albert and then in the South West
India, the charter rate being £54 per week, while the Canada
was employed in the East India Dock at £9 per day. These
prices are interesting as showing the tendency of that time.
The Oceana was again busy, going down to St. Vincent to
tow the steamer Zarate, 2,457 tons, to Liverpool and then
going to South America to pick up the Lawther Latta steamer
Avery Hill, 3,140 tons, and tow her from Pernambuco to
Dunkirk. This job drew £2,150, one of the biggest fees paid
for a straightforward towung job, and the Columbia also got a
good fee for joining her at Portland and helping her to the
destination.
The Hibernia also did very useful long-distance work.
She and the Manila went up to Belfast to tow H.M. hulk
Grampian from there to Plymouth and were detained some
time because she was not ready for them at the appointed
date. Off Bolt Tail the Manila developed engine trouble but
the Hibernia continued to tow by herself and safely delivered
the hulk. Shortly afterwards the Hibernia and Manila, in
company with the Columbia, went down to Plymouth and
picked up the same hulk for the shipbreaking yard at Charlton.
Other jobs carried out by the Hibernia were towing the
steamer Atilla from Lisbon to Antwerp, a comparatively
light job for she was able to give some assistance with her own
engines, and two lighters from Cherbourg to Valencia. Then
the Arcadia, nominally designed for river and Channel work
only, picked up a good fee for towing the steamer Riga from
Lisbon to Havre and did the job very well.
The end of the century saw Watkins having to face very
keen competition. On the Thames several new tug companies
had sprung up, and any number of modern screw tugs had been
built to compete keenly both in the river work and also seek¬
ing The smaller tugs which were nominally for river work
136 HUNDRED YEARS [1899

only were all out for their share of the short-distance

seeking work, principally fruit-carrying schooners and the
Baltic firewood ships—“ onkers ” as they are always called
on the London River. For long distance towing the Dutch
and German companies were beginning to build special ton¬
nage and were willing to quote very low fees, while in the
seeking business the Belgian and occasionally the French tugs
were doing their utmost. But there is no doubt that in spite
of all this extra competition Watkins’ fleet was quite holding
its own, in many fields actually gaining considerable ground,
and their tugs’ reputation for safe delivery through any cir¬
cumstances was still serving them in very good stead.
1900] OF TOWAGE l37

CHAPTER VII.

THE TURN OF THE CENTURY.

The dawn of the twentieth Century brought with it a sad
misfortune for the firm, for Mr. William Watkins Senior died
and although he had been retired for nearly ten years his loss
was a very serious one, not only because it was mainly his
energy, courage and foresight which had put the firm into the
position that it then held hut also because of the extraordinary
affection and respect with which he was regarded by everybody
who came into contact with him. He was a most lovable
character, a real friend to every employee and half the shipping
men in London. He had been in harness, never allowing him¬
self a holiday, for year after year until some ten years before
his death, when an accident forced him to relax for a short
time and immediately found various places in which even an
iron constitution like his had been tried too hard by the
immense amount of work that he had put in. His retirement
from the office practically dates from that accident.
Happily he had his own flesh and blood to carry on. His
son William was already well established in the office and
John Stewart left the seed business in which he had been
engaged to help. Under their father’s guidance they carried
the business through the difficult days of the ’nineties with
conspicuous success and under his will they became managers
on behalf of Mrs. Watkins on his death. She survived until
1914, passing away just before war broke out, when it was left
that the business interests should be divided between the big
family of brothers and sisters. But it is typical of the old
gentleman’s prudence to insert a clause by which the active
brothers should he allowed to buy the interests of other
members of the family 5 he did not want to see the fabric for
whose building he had worked so hard dissipated by shares
 HUNDRED YEARS [1900
I38
being sold away from the family. At that time there was,
perhaps as a reaction against Victorian tradition, some inclina¬
tion to belittle family influence in business affairs, but that
view was not held in the Watkins’ family and seeing what
difference has been made by a century of close connection
between family and business there are few who can contradict
them.
There was only one tug added during 1900 and hei career
in the company was so short that many people forget her.
She was the Java, a steel screw tug of 154 tons gross with
triple expansion engines which was built at Southampton.
She was a very pretty little ship and bade fair to be remarkably
popular and successful on the London River, but within a
very short time of her commissioning she attracted the atten¬
tion of the TJnterweser Company of Bremen, who gave Watkins
a very good price for her to take her across for port duties in
the Elbe under the name TJnterweser XV. Later she was
transferred to attend the giant train ferries between Trelleborg
and Sassnitz. She must not be mistaken for the other Java
which soon appeared in the fleet and which is still doing good
work. The veteran Uncle Sam was sold to shipbreakers in
Holland.
The Hibernia continued to do particularly meritorious
work in the long towing line. Her success was very possibly
largely due to the crew that was collected under Captain
George Wood, whose quality was shown in the case of the
barque Fantasie. She was a sailing ship of 1,270 tons and
the Hibernia was sent to Havre to tow her. Such bad weather
supervened that the start was delayed, and it wanted a good
deal to delay the Hibernia when George Wood was in
command. They finally left in a heavy sea but off Cape La
Havre the tug broke down, the high pressure piston being
hopelessly smashed. The Hibernia’s engineer managed to
get the cover off and extract the broken pieces, after which
they were able to work slow ahead into Newhaven. Consider¬
ing that the engine room of a tug in a heavy sea is not exactly
igoo-i] OF TOWAGE 139

the best place for carrying out ticklish jobs there is great
credit attached to this.
The Hibernia was also in the news for the towage of a
pontoon from the West India Docks to Eastham on the
Manchester Ship Canal. The tug could manage the voyage
easily enough but the pontoon could not and it was necessary
to take her into Portsmouth on the point of sinking. She
being repaired, another start was made but when they arrived
off the Mersey the pilot stubbornly refused to handle such an
awkward tow at night. Finally inside, and out of the charge
of the tug, which then had the assistance of the Java, the
pontoon first began to drag her anchor and finally parted her
chain. However she was eventually delivered in safety.
Among the other long tows of the year was that of the big
sailing ship Amphritrite, from the Azores to Liverpool by the
Oceana, the sailing ship Lord Roseberry, 1,191 tons, from
Rochefort to Greenock, and the Houlder Liner Denton Grange
from Lisbon to the Clyde, in which the Oceana acted as second
boat to the Liverpool tug Blazer. On the salvage side the
German liner Duisburg smashed her rudder and screw off
Margate and proved quite a big job to salve even for the
number of tugs which turned up. Among these were Watkins
Arcadia and Manila and between them they earned practically
half the total award. Towards the end of the war the steamer
Sardonyx stranded on the Mouse and for a time was in a very
dangerous position. She was helped off by a number of tugs,
Watkins contributing the Cambria, Acadia, Manila, Oceana
and Java to the fleet.
In 1901 the Hibernia again showed the resource of her
people for she broke a high pressure slide rod off Folkestone
and was making good progress under sail off the North Fore¬
land when she was picked up by the Scotia, hurriedly sent
down on the report of the owner’s agents.
Apart from that the year was noteworthy only for a
number of good jobs well done. The veteran Cambria was
again used for assisting in cable work round Plymouth, firstly
140 HUNDRED YEARS [igoi

by the day and later by the tide, and as usual the men
thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a change from the normal
routine, gave them plenty of time ashore when it was
impossible to work, and the regular cable people were always
very generous to their auxiliaries. From the owners’ point
of view, it used up far less coal than the ordinary towing work.
A particularly noteworthy long tow occupied the Oceana
from December well into the year 1902, for she went down to
Dakar to pick up the Union Castle Liner Dunottar Castle,
one of the best known Union Castle Liners at that time on
account of her trooping services to the Boer War, with a
broken shaft and to tow her to Southampton. She was a
comparatively big ship and the tow was an arduous one, the
Columbia joining it at Madeira and helping it home. The
manner in which it was carried out shows the difference
effected by the substitution of screw ships for the old paddlers
when it is compared with the Anglia’s task of towing the Syria
a quarter of a century before. Another job of the Oceana was
to go out to St. Helena and tow the intermediate Union Castle
steamer Lishore Castle, which had broken down, home to
the Thames. It must be remembered that the Union Castle
fleet, specially designed for the South African route, was the
backbone of the Transvaal War trooping service, and that the
ships had been worked week in and week out without being
given the proper time between voyages for overhaul and repair.
The Scotia had a very awkward job when she went across
to Germany to pick up Andrew Weir’s sailing ship Mennock.
The worst of weather was prevailing at the time and the gallant
little Scotia and her tow got halfway across the North Sea no
less than four times before being blown back and having the
greatest difficulty to make shelter. Altogether they took 42
days over the job, the Mennock losing both anchors and
dragging her windlass out bodily in the process. Had it not
been for the very skilful handling of the Scotia, and the
dogged manner in which she hung on to her job through every¬
thing, the sailing ship must inevitably have been lost.
 OF TOWAGE
141

IONA, AT THE END OF HER LIFE THE LAST PADDLE TUG ON THE THAMES.
142 HUNDRED YEARS [1901-2

When the Navy bought the steamer Assistance, which

was completing on the Tees, for conversion into the first fleet
repair ship which was one of the engineering wonders of her
time, it was the Oceana and Hibernia which were sent np to
Middlesborough to tow her down to Chatham for the work to
be done. Other noteworthy tows were that of the steamer
Uolsjo from Oporto to Cardiff by the Oceana and a Swansea
dredger by the Hibernia. It had to be taken round to Leith,
but it proved particularly awkward even for a dredger and they
were greatly handicapped by weather. They were forced to
anchor in Mount’s Bay for a time and again in Grimsby Roads
through a terrific snowstorm. But they got her into Leith
Dock safe and sound.

On the salvage side the Cambria, Guiana and Nubia were

successful with the steamer Queen Olga, and the Arcadia
saved the sailing ship County of Cardigan, in trouble at South¬
ampton, under the agreement with the Salvage Association.

In the following year, 1902, this agreement was altered

following a change in the personnel of the Association. The
Oero had been kept at Blackwall fully equipped with pumps
and all salvage gear, which could be taken off her by tugs at
any state of the tide. Unfortunately the new broom swept
aside this agreement and insisted on the gear being kept
on shore, where it could only be approached at certain states
of the tide. Having their shore establishment at Blackwall,
Watkins had no further use for the Oero and she was
accordingly sold to Dutch scappers but foundered off the Sunk
Lightship when she was being towed across through a gale.
Perhaps after all the freer hand that the company thus
obtained in salvage work was a blessing in disguise, for with
the rapidly increasing size and value of steamers the awards
given were getting more and more valuable and Watkins’ tugs,
being always in the forefront of this work, often received more
in a single case than they would have done in several wrecks
on a tidal basis.
1902] OF TOWAGE 143

Two fine modern tugs were added to the fleet during 1902.
One was the Persia, 146 tons, built by Cochrane and Sons of
Selby, and the other was the Mashona, 153 tons, which was
built at Irvine. Both were given triple expansion engines
and a single-ended boiler by J. Stewart and Sons and both
proved exceedingly useful and efficient, although the Mashona
only remained a very short time in the fleet. The Nubia was
again taken in hand and reboilered.
In the matter of long tows there was not very much doing
during the year; the barge Diving Bell, from Brightlingsea
to Gibraltar by the Oceana was not a heavy tow but rather an
awkward one and attention was focussed on the job by the fact
that she was a particularly interesting little vessel designed
for experimental purposes. The steamer Neritea, 3,605 tons,
employed the Oceana and Mashona to get her from Belfast to
the Tyne and the sailing ship August Korff was also a useful
job from Falmouth to Nordenham.
But on the salvage side the year was a particularly note¬
worthy one. The steamer British Prince, which had con¬
trived to beach herself in a good position under the lee of
Dungeness, proved rather an awkward job to get off but it was
accomplished by the Persia, Mashona and Columbia, assisted
by another Gravesend tug named Cleveland, the Persia being
the first to arrive and by prompt action preventing her getting
into more serious trouble. She was finally brought into the
Thames and berthed in safety, the total value of the property
salved amounting to £121,000 which was so large that the case
attracted a good deal of attention. The good work done was
well rewarded by the Court.
Another noteworthy case was the Blackbraes, a big
sailing ship of 2,207 tons register, which was picked up by
the Arcadia, having broken adrift from the foreign tug which
was towing her. At that time she had both anchors down but
they were not holding and she was driving straight on to the
Goodwin Sands. The Arcadia was beautifully handled and
contrived to get a firm hold just in time to prevent disaster.
 HUNDRED YEARS [1902-3
144

The Mashona picked up a good salvage with the sailing ship

Cavan in November and on Christmas Day and the two
following days the steamer Gorbea was salved by the Arcadia
and Burma.
In 1903 the veteran Renown was sold to Dutch scrappers
for £500, not a large price considering the amount of good
metal that was put into the construction and engines of these
old paddlers but she was past her prime for Watkins’ work and
was only running up big bills for necessary repairs. The
Simla was off service for a short time to receive a new boiler
and the Columbia for a new rudder, stern post etc. which was
installed with the minimum of delay.
In this year Watkins’ tugs proved themselves particularly
useful to sailing ships which had broken away from other tugs.
The Amiral Cecille, a big “ subsidy ” Frenchman, was
drifting helplessly and was in serious danger of being wrecked
off Brighton when the Guiana picked her up and with the
assisance of the tug which had previously been towing her
got her to safety. The French sailing ship Biarritz broke
away from two local tugs in the Humber and drove ashore;
the big power of the Oceana proved invaluable for getting her
afloat again, for which she received the lion’s share of the
salvage award.
On the other hand the Oceana had one unfortunate and
happily most unusual accident. In picking up the Aberdeen
clipper Orontes near the Goodwin Sands the sailing ship
caught her port propeller amidships, being holed so seriously
that she foundered, while all the blades were stripped off the
screw. It was a good example of the objection that the
experienced tug man had to the twin screw principle for normal
seeking work, but it must be remembered that the Oceana was
specially designed for long distance tows and that she only
went seeking when she was not busily employed on that side
or on salvage work.
The two most noteworthy long tows of the year were the
steamer Buluwayo which was towed by the Oceana and
1903-4] OF TOWAGE 145

Columbia from Lisbon to Tilbury Docks, and tbe Clan Liner

Clan McDonald, wbicb the Arcadia took from Dunkirk to
Greenock singlehanded.
On the material side the event of 1904 was the sale of the
screw Burma for a very good price to interests in London who
immediately sent her out to clients in Bombay. Unfortunately
her career there was not a long one for she was wrecked close
to the port in 1905.
1904 was one of the great years for Channel swimmers
and the paddle Iona and screw Scotia were chartered to attend
some of them during the month of August.
The Canada was employed for a very considerable time
towing barges in connection with dredging jobs and proved
herself excellently adapted for that purpose, while the Guiana
found employment on more than one occasion towing the
convict ship Success, already mentioned in a previous chapter,
from point to point round the coast.
But 1904 was principal^ memorable for long tows and
salvage. The Oceana went down to Las Palmas to pick up the
steamer Toscana, 2,748 tons, and tow her to Genoa. On
another occasion she went down to Ferrol to pick up the
steamer Adriatico, 2,517 tons, and take her to Antwerp. The
steamer Napolitan Prince, 1,575 tons, was towed from
Gibraltar to Genoa by the Hibernia, while the Arcadia,
Masiiona and Simla went down to Plymouth to tow the iron¬
clad battleship Temeraire—the famous “ Happy Brig ”—up
to Jarrow on Tyne to be converted into a training ship when
“ Jacky ” Fisher decided that the Navy should train a certain
number of its own engine room artificers instead of only
enlisting them after they had passed through the shops ashore,
and had a taste of civil life.
On the salvage side the year was even more successful for
Watkins’ tugs than it was in the long towing and 1904 stands
out as one of the really satisfactory years in this line, the
efforts of the tugs being responsible for saving underwriters
and shippers many thousands of pounds.
 HUNDRED YEARS [1904
146
The Beaver Liner Lake Michigan, well known on the
Canadian trade, was in collision with the barque Matterhorn.
The sailing ship had to be beached near Dungeness and the
Cambria was employed on the tidal basis by the Salvage
Association, while the Oceana helped the big steamer and was
subsequently awarded £2,000 by the Courts.
James bourse’s sailing ship Erne was badly damaged in
collision with a steamer and Watkins’ Mashona came up with
her just after another tug had taken hold. One tug was quite
insufficient to get her to safety in the very heavy sea that was
running so the help of the Mashona was welcomed, but even
with the two of them on the tow rope she was not an easy
matter and in the very heavy sea that was running the
Mashona sustained considerable weather damage. An
excellent salvage award was a solace.
In November the Hibernia was in the Downs attending
to a French sailing ship which she had towed down. Both
were anchored waiting for the weather to moderate before they
continued their voyage when the Italian barque Pinin ran on
the Goodwins. A tremendous sea was running and matters
were made worse by a blinding snowstorm, but assisted by the
lifeboat and a number of the famous Deal boatmen in their
luggers the Hibernia not only contrived to get hold of the
wrecked ship but also to save her from the famous sands and
get her into the Downs in safety. The Court generously
rewarded the lifeboat crew and the boatmen, but they would
have been helpless without the Hibernia’s powerful engines
and she received the greater part of the award.
The Arcadia was always phenomenally lucky in salvage
matters, for no matter how good a tug' may be when she gets
hold of a ship there are some which seem fated never to be
on the spot when an accident occurs and others which are
always favoured in that direction. The Arcadia was one of
the latter and her luck held in 1904 when she picked up a very
nice salvage from the steamer Buceros. In the salvage of the
Phillippeville, which was a particularly noteworthy one, the
igc>5] OF TOWAGE 147

