Ebb & Flow

Revisiting an anniversary trip to Venice in 1986 while sorting out photos during lockdown, I came across these tugs captured on film by my husband. Their assertive names made me think of some of the tugs that I’ve come across and photographed on the central London tidal Thames, the most noticeable being the Cory Riverside Energy tugs on their daily trips collecting and removing containers of London’s waste.

Their names ‘Reclaim’, ‘Recovery’, ‘Redoubt’, ‘Regain’ and ‘Resource’ make their mission and determination clear. Working with the tides, barges of empty containers are towed on the flood tide to collection points upstream and the filled containers are taken back downstream on the ebb tide. Punching through the water these purposeful red-capped tugs and their bright yellow containers command attention.

Another group of tugs, vessels in the fleet of GPS Marine Contractors Ltd., have had a different approach to their naming. The majority of them have names ending in “ia”. This idea is a legacy from the famous William Watkins Ltd. tugs which became part of a new company, Ship Towage (London) Ltd., on February 1st, 1950. In Thames Ship Towage 1933 – 1992 by J.E. Reynolds, the ‘William Watkins Ltd. Fleet List 1933-1950’ underlines GPS’s historic link with the company as back then names included: ‘Hibernia’, ‘Nubia’, ‘Scotia’, ‘Arcadia’, ‘Badia’, ‘Doria’, ‘Vincia’ ‘Muria’, ‘Fabia’, and ‘Cervia’. And John Spencer of GPS Marine explains that “many of the names you will see on our tugs were originally used by Watkins, now prefixed by GPS for reasons of corporate identity. But the tradition of ending names with an ‘ia’ still follows the same theme, such as for the tugs Iberia and Illyria”.

GPS tugs tow barges transporting tunnel segments upstream for sections of the tunnel lining of London’s new super sewer, the Thames Tideway project. Excavated tunnel material is loaded onto immense barges and towed downstream to East Tilbury in Essex. All this relieves London from much traffic and pollution. Their barges also carry aggregates to be used for making concrete, upstream to Hanson in Wandsworth.

Also involved in the transportation of material for London’s new sewer is the company Thamescraft Dry Docking Services, whose tug DEVOUT attracts quite a few *Likes* for my Twitter images. Spotting another of their tugs, DEVOTED, I was curious to find out if their names had any significance. Jack Deverell explained that “it’s just a play on our family name. The multicat ‘Jack D’ was named after me many years ago and the ‘Emilia D’, after my daughter.” These days ‘Emilia D’ is a familiar sight on the central London Thames.

Based in Greenwich for over twenty years the company operates one of London’s only remaining boatyards, carrying out half of all the annual maintenance work needed for London’s maritime tourism industry, and three-quarters of the Thames pleasure boat refit and maintenance work. In addition they deal with emergency repairs to vessels, piers, pontoons.

Some time ago, the London Port Authority had a tradition of naming a number of their tugs with the prefix ‘PLA’. They included this rather random selection of names: ‘Plagal’, ‘Plangent’, ‘Platina’, ‘Plateau’, ‘Plastron’, ‘Platoon’, ‘Plasma’, ‘Plankton’, and ‘Placard’ to fit their pattern. I came across ‘Plashy’ last year, delivered to the PLA in 1951, and after two changes of ownership she is now part of Thames Link Marine Ltd.

Boats of all kinds acquire their names for different reasons. Some to project a group or company image; some to honour a dignitary, a past hero, a benefactor, or a family member; and some are witty or whimsical. Ben, Waterman and Lighterman of the river Thames, told me that J.T. Palmer & Sons., at Gravesend, named three of their tugs ‘Nipalong’, ‘Nipaway’, and ‘Niparound’. However when the port authority of Auckland, New Zealand, was choosing names for their new electric tug, ‘Tuggy McTugface’ was deemed a step too far and excluded from the list.

Further Information
Detailed information on Thames Tugs: https://www.thamestugs.co.uk

The Liquid Highway: a rich resource for all kinds of information on the river Thames: https://theliquidhighway.co.uk/about/

A great Twitter feed for Thames news and historical photographs: @liquid_highway1

By clicking here you can see my earlier articles on Cory and GPS tugs.

Having been restricted to our local area for walks at the beginning of lockdown, a visit to Victoria Tower Gardens for my husband and me naturally became part of the daily routine. And the stretch of river between Westminster and Lambeth Bridges became our horizon. While the key services of the Cory waste removal tugs, the Port of London Authority and Police vessels carried on as usual, joined later by tugs and other boats involved with building works upstream, the party and sightseeing boats in this section were tied up, out of action. Immobile. And we got to know them. They are so much a part of normal life on the river that I’ve gone back in time, through pictures taken last year, to give a glimpse of how things were for some of the boats in this small group before Covid, and to show how I hope life will return for them as soon as possible.

The CONNAUGHT and the QUEEN ELIZABETH, in the picture above, moored on the east bank of the Thames, close to Westminster Bridge are both owned by Colliers Launches in Twickenham, who also own the PRINCESS FREDA, now back at work on hourly round trips from Richmond to Teddington Lock.

Just upstream from the Colliers’ boats, the mooring in front of the old St. Thomas’ Hospital buildings had a number of *visitors* during lockdown including M.V.s MERCURIA, CHAY BLYTH and MERCEDES, who remained there for much of the time. During the month of July there was more movement as party boat and sightseeing companies began to sense and to prepare for, an easing of lockdown. Later visits to this Westminster mooring included M.V.s SARPEDON and SAPELE.

The Thames Marine Services fixed barge in Westminster had a number of *guests* too, among them: M.V.s HOLLYWOOD and THOMAS DOGGETT; both familiar sights on the river carrying their passengers along the Thames to show them famous London landmarks from a different perspective.

The smartly liveried Thames Cruises fleet, based at Lambeth Pier by the bridge, had a few discreet changeovers as time went on but as with the other cruise companies, all commercial activities ceased at the beginning of lockdown.

The last group of boats moored to fixed barges between Westminster and Lambeth Bridges is on the west bank of the river and is made up of M.V. KINGWOOD, neglected, seemingly out of commission, and M.V.s VALULLA, MERCIA and SUERITA.

There has been a noticeable increase in party and sightseeing boat activity in the Westminster to Lambeth Bridge section of the Thames coinciding with our most recent July walks. Of course movements were taking place at other times and we’ve been arriving in Victoria Tower Gardens to find boats moved around, which was not the case at the beginning of lockdown.

City Cruises are crossing the Westminster frontiers more and more, particularly cruising downstream past the sights of London. The Thames Clippers , now in partnership with Uber, have been running a regular commuting and sight-seeing service since the middle of June. And in the last week of July several boats began to reappear including the London Eye Cruise boat ‘Silver Bonito’ and the London Party Boats. All are carefully adapted to be Covid-secure. Tickets have to be booked online but the cruises are not crowded so now would be a good time to pay London and the Thames a visit.

Hopefully with care and clear, unambiguous government advice, life on the river will return to some greater semblance of normality before long. So many livelihoods depend upon it…

Further information
‘Operation Dynamo’: a very interesting film by Liquid Highway featuring some of the boats above.
‘Thames Watermen and Ferries’ from The history of the Port of London by Peter Stone, 2017.
As things are still unsettled, information on particular boats and their Covid precautions is best discovered by typing their names into a search engine and following any links.