WHEN A TUG RAN AMOK! - 1971
And nobody seemed to know why..
By Andy Gilbert
We've all probably read newpaper stories of cars that seem to go beserk (or, as is more likely the case, their drivers lose control of them) but you don't usually hear of it happening to ships or boats. However, Newhaven was treated to a spectacular display of ship-crunching on the 30th March 1971.
Mike Newton-Smith's long-establised Metrec operation had bought an old Manchester Ship Canal tug, the MSC Mallard, brought her around to Newhaven and promptly renamed her by simply removing her MSC prefix. Now I can remember Mallard lying alongside the other Metrec vessels at Stage 11 on the West Quay, but never saw her move that much. However, on this day she moved with a vengeance.
She apparently left her stage as normal but then, with her three crew members 'hanging on grimly', ran amok. To quote from a fisherman at the time. "The tug started off from its jetty then rammed boats on the far side of the harbour. Then it came back astern and smashed into the jetty. But it didn't stop there. It went out again, hit a barge and then smashed into some fishing boats." Another trawlerman said "I didn't see what happened. I was too busy jumping for my life!"
The barge in question was one of the mud barges from the dredger Testside, and, according to her Master, Sidney Willey, would be out of action for a month. The fishing boats hit included the Sea Hawk, Akela, Zeeta, Dorothy Margaret and Tiza. Some were so badly holed that they were quickly towed to Cresta Marine and hauled onto the slipway to prevent them sinking. Mallard, being a rather solidly built old tug, escaped undamaged!
The incident ended when RAF personnel from one of the 'crash boats, jumped into a tender and managed to nudge the Mallard out of harm's way. She was later 'rescued' and taken back to her berth by the Meeching.
The incident was the topic of much speculation and discussion around the harbour for the following few days. One un-named source suggested 'steering gear failure', a newspaper said simply that it was a 'mystery', and the tug's insurance agents, J H Bull & Co, based at the North Quay, were quoted as saying that they "had no idea how it had happened at all."
Makes you wonder why someone on board didn't run down below and simply stop the tug's engines!
Surveying some of the damage to the fishing boat Sea Hawk
Mallard safely back alongside
Archive photos from Newhaven Museum, courtesy of the Argus and Sussex Express