Mashona was the only unit of Watkins’ fleet which took part
but she did well and received a very useful award.
1905 saw two new tugs added to the fleet, launched at
Selby within two days of one another in August. The Java,
replacing the ship of the same name sold to Germany, and the
Liberia were steel screw tugs of just under 130 tons apiece,
but with such exceedingly graceful lines that they never looked
their size. Their triple expansion engines had an indicated
horse power of 500 and they towed very well, although on
account of their fine lines they were always a little tender
when they had a big ship astern of them and demanded expert
handling.
The Mashona, on the other hand, was sold in the early
summer for a very good price to go out to Bombay, where she
remained in Eastern waters for many years and did very
miscellaneous work, including a spell commissioned by the
Navy for the suppression of gun running in the Persian Gulf.
The Arcadia was given a new boiler in May, but every¬
thing had been carefully arranged beforehand and she was only
off service for a fortnight, a very smart piece of organisation.
The Columbia on the other hand, was idle for some time for
engine renewals and alterations and the Hibernia was also off
service for two months. To begin with she was very
thoroughly repaired at Eltringhams and then went across to
Belfast to get a new boiler. While there she arranged to tow
the sailing ship Poltalach to the Scheldt but she encountered
terrible weather and eventually both tug and tow had to
anchor. With a good deal of difliculty she contrived to get her
charge into the Clyde and up to Greenock; when necessary
repairs had been carried out and the weather had moderated
she got her to the Scheldt in 4J days which was a very smart
performance.
On the salvage side there were good pickings. The
steamer Leander employed a number of tugs and the total
award of £8,200 created quite a sensation, but the Arcadia,
in luck as usual, was the only representative of Watkin’s flag
148 HUNDRED YEARS [1905

present and got an excellent share. The Cambria was

chartered for this case, not for the actual salvage work but by
the tide for putting pumps and tackle on board and rendered
some assistance in the beaching operations.

It was the Nubia who was in luck when the Thalatta

stranded near the Cork Lightship but the award was a small
one and it was not to be compared with what the Guiana picked
up in the case of the steamer Parthenon. On the tidal basis
the Arcadia was taken up for a short time for the stranded
Bullard King steamer TThzuhbi.

The Naval Review at Spithead sent the P. & 0. Liner

Mongolia down with passengers and the Iona was chartered
to attend on her; the Channel swimmers gave employment to
the Guiana, Scotia and Persia, while for a time the Simla
was chartered for surveying purposes in the Edinburgh and
Prince’s Channels and other approaches to the Thames. Later
in the year the Cambria was taken up for the same purpose;
Watkins’ tugs had always attended the launches of Messrs.
Yarrow’s ships when their yard was on the river and now they
turned to Watkins when they wanted certain surveys made
for the purpose of testing the effects of depth of water on the
speed of torpedo craft in the course of a dispute with the
Admiralty.

The little Nubia was also usefully chartered for the

towage of hoppers in other firms’ dredging jobs. During the
construction of Strood Pier and the deepening' of the River
Medway round Rochester she was employed for some time and
was later towing' hoppers and attending to dredger moorings
at Harwich. So successful was she in this that she was
chartered by Messrs. Bevis to go round to Queenstown for a
big dredging job that they had on hand at that time. It was
expected to last from 18 months to two years, and Captain
Mason of the Nubia being a married man was willing enough
to change command with Captain John Smith, a bachelor, but
the work only lasted about six months in all.
i9°5-6] OF TOWAGE 149
The great features of the year, however, were the two long
tows. One was carried out by the Oceana and Columbia which
went down to Fayal to pick up the 4,122-ton steamer Italia
with a broken shaft and take her to Genoa.
The other was the more noteworthy and attracted great
attention all over the shipping world. The Columbia towed
the oil hulk Tancarville down from the Tyne to Portland,
where she was relieved by the Oceana who had contracted for
the job of towing her right out to North Sumatra. The total
distance was 8,200 miles, a far longer tow than had ever been
attempted by any other tug company at that time, and the job
was done in 45 steaming days, averaging seven knots through¬
out the voyage and eight in the Red Sea. The Oceana was
specially fitted for the job but she carried it out without a hitch
and it was logged as a record tow both for time and distance.
Incidentally it was something like a record fee as well.

1906 saw the final end of the old Victoria which was
towed away from Gravesend in January to be scrapped at
Mill wall, having been sold for £200. For some time past she
had been doing very little work, and at her age it was not
surprising that she was appalling’ly extravagant in coal, while
a lot of her power was wasted. But she had been a fine tug
in her day, and latterly she had done excellent service training
the future masters of the modern fleet, so that many regretted
her passing for sentimental reasons. JVhen the Persia was
sunk in collision with the screw of the P. & 0. Liner Marmora
on the other hand, the regret was purely practical, for she was
a very useful tug and one of the of the most modern in the fleet,
but she was quickly salved and at work again.
The plight of the hospitals when the supply of ice ran out
and there was any delay in the arrival of the sailing ships from
Norway has already been mentioned. Trouble occurred again
in September 1906 and the Nubia was again chartered to make
a special search of the Northerly approaches to the Thames and
to tow in the ice ships whenever they were encountered.
150 HUNDRED YEARS [1906

The disabled steamer Forest Brook gave the Hibernia

quite an interesting job. She was not quite incapacitated so
that the tug’s work was divided between towing and convoy¬
ing, but there was a lot of it. She began at Falmouth whence
she took her to Esbjerg and then on to Odense. They were
detained seven days at the former port and five at the latter,
all detention having to be paid for of course, until finally she
was clear of her cargo and the Hibernia towed her from Odense
to the Tyne. Soon afterwards she, in company with the
Columbia, had another particularly interesting tow when they
were sent round to Barrow to pick up the first floating dock
that the Navy owned, designed especially for the accommoda¬
tion of submarines, and towed it round to Portsmouth.
When the Oceana and Columbia had finished the Italia
job at Genoa, which has already been described in the previous
year, they went on to Port Said to pick up the steamer
Balmoral, 2,550 tons nett with a badly damaged stern post
and rudder, and agreed to tow her to London. Off Corcubion
Bay the Columbia, having parted with the tow in order to get
bunkers, failed to make contact with it again, but the Oceana
hung on grimly and in the Channel she was found by the
Hibernia which took the Columbia’s place up to Tilbury.
The Oceana and Columbia were employed in towing the
French liner L’Aquitaine from Havre to Greenock and the
Oceana alone towed the famous training ship Formidable
away when she was finally consigned to the scrappers. On the
lighter side the Liberia, Canada and Simla were all employed
with Channel swimmers. There was very little work done on
the salvage side, the Columbia getting a good award for the
salvage of the steamer Lugano, while the Cambria was
employed by the tide when the steamer Camargo was in trouble
in Margate Hoads.
One tow which caused a good deal of trouble afterwards
was that of the steamer Serbury which the Guiana and
Arcadia agreed to tow from Lerwick to Thameshaven. She
had a smashed propeller and was a particularly awkward tow;
1906-7] OF TOWAGE 15*

when they got caught in a sudden gale of totally unexpected

violence at that season of the year there was no saving the
ship and it was difficult enough to save her men. Later
Watkins were sued over this business, but after going carefully
into the matter the Court found for them without a shadow of
doubt and the case resulted in a good advertisement rather
than otherwise.
During the year 1907 there was little alteration in the fleet.
The Persia was given a new high pressure cylinder with all its
fittings with only a few days’ interruption for the work, a very
fine tribute to the way that Mr. William Watkins arranged the
material side and carefully planned things beforehand when it
was necessary to take a tug off service. The Scotia went up to
the East Coast to receive a new boiler, but that later proved
unsatisfactory and involved the firm in a big lawsuit which
they won.
The Guiana, while towing a sailing ship to France to be
converted into a hulk, blew off the head of her low pressure
cylinder off the North Cockle Buoy. The nearest place from
which it was possible to telephone for help was the Britannia
Pier, Yarmouth, and she proceeded to sail there against a
head wind. It was no easy job, for she had to wear each time
instead of tacking, but she did it and as soon as the wire was
received the Persia was sent up to help her.
The hulk Castalia from Dordrecht to Garston was rather
an awkward job for the Arcadia and Columbia, but most of
the year’s work of that sort- was connected with the obsolete
British men-of-war which “ Jacky ” Fisher was turning out of
the Navy List as quickly as he could. Another tow was a
Government tug from Plymouth to Gibraltar by the Oceana
and in this the story is told of a member of the firm who joined
her at Plymouth for the trip but forgot to sign on so was
officially regarded as a stowaway when he arrived at Gibraltar
and was sternly prohibited by the authorities from landing.
The only salvage of any real interest during the year was
the Hull steamer Cambric. Loaded with timber, she was
152
HUNDRED YEARS [1907-8

damaged 111 collision with a German vessel m a fog off Dunge

ness and was picked up by a small tug whose power was quite
insufficient to do anything with her. Then the Guiana
appeared and made all the difference. It was very doubtful
even then wffiether it would be possible to keep the ship afloat,
for she was very much down by the head, and preparations
were made to beach her in a hurry should it be necessary. But
it was worth while to make every effort to get her into Dover
and this was finally done in safety, the Guiana and the other
tug towing her stern first while the big Dover tug Lady
Crundall hung on to her bow and helped to steer her. It was
a very smart job which was afterwards well paid for, but it
was more than doubtful whether it would have been possible
to have got her in had she not floated on her timber cargo.
No new tonnage was added to the fleet during 1908,
although the Scotia was given a new funnel without the
original bell top which greatly improved her appearance.
But the Australia, which had never been a success, was sold
to Dutch scrappers and the Persia, which had already been
under water and salved, was finally sunk in collision with the
Newcastle steamer Hugenot while she was seeking for sailing
ships North of the Sunk Lightship. The Oceana went to
Eltringhams for reboilering and extensive alterations to her
bridge etc. which ran up a big bill but made a considerable
difference to her economy and efficiency.
There were two conspicuously long tows in the year. One
was when the Oceana towed the Messageries Maritimes Liner
Esmeralda from Bordeaux to Spezia to be broken up, a job
which was regarded as being beyond the power of any tug then
under the French flag. She then went on to Castellamare in
order to pick up the paddle steamer Lady Rowena and tow her
to Newhaven. She was a very small ship, lightly built for
coastal excursion work, and the four Italian seamen who were
engaged to make the trip on board her, drawing £4 10s. each
for the run and the fare home, certainly earned their money.
They met very bad weather and the light paddler had a terrible
1908-9] OF TOWAGE 153

time of it, while it was necessary to put back into harbour

twice in order to bale her out as her pumps were out of order.
To the Oceana, of course, splendid seaboat as she was and
accustomed to long tows, it was child’s play. The weather
was nothing out of the ordinary but it demanded the greatest
skill to keep such a fragile tow afloat and to get her safely to
her destination.
One of the few cases in which Watkins started a tow which
they were unable to complete was in August. The Oceana
set out from Barrow with a most ungainly grain elevator for
Montreal. Certain things which her people wanted done in
order to make it a really safe tow were rejected by the owners,
but after a lot of argument it was decided to risk it. Four
hundred miles North West of Tory Island the shackle of the-
tow rope broke and the end fouled one propeller, making it
impossible in the weather that was prevailing to turn round
and pick up the tow. They soon drifted apart and the Oceana,
having fixed up her screw, started a 12-day search for her
charge, only to learn eventually that she had been picked up
near Rockall by two trawlers and towed to Stornaway. She
eventually made the Atlantic passage successfully, but it was>
by choosing the weather and by first carrying out the condi¬
tions upon which Watkins had unsuccessfully tried to insist.
Against this single failure, which can be regarded with
equanimity although it was galling to the owners as a break
in their wonderful record, was the way the Hibernia towed
the paddle steamer Basrah out to the Persian Gulf. A Dutch
tug was employed to tow her sister ship, but by making a
42-day pasage the Hibernia beat her by eleven days and left
no doubt that Watkins were still in their old position. Having
handed over her charge the Hibernia ran back from Basrah to
Port Said without coaling, which was another feat that
attracted the attention of the shipping and towing men.
1909 was marked by the construction, by Messrs. Philip
of Dartmouth, of the three sister ships Doria, Badia and
Vincia, completed in March, April and June respectively,.
 HUNDRED YEARS LI9°9
*54
which are still very busy and useful tugs and are collectively
invariably known as the “ Teddy Bear ” class, although
nobody has ever been able to explain the reason why. They
are improved Javas, with fuller lines and more weight, and
for their size are as fine little all-round tugs as could be found
anywhere, being conspicuously economical although the Badia
heads the list in that respect.

In connection with the completion of the Doria a curious

incident occurred. She had just been completed and although
^ "Watkins crew had gone down to Dartmouth to take her
over she had not yet been tried and delivered when news came
that the French barque Colbert was in difficulties off Berry
Head on a lee shore, with one anchor lost and the other
dragging. The Doria immediately put to sea and got her
safely into Dartmouth, but when it came to the salvage award,
which was only <£100 as the ship was light and of no great
value, the builders pocketed it as the tug had not yet been
legally handed over.

In other salvage cases, however, Watkins were luckier.

The barque Quilota, of Bordes’ famous nitrate fleet, was
picked up in Dunkirk Roads by the Guiana after losing both
anchors and getting herself in a very awkward position. She
was safely towed to Antwerp and arbitration subsequently
awarded £1,450 for the job. The French steamer Racine ran
up on the East Goodwins until she was high and dry forward,
yet the Nubia, assisted by some of the famous Deal luggers,
got her safely afloat again.

