Ebb & Flow

Here is the fourth and last – for the moment – of my Thames workboat articles in which I’ve tried to capture something of the essential, varied work these little boats with their skilled skippers do along the river.

As mentioned in my previous article: Thames Workboats III, MST Marine Support Thames provides a comprehensive hire service. Their workboats and small tugs, in a distinctive cream and navy blue livery, with names in shadow lettering, make them easy to spot.

On April 11, 2024, ownership of PROVOKER passed from Marine Support Thames MST Ltd. to Viscount Cruises where she has reverted to her original name, STELLA. She had been operating as a service, or a crew vessel. And on the changeover, MST Ltd. wrote in a Facebook post for her new owners: “We hope this small, little workboat will continue to serve them well for many years to come.” And as you will see further below, she is as busy as ever.

MST’s PROWLER , was built in the Delta shipyard in 1988. She is used as a light tug, a workboat for crew transfer, towing, and line running.

RAY is a Dory tender in the Port of London Authority fleet, accompanying the Driftwood crafts II and III. She is mainly used to carry people or goods between vessels and the shore.

REBEL is owned by an engineer known as Robbo, who services and maintains various boats along the Thames, including those of CPBS Marine Services Ltd.

ROMEO LIMA is one of Livett’s fleet of workboats available for a variety of work on the river including filming, and deployment as a camera boat, safety boat, drone platform or flexible vessel for river wall and foreshore surveys; and I’ve see her at work on several of these tasks. Some of the TV shows and films that Livett’s camera boats have been involved with along the rivers Thames and Medway, can be seen here.

She joined the Livett’s fleet in 2022 and is a sister vessel to Bravo Lima GB with “one key difference: the inclusion of a wheelhouse… She has the space for up to six passengers and two crew.”

ROSE STEEL, jointly owned by Gordon McCann and Dan Adams, Captain of M.V. CONNAUGHT, was bought from Parker Marine last year. She is based at Richmond.

SARAH LEE is owned by London Party Boats Ltd. and I see her most days working along Lambeth Reach.

Owned by Collins Waterage and Lighterage, SIBERIAN was once called OPUS ONE. She has recently been acting as a safety boat for engineers working on the Jack-up barge at present installed next to the Palace of Westminster.

Owned by Hart Marine Services since 2012, SIR HENDRIK operates throughout the Thames and adjoining rivers and creeks, towing barges, houseboats, yachts and a number of historic vessels. She is available as well, for civil engineering and bridge repair attendance, also for safety boat duties.

She is registered as a National Historic Ship.

Another familiar sight along the central London Thames are the *Dogs* of CPBS Marine Services Ltd. In the picture above is the very manoeuvrable open workboat SNOOP DOG, used for carrying crew and personnel along the river, as well as ship’s mooring and various site duties. She’s tied up next to WATCHDOG (see further below).

Now operating under her original name, STELLA is busy transferring crews to and from Westminster Party Boats’ moorings.

TYBURN is a Port of London Dory tender used with Driftwood craft II and III, for transferring workers when in use for clearing debris, maintenance of moorings and other tasks.

These workboats, some belonging to a company, some to individuals, are ever present on the River Thames. Like filaments holding together the web of river transport, they can be overshadowed by larger vessels but as in the old days with lighters, working without them the system would cease to function.

Sources and Further information
CPBS Marine Services
Livett’s Marine Services on the River Thames
MST Workboats
Port of London Authority
Many thanks to Ben, Thames Waterman & Lighterman.
Explore his site the Liquid Highway, the leading River Thames source for news and info., and his impressive Thames vessel photo gallery, giving technical details of thousands of boats.
See here too: Photo gallery.
You can also follow him on Twitter X @liquid_highway1
& on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/liquidhighway

Starting off with the humble but rather fiercely named MADDOG, the third of my four planned photo-articles on central LondonThames workboats follows below, in alphabetical order as before. The images date from 2019 to the present day, and some of the boats have since changed name, ownership, and livery.

Workboat MALAMUTE is owned by Collins Waterage & Lighterage. She was regularly at the Vauxhall Tideway site transferring engineers to and from work and can often be seen attending to Thames Party Boats VISCOUNT and HURLINGHAM just upstream of Lambeth Bridge.

Thames Waterman and Lighterman, Ben tells me that workboat MERIDIAN, in the pictures above and below was owned by Livett’s at the time they were taken but is now owned by Thames Marine Services.

Owned by Collins Waterage and Lighterage, called OPUS ONE at the time this picture was taken, Ben explains that she is now named SIBERIAN, and has recently been active watching over work on the Thames next to the Albert Embankment and the Palace of Westminster.

Ben also tells me “that LE PETIT BATEAU was the workboat and crew boat for Bateaux London’s elegant dining cruise boats SYMPHONY and HARMONY. Badly hit by Covid, the company ceased trading in London and SYMPHONY, refurbished and renamed is now operated by Woods Silver Fleet.

LE PETIT BATEAU was sold to Craig Campion of Viscount Cruises, where her wheelhouse was cut away, and she is now used as an open workboat.

Small tug PLASHY was built by James Pollock, Faversham Kent in 1951, for the Port of London Authority. She was sold to F .J. Waterage, London, in 1993. In 2014 she was bought by the now dissolved Thames Link Marine Ltd. For the last couple of years she has belonged to Parker Marine Ltd. and is now moored at Chatham.

Perhaps the workboats and small tugs I’ve most often photographed have been the *PRE- s* and *PRO- s* of Marine Support Thames boats for hire, which include: PREFECT, PRESTO, PROGRESS, PRONTO, PROTECTOR, PROVIDER, PROVOKER, and PROWLER.

You can see PREFECT’s details here.
MST Marine Support Thames provides a comprehensive hire service. The distinctive cream and navy blue livery, and shadow lettering of their workboats and tugs make them easy to spot, and those I have photographed will follow in alphabetical order after PRETTY BAY, which fits in below.

PRETTY BAY is owned by Dave Reed of Reeds River Cruises. She is often to be seen along Lambeth Reach attending to M.V. VALULLA.

Marine Support Thames (MST Workboats) was set up by Craig Ellis in 2002 with one little boat. Now with more than twenty boats their fleet including tugs, safety and workboats, barges and pontoons, is a strong presence along the River Thames.

Small tug PROGRESS is used for “ship towage, mooring, line running, barge handling, crew transfer, and dredging support.”

Tug PROSPER is used for “towing, mooring, pushing, and survey operations.” Here she was involved with the reinstallation of mooring barge Iron Duke.

Workboat PROTECTOR is used exactly as her name indicates, as a safety boat, here in these pictures, watching over engineers working on the illumination of Lambeth Bridge, one of the nine central London Thames Illuminated River installations.

To be continued…

Sources and Further information
CPBS Marine Services
MST Workboats
Thanks to Ben, Thames Waterman & Lighterman.
Explore his site the Liquid Highway, the leading River Thames source for news and info., and his impressive Thames vessel photo gallery, giving technical details of thousands of boats.
See here too: Photo gallery.
You can also follow him on Twitter X @liquid_highway1
& on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/liquidhighway