WHEN A TUG RAN AMOK! - 1971

Reading this story brought back some pretty vivid memories, I was there. It also prompted me to add my first comment to this wonderful web-site. I have my own theory as to what went wrong, so here goes:

On that day I was standing on the deck of the 'Golden Lily' which was moored on the East side of the river just upstream of where Tiza, Zeeta and Sea Hawk were tied up.

The tug was pointing upstream as it left its berth and needed to turn to go to sea. The Mallard came astern across the river heading straight for me on the Golden Lily but managed to stop and start to move forward, it missed us by about two feet. The thing I have left out so far is that the tug was powered by what is termed as a direct reversing engine. This means there is no gear box, the propellor shaft is connected straight to the engine and to change diirection the engine has to be stopped, a few valves reversed and then started up in the opposite direction. This has to be done in the engine room, there is no bridge control. This obviously takes time and I think that the guy in charge that day did not have the correct experience for this type of engine. He was used to instant response and was using way too much power.

After our near miss the tug went back across the river towards the west side and the trawlers moored there. The skipper (I use that term loosely) rang down for astern far too late and the engine did not start until it had virtually hit the other side. I think a trawler named Osprey got hit on that run.

Of course by this time the engine was running full astern and the tug came back across the river and again the skipper left it too late to go ahead and she rammed into the Zeeta, Sea Hawk and Tiza which were all moored together. Now going full ahead the Mallard then went back across the harbour to hit the Dorothy Margaret and Akela. After this the skipper just stopped the engine and let the Mallard drift where it was indeed rescued by the Meeching.

I appreciate that this is a personal view but I hope it helps in the understanding of what went wrong on that fateful day.

Thanks for the insight and for the eye-witness account.

I too think it was very much a case of 'operator error' in today's parlance.

With twin screws, I used to be able to turn Meeching on the spot, but it was much more 'fun' when the single screw relief tugs were in use. I never had to cope with a direct reversing set-up, and it was possible to do a 3-point turn with Kent and Kite, if you were gentle enough. I did witness Alex Pringle overcook things one day, a 9-point turn and way too much power!

Andy

The Tug Mallard was twin screw with a single rudder. I was at the stage the day this happened. There were two engineers new to this tug, but fully conversant with operating the two direct reversing engines, i.e. seven cylinder HRN crosleys engine room control. The skipper had never handled this tug before. The bridge had two telegraphs,  one each side, and engine signals could be could be given from either the port or starboard side of the bridge and the engineers gave the bridge exactly what was rung down. HAVE you worked it out yet?

If you put both handles forward on the starboard telegraph the engine room starts both engines running ahead. If you then walk to the port side of the bridge and pull both handles back, the engineers will stop and restart the engines going astern.

Poor skipper was thinking that by putting starboard handles forward and port handles back he was putting one engine ahead and one astern, i.e. one telegraph for the port engine,and one telegraph for the starboard engine. I have my doubts if he had ever driven a tug or ship before because he disappeared sharpish as soon as he got ashore.

I was called to check out the engine-room and all the starting and stopping controls, telegraphs etc,  etc. All was in order and an independent Official took the tug to sea with the same Engineers and a Metrec skipper put the tug through its paces and she never missed a beat

I have sailed on the Mallard as engineer many times with the well known Skipper Kenneth Wood, and we worked well with the telegraphs. There is a slight delay with only one engineer working both engines, so I would ask Ken to ring down which engine he wanted first. If it was a one ahead and one astern, then bring up the rpm as required. I also did a full engine room overhaul for the new owners in Ramsgate after which she then went to a firm on the thames.

The next time I saw her she was working in LONDONDERRY.

I towed the Mallard away for scrapping in the 1980's. The voyage was from Belfast to Millom in Cumbria ( via Douglas IOM). The towing tug was the Primrose from Belfast to Douglas then the Salisbury from Douglas to Millom. We had to wait at Douglas to get the tides right for Millom, you had to go up there on the top of springs to get enough water.

I worked on her for Batty Towage and salvage of Broadstairs.. I used to sit on a bench between both engines and would only start engines when half power was rung when maneuvering to hip up to barges...as when the old man rang for slow by time I stopped to re start he would be ringing to stop again,,  It worked well and we never had any problems...