But the best remembered “ hovel ” of the year was that

of the Salatis, which kept a fleet of tugs, including the
Oceana, Columbia and Doria, employed from December 22nd
to the 27th. It proved a terrible task to save the ship, and
although it was very well rewarded by the Courts the balance
remained on the wrong side for it cost the life of Captain Fred
Rennings of the Oceana, one of Watkins’ most valued
servants, who was drowned.
1910-1] OF TOWAGE 155
1910 was a year that was notable only for salvage, but in
that it stands out. The best reward was secured by the Oceana,
which was lying under Lundy Island in January when she
sighted the steamer Frascati, broken down and in grave
danger of drifting on to the Mortstone Rocks. A Hain Liner
bad done her best to render assistance but bad only contrived
to damage herself severely and even the Oceana with her
highly skilled crew had great difficulty in getting bold. When
she bad passed the tow line across it was quite a job getting her
to Barry but it was safely accomplished.
In the case of the French sailing ship Marechal Suchet
she was in tow when she stranded on the West Shingles, the
Guiana, Columbia, Yincia and Badia sharing in the work of
getting her off. The Blackbraes salvage in February was a
very noteworthy one, carried out in the face of great difficulty,
the Simla and Doria representing Watkins’ flag among the
four tugs which were employed on the work, and later the
Simla got a very comfortable award by herself out of the
sailing ship Lenita.
In 1911 the Canada was given new boilers for the third
time arid these finally proved satisfactory.
Messrs. William and John Watkins, seeing that there was
good money to be earned on the North East Coast, entered
into negotiations with Petries, the Middlesborough tug owners,
and formed Messrs. Watkins Petrie and Company on the Tees.
By this means two of the grand old paddlers, Scotia and
Hibernia, came back to the family fleet, while the Liberia
was transferred to the new concern which included other tugs
from the Petrie side. The venture, however, was not very
long-lived as Watkins found that they had quite enough to do
on the Thames.
It was another great year for salvage. The Hibernia
had extraordinary luck for after towing a big sailing ship to
Ostend, she ran back to Grimsby to post her order etc.
to the London Office before seeking further work. As luck
would have it she was delayed there for some hours, which just
156 HUNDRED YEARS [1911-2

permitted her to be passing the Haisborough Sand when the

Rilmorack ran ashore there, resulting in an award of nearly
dour figures. The big German sail training ship Herzogin
Cecille, which latterly has been handled several times by
Watkins’ tugs under the Finnish flag in the Australian grain
fleet, got into difficulty and brought the Badia a nice little
award, while towards the end of the year the Norwegian barque
Gudrun stranded on the Goodwins and was released by the
’Columbia and Guiana with a good deal of difficulty, again with
satisfactory results.
December was an extraordinarily lucky month for
Watkins’ tugs, for they were concerned in no less than five
•salvage cases which were divided remarkably evenly among
the seagoing fleet.
In 1911 also, H.M.S. Thunderer was launched by the
Thames Ironworks, the last big fighting ship to be built on the
London River. No less than nine Watkins’ tugs were em¬
ployed on this job, screw and paddle, the Oceana having a
cinema operator on board which was one of the first occasions
on which the launch of a ship had been used for a news film in
that way. It was a sad occasion for Watkins, for they had
assisted in the launch of every big man-of-war built on the
Thames since the pioneer ironclad Warrior in 1860, foreigners
included, and it was only at the birth of very small ships,
torpedo craft etc., that they were sometimes excluded and not
by any means always then.
In 1912 the fourth generation of the family entered the
business, for Mr. John Rogers Watkins, son of Mr. John
Stewart Watkins, entered the firm after leaving school. In
order that he might have a thorough understanding of the
work carried out by tugs his father insisted on his first serving
personally in the Doria and others.

River work was very badly upset by the Transport

Workers’ Strike in May and June. Cambria and Iona, the
last remaining paddle steamers in the fleet, were regarded as
being too extravagant in coal to run when supplies were so
THE FOURTH GENERATION: JOHN ROGERS WATKINS.
1912-3] OF TOWAGE J5 7
uncertain, and they were accordingly laid up in the South
West India Dock, but the screw tugs did well and earned good
money when the owners were willing to pay for services
rendered in such difficult circumstances. The Zealandia was
sold to the Shipping Federation for use in connection with the
strike-breaking hulks during this trouble; just before it started
the steel hulled Columbia had been sold to the scrappers in
France.
Among the salvage services of the year the Arcadia was
again in luck, her fortune in this respect having become
proverbial. She assisted the Oceana in the salvage of the
sailing ship Derwent, Mr. Harry Meakins, Watkins’ agent
at Deal, also getting a good award for his help with shore
boats. When the German sailing ship Pisagua was in colli¬
sion with the P. & 0. Liner Oceana she was severely damaged
herself in sinking the big ship; it was again the Arcadia
who was on the spot and helped her. The Badia contrived
a very useful award by arbitration in the case of the Gifford.
In the matter of long tows there was very little business to he
had, the most important one being carried out by the Guiana
and Oceana which towed the former crack Compagnie Generale
Transatlantique Liner Normandie which had held an Atlantic
record when she was new just thirty years before, up to the
scrappers’ yard at Bo’ness.
1913 was overshadowed by the premature death of Mr.
William Watkins Jnr. at the age of 52. He was a man of
extraordinary activity and energy, never wearing an overcoat,
and his death was really regarded as the result of typhoid
twenty years previously having weakened his heart. He had
been down to see to some repairs to the Hibernia in the Bristol
Channel in vile weather, and put every consideration aside for
the sake of the job on hand as was his custom. The result
was that he contracted a chill which turned to pneumonia and
carried him off within a few days.
A man of intense energy himself, he expected other people
to be the same, with the result that he could he a holy terror
I5g HUNDRED YEARS [i9I3“4

to anybody who hoped to “get to windward of him” and to have

an easy time, but to the general run of Watkins’ employees,
who were intensely loyal to the firm and who realised the
fact that he knew towing work from A to Z, he was fully
appreciated and his passing caused very deep and sincere
mourning.
In consequence of Mr. William TV atkins death his
younger brother Mr. Philip Watkins, now completely
restored to full health, came back to the office which he had
left in 1887 and took over the material side with the assistance
of his nephew, Mr. John Rogers Watkins.
A pleasing little side-light on the relations between the
Watkins family and their old servants occurred when Mr.
Henry Samuel Meadows completed his half century of loyal
service to the firm in April 1913. An illuminated address was
signed by all the members of the Watkins family and its
wording left no doubt as to the feelings that had been born
of the long connection.
Paddle tugs had long been regarded as inferior for
ordinary towing work, although there were some jobs in the
river that they could do extraordinarily well, and it was decided
not to spend a lot of money on the Cambria when she was in
need of repairs, so that she was sold to British scrappers and
the Iona remained the only paddle tug in the fleet.
One very disappointing job during 1913 took the Oceana
right down to the Cape to pick up an obsolete battleship there
but certain difficulties which cropped up caused a change in the
arrangements and the voyage was fruitless.

The year 1914 is, of course, completely overshadowed by

the war which broke out in August and curiously enough the
early months of the year were particularly uneventful,
although the last four more than made up for it. Mr. James
Judd, who had served the firm faithfully in all grades and who
had then been retired at Worthing for some years, died in
1914.
MR, II. S. MEADOWS, 1863—1923.
1914] OF TOWAGE *59
The case of the Dutch steamer Mijdrecht in the Spring
brought the Guiana a very nice salvage award and to the
Arcadia goes the distinction of being the last Watkins’ tug
to he employed seeking for sailing ships down Channel, which
was during the first week of the war before every available tug
was wanted for other work. When the war was over circum¬
stances had changed but this business of seeking for sailing
ships must always remain one of the most fascinatingly
interesting employments to which tugs have ever been put.
 HUNDRED YEARS [1914-19

CHAPTER VIII

THE WAR

The Great War gave Watkins’ tugs an opportunity of very

unusual activity, the majority of them flying the White Ensign
as auxiliaries to H.M. Navy and the remainder steadily over¬
worked week in and week out to keep the business of the Port
of London going and the channels cleared. The use of tugs
for any but the most subsidiary naval purposes was a novelty
and nobody imagined that they would prove their worth m the
way that they did. The manner in which those remaining on
commercial service were overworked, and yet stood up to the
strain by the magnificent efforts of the men in charge, was a
revelation even to those who knew tugs best.

The first war service of the fleet was actually on the 15th
July, 1914, before the outbreak of hostilities, when the Simla
and Doria were chartered by the Royal Navy and sent round
to the Medway to swing two Reserve Eleet cruisers, H.M.
ships Hogue and Juno, for the adjustment of their compasses.
Mr. John Rogers Watkins was then getting practical tugging
experience in the engine room of the Doria . Later in the
month the Badia and Vincia were also sent round to the Med¬
way, towing the cruisers Cressy and Aboukir of tragic
memory from Sheerness up to Chatham for refit. There was,
of course, a review of the fleet scheduled for the end of the
month but My Lords of the Admiralty saw the clouds gathering
and they were ready to make the review only the beginning
of something more serious. It will be remembered how the
ships mobilised for the Royal progress slipped away from their
flag-decked lines to become the most efficient engines of war.
The job carried out by the Watkins’ tugs, although nobody
realised it at the time, was part of this preparation.
I9I4_I9]
OF TOWAGE 161

At the outbreak of war the authorities at Whitehall,

having the very haziest ideas of the duties of a tug in connec¬
tion with commercial work, lost their heads completely.
Orders were issued commandeering every tug in the Thames
either for the naval or military authorities; in many cases for
both of them. The service of the men was provided for by
the T.124 agreement but apart from that very few of the
officers who were responsible for the wholesale commandeering
had the slightest idea of how the tugs would he employed.
They had still less idea of how the London River, more import¬
ant than ever since it was planned to close Southampton to
commerce and use it entirely for military services, would suffer
without its tugs.
Mr. John Watkins immediately went up to Whitehall and
made a personal protest to the authorities concerned, pointing
out the commercial necessity of keeping a certain number of
tugs in the river. He warned them that the Thames, the
Country’s principal gateway for food supplies, would be hope¬
lessly blocked with helpless ships, unable to move without
assistance, within twenty-four hours of the tugs being with¬
drawn. The authorities had not thought of that possibility and
listened to reason. They began to realise that the tug was
not such an unimportant vessel as her size suggested and
further that the best man to deal with them was the ex¬
perienced tugowner. So Mr. Watkins was called into con¬
sultation as to the needs of his own firm on the river, and
later as to all tugging work. He wanted eight tugs as a
minimum for the business that was bound to accrue even he
could not foretell how the business of the Thames would
increase—but eventually compromised on five and hired the
balance from other centres.
The timely manner in which he came to their assistance
and undid the tangle of the oflicials’ own making caused them
to respect Mr. Watkins’ opinion with regard to tugs and he
was made Commercial Adviser to the Government on tug
matters. As the war progressed the demands made on his
162 HUNDRED YEARS [1914-19

time .and experience increased and from being a consultant he

devoted full time to national work from July 1917 to the end
of the War. He had quarters in the Ministry of Shipping’s
office in St. James’s Park but he did a lot of work for other
departments as well. Por instance, he was an invaluable
member of the Small Craft Committee of the Admiralty which
entailed visits of inspection and investigation of every port in
the British Isles and his experienced judgment, freely offered
to the country without a penny of financial return, resulted
in the saving of many thousands of pounds of the taxpayers’
money.
He arranged the towing service to the Northern ports of
Prance, Havre etc., on behalf of the War Office in conjunction
with Mr. Procter of Liverpool, and then started to straighten
out the appalling duplication and overlapping between the
various Government departments which had sprung up in the
first few days of the war owing to the lighthearted and
irresponsible requisitioning. That proved a heart-breaking
job, for most officials were unwilling to give up the tugs that
they had taken over, particularly if their normal work did not
concern towing in any way and tugs were therefore a new toy
with them, but eventually it lead to very large sums being
saved the Government, between £80,000 and £90,000 per
annum on the Havre service alone, and that was only one of a
dozen. The commercial community had just as much reason
as the State to be grateful to Mr. John Watkins for the work
that he did during the war years and the manner in which he
forced officials who had not the slightest intention of altering
their set opinions to listen to his experienced views.

As might be expected, the great majority of the firm’s

employees went into naval service and their work will be
<\es2n^d wlTtix the shiPs in which they served, but of the office
staff Mr John Rogers Watkins entered the Dragoons
specialised m machine guns and saw a lot of very active service
in Prance in the Machine Gun Cavalry, while Mr. S. M.
Meadows, the son of Mr. Meadows who had been in the firm
19M-19] OF TOWAGE 163

so long, served in the East Surrey Regiment and those who

could not go out did their best in the Special Constabulary.
Mr. Philip Watkins had his hands very full maintaining the
fleet in good running order against heavy handicaps.
When the arrangement had been made between Mr.
Watkins and the authorities the firm found itself with the
Iona, Java, Scotia, Nubia and Canada to do all the work of
the river, and that increasing very rapidly, until arrangements
could be made to back them by tugs chartered from other
centres, while all the rest of the fleet went on war service.
The Java was only left to them for a time and soon afterwards
hoisted the White Ensign.
The tugs of the Thames took such a very gallant part in
the war operations that it seems a pity that they were not
allowed to serve under their well-known names. Only a few
of them contrived to do this. Most of the others were renamed,
particularly those taken up by the Navy. For one thing there
was in many cases a chance of their being confused with
existing ships on the Navy List; the name Hibernia, for
instance, was already borne by a battleship of the King
Edward VII type. In other cases, however, there was no
fear of this but names were changed wholesale by the whim
of some oflieial who thought that he would like to have a
uniform initial letter for all the tugs on one service.
The Guiana, under Captain A. V. Wood, the youngest of
the famous Wood brothers, went on war service under her own
name and was used entirely as a tug. She was first a military
tug at Newhaven and then in Scottish waters, being employed
for towing munition ships, transports and men of war which
wanted helping out of awkward corners, and also on the
salvage work which soon came thick and fast. She proved
herself an exceedingly useful ship.
The Simla under Captain Sydney Smith went to France
under the military at the outbreak of war and handled the
transports and munition ships at Rouen, Havre and Boulogne
in addition to tackling a thousand and one miscellaneous jobs
 164 HUNDRED YEARS [1914-19

as tugs alwaj's have to do. Later she changed her service and
went up to Scapa Flow as a naval tug, but by arrangement with
Mr. Watkins was returned to the river in the summer of 1915
and the Java taken up in her place.
One of the first things done by the naval authorities was
the organisation of an efficient boarding flotilla in the Downs
which would not only be an added precaution in the mainten¬
ance of the blockade, backing up the work of the Naval
Squadrons far out to sea, but would also keep open the
invaluable sea road in the Port of London by examining each
ship and, being satisfied as to her bona ftdes} giving her a safe
channel through the minefields and a secret signal to display
to other men of war that she might meet.

This work was most responsible and arduous. An attempt

in the first few days of the war to carry it out with obsolete
torpedo gunboats was a total failure and it was very soon
realised that staunch, handy, little vessels with remarkable
sea-keeping qualities were needed. Either trawlers or tugs
seemed to offer the only solution and the latter were finally
chosen because the work entailed so much going alongside in
all weathers, risky work for which the tug was admirably
adapted by her shape but which might well cause any amount
of damage in the case of the trawler.
Nobody knew better how to handle these tugs in the most
ticklish circumstances than the men who commanded them in
peace time and accordingly they were nearly all left in charge
of their original masters with Royal Naval Reserve rank; at°a
later date many were given Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve
rank where they had not the necessary certificates for the
■ he earliest masters to volunteer were made tem¬
porary Lieutenants R.N.R.; some of the later ones were Sub¬
lieutenants only. Mates were given Chief Petty Officer’s rank
and the engineers were made Warrant Engineers R N R It
was very soon recognised by the Navy that there was nobody
o touch a regular tug man in getting his boat safely alongside
and away again in any weather, or to look after her machinery.
I9I4'I9l
OF TOWAGE 165

Tlie men enlisted under the T.124 Agreement and

although of course the afterguard and forecastle found it
rather difficult to settle down to naval routine after the free-
and-easy hut eminently practical life in the tug business, they
soon realised the importance of such discipline as it wras found
necessary to maintain, and went into their work with a will.
Of all the temporary members enrolled into the Royal Navy
during the war there are none who served their country better
than the tug men in innumerable roles. It is not in any way
minimising the splendid services of the trawler men to say that
it is a great pity that some of the attention paid to them was
not diverted to the humble tuggee; they have glory enough
and to spare while it is only a few people outside the towing
world whr> realise that the tug man did anything at all.
In addition to the tug’s own crew there were generally one
or two naval or Royal Marine ratings, usually men who had
finished their time and passed into the Royal Fleet Reserve,
principally for signalling and wireless duties. There were
also two officers, R.N., R.N.R., or R.N.V.R., who were
attached to each tug, one as Boarding Officer and the other as
Witnessing. What the Admiralty did not provide in the early
days was the very slightest armament; if a tug had contrived
to stop at the last moment a party of Germans making a
desperate move to get back to the Fatherland she would have
had nothing more efficient for the purpose of stopping them
than lumps of coal and the men’s fists. After a time the naval
ratings on board were given a rifle or revolver but the boarding
tugs were never given a gun.
This Boarding' Service in the Downs was a favourite place
for the authorities to send Watkins’ tugs, and right well they
did it. To begin with the routine was three days at sea and
one in Ramsgate harbour, coaling and victualling. The tugs
were then divided between the North and South Downs and
there were none too many for the work, which was of a very
trying nature. As the number of tugs increased the routine
became 48 hours on and 24 off, and finally 24 hours on and 24
i66 HUNDRED YEARS [1914-19

in port where, it should be remembered, there was generally

plenty to do. This work was carried out no matter what the
circumstances might be, and it is a proud boast of the flotilla
that the tugs were not prevented from carrying out their duty
on one single occasion throughout the war on account of
weather.
As soon as an upward-bound ship entered the examination
area the tug went alongside and the boarding and witnessing
officers went on board her, not always an easy task when they
were not welcome visitors and there was a heavy sea running.
They examined her papers and if they were not completely
satisfied she was escorted to a set anchorage by the tug, who
signalled to the armed mother ships Duchess of Devonshire
or Peel Castle, which were anchored in the Downs in turn,
to send over an armed guard and a strong search party. By
this means a tremendous value in contraband was discovered
and a large number of reservists attempting to slip back to
Germany were diverted to the various concentration camps.
If the boarding officer was satisfied he gave the ship a safe
route through the minefields and a code flag, constantly
changed, as a signal to other men-of-war.

