Name Portwey

PORTWEY was launched at Harland & Wolff’s yard at Govan, Glasgow, in 1927.  She was built for the Portland & Weymouth Coaling Company, to be based in Weymouth, Dorset and arrived on the south coast on 28 April 1928.  The Dorset Daily Echo said, “The Portwey came to her new home last week and looks bravely spick and span with her smart red funnel and all her deck gear. The new boat is a box of machinery, has her own salvage gear pumps, all built in, and is a very fine craft for her work.”

PORTWEY worked on towage and harbour service duties.  She went to the aid of yachts in heavy seas, extinguished a fire aboard the Danish timber-carrier Bodil, searched for a sunken submarine, and towed many vessels in distress, including the cargo steamer Winslow, and Union Castle’s Winchester Castle.  She provided fresh water to the famous J-class yachts Astra, Velsheda and Shamrock and took supplies to their crews.

War Service In 1942: PORTWEY was called up by the Admiralty and moved to Dartmouth in Devon.  She narrowly missed being hit by German bombs aimed at the harbour.  In 1944 she was allocated to the US forces as they prepared for D Day.  She worked at clearing obstructions from the Channel and supplying fresh water to naval vessels.  She rescued personnel and landing craft when the disastrous Slapton Sands exercise was attacked by enemy torpedo boats.

After the War, PORTWEY was returned to her civilian owners and resumed her duties as a harbour tug as well as ferrying pilots and customs officers out to ships in the Channel.  In 1947 PORTWEY used her powerful pumps to put out a fire at the Queen’s Hotel, Dartmouth, when the local fire brigade’s hoses failed.  In 1952 she was sold to the Falmouth Dock and Engineering Company in Cornwall.  She rescued the captain and first officer of the cargo ship Flying Enterprise, when the ship capsized and sank while under tow by the tug Turmoil.  She worked on the construction of the Lizard lifeboat station, Cornwall, and a ferry slipway at Holyhead, north Wales.

By 1967, coal-fired steam vessels were being replaced by diesel-engined working ships and PORTWEY was laid up to be scrapped.  She had the good fortune to be bought by Richard Dobson, the assistant harbour master at Dartmouth.  Richard and a group of friends returned the PORTWEY to steaming condition.  During the 1960’s and 1970’s PORTWEY was seen at many events on the River Dart and around Torbay.

In 1982 PORTWEY joined the Maritime Trust’s Historic Ship Collection at St Katharine’s Dock near Tower Bridge.  The Friends of Portwey continued with restoration and operation of the tug. In 1988 she won the marine category of the British Coal Steam Heritage award.  The Steam Tug Portwey Trust was formed in 2000 and purchased the tug from the Maritime Trust.