Name MSC Co Works Tug No 2

This vessel is a narrow boat, commissioned by the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company Ltd. (GUCCCL) and built by Harland & Wolff Ltd. at Woolwich in 1935.  Her British Waterways number was 45569 and her fleet number was 27.  Her gauging number was 12427 and she was registered at Brentford as number 532 on 25 September 1935.  She was originally known as Ceres and would have had an elm bottom. This is now made of steel fitted in 1990, although the hull has iron sides. There are small amounts of gas welding from new on the fuel tanks, but otherwise the hull is riveted.  She has a pointed bow and a counter stern as well as a towing mast.  Her top planks are made from Douglas fir.  The current engine is a Lister HA2 MGR, with two cylinders and 19 horsepower, made in 1962.  Until 1962, she had a water cooled National diesel engine with two cylinders.  From September 1935, she worked for the GUCCCL in the London Docks taking zinc ingots, steel bars and other cargoes to the Midlands and returning with coal.  She was used by Women Trainees scheme during World War II (1942-46) in London. From September 1947 to January 1989, she was a maintenance boat on the Bridgewater canal.  The current owner bought her in 1989, after she had sunk for three months the previous year, due to corrosion and lack of maintenance.  A complete restoration was undertaken between 1990 and 1993 at Ellesmere Port.