Among the first to be sent down there was the Oceana,

which was given the name of H.M.S. Cerberus. She was
first commanded by Captain William Watkins and later by
Captain Sidney Taylor. It has already been mentioned that
her great disadvantage in coming alongside sailing ships to
arrange the towing service was the possession of twin screws;
it was obvious that these were of still greater disadvantage
when it came to boarding ships one after the other for blockade
purposes. This was pointed out by the men who knew her,
but the authorities would not listen and into the Boarding
Flotilla she went until it was perfectly obvious even to them
that she was far more trouble than she was worth for that
particular job but could be exceedingly useful elsewhere. So
they were finally convinced and she was put on to coastal
towing, which needless to say she performed excellently, and
1914-19] OF TOWAGE 16 7

finally went up to Scapa Flow to act as attendant tug to the

Grand Fleet there and also to rescue ships mined or torpedoed
outside.
The Hibernia under the command of Captain George
Wood, who had handled her for so long, went to the Downs
Boarding Flotilla as II.M.S. Carcass. She carried out board¬
ing duties for some time but it was then decided that her large
radius of action was being wasted and she was accordingly
renamed H.M.S. Hibernia III to avoid confusion with the
battleship and, still under Captain Wood, sent out to the
Dardanelles. There she did excellent work, particularly at the
second landing at Suvla Bay and on the Anzac front, where she
was under fire on many occasions although luckily the damage
was only superficial and she escaped actual casualties in an
astounding manner. She was one of the last ships away from
Anzac when it was finally abandoned at the dead of night.
Still under the command of Captain Wood, she was then
sent round to the Persian Gulf, towing craft to be used m the
operations there, and then returned to home waters in a manner
that will be recorded later. It may be mentioned that Captain
Wood made such a reputation for himself with the naval
authorities that when the Hibernia came home he was taken
out of her and appointed to the big naval tug Saucy, although
there was already an established naval tug personnel to whom
such a command was, of course, regarded as a prize.
It may be mentioned that Captain Wood’s splendid
services were acknowledged by his being made an Officer of the
Order of the British Empire, an honour which was also awarded
to Captain W. J. Anning for his work in the Downs Boarding
Flotilla.
When the Hibernia went East her place in the Downs,
and her naval name of H.M.S. Carcass, was taken by the Java
under the command of Captain James TVhlker and she pioved
exceedingly handy and efficient for the job, as well as being
exceedingly lucky in picking up salvages all round the base at
Ramsgate. These included the abandoned Sigrum I, the
168 HUNDRED YEARS [i9I4-i9

Water ville and Lowlands wliicli liad strayed into a minefield,

the City of Manila, City of Lincoln, Addington, Den of
Ogil, II.M. destroyer Cossack and many others.
The Arcadia went to the Downs in the earliest days of the
war and became II.M.S. Chichester. Captain Hibberd was
in command and was, most unfortunately, drowned while on
naval service by being thrown off the half-round when his tug
was coming alongside a ship in very heavy weather. He was
succeeded by Captain Sydney Taylor from another ownership.
When the Forth Downs Division was closed down the Chiches¬
ter and her consort ex Badia were sent to the Barrow Deeps
Patrol for a spell.
In the earliest days of the war also the Badia, under the
command of the late Captain Jonathan Russell, became H.M.S.
Chester in the Downs Boarding’ T lotilla and continued on
that service for some time. She then went to the Barrow
Deeps as already described and then to Calais, where her
British crew was exchanged for a Belgian one and she remained
on harbour and miscellaneous duties until the end of the war.
But Captain Rusell had made a big impression on the naval
authorities and it was owing to this that they sent him to
Portland naval base for special experiments with listening
gear for use against submarines, first in the ex-Belgian Hm
Vulcaan and then in command of H.M. tug Pilot. It may be
mentioned that after the war one of his most cherished posses¬
sions was a presentation telescope for saving the crew of a
torpedoed Clan Liner from the perils of Portland Race.

a ”^ie ^ INCIA’ which had been commanded by Captain W

J. Aiming ever since she was delivered by Philip of Dartmouth,'
ecame , . hub and remained m the Downs Boarding
Flotilla until well after the end of the war. Hot only did she
carry out her routine duties with a satisfaction to the naval
authorities which was proved by their decoration of her master
bu she was extraordinarily lucky in salvage services, although
unfortunately practically all of it went to the Admiralty a°nd
the crew was not treated nearly as generously as it was by its
MR. H. MONGRIEFP, 1871—1925.
 OF TOWAGE 169
I9I4-I9]
regular employers, Messrs. Watkins. In a large number of
cases they were forbidden by the Admiralty to make any claim
at all. Yet on four different occasions tlieir salvage work
was recognised by an award of £2,500 and there were many
others.
Finally there was the Doria which first went to Scottish
waters as a tug under Captain Jack Smith and later Captain
Keable but which finished up the war with her consorts in the
Downs Boarding Flotilla under the command of Captain Albert
Cross. By that time the craze for renaming naval tugs had
worn itself out.
To take the places of these tugs on the London River it
was necessary to charter, and several interesting tugs came
under the company’s flag. First there was the Liberia, which
had originally been built for Watkins’ and had run under their
flag for some years. When the Tees Tug Company of
Middlesbrough took over the Watkins Petrie business they
took her over as well, and it was from them that she was
chartered by her original owner. They also supplied the
110-ton tug Glen Rosa, another very useful little screw.
From the Lawson Tug Company of South Shields, not yet
allied with the Batey concern, came the Nestor, a very eflicient
veteran dating from 1883, while the Societe Anonyme de
Helice of Antwerp provided the Thames and the Schelde, tugs
which had fled from Antwerp when the Germans occupied the
City.
But by far the most interesting tug which came under
WTatkins’ flag during the war was the famous Dutch Oceaan.
She was one of the well known deep-sea Dutchmen built in
1894 with a gross tonnage of 410 and very powerful triple
■expansion engines, and when the Admiralty was very shoit of
such tugs Mr. John Watkins was requested to go across to
Holland and to buy her as a private owner, for the neutrality
laws prevented the Dutch selling her to the Government but
they were quite at liberty to sell her to Mr. Watkins and the
Government had full use of her while she was nominally owned
 170 HUNDRED YEARS [193:4-19

and very efficiently managed by bim. Both out and home,

curiously enough, he travelled in ships which were torpedoed
on their next voyage but he arrived safely and carried through
the business, with the result that the State obtained the
services of a tug that was particularly useful in wartime for
rescue and long towing work. It may be mentioned that the
public was not called upon to pay a penny for the trouble that
Mr. Watkins took over this ship for nearly four years.
She was placed under the command of Captain George
Laurensen, a giant Shetlander 6 feet 6 inches tall and broad in
proportion. He was a deep sea sailing ship man and the
present Captain Keable was sent to him as towing master to
give him the benefit of towing experience. She did many
noteworthy jobs under Watkins’ management, going up to the
White Sea six or seven times. In the course of one of these
trips she towed the damaged Royal Mail Steam Packet
Company’s auxiliary cruiser Arlanza from the White Sea to
Belfast for repairs after she had been mined while carrying
an important Russian delegation to discuss military co-opera¬
tion with Britain and an immense value in platinum.
As soon as the Germans got their mining organisation well
under way, especially when the work was carried out by Sub¬
marines, and when nearly all the navigation marks were
extinguished at night, leaving a surging mass of shipping to
work through the various Channels by day, salvage jobs round
the mouth of the Thames came in thick and fast. To
enumerate them all would be tedious, for their number ran into
scores, but it is worth mentioning some of the most important,
either by reason of size of the award or by some interesting
point involved.
In 1915 the Norwegian steamer Sarpen, which had been
washed inside a reef in the Orkneys, was extricated by the
Simla with great difficulty and risk. The claim for salvage
services was defended on the ground that the Simla was°a
overnment ship at the time, having been requisitioned early
in the war. Mr. Justice Bargrave Deane regretfully found
1914-19]
OF TOWAGE I7I
against the tug in the lower court, announcing that he would
have awarded £800 but for the legal point involved, and at
the same time sincerely hoped that the matter would go to
a higher court. This it did and the Simla was found to be
fully entitled to her award, but she only got the £800 which
the judge had mentioned, while the value that she salved at
such risk to herself was in the neighbourhood of £50,000.
The year 1916, among numerous other cases, saw the
steamer Parkgate salved by the chartered tug Thames, the
Ayrshire salved by the Iona, Glen Rosa, Schelde, Nubia and
Scotia, and the Westmeath salved by the Simla. When the
Guiana salved the steamer Jupiter it was again pleaded that
the salvor was a Government ship but the Court disagreed and
gave a very large award. Destroyers had been towing the
disabled ship for two days without making the least progress
before the Guiana arrived and got her into safety in no time.
The judge fully appreciated the services that were possible
by a tug’s special construction and gave his award accordingly.
Another noteworthy salvage occurred later in the war and
that was the Polglass Castle by the Simla, Thames, Scotia
and Nubia, an excellent piece of work.
As may well be imagined, the constant strain to which
the tugs left to Messrs. Watkins’ service were subjected meant
trouble with their fabric and it was not often that they could
be spared for the necessary thorough repairs. When the
Hibernia had finished her service in the Persian Gulf she was
returned to Messrs. Watkins in anything but the condition m
which she was commissioned—indeed, it was very largely her
condition which made the authorities give her up—and it was
necessary to send her up to Grimsby for a very thorough refit
which ran into nearly £7,000. Her owners had to shoulder
half this sum although it was incurred wholly through govern¬
ment service. But it greatly improved her as a tug and
incidentally her remeasurement by the Board of Trade
reduced her nett tonnage from 32 to 12. The Scotia was also
given new boilers at Grimsby about that time. W hen she
 172 HUNDRED YEARS [1914-19

had been renovated the Government revised their opinion of

the gallant old Hibernia and immediately took her up again
for service in the Rescue Flotilla at Buncrana and also for
coastal towing.
The final connection between the firm and the Tees was
broken about this time when it was decided to sell their last
interest in Messrs. Watkins Petrie and Company to the Tees
Towing Company. Originally it had been an amalgamation
but there was plenty to do on the London River and it was
decided that outside connections were undesirable.
On March 29tli, 1917, Mr. John Stewart Watkins, having
bought out practically all the other interests concerned, made
the firm into a limited liability concern under the name of
William TV atkms Ltd., his co-directors being his brother
Mr. Philip Watkins and Mr. H. S. Meadows, who had served
the firm so long and faithfully.
1918, unfortunately, meant the loss of two very well
known tugs. On the 29th January the famous Guiana was
struck amidships by a destroyer and sunk with the loss of
Captain Alfred Wood and three others. The man-of-war was
on passage at the time and not engaged in a warlike operation
and there was very bitter feeling over the fact that she steamed
on without making any attempt to save life. Shortly before the
Armistice the famous old Oceana, which had done such
splendid work since she entered the fleet in 1889, was run into
and sunk by the Stobo Castle while lying at anchor at Scapa
Flow, but in her case there was fortunately no loss of life.

When the war ended the greater part of Watkins’ fleet was
still on national service and it was uncertain wdien it would be
re eased to carry on its proper functions. In the meantime
shipping was booming as it had never done before and there
was an enormous business waiting to be carried through as
soon as the tonnage was available. That demanded the
services of tugs, but unfortunately shipbuilders’ prices had
risen to an unprecedented height and the question of building
new tonnaSe at that level demanded a good deal of very careful
19 ^-iq] OF TOWAGE 173

consideration. Mr. Jolrn Watkins and his fellow directois

had been in the towing business long enough to know that no
shipping boom lasts for ever—if that fact had been realised
by speculators and by many shipping men the state of the
shipping industry as a whole would he very different today—
but at the same time they wanted to take full advantage of
the opportunity offered and to avoid giving away any lucrative
connection to rival tug companies who were all too anxious to
snap it up. The months which immediately followed the war
were, therefore, a period of very grave discussion and difficult
decision.
It is impossible to close the chapter on the war sei vices
of the firm without an indication of the official opinion of the
national services rendered by its head, as culled from a selec¬
tion of the official and private letters that he received from the
heads of various departments. “ These reports have proved
most useful and your willing assistance is much appreciated
by this Department,” “ the manner in which you have at all
times been ready to help the Admiralty, and so the country,
throughout the War,” “ appreciation of the public spirit you
have shown in giving so much of your time to the Ministiy,
“ a record which would never have been possible hut for your
whole-hearted co-operation ” are a few phrases selected at
random from a big bundle of war letters stowed away in an
odd corner of Mr. Watkins’ desk, not just items of history in
days of busy effort to keep in the front rank of the towing
world, hut the history of patriotic determination to put all the-
resources of the firm to the aid of the country.
i74 HUNDRED YEARS

CHAPTER IX

THE TUG TODAY.

Perhaps the colour and romance of the towing business has
■disappeared today, when there is no more seeking and tugs no
longer race down Channel and trick one another for the
business of the incoming sailing ships. But there is still as
much interest in the business, and it still calls for just as much
skill, although it may be of a different kind and only realised
and appreciated by those who have intimate knowledge of the
London River and its shipping. It is therefore proposed to
describe the work of the London tug today, and it is most
easily done geographically.
Except on special jobs, and needless to say all the tug
owners keep a very watchful eye lifted for these, the tugs
seldom go very far afield, but the business of the port of Lon¬
don keeps them fully occupied. To the Southward their normal
limit is the Downs; to the Northward the Sunk Lightship and
often it is many months between the occasions which send any
tug as far afield as that.
lo the Southward the Downs form a very convenient
rendezvous between the tug and the few remaining sailing
ships which bring home cargo from overseas, generally grain
fiom Australia. There is no seeking; the modern tendency in
the gram business may cause the cargo to be sold twenty times
between leaving Australia and arriving home, so that the ships
invariably call at one of the outer ports, either Queenstown
or Falmouth, to discover where they are to go to discharge.
If it is London or Ipswich there is plenty of time for the owners
or brokers to make arrangements with the tug owners but
reig its are terribly cut and it is only in unusual circumstances
that they have steam sent further down Channel than the
 OF TOWAGE 175

Downs. Financial arrangements are made in the office and

the tug-owners watch the reports from point to point along
the coast until it is time to send a tug down from Gravesend
to meet the homeward bounder off Deal and bring her home,
a second tug being invariably provided in the London River
from Gravesend to the dock.
To the Northward the sailing ship business is confined to
the small timber trade from the Baltic, “ onkers ” as the
London River describes them for some reason that has never
yet been discovered, and on the reports brought into the
Thames by steamers which have passed them in the North Sea
a tug will occasionally be sent down towards the Sunk to make
contact with the incoming ship and to bargain for a tow in
something approaching the old way.
Apart from these jobs, and the special occasions which
have been indicated, the modern tug seldom leaves the river
nowadays except on salvage work, and salvage work is so
diverse that it is impossible to describe it in general terms.
Once inside the river, however, there is plenty to be done.
Off Southend there are always a number of laid-up steamers,
liners, cargo ships and tramps. All these ships are now
anchored with a swivel on their cables but in the old days
it was not always so, with the result that when it was desired
to get them under way, unfortunately all too often only to go
to the scrappers’ yard, the two cables had many turns in them.
So the tug would be sent for to lay hold of the stern of the
ship and tow her round and round until the cables had cleared
themselves. Sometimes the work would be done by the crew
from the forecastle head, a shackle being knocked out of one
cable, but that was apt to be a risky business and most owners
preferred a tug.
Nowadays, with swivels in universal use, the trouble is
generally due to either one or both anchors dragging which
means remooring the ship in her proper position, for with so
many vessels close to the main highway position is a matter
of great importance. As few of them have any proper
176 HUNDRED YEARS

facilities for raising steam while they are laid up it is an

economy to employ the help of a tug for this work.

