NWM Tugs

For more Museum Boats, see Museum Boats, Dredger & Sabrina 5 and Narrow Boats

Tug Severn Progress

The tug originally named Progress (on the right) was built in 1931 by Charles Hill & Sons of Bristol, the prefix Severn being added later to conform to the general naming policy adopted by her owners, the Severn & Canal Carrying Company based in Gloucester. Progress originally had a 100 bhp Kromhout semi-diesel engine which required heating with a blow-lamp to get it hot before starting. In later years this was replaced by a Lister air-cooled diesel that starts with the push of a button. Also in the early days, the steering position was an open well, and it was many years later before a proper wheel-house was fitted.

Severn Progress was mainly used for towing barges and canal boats on the River Severn between Gloucester and Worcester with some trips extending to Stourport. A typical trip was to leave Gloucester early one morning, towing whatever loaded barges and canal boats needed to go up river, stay overnight at Worcester and then return with empty boats the following day. When it was necessary to go all the way up to Stourport, it was still expected that the tug would return on the second day. The usual cargoes for the barges were corn, timber and petroleum, and the canal boats carried corn, metals, chocolate crumb and a wide range of general cargoes that had come on the steamers arriving at Bristol and Avonmouth.

Following nationalisation of the canals in 1948, Severn Progress became part of the British Waterways fleet and continued towing on the Severn until commercial traffic died out in the late 1960s. Later she moved to the Kennet & Avon Canal to help with restoration and maintenance work between Hanham Lock and Bath. After this role ended in 1991, Severn Progress came to the Museum, where she is looked after by the Friends of the Museum who use her for tug handling courses and occasional towing jobs. Top

Tug Kennet

Kennet was built in 1931 by James Pollock Sons & Co of London for the Thames Conservancy. Powered initially by a 3-cylinder 54bhp Gardner and later by a 4-cylinder 72bhp Crossley diesel engine, she was used for many years for towing maintenance craft on the river above Oxford. Most often she towed mud barges from the dredger to where the mud could be dumped on the bank. Other work included moving a piling rig about, clearing away trees that were obstructing the river and dragging floating debris off the weirs. She also towed a barge that brought coal to the lock keepers.

In 1973, Kennet was rescued from a scrap yard at Iver, on the Slough Arm of the Grand Union Canal, and started a new life as a pleasure craft on the Thames, based at Windsor and visiting Henley each year for the regatta. In the early 1980s, Kennet was used again for occasional towing jobs while on loan to E C Jones & Son's boatyard at Brentford, and then she was bought by David Mitton, producer of the children's television series "Tugs". This series featured the adventures of two New York tug fleets, and Kennet was given a wheelhouse and painted to look like Ten Cents, a wise and experienced member of Captain Star's tug fleet. In 1989, David Mitton loaned Kennet to the Museum where she is looked after by the Friends of the Museum and used to take visitors around the dock and for tug handling courses.