Registration number 634
Status Archived
a12admin
Flying Buzzard - starboard side
Flying Buzzard - port bow
FLYING BUZZARD - open to visitors at Maryport. Starboard bow looking aft.
FLYING BUZZARD - interior exhibit, Captain's Cabin.
Flying Buzzard in older times

Previous names

  • Harecraig II

Details

Function Service Vessel
Subfunction Tug
Location Caribbean
Archive reason Overseas Watch List
Current use Private use
Available to hire No
Available for excursions No
Web address www.flyingbuzzard.com

Construction

Builder Ferguson Brothers, Port Glasgow
Built in 1951
Hull material Steel
Rig None
Number of decks 2
Propulsion Steam
Number of engines 1
Primary engine type Steam compound

Dimensions

Breadth: Beam
28.00 feet (8.54m)
Depth
12.10 feet (3.69m)
Length: Overall
115.00 feet (35.08m)
Length: Overall
115.00 feet (35.08m)
Tonnage: Gross
261.00

History

Built in 1951 by Ferguson Brothers, Port Glasgow for the Clyde Shipping Company, FLYING BUZZARD is a tug of steel construction with a steam compound engine. Her working life was as a tug and a tender in the Glasgow and River Clyde areas. In 1952 she was sunk while towing an oil tanker. She was raised and her engines removed for repair. She was back in commission and working later the same year.

In 1963 she was sold to Dundee Harbour Trust and her name changed to HARECRAIG II. Sold again in 1983 for non-payment of harbour fees, her new owners, Maryport Steamship Company, sold her on to the Allerdale District Council three years later as a basis for a steamship museum. Lack of maintenance funds caused her to be sold once again to a charitable trust in 1996.

She has now been bought by private owners and is being renovated and refitted at Maryport. Plans are being made for her future with the aim of sailing her to West Coast Canada, delivering aid to Central America en route.

 

Key dates

  • 1951

    Built by Ferguson Bros of Port Glasgow as a Steam Tug for the Clyde Shipping Co
  • 1951-63

    She worked at Denny’s Shipyard on the River Leven and find her way up the muddy River Cart to the Fleming & Ferguson Shipyard at Paisley.  She was occasionally used as a Tender and licensed by the Board of Trade to carry 150 pax and 10 crew
  • 1952

    Struck amidships by the ‘ESSO Appalachee’ and the Captain drove the tug ashore to prevent it sinking in the main channel
  • 1963

    Sold to the Dundee Harbour Trust and renamed ‘Harecraig II’ .  Worked around Dundee’s wharfs and docks
  • 1976

    Sold to A C Cranes Ltd of Dublin and never moved
  • 1986

    Sold and based in Maryport and undergoing restoration with a new engine and a new interior and renamed ‘Flying Buzzard’
  • 2006

    Set sail for Vancouver, Canada

Grants

  • 2006/07

    The Heritage Lottery Fund awarded £17,500 to purchase heritage items

Sources

Brouwer, Norman J, International Register of Historic Ships, Anthony Nelson, Edition 2 1993
Allerdale District Council, Maryport Steamships: A Souvenir Guide
Smith, Bill, Reed's Tug World Annual Review Nostalgia

Own this vessel?

If you are the owner of this vessel and would like to provide more details or updated information, please contact info@nationalhistoricships.org.uk