Above Southend the next area in which the steam tug

can expect to find work is at Hole Haven, where there is a
special ground set aside by the Port of London Authority for
the handling of high explosives. When steamers are dis¬
charging or taking in this cargo the tugs have plenty to do.
They begin in the early morning by taking down the steve¬
dores—“ powder monkeys ” they are always called on the
river—on board if the tug has a license but generally towed
astern in watermen’s boats. Having transferred them to the
ship the tug is not allowed to lay alongside hut has to stand
by anchored a short distance away. That does not mean that
she will be idle for there are generally innumerable jobs for
her to do, particularly towing the powder barges on and off
and running any of the thousand and one errands that may
occur when a ship is anchored off shore. Finally the tug has
to tow her into a convenient position for leaving and take
the powder monkeys ” back to Gravesend in the evening.

The huge oil depots which are situated on the Essex shore
just above Hole Haven provide tugs with plenty of employ¬
ment, for the ocean-going tanker is bound to be awkward with
her great length and usually single screw and it demands the
greatest precision to get her properly into place. The three
oil depots situated here are Corytown, Shellhaven and Thames-
haven, and Parliamentary permission has been obtained to
erect another on Canvey Island just below Hole Haven.

At each of these depots except Shellhaven, where there

is one long1 berth, the tug has to put a very awkward vessel
neatly across a short jetty and hold her in position there while
the watermen in their boats take out mooring ropes to buoys
and piers. In bad weather this job may take some consider¬
able time and it always demands very careful handling with
tvo tugs, one ahead and one astern. Sometimes it is necessary
for the tug to push the tanker alongside, where the greatest
 OF TOWAGE 177

care is necessary to avoid causing damage in spite of big

fenders round tbe stern.
Coming off the jetties in a tanker which has carried spirit,
and in which great precautions are therefore taken, it may be
necessary to employ a third tug to supply her with steam for
her winches, etc., while her own fires are out as a precaution.
The tug is then lashed securely alongside and a pipe is led
from her boiler over the side of the tanker.
At present the lowest oil depot is Corytown and it is by far
the most awkward of them all for putting tankers on to the
jetties and getting them off again, partly because of the
awkward angle of the river bank at this spot and partly because
it can be a very rough place to get the ropes away at certain
states of the tide, with the result that the least mistake on the
part of the tug means that she fails to hold the ship in position
while the operations are being carried out. Dead low or high
water is the only real opportunity of putting a tanker on to
Corytown as there is a very bad eddy on the ebb tide.
At this depot all the mooring ropes have to be carried out
to buoys and the ship has to be very tightly moored on account
of the range of tide, with the result that the tug very often
finds that she has to use the tow rope as a mooring rope and
has to take it up to the outer buoy herself.
At Shellhaven No. 1 berth is a wharf nearly as long as the
average tanker and getting a ship alongside is a comparatively
easy job but No. 2 is a jetty like the others. But in any circum¬
stances berthing a tanker always calls for two tugs. At Shell-
haven the ebb tide has to be avoided in berthing on account
of the eddy, the work generally being done on the first of the
flood, but ships can cast off at any time provided they can be
sure of their towing help.
At Thameshaven all the ships have to lay at their jetties
head up, and owing to the set of the tide berthing is impossible
on the flood although they will come off easily enough. So,
unlike Shellhaven, which is only a short distance away, all
the berthing has to be on the ebb and it is necessary for the
178
hundred years
tanker to have an anchor well into the stream in order to haul
off the jetty in case of fire. As she may not have steam to do
this a tug may he necessary to supply it through her capstan
but advantage might also be taken of the very strong ebb
which runs past the depot.
In Iligham Bight, where Gravesend Reach joins the
Lower Hope, there is another powder ground but the regula¬
tions and routine there are precisely the same as at Shellhaven
already described.
In Gravesend Reach, of course, there is plenty of work
for the tugs to do of a very varied description, and there are
generally plenty of tugs available, for Watkins’ own buoy is
situated just off the Town Pier so that the tugs are always
within the reach of the telephone from headquarters.
All the skippers being Freemen of the river they have
free access over the Town Pier, but care is taken not to
interfere with the convenience of the ferry service.

It is in Gravesend Reach that Watkins’ tugs meet the big

incoming ships of the lines with whom they have agreements.
In the case of some ships bound for Tilbury through the old
entrance it is necessary for them to go well down the Reach
to take hold of them in ample time to turn them round.
Sometimes the river pilot goes off in the tug, sometimes in the
cutter working from the Terrace Pier, but in either case the
tug generally has to go alongside in order to hand over letters,
orders and a score of business communications. If the ship
is going straight up stream to her dock the tug here begins
to escort her, keeping close in order to take hold without a
moment’s delay if steering gear fails, if she refuses to take
a bend in the river, or if a fog suddenly comes down.

As a rule the liner does not want to pass across her tow
rope until they are getting quite close to the dock, whichever
it may be, but there is a local tradition of one ancient pilot,
whose sight got very poor with advancing years, who always
insisted on the tug taking hold at once and then steered the
 OF TOWAGE
179

GONDIA: 1927, A MAGNIFICENT POST-WAR TEG BUILT TO WATKINS’ EXPERIENCE.

i8o HUNDRED YEARS

ship upstream by the tug’s smoke. That, however, was many

years ago.
Many big ships drop two anchors in Gravesend Reach and
if they remain for any length of time without attention they
have to call for a tug’s services to pull their stern round until
the chains are sorted, for no ship would use a swivel unless she
were permanently laid up. Most of the big liners who anchor
in that way, however, have a tug in attendance all the time.
There are plenty of odd jobs, bringing officers and officials off
to the ship or landing them, carrying stores and running
messages, and at high and low water the tug will take hold of
a ship’s stern and tow it round in the direction in which they
want her to swing, avoiding twisted cables and any inter¬
ruption with the other shipping on the river.
The Gondia and Kenia have Board of Trade passenger
licences so that they are available for passenger tender work
if necessary, but now that the Tilbury passenger stage is in
full working order there is very little demand for this and what
does exist is generally covered by the railway ferry steamers.
Further up stream, however, there is still a certain amount of
tender work to be done ; the Polish liners moored off Greenwich
in the course of their yachting cruises find very good use for
Watkins’ passenger tugs.
Foreign men-of-war lying at the buoys in Gravesend
Reach, very few naval visitors go further upstream, will also
very frequently charter a tug to act as tender during their stay,
not only seeing to their swinging but doing innumerable odd
jobs for the ship, carrying her stores, landing and collecting
liberty men and generally saving the crew boat work in
awkwaid waters of which they have had no experience.

Another ticklish tug job in Gravesend Reach is assisting

ships to the mooring buoys oft' the Terrace Pier and Gordon
Promenade. In this work the tug has to hold the ship in the
exact position against tide and wind while her cable is being
shackled on to the buoy by watermen and it is a job which
calls for a very high standard of skill and judgment.
 OF TOWAGE i8i

The passenger landing stage at Tilbnry is one of the latest

additions to the facilities of the Port of London, but as it is-
used almost entirely by the biggest ships it provides plenty of
work for the tugs. It is well designed and placed, with the'
result that liners can use it at any state of the tide and a single'
tug can often supply all the help that is necessary, but most
ships prefer to employ two, particularly when the wind is
South or South West, that is to say driving the ship towards
the stage. The tug’s principal job is to ease her on to the'
stage very gently and prevent damage being done, there being
a little tide to help the ship in at all states. Getting the liner
off again the great thing is to get her clear as quickly as-
possible and out into the main stream where she can use her
own engines.
Just above the stage is the Old Entrance to Tilbury Dock,
running through a tidal basin and invariably used until ships-
began to get too big for it. By regulation it is only used two
hours before and two hours after high water but it is still a
great convenience and everybody is glad that the original
intention of closing it up when the New Entrance was open has
been abandoned. Getting a ship through the Old Entrance
is a comparatively easy job for the tugs, the worst part falling
to the one working astern of the ship, for she has to be on!
the quarter from which the tide is coming while she is outside
in the river and as soon as she enters the basin she has to hurry
round to the other quarter in order to turn the ship.

Ships coming out of the Old Entrance come head out on the
ebb tide and stern out on the flood, so that the tide will
invariably help the tug to straighten the ship into the proper
position for getting away.
Although Watkins’ tug work is mostly in the open stream
they do a good deal in the docks themselves, both at Tilbury
and further up. The tugs maintained by the Port of London
Authority have preference, and can always take a job which
they can tackle, but there are only two of them in Tilbury and
handling high sided liners in a wind three or even four tugs are
182 HUNDRED YEARS

very often necessary. Dry docking is also an awkward job

for tbe tugs, and there is a sharp turn into the bays at Tilbury.
As in all docks the tug attending on a ship will help to clear a
berth of barges etc., but Watkins’ tugs do not normally do any
craft work at all.
Between the Old and New Entrances to Tilbury Dock is
the deepwater jetty, used for the handling of cargo only and
principally patronised by liners making a short call at London
in the course of a longer voyage. It can be used at any state
of the tide, one or two tugs being necessary according to the
size of the ship handled and the prevailing wind, but there
is a very big eddy for two hours after high water which makes
it very difficult to berth a ship then as it has a tendency to
throw her head right out into the stream. Normally the tug’s
job is to ease the ship alongside and getting her off to give her
an offing or swing her if it is necessary to turn.
Tilbury New Entrance is a magnificent engineering work
and is one of the biggest and finest of its kind in the world,
hut it is certainly very awkwardly placed in the river and
its use by big ships always gives the tug's plenty to do.
Occasionally a ship will come out just after high water but
normally it is practically imposible to use it at any period of
the ebb, when the tide races past it and will throw the ship
against the lower pier.
Going into the entrance with a small ship it is only
necessary to have one tug forward and one aft but anything
of more than about 5,000 tons demands a tug on either bow in
addition to one astern. It is necessary to turn the ships in
the stream in order to go head in.
Coming out the ship always emerges stern first, for there
is a perpetual ebb past the entrance except for the first hour of
flood, when the stern tug or tugs hold her stern upstream
while the tide cants her bow out into the river. The New
Entrance demands very fine tug work and the few accidents
that have occurred are a fine tribute to the skill of the men.
On the Kentish side of the river Bevans’ Wharf accommo-
 OF TOWAGE 183

dates big ships and is a very awkward one to negotiate on the

flood although it is easy enough on the ebb. There is a lot of
slack water on the edge of Northfleet Creek and where the
flood breaks outwards towards the upper end of the wharf there
is an eddy which has to be carefully watched.. One tug is,
however, usually sufficient for the work; if the ship is put on
during the ebb the tide sets her towards the wharf and the tug’s
job is to let her in gently. On the flood, however, it is
generally necessary to turn her round in the stream, for most
of them berth head down, and make her head fast first, after
which the tug pushes her stern in. When it is desired to
berth a ship head up on the flood two tugs are wanted and it
is an appalling job.
At Swanscombe the Shipping Federation have buoys at
which their free labour hulks were moored head and stern,
all with the assistance of Watkins’ tugs, but latterly these
have not been used and the only hulk still owned by the Federa¬
tion, the Vercingetorix, is berthed in one of the docks.
At the Empire Paper WTharves, Greenhithe, the ships must
berth head up, but the job is quite an easy one for the tugs.
A short distance off that berth there is still one buoy left for
the convenience of ships swinging for their compasses. That
operation was always carried out at Greenhithe in the old days,
the tug taking hold of the stern of the ship while her bow was
secure to the buoy and turning her round and round. Nowa¬
days, with so few sailing ships left, it is seldom used but it
is available in a site admirably chosen for the purpose on
account of the slack water on the flood tide, and Watkins’ tugs
are still occasionaly called upon to assist.
Inside the Greenhithe Buoys is Swanscombe Wharf where
big ships often load cement and have to be delicately handled
by the tugs, the tide only permitting them to lay head up¬
stream.
On the North side, at West Thurrock, is the Chalk Wharf
at which the few’ sailing ships which still come to the London
River take in ballast. They are brought down from the docks
184 HUNDRED YEARS

absolutely light so that it is a job for two tugs to handle them

and even then it is very difficult to keep them on their course
with so little grip of the water. As a general rule, even with
the assistance of two tugs, they have to let go an anchor in
order to swing into the wharf comfortably, but in spite of that
the operation is almost invariably carried out without any
accident. Years ago sailing ships, having discharged their
■cargo in London, used to load full cargoes of chalk at this
wharf for New lrork. But full cargoes very seldom go out
nowadays, and when they do it is invariably by steamer. In
addition to sailing ships, steamers often have to be put along¬
side this wharf to unload but they are not nearly so difficult to
handle as the “ bung light ” sailing ships.
On the South side of the river the next scene of activity for
the Bigs is round the Long Beach Buoys, which are used by
all sorts of cargo liners to discharge into lighters, especially
when the docks are congested and can find no room for them.
Watkins’ tugs never touch the lighters except to oblige in an
awkward moment, but they have plenty to do with the steamers
which use the buoys.
They generally make fast either at high or low water when
there is a short interval of slack tide, the current running very
fast at this spot at other times. When the ship is head to tide
a single tug is sufficient for the work, but when there is a
strong wind blowing, or when it is impossible to handle her at
the most convenient time it may be necessary to employ two.
Unmooring ships from these buoys can be quite a job,
especially if the tide is running with the ship, but this is
avoided whenever possible.
The Long Beach measured mile is no longer used for
destroyers for the industry of building such ships on the
Thames has long departed to other centres, but when Messrs.
Yarrow and Company were building some of the world’s fastest
torpedo craft at Poplar Watkins’ tugs were very often
■employed on their trials and experiments, both here and on
the Maplin measured mile. In the latter days of their Poplar
 OF TOWAGE 185-
Yard there was a good deal of discussion over the influence of
water on a destroyer’s speed and the tugs were constantly
being employed on the experiments to ascertain just wliat this
influence was. Often as many as four tugs were employed in
the case of a single ship, carrying observers on board to make
careful notes of the behaviour of cork floats and anything
else which would hear upon the problem.
On the Purfleet side of the river there is the B.P. Wharf
where Eagle and other tankers discharge heavy oil into the-
depot and the ships of any number of companies, P. & 0.,
British India, etc., go alongside to take in bunkers. It is only
a short wharf and it is necessary to balance the ship across
the end with wires, dolphins etc., just as it is in the oil depots
further down stream, and frequently anchors have to be used
as well. But the wharf is better situated than most of those
in the spirit area around Hole Haven so that the work is very
much easier. Taking in hunkers at this and one or two other
wharves in the river is very much cheaper than doing it by
the steam barges which are provided for the purpose and most
intermediate and cargo liners choose to save money this way,
although the mail steamers dare not take the risk and usually
take in their oil fuel in dock.
The Purfleet Wharves group lie just above the B.P. Wharf
but most of Watkins’ work is concerned with the Purfleet
Wharf itself, originally built especially for the handling of
Australian hardwood and still familiarly known on the river as
“ Jarrah Wood Wharf ” although it is often frequently called
“ Millett’s Wharf ” after Captain J. L. Vivian Millett,
sometime of the Cutty Sark, who is the Managing Director
of the company. Its days of specialisation are over and it
is now used for various purposes, but particularly special
timber, paper and the like. The ships of nearly all the cargo-
lines go alongside and Watkins’ tugs are very busy there.
There is good water and the ships can safely berth either head
up or down, the use of one or two tugs depending entirely on
the weather and the size of the ship.
i86 HUNDRED YEARS

Above that is the Anglo-American Wharf handling all

kinds of tankers in very much the same fashion as the B.P.
Wharf just mentioned hut used for discharging only and not
bunkering.
The Purfleet Wharves of the Shipowners Coal Association
are only interesting to the tugs in exceptional circumstances
such as strikes, as is also Harrison’s Wharf. But the latter
is very well remembered in the towing world as it formerly did
an immense amount of work with schooners, having discharged
their coal cargo at the various Kentish ports, loading up there
with chalk ballast for the Tyne which incidentally fetched
quite a good price and made the fortune of many a coasting
skipper. These little schooners w'ere very useful to the smaller
screw tugs for they not only frequently wanted a tow up to the
wharf but also down again to the Lower Hope and a joint of
beef was invariably the perquisite of the tug skipper.
On the Kentish side practically opposite are the Erith
Oil Works where the tugs have the job of putting ships along¬
side to discharge the ‘ ‘monkey nuts ’ ’ which are used so much
for the manufacture of margarine. It is a nice easy wharf
which the tugs like, and close by are Cory’s Erith Coal
Wharves, used solely for coal and interesting the tugs only
in exceptional circumstances, such as strike time.
On the North side of the river are the Rainham Buoys
which are principally used for ships which are laid up. Having
an ebb tide which is practically constant they are quite easy
for the tugs and little difficulty is experienced in getting ships
on to them.
Just above them is the great wharf attached to the Ford
Motor Company’s huge new works at Dagenham. The big
ships bringing iron ore to the works require the services of
tugs, although most of the traffic is by smaller ships which can
do without them. The wharf is well designed with good water
and it is only in very exceptional circumstances that the tugs
have any difficulty in placing the ships alongside. Dagenham
Coal Wharf is, like Cory’s Wharf on the other side, only of
 1 WATK
LONG SERVICE
J.T HOMPSON Engineer 1857-1929 72 YEARS
H. S.Meadows Manager 1863 -1923 60 «

A. FROST Captain, 1874. -1931 57 a

W. Judd Manager 1854 -1908 54 H

H. Moncrieef Cashier 1871 -1925 54 It

A.Soanes Captain 1833-1887 54 II

W. Page Engineer 1863-1917 54 ti

C.Bezzant " // 1859 - 1912 53 It

1 T. Fitch Captain 1860 - 1911 51 „

# G. Ross 1872 - 1923 51 „

E. Rothwell Engineer 1856- 1907 51 H

C.Butts „' 1854 - 1904 50 n

G. Wood Captain 1884- 49

W. An ning n ft 1884- 49
C. Neaves II H 1875 -1921 46 u

E. Reader !< « 1848 - 1894 46

H. Anscombe II II 1857 -1903 46 „

E.Scruton u „ 1852-1897 45 it

J.Jones „ „ 1868-1912 44 tr

IK G.Parr Engineer 1872-1916 44 f!

s
W. Schultz 1866- 1910 44 ,/

A.Cripps n „ 1887-193! 43 ii

p&
W. Rawlings ,, „ 1887-1930 43 „
,
J Kent . H 1871 -1913 42 u

W. Baker U H 1882 -1923 41 ii

G. Easdown
.
Captain 1865 -1906 41 //
*
W. Keeble
4?
ff u’ 1866 1906 40 ii

Jg
T. Burley Engineer 1893 40 if

\ <

A ROLL OP HONOUR
 OF TOWAGE 187

interest to tug's when circumstances are abnormal and then it

is no easy job for it was designed entirely to accommodate
colliers and the sliape of the cranes is such that it is most
difficult to get a ship of any other type alongside.
Above that again is what is still known as the Thunderer
Jetty, from the fact that it was built to permit H.M. battleship
Thunderer, the last man of war to be built on the Thames, to
be fitted out in deep water after she had been launched by the
Thames Ironworks at Blackwall. Tor many years it was very
familiar with the tugs, for any number of them were bunkered
there by Messrs. Williams, but now it is connected with a big
pipe line to the shore and is used almost entirely by the
British Molasses Tankers. Being very awkwardly placed in
a bight—it must be remembered that it was not designed for
commercial purposes originally—it is not very convenient for
shipping and is always a high water job for the tugs. When
the tide is ebbing the set of the current is straight on to the
jetty; when it is in flood it is straight off it. It is necessary to
make mooring lines fast to buoys as there are no facilities on
the jetty and this again does not improve its popularity with
tug men.
Just below the mark of Barking Creek is the Horseshoe
Jetty which does an immense business with Dutch bricks, but
these are generally carried in vessels which are too small to
require the services of tugs. The Creekmouth Power Station
also has little use for tugs as most of the ships which go along¬
side are the coasting colliers which are used to looking after
themselves. Barking Creek itself, however, gives a number
of odd jobs which are particularly favourable to the handy
little Fabia which is the only tug of real power which is able
to tackle them in such shallow and awkward waters.
In addition to the creek work the wharves at its mouth
call for a good deal of tug assistance for the discharge of the
materials for fertilisers etc. Opposite them are the Barking
Buoys which frequently have ships put on to them, and just
above is the big Beckton establishment of the Gas Light and
m HUNDRED YEARS

sCoke Company. Nowadays it seldom calls for tug assistance

•with the colliers that go alongside, but neither the wharf .nor
the buoys are anything to compare with the old days when a
large number of barques came here to collect coke for the
Baltic ports. They wanted help, both for getting on to the
'buoys while they were waiting and then for getting on to the
now disused Eastern Jetty to load their cargoes. The coal
strike was the last real opportunity given for tugs in this area.

Just below the entrance to the Royal Albert Dock is the

New River Wharf, connected to an oil depot and used very
.considerably for tankers discharging oil. They all want the
lielp of tugs in getting alongside but it is quite an easy berth
Jo go to or to come from on the flood tide, although on the
ebb it is a little liable to be awkard and to demand all the skill
tof the tuggees.
Above that is the Albert Dock Entrance, now used
principally by ships using the basin berths or as a relief for the
King George V Dock which is a great improvement on its
.design and position, and which can cover the Albert and also
the Victoria Docks through the Adelaide Cut. It is used on
the flood tide only when the current is apt to force a ship on
to the pierhead and the tugs have to exert all their power to
keep her off. They go in head foremost; as soon as they are
reasonably in the forward tug lets go and joins her consort aft
while the steamer lias to help with her own bow ropes.
Compared with the tug’s job of docking a ship through
this Entrance the undocking is easy; the ship conies out and
the tug has to hold her against the tide to prevent the bow
hitting the pierhead. The great majority of ships, as has
been mentioned, use the King GeorgeV. Entrance and pass
through the Cut.
The barge lock between the Entrances to the Albert and
King George Docks is now used for barges only and Messrs.
Watkins’ tugs are not concerned with it, but before the war
,and until the opening of the King George V Dock, it was very
 OF TOWAGE 189

often put to general use when the Albert Dock Entrance was
particularly busy.
As it is the latest Entrance lock in the river except for the
much-discussed new lock at Tilbury, it is only to be expected
that the King George V Entrance is a great improvement on
most of its predecessors and its design certainly eases the
work of the tugs considerably although it has not been so good
since an American steamer shored off the end of the upper pier
which has not been replaced. For ships entering the lock the
amount of work falling on the tugs varies with the tide; for
the first two hours of flood the tide sets very strongly on to the
upper pierhead and the tugs have to pull hard to keep the ship
off. Once they have their charge inside the pierhead they only
have to check her if that is wanted, but it is always a full
speed pull.
For ships leaving King George V Entrance the work of the
tugs depends upon circumstances. On a flood tide they come
out stern foremost, the tide hitting their stern helping to
straighten them out with the assistance of the tugs which
prevent it taking charge of them. On the ebb, it may be men¬
tioned that the lock can be used up to two and a half hours off
high water; the job depends entirely on the ability of the ship
to swing inside the dock. If this can be done and she can come
out head first, the tugs get a good deal of assistance from the
tide but if she lias to come out stern first, as she does on the
flood, the tugs must check her carefully and have to contend
with an enormous number of barges, lighters, etc., passing the
entrance lock at that stage of the tide.
Messrs. Watkins maintain an agent at the pierhead,
generally a tug master of long experience, who transmits
orders to the skippers, arranges for tugs to work inside the
docks if they are required and generally has his hands full
preventing any collection of tugs while maintaining an
adequate supply.
It must be realised that inside work is very much more
difficult for a single screw tug than it is with the twin screw
190 HUNDRED YEARS

vessels which the Port of London Authority maintains

specially for that purpose and which seldom if ever go outside
into the stream. The greatest difficulty is in picking up the
ropes, especially the after ones and most particularly with big
twin screw ships where there is the danger of being hit by the
propellers in the confined space allowed for manoeuvring and
also of being thrown about by the vortex of such large screws.
They have to depend very considerably on the pilot, and for
jobs like this the pilot who has had experience of tugs is always
fully appreciative, for he has a personal understanding of their
difficulties.
The passage through the Adelaide Cut between the King
George Y and Albert Docks is apt to be very awkward for the
vessel has to be turned athwartships when leaving the lock and
in that restricted space a few feet mean everything. When
by chance a ship is unloading into barges in Number 1 Berth
it is especially difficult, but happily for the tug master this
berth is usually regarded as the lay-by and is used only by
ships which are laid up or under repair.
Many ships go from the King George V. Entrance right
up through the Albert Dock to the Victoria Dock and Tidal
Basin, a very long and tedious job for the tug which may take
anything up to four and a half hours, especially if there are
many lighters in the dock at that time. That is the sort of
inside job that is very often left to an outside tug.
In these waters there is very seldom anything to do on the
Kentish side of the river although Woolwich Arsenal used to
provide quite a lot of work for Watkins’ tugs, handling the
steamers bringing worn-out and taking away relined guns to
the various fortifications. Now their services are only
occasionally wanted when a ship calls in for a big gun to go to
Gibraltar or some such fortress, loading under the big hammer-
headed crane. The West Woolwich and Charlton buoys give
a cei tain amout of employment with tankers, sugar ships and
the like, rather a ticklish job turning them round but blessed
with an even tide of reasonable strength. Above King George
 OF TOWAGE 191

Y Dock on the other side of the river there are various wharves
which seldom offer any opportunities to the firm’s tugs
although they are occasionally wanted to help coasting
steamers which have taken the mud, and having made a bed
for themselves, are held by suction.
The Victoria Dock Entrance in Bugsby’s Reach is now
only considered for barges, but it is convenient for a tug to
slip into when she is wanted in the Victoria and some parts
of the Albert instead of going right round. Unfortunately,
since the sills have been altered, there is only sufficient water
for a tug for a short period at each side.
At the entrance to Bow Creek there is the establishment
of Trinity House where an immense amount of work of various
kinds is done. Watkins’ tugs are very frequently handling
the lightships in for repairs, etc., and it is by no means an
easy job to handle a sizeable tug in Bow Creek. Nearby a
certain number of dry-docking jobs are provided by the historic
Orchard Dry Dock, principally sailing ships, and it provides
very tricky navigation between the craft roads with very little
water and the danger of getting neaped should the tide be cut
short.
The East India Dock Entrance is used on the flood only,
and steamers entering it want a lot of pulling down to prevent
them falling too hard against the entrance which is narrow and
very awkward. It must be remembered that port engineering
and design has gone a long way since these docks were built
as a fortress to protect ships’ cargoes from the attentions of
river pirates but the Union Castle Liners still use the docks to
a certain extent although not as much as they used to and
nowadays mostly for laying up, repairs, etc. During the war
the big meat carrier Ayrshire jammed in this entrance and
gave a good deal of trouble. A number of foreign fruiters
use it.
The upper and lower dry docks of the historic Green firm,
whose story is wrapped inseparably with the history of the
London River, still supply a good deal of work under Messrs.
192 HUNDRED YEARS
R. & H. Green & Silley Weir. This dry-docking work can be
very awkward for a tug, for nine out of ten of the ships handled
have no power to help themselves and it is very often necessary
to have one tug ahead, another alongside and a third astern,
all three of them having quite as much as they want to do in
the strong tide especially on a spring flood. Undocking a ship
there is a hard pull to hold her against the tide and it generally
necessitates two tugs aft. The lower dock handles most of the
smaller vesels and the upper dock the big ones.
Then comes the West Indian Dock Entrance which again
is seldom used for big ships and is one of the most awkward
locks on the river which can be understood on account of its
age. It is only possible to use it at slack tide and its success¬
ful passage is a test for good tugmanship. There is normally
a very strong tide which sets right on to the dock entrance and
the tug’s job is to ease her steamer on to the boom, the ship
herself going full speed with the tug pulling her aft. Coming
out the best time is one hour before high water when the tugs,
for it is more than a one-tug job, must tow down, watching
the tide and very careful to have the tow-rope taut before
leaving the dock.
In the old days when this Entrance was used by big ships
it was regarded as so dangerous that the port authorities had
a man with a large axe always stationed by the posts of the
check ropes to cut through in a hurry; it was quite impossible
to hope to do anything else.
The South West India Dock Entrance is the same improve¬
ment on the West India Dock as the King George V is on
the Albert. It is a beautiful entrance, its only slight disadvan¬
tage from the tug man’s point of view is that it is a long pull
with long steamers that project far out of the stream.
Stewart’s Dockyard, which was closed for the purpose of
improving the South West India Dock Entrance, lies just
above it and here are Messrs. William Watkins’ wharf, stores,
etc. Ropes, paint, oil and engineers’ stores and everything
that the tug can require is placed here, for an engineer’s shop
 OF TOWAGE 193

capable of carrying out minor repairs for which it is not worth

taking the tug down to Ramsgate. In the old days the
firm used to have buoys opposite to which their tugs could
conveniently moor while they were waiting for up-river jobs,
but these have now been removed.
On the Kentish side of the river again are the Greenwich
buoys used by the big ships which have to turn round below
Greenwich pier in order to take up their position satisfactorily
and are moored fore and aft with their head down stieam.
A strong tide setting straight on to their position adds to the
usual difficulties of putting ships on to buoys and it is a
particularly ticklish job to get the inside ship out without
disturbing the outside one. These buoys are mostly used by
tankers and sugar ships but latterly they have also found
favour with Polish and German cruising liners, acting as
floating hotels while their passengers have the chance of seeing
London, and when they are so occupied Watkins’ tugs with
passenger licences have been employed as tenders to them,
taking their passengers ashore and bringing them off again..
At Deptford wharf Watkins’ work is more or less limited
to paper ships from Newfoundland which always ha\e to be
berthed just after high water and which give rather an
awkward problem inside Deptford buoys.
On the North side again is the Britannia Dry Dock, once
famous, but the poor water outside restricts it to small ships
and it is very often used by sailing vessels.
To get a ship into the Millwall Dock Entrance generally
means a long pull and a heavy one, for the tug has to let the
ship take the dolphin at the entrance and then pull her round
and clear, a job which has to be carried out very quickly or
something will carry away. Too great a pressure by an
incoming steamer has pushed the dolphin over bodily before
today.
Leaving the dock is also rather awkward, for the ship has
to be checked from falling on to the dolphin and the barge
194 HUNDRED YEARS

roads just above it prevent the tug slipping round her as

quickly as they would like.

Across the river is the Greenland Dock of the Surrey Com¬

mercial system, the lowest entrance being the South Lock
formerly in great demand by timber-carrying sailing ships at
slack water but which is seldom used by Watkins’ tugs
nowadays. The Greenland Entrance, on the other hand, takes
some of the biggest ships coming so far up the Thames, the
trans-Atlantic liners of the Cunard, Canadian Pacific and
Eurness Withy companies in addition to other vessels nearly as
big. It is naturally very difficult, and demands the highest
skill from the tug master, to get a big ship turned in so limited
a space. As a precaution, in fact, some of the big ships prefer
to turn at Greenwich buoys and be towed up from there stern
foremost. Once they are turned it is a fairly easy entrance
with a long pierhead, the great disadvantage being the
appalling congestion with countless lighters. There are no
big P.L.A. dock tugs inside and Watkins’ vessels very often
have to do that work.
Opposite is the site of Eletcher’s Union Dry Dock which
gave the firm inmimerable odd jobs in the old days. That was
when they employed 1,500 men and were always busy on
repair work; now their glory is departed and the once busy
yard is silent.

Ihe Regent s Canal Dock being the only dock on the river
independent of the Port of London Authority, and being
connected with the canal system of the greater part of the
country, offers a good deal of work both entering and also
inside, the main commodities being timber, fruit and the like.
A good many sailing ships still visit the dock, and with the tide
setting stiaight on to it the entrance for them is exceedingly
awkward, especially as there is a buoy right in the road. It
is necessary for the tug to let her tow drop up above this buoy
and then tow her down inside it, after which the job is tolerably
easy.
 OF TOWAGE 195

The Free Trade Wharf system on the North side of the

river now offers very little work to the tugs, although formerly
the German shipping there gave them plenty of jobs, hut on
the South there is Bellamy’s Wharf with its immense business
in grain and general cargoes. In the old days it was the only
wharf on the river where the skipper of the tug bringing in
the ship invariably received five shillings and the pilot ten
shillings, hut that pleasing custom is now a thing of the past.

Bellamy’s Wharf handles some very big ships and getting

them alongside is almost invariably a two-tug job, the work
once again being made more difficult by the buoys which are
moored off it just on the spot which would he most convenient
for turning the ship. The tugs have to tow the ship’s how
into slack water, when the tide helps the turning movement
hy carrying her stern round, there being a constant ebb inside
the buoys. After that she is pushed into place.

Close to Bellamy’s is the Surrey Dock entrance, through

which a large number of timber ships of moderate size pass, in
addition to the “ onkers,” the sail ships on the Baltic small
timber trade. Here ships have to be worked in on a dolphin
placed outside the entrance on the slack tide and it is a job
that has to be done very delicately for if the ship gets any
considerable way disaster is almost certain. Handling the
sailing ships the tugs here generally work alongside.

Nowadays the London Docks generally handle only

comparatively small craft and most of Watkins’ work there is
connected with the big floating cranes of the Port of London
Authority, a job for which their tugs are almost invariably
chosen in spite of the fact that the Authority owns quite a
fleet itself. They are awkward craft to tow at the very best
of times and getting them into the old-fashioned entrance of
the London Docks is a full-time job. Practically the same
conditions apply to the St. Katherine’s Dock which is now
looked down upon by all sizeable vessels but which, less than
a hundred years ago, handled the crack passenger liners
196 HUNDRED YEARS

running' to America from London, including some of the most

beautiful sailing clippers of their day.
Between the London and St. Katherine’s Docks there are
the Mud Hole, Hanover and Church Hole Tiers, for which
Watkins’ tugs were occasionally employed getting the ships
to their buoys in order to discharge into barges, and Middle¬
ton’s Wharf which is used principally by the banana ships.
Kor ships going through the Tower Bridge into the Upper
Pool the greatest care has to he employed on account of con¬
gestion of craft. The Port of London Authority’s regulations
lay down that ships shall always go through the bridge head
to tide but many pilots prefer to work on their experience
and, irrespective of tide, many ships turn off the Wapping’
entrance and then tow up into the Pool stern foremost.
It is ticklish work turning a ship in the Pool of London
at the best of times and demands a very accurate local know¬
ledge and the ability to take the utmost advantage of every
eddy. Also it is complicated by the number of dumb barges
which always seem to congregate in this short stretch of water
or drift through it broadside on. But there is a lot of business
to be done with the Battle Bridge Pier and the big foodstuffs
wharves—Hay’s, Fresh, Nicholson’s, Mark Brown’s and the
like although Hay’s Dock is now only used for small craft
and tugs no longer have the job of coaxing in sizeable sailing
ships like the Ethel whose tall spars always attracted
attention so high up the river.
Nowadays the red-banded funnel is never seen above
London Bridge and indeed the firm never had much taste for
the work to be had there, preferring to leave it to the tug-
owners who specialised in it and who built their material
accoi ingl^ . The only tug which W atkins seem ever to have
owned with a dropping funnel to permit the passage of London
ridge was the little Era and she seems to have used it little
enough for commercial purposes.
As far as routine is concerned it is of course, impossible
to carry out 111 the modern tug, practically confined to river
 OF TOWAGE 197

waters, the set order of the old days when she used to go to
sea seeking for sailing ships and stay away for considerable
periods. The work is very largely tidal, depending upon the
movement of ships in the river, and therefore the tugs spend
a good deal more of their time tied up at the buoys at Graves¬
end or alongside the entrances to docks than they used to do.
But there is always a full fleet ready for any emergency or
special work that may present itself and a very carefully
planned system of giving instructions, coupled with the
invaluable assistance of the telephone, makes it possible to
carry out orders with the minimum of delay. It means the
closest co-operation between IVatkin’s head office in London,
their branch at Gravesend, and their representatives stationed
at the docks, but the plan works perfectly smoothly and a good
deal of the success, at least, must be put down to the fact that
the personnel are all practical men accustomed to the working
of tugs in every department.
The manning of the boats is still very much as it was in
the old days, hut the hours of duty of the men are different and
their pay is very much greater. An old-time master, in fact,
would have been very glad to have done as well as the deck¬
hand today and all hands are sure of very much more time
to themselves than was formerly possible.
By the careful collation of reports from all sources, from
the shipowners’ offices to the agents at Dungeness and else¬
where, coupled with an exact knowledge of the ships concerned
and the conditions prevailing, it is possible to put the time of
the tugs to the most efficient use and nothing is wasted.
As has been recorded in the history, the paddling tug is
-dead on the Thames, but the very various duties which the
red-banded fleet undertakes necessitates a very wide range of
material, both large and small tugs having their full functions
on the river. It is often suggested that the London River is
behind some of the other centres in that it does not go in for
the very lage tonnage and horse power that one finds in some
overseas tug's. This is put forward as a criticism only by the
198 HUNDRED YEARS

ignorant; the very large and powerful tug would not only be
wasteful on the Thames, and would compel the owners to
increase their charges, but she could not do nearly as good
work as the smaller ships. The tugs to do the best work on
the London River, and to render the services which the ship¬
owners require, are those designed specially for its peculiar
conditions by tug men of long experience. On paper they
may not appear so large or powerful, but the shipowner, ship’s
officer and pilot knows just what is wanted and is not impressed
by paper details.
Although Watkins’ tugs are now employed almost
entirely on the river, for the sailing ship jobs which take them
outside or the tows along the coast are comparatively few in
number, they are all fine sea-going vessels well able to stand
an immense amount of knocking about. One reason of this is
that the ideal tug form for putting the power to the utmost
possible use is essentially that of a healthy sea boat and
another is that, in spite of the modern trend of business,
Watkins’ tugs are still prepared to go anywhere or to tackle
any job just as they were in the old days when the firm was
the pioneer of long-distance towing. Salvage jobs are still
to be found in the crowded seaways approaching the Thames,,
when the tug which can get to the scene of the accident first,,
through any weather, and can utilise her full power on the'
end of the tow rope no matter how heavy the seas may be,
has the best chance of a good award.
In 1883 the little Monarch, quaint old tub as she now
seems to be, was the finest tug on the Thames and although
competition is very much keener today, the tugs of the historic
fleet still maintain their place in the first flight on the London
River.
 OF TOWAGE 199

CHAPTER X

AFTER THE WAR

As might be expected, there was a considerable interval
after the Armistice before things got anything like normal in
the towing business and 1919 was a very difficult yeas:.
Owing to the Admiralty and War Office still retaining the
majority of the tugs which they had commissioned, releasing
them reluctantly one by one long after the last need for their
services had passed, Messrs. Watkins carried on their business
on the Thames under severe handicaps and those tugs which
had been on commercial service throughout the war were
naturally beginning to show the strain rather badly. It was
impossible immediately to terminate the charteis that they
had made for outside tonnage, yet the retention of these tugs
was a heavy expense and their owners wanted them back. In
the meantime the London River was terribly congested and
attempting to handle a record amount of traffic. The only
redeeming feature of the year from the tugowner’s point of
view was that prices were high.
Erom the viewpoint of shipping history, however, the firm
was connected with an exceptionally interesting incident.
From time to time the suggestion is constantly made that
timber ships should he abolished and that huge rafts, biggei
even than those which work up and down the Pacific Coast of
the United States, should be substituted. In 1919 the Racia
proved that the substitution was possible, and that a huge
timber raft could be safely towed overseas. But she also,
proved that there are so many conditions and so much luck
about her success that the underwriters were less inclined than
ever to favour the scheme.
It had been put into the minds of the Admiralty officials
who wanted a steady supply of timber but who found difficulty
200 HUNDRED YEARS [I9I9

in getting the necessary Scandinavian tonnage with so many

ships being torpedoed every day. They therefore determined
to repeat the experiment of the “ Levies,” solid Canadian ships
in the early days of the 19th Century intended to he broken
up for their timber on arrival, but instead of sailing them
across they were to he towed. One big raft was built in
Norway to try the idea. The original suggestion was to send
four light cruisers across to Norway to do the towing, but
Mr. Watkins was by then the authority on the Government’s
towing affairs and with the aid of their own experience with
salvage cases undertaken by warships he convinced them that
a properly designed tug was far preferable. To the end they
thought him very rash to use only one tug, the big Racia, but
he frankly pointed out that the raft’s only chance of success
was good weather; if they got that the Racia by herself was
sufficient while if they did not get it a dozen tugs could not
prevent disaster.
The raft was made up at Trondhjem, 360 feet long by
42 feet beam by 10 feet 6 inches draught, a total weight of
4,200 tons which contained 1,292 standards of timber. It was
built far more in the shape of a ship than the cigar-fashioned
rafts on the Pacific coast and was fitted with a steel stern frame
and rudder. In case there should be any collision and subse¬
quent legal action it was named Merakerbrug and registered
as a ship whose liability could be limited.

Such an unwieldly tow could not be easy in any circum¬

stances but it was made more difficult by the binding logs which
held the craft together being placed outside the main bulk
instead of being built into it, so that there was a succession
of projections all along her side to ofier resistance to the water.
Luckily the Racia had excellent weather all the way across,
otherwise her tow could not possibly have survived, for as it
was, with all her power, she could only make about 2J knots
m smooth water. The original idea was that the crew of eight
men should live on the raft during the voyage across, but it
only wanted a very short experience of the extraordinary
AN UNIQUE TOW: THE RAFT “ MERAKERBRUG.’
I919-20] OF TOWAGE 201

motion which the timber contrived to send them on hoard the

Racia for comfort. As far as her part of the job was concerned
it was done perfectly; it was after she had let go that the raft
finished the passage ingloriously by sticking in the lock at
Ipswich and having to he released by the services of a diver.
After that there was only a half-hearted inclination to repeat
the experiment until 1933 when a very similar raft contrived
the passage between Sweden and Holland.
A certain amount of salvage work was contrived during
1919 but they were mostly in comparatively small cases and
although the aggregate was very satisfactory there were few of
them sufficiently outstanding for mention, except that of the
liner Mackinaw which was saved by the Liberia and Schelde
which were still on charter.
But it was 1920 which was the great salvage year, logging
a record by a large margin over any previous year and being,
up to date, still untouched. It must be remembered that
tonnage prices were still at their peak; everything that would
float was worth a fortune to move the commodities which were
stll at their war time level. Labour was certainly not at its best.
Once again only the most important cases can be mentioned
to avoid the history becoming a tedious catalogue but even
they make a very satisfactory list.
The year began with the salvage of the steamer Schroon,
the Arcadia maintaining her traditional reputation for good
luck in this case and getting a very comfortable award.
The P. & 0. Company had extraordinarily bad luck during
the year with a run of accidents which is very rare in their
history. And in each case it was Watkins’ tugs who were
■close at hand to render the assistance necessary, a very satis¬
factory fact considering the close and intimate connection
betwen the great steamship line and the tugowners which has
■extended for nearly a century and made still more satisfactory
by the fact that it ivas possible to arrange every detail of the
salvage in friendly fashion; it was not necessary to go to law,
even in the amiable way which is so usual in the Admiralty
202 HUNDRED YEARS [1920*

Court in order to reach definite figures, in one single case.

In the case of the Egypt, the Arcadia, Java and Scotia were
employed, for the Berrima, the Java and Scotia, while the
fog collision between the cargo steamer Wimbledon and the
P. & 0. Delta called for the services of the Simla, Badia,
Scotia and Muria, the last named being a new arrival in
Watkins’ fleet which will be described later. Her first job
was to get the passengers out of the stricken liner and land
them in safety through the fog.
A particularly interesting case was that of the giant
Hamburg American Liner Graf Waldersee, one of the cargo
carriers which was surrendered to Britain in accordance with
the Armistice conditions which nobody knew quite what to-
do with. The result was that she was laid up in the London
River month after month and on account of her huge
bulk and the small crew which was all that could be spared
as shipkeepers she was always a source of anxiety to the Port
of London Authority.
In 1920 she broke adrift as had been feared and being
without power with only a handful of men on board was quite
helpless when she was picked up by the Doria, Muria and
Badia. But even when they got hold of her she was an
exceedingly awkward tow and came into collision with the
steamer Fairfield, whose owners sued Messrs. Watkins for
negligence. The Court, happily, fully appreciated the difficult
position in which the tugs were and completely exonerated
them from any accusation of negligence. It did not stress,
although it noted, the unfortunate fact that as the Graf
Waldersee was a government ship the tugs had to take in¬
struction from a government representative whose experience
of the intricacies of towing was not great.

Later in the year the Australian Government steamer

Gilgai was salved by the Arcadia, Simla and Muria and the-
Shipping Controller’s surrendered German Steamer Wolfram
by the Canada, Scotia and Nubia. Another one of the many
1920 salvages that may be mentioned was that of the French
1920] OF TOWAGE 203:

sailing ship Ville de Nantes by the Hibernia while that tug

was on charter to Messrs. Furness, Withy and Company to tow
coal lighters backwards and forwards between the North East
Coast and France.
The tug Muria has been mentioned in these salvage
services; she was undoubtedly the most interesting of the new
tonnage that was allocated to Messrs. Watkins to replace war
losses and to put their fleet on to a modern basis. She was a
magnificent steel single-screw tug with a gross tonnage of 192
and powerful compound engines which not only developed 800
I.H.P. but which could put it to the very best use. She had
been launched on the Clyde in 1914 and was to have been the
Wrestler in Steel and Binnie’s well known Glasgow fleet of
tugs. But before she was completed they received a very
tempting offer for her from Turkey, and immediately closed
with it. War broke out and Turkey joined the Central
Powers before she could be delivered, so that she was taken up
by the Government and renamed Hotspur. She was first
utilised as a military tug at Havre, where she got a very
unenviable reputation for unhandiness and hitting the stone
quay, but later, on Mr. John Watkins’ recommendation, she
was put on to deep sea work and immediately proved herself
a remarkable vessel in every respect.
Under the right masters she did really excellent rescue
work and after the war Messrs. Watkins decided that she
would suit their purposes excellently. They wanted to re¬
christen her Mercia as a reminder of one of their well known
old boats, but the Board of Trade stepped in under the
Merchant Shipping Act which forbids any duplication of name
in British ships and they had to be content with the name
Muria. Until 1931, it may be mentioned, she had a little boat
deck supported by white staunchions which gave her a particu¬
larly smart appearance although it was more that of a pas¬
senger tender than a tug pure and simple. Captain James
Walker was given her command when she first entered the
Watkins’ fleet and has had her ever since.
204 HUNDRED YEARS [1920

Another particularly interesting acquisition during the

year was also from the Shipping Controller, a big tug of 253
tons which had been built on the Tyne as the Dreadful for
Canadian owners in 1912 and brought across the Atlantic for
war service. She was very much more like the traditional
transatlantic tug, with long deck erections, than anything
which had previously run on the Thames and the conservative
river man was not slow to parody her name in a way that gave
no doubt as to his opinion.
Although she may have been unorthodox in appearance on
the Thames, she was a fine seaboat and had magnificent power.
She was accepted with the idea of reviving the practice of a
station tug in the Downs or further down Channel to pick
up incoming ships or to be available for salvage services, and
for that purpose was as conspicuously above her competitors
as the old Anglia was in 1866. At that time, it must be
remembered, everybody was talking' about the necessity for
cheap transport and there were not a few authorities who
believed that there was a chance of reviving the sailing ship
to all its old importance. Unfortunately the slump came
quicker than was anticipated and to the surprise of most people
the sailing ship died with extraordinary rapidity, all the
advantages of cheap transport being forgotten. Under the
name of Rumania the former Dreadful did a certain amount
of long towing and salvage work but the real business for
which she had been acquired proved disappointing.

For the lighter work of the river two excellent little ships
were added to the fleet. The Alexandra Towing Company of
Liverpool had built a 95-ton tug called the Sloyne but she was
employed principally on Government service until Watkins
took her and renamed her Palencia. Admittedly on the short
side for heavy work she proved invaluable for certain jobs on
the river, particularly after she had been improved by Watkins’
engineers.
ihe second was the Government tug Early, built by
Edwards of Millwall in 1919 with compound engines by Plenty
1920-21] OF TOWAGE 205,

of Newbury which was bought and renamed Fabia for river

and dock work in which she has proved excellent. Her gross
tonnage is 151 on a length of 85 feet.
It will be noted that in acquiring this new fleet Watkins’
were driven to names which were, to say the least of it, rather
unusual and well apart from the tradition which they built up
in the earlier fleet. In those earlier days, however, there was no
clause in the Merchant Shipping Act to prohibit the duplication
of names and the Board of Trade did not mind how many ships
of the same name featured on the British list. Now they are
more particular and take every measure to prevent either the
duplication of a name already carried or the christening of a
new boat with a name that can possibly cause confusion.
Hence the firm were forced to break away from many of their
old favourites and had to choose out-of-the-way tallies, their
principle being to get different initial letters in order to facili¬
tate rapid communication and passing of orders.
At the same time the old fleet was put into the repairers’
hands and given a thorough reconditioning as it was released
from Government service and in some cases the necessary jobs
were very big. Unfortunately the prices demanded by
shipbuilders for even the smallest work were at a very high
level. Any job that could be postponed without impairing
the efficiency of the fleet was put off until prices became more
reasonable, but after extraordinarily hard war service there
was a lot that could not possibly be postponed, including the-
reboilering and big hull and engine repairs to the Nubia.
After the activities of 1920, the year 1921 was a very
quiet one and was noteworthy principally for the excellent
salvage services rendered by the Badia to the British India
Liner Wood aura in March. But the trade of the Thames was
returning to normal and unfortunately descending into the
slump which has lasted ever since: the company had got all
its tugs back from the Government, had done the necessary
reconditioning work and had greatly strengthened the fleet for
its new purposes. Happily the interruption of the war had
206 HUNDRED YEARS [1921-2

made very little difference to old friendships, and except where

companies had disappeared entirely, or services had been
transferred to other centres, JVatkins continued their old
fcontracts, many of which had existed from the earliest days of
the lines concerned.
An interesting example of this is in the year 1921 when
the P. & 0. Line and its allied interests found themselves in
possession of the big naval tug Dandy and arranged with
Messrs. Watkins to manage her on their behalf. But she was
too big for the Thames and unsuitable on every point in her
design, so that after a short but rather hard experience she was
sent down to Falmouth.
The question of reconditioning and maintenance remained
a very large one and its satisfactory solution was a matter of
great importance to the firm. While so many of their tugs
had been employed on naval service in the Downs Boarding
Flotilla based on Ramsgate their people had come to know
the town and its inhabitants intimately, and when the question
of reasonably priced repairs came to the fore it was they who
pointed out that there existed in Ramsgate the nucleus of what
might be made into a very efficient little business. Claxtons
were engineers in a small way only, dealing very largely with
the steam winches with which all the Ramsgate sailing
trawlers were fitted when the port boasted a considerable fleet.
The war had hastened the disappearance of this fleet and
Claxtons were now faced with the problem of finding a
substitute for the business on which they had principally relied.
Mr. John and Mr. Philip Watkins saw the opportunity
and after friendly negotiations took an interest in the
existing firm, winding it up and forming the new firm of
Claxton and Co. Ltd. Its premises in the town were satis¬
factory enough for the old business but were not suitable for
the new, so that a lease was obtained of a former government
coal store very conveniently situated on the Cross Wall, which
divides the inner harbour at Ramsgate from the outer, and
in this new and up to date machinery was installed. By the
1922] OF TOWAGE 207

time the work was finished the firm was quite capable of
■carrying out any job that might he demanded by Watkins’
tugs, and also of accepting outside business.

One of the first contracts that they tackled for the firm
was a very unusual one, for when it was obvious that sailing
ship business was dead, and that there would be little enough
of the old long-distance towing with the repair facilities of the
world so much more widely distributed, her owners decided
that the famous Hibernia would be used almost entirely for
river work in the future.

In the old days she would have been considered very big
for river jobs, hut the deepening of the Suez Canal which was
completed during the war, and further improvements later,
was permitting a steady increase in the maximum size of liners
using the Port of London, with the result that better tug
facilities were constantly being demanded. As she was
designed for long distance and sea work the Hibernia was not
ideal for these river jobs but her owners decided that she could
he made so.

Normally the idea of practically reconstructing a ship

which was then nearly 40 years old, and which had been
worked hard ever since she was a new vessel, would have been
considered grotesquely uneconomical, but the Hibernia was
still in wonderful condition both as regards hull and machin¬
ery. It was therefore decided to cut off her bow and shorten
her by 15 feet 6 inches, the work occupying Claxtons and their
associated shipwrights from September 1922 until April 1923.
No effort was made to retain the graceful forward lines that
she had when she was new; as rebuilt her how is exceedingly
ugly but eminently practical and now, when she is getting
very close to the half century, she is still one of the most
efficient and best towing tugs on the river. The work ran up
a hill in the neighbourhood of £3,000, but considering the
ship and the price of new shipbuilding at that date it was well
worth it.
208
HUNDRED YEARS [1922-3

Among the salvages in 1922 there are two which stand

out pre-eminent. In the case of the Orient Liner Orcades,
one of the ships which they took over from the Germans, which
had broken adrift and driven ashore near Southend, the
Arcadia, Hibernia and Vincia did well, while the Arcadia,
retaining her reputation for luck, was also in the salvage of
the Norwegian steamer Wein when she was severely damaged
in Northfleet Hope and was safely beached in a good position.
The year 1923 was saddened by the death of Mr. H. S.
Meadows who, beginning his service with Watkins in the most
subordinate capacity, had steadily worked his way up until he
was given a seat on the Board when the limited company was
formed in 1917. The war had imposed a very severe strain
on him and he had been forced to take a good deal of sick
leave before he reluctantly decided to give up. But unfortun¬
ately he was not to enjoy the rest which his many years of
service had earned, for he died almost immediately. An added
tragedy was that his death occurred just six weeks before he
had completed sixty years’ service in the firm, an event which
it was proposed to celebrate in the office with full honours.
On the material side, apart from the reconditioning of the
Hibernia in her new form, the year was principally interesting
for the final decision that the sailing ship would never be
revived and that it was therefore useless to retain the powerful
Rumania laid up at Ramsgate, where she had been for some
time. A good offer from Canadian interests was therefore
accepted and she returned to the Pacific Coast for which she
was originally designed and where she was capable of doing
excellent work. It may be mentioned that she has since
attained considerable fame by being the first big tug under
the British flag to be tried with pulverised coal.
There were a number of minor salvage cases during the
year but the only one of any great interest was in September
when the Java, assisted by another Gravesend tug, salved the
Finnish barque Osmo off the mouth of the Thames and towed
her into safety.
1924-26] OF TOWAGE 209

In 1924 the main item of interest was the salvage of the

Clan Liner Clan Kennedy, in which the Java and Yincia
distinguished themselves and received a very satisfactory
reward for their work.
In the following year the firm sustained another heavy
loss on the personal side by the retirement of Mr. H. Moncrieff
from the position of cashier after fifty-four years in the firm,
he having joined it in a very subordinate capacity in 1871.

1926 was, of course, the year of the General Strike, when

every commercial movement on the London River was affected
and when the tugs had a great struggle to get coal. It was
found to be worth while to send the Muria across to Flushing
to fill up her bunkers; other tugs had to get coal where they
could and a lot of it was of a quality to break the hearts of the
engineers.
The Navy sent down eight naval guards, each consisting
of a petty officer and four men, to protect the tugs as an
essential service and seamen were picked up wherever possible.
The great majority of the company’s masters and several of
their engineers remained faithful and went on with their job
despite threats and every possible unpleasantness. Mr. John
Rogers Watkins went down to the river to drive one tug as he
had done before the war and the big lines which were connected
by business ties with the firm, the P. & 0., Blue Star, Union
Castle, Blue Funnel and others, offered to lend help of all kinds
to keep the boats under way. So a particularly difficult period
was tided over but the cost of keeping the tugs on service was
colossal.
Another incident in 1926 which caused very general regret
was the loss of Captain Jonathan Russell of the Badia, one
of the best liked and most respected masters in the company.
Just how he was lost has never been finally decided, but he
was apparently examining some slight damage overside that
had been caused by a collision when he disappeared overboard.
Nobody saw him go and it was not until some time afterwards
210 HUNDRED YEARS [1926-28
that his body was recovered from the river, when a verdict of
accidental death was returned.
The only two noteworthy salvages of the year occurred in
October. The Katherine Park was ashore on the East Coast
and was helped off by the Hibernia, while that veteran, with
the Badia, Muria and Scotia, was also concerned in the
salvage of the steamer Spanker on fire off Greenliithe.
By 1927 it was decided that shipbuilding prices had come
down sufficiently to justify new orders, and accordingly the
Gondia and Kenia were built, the first of a new type in
Watkins’ fleet. They were not only bigger than the average,
with a gross tonnage of 200, but their engines were as powerful
as could be usefully utilised for London River work and they
were given fine bold sea-going hulls for salvage purposes.
They were also each given a passenger license in order to
permit them to act as tenders should it be necessary, and it
is rather amusing to see the two miniature fire extinguishers
that have to be carried on account of this license placed in
brackets alongside salvage pumps of colossal power.
Another experiment made with these two ships at a rather
later date was to fit them with wireless telegraphy for the
purpose of picking up messages from ships in distress. They
were the first Thames tugs to be so fitted and it has already
proved useful on more than one occasion. It is not economical
to keep continuous watch but an A.B.-watcher is trained to
pick up all the necessary messages and between the two they
contrive to arrange a very efficient working plan. The wire¬
less of the Gondia has since been transferred to the Muria.
Again it was a year of two noteworthy salvages, the
Spanish Artza Mendi helpless in the Lower Hope and the
Hindustan ashore in Horthfleet Hope, whence she was
released by the Muria, Arcadia and Badia. Both these cases
occurred m January.

r,,, 19?8 Was a far better year for salvage, in fact there is
little else to record during the time except routine work well
done to the satisfaction of the shipping companies concerned.
 OF TOWAGE
211

TANGA: THE LAST WORD IN WATKINS’ TUGS.

212 HUNDRED YEARS [1928-9

In Februai’y there was the case of the Dutch liner Kota Radja,
which had been in collision with the Australian Liner
Esperance Bay. The Vincia happened to be close handy and
picking up the Dutchman, which with her cargo etc. was
valued at nearly £300,000, got her safely alongside Tilbury
jetty.
In July came the salvage of the R.M.S.P. Carmarthen¬
shire on fire, the first occasion on which the new Kenia
distinguished herself in a salvage case. She was there with
the Muria, Stmt,a and Scotia. In that year also there was the
case of the Ellerman Liner City of Lancaster which was badly
damaged in collision near the Nore and had to be beached on
the West Oaze. The Kenia was the first tug to arrive and
started pumping but eventually the award had to be divided
between a number.
The activities of the year finished up in November by the
salvage of the Union Castle cargo steamer Bampton Castle,
in which Muria and Gondia were engaged.

Watkins believed in treating their servants in a way that

made them loath to leave but 1929 was the end of an employ¬
ment which must be something of a record even for such
concerns; Mr. J. Thompson was persuaded to take the pension
offered him many years previously after no less than seventj^-
two years service. He had entered Watkins’ employ as boy
of the Victoria in August 1857 but later decided that it was
warmer below and from fireman was made engineer of the
Britannia in 1870. He was in charge of the machinery of
many tugs before he “ swallowed the anchor ” and took charge
of the firm’s stores ashore. Even at the great age at which
he retired he was doubtful of handing over his responsibility
to a younger man, but he was not like another of the firm’s
ex-engineer storekeepers who, being pensioned after fifty-three
years’ service, ivas heard to grumble as he left Mr. Watkins’
office that if I’d known it wasn’t going to be a permanent
job I would never have taken it on in ’sixty-three.”
1929-31] OF TOWAGE 213

In 1929 the name Rumania, which had been vacant since

the cx-Dreadeul went back to Canada, was revived by the
purchase of the Cardiff tug Welsh Rose, a screw tug of 148
tons gross with compound engines which had been built by
Philip of Dartmouth in 1919 and which fitted in excellently
well with the remainder of Watkins’ fleet, many of which
hailed from the same yard.
Once again, by a curious chance, the noteworthy salvages
of the year were concentrated into one month, in this case
February. The Daeila employed the Muria, while the
Union Castle Liner Garth Castle was helped by the Gondia,
Ivenia, Muria and Vincia.
During 1929 and part of 1930 a very interesting job kept
the veteran Canada busy, towing the big lighters containing
the spoil from the new works at Tilbury Docks to the position
on the marshes where the enterprising Dutch interests were
operating a scheme of reclamation. This towing work was
done alongside and although the mud got everywhere, and the
Canada was soon a parody of her ordinary smart self, it was
very well done. At the end of the contract, she being then
50 years old, she was laid up at Ramsgate, but even now she
still has good work left in her if a suitable job is found.
In 1931 the Tanga was added to the fleet, built by Philip of
Dartmouth with a gross tonnage of 203 and triple expansion
engines by Earles of Hull. She is generally regarded as
something like the ideal of the Thames tug, her magnificently
strongly built hull being capable of standing up to any hard
work, while the best features of the Gondia and Kenia were
embodied in her design. Captain William Watkins was her
first master and since she joined the fleet she has proved her
quality.
In 1931 the Muria was considerably altered and the
staunchions under the bridge deck, which gave her a very
smart but scarcely tug-like appearance, were removed. At
the same time she was fitted with wireless, a tall mainmast
being substituted for the short one previously carried.
214 HUNDRED YEARS [I93I-33

On the personal side 1931 was noted for the passing of a

very old servant, Captain Alfred Frost, who had been in charge
of the company’s office close to the South West India Dock for
some years after his retirement from active work in command
of a tug. Finally ill health compelled him to give that up
and he was succeeded by Mr. George Page from the Stores
Department, but unfortunately he did not long survive his
retirement and died almost immediately afterwards.
The Muria had already distinguished herself in a number
of services, her great virtue being that she could get the very
last ounce of value out of her powerful engines. But in no
case did she do better than in that of the TJ.S. Shipping Board
steamer Hybert, which was wrecked on the Goodwins in
November 1931 and whose case appeared to be quite hopeless.
A number of tugs collected including the Arcadia and Muria
under Watkins’ flag, the former veteran in luck as usual.
Some of the tugs which came across from the Continent were
renowned for their colossal power but it was the Muria which
kept her tow rope as taut as an iron bar and which was specially
complimented for the very large part that she took in the
difficult work of getting the ship afloat again.
Irom that date until the centenary of Watkins’ tugs was
celebrated in July, appropriately enough just before they left
the quarters between Mark Lane and London Street which
they had occupied for over half a century, there was little to
record. But that celebration made up for a lot. Unfortunately
Captain Georg’e Wood of Hibernia fame, the company’s oldest
active servant with forty-nine years’ splendid service to his
credit, was prevented by illness from being present and he
was sadly missed. Latterly he has been in charge of the
Company’s business at the King George Y, Royal Victoria
and Loyal Albert Docks and he is one of the best known figures
on the river. His place was taken by Captain William Anning
who is only a few months his junior in service. The presenta¬
tions made to the partners were eloquent of the deep feelings
THE FIFTH GENERATION: WILLIAM WATKINS.
1933] OF TOWAGE 215
It was an occasion tliat could only be arranged in a firm
whose heads are in constant intimate touch with the men who
serve them. That has been the secret of "Watkins’ success;
the business has been handed down from generation to genera¬
tion of practical men for a century and there is another
generation coming along to pick up the strain and carry on
the tradition. It is a tradition which has resulted in at least
twenty-eight employees—possibly manj^ more could be dis¬
covered by going back to the early days when records were not
so carefully kept—staying with the firm for forty years and
over.
 *

.
 T UN VERS TY

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