A bit of a do...

Habbie might like this….  A dull day today so I started looking out my pics of old Seaham Harbour.  Finally found my negs of two paddle steamer tugs I photographed in the harbour around 1965.   I spent some time removing scratches and dust marks then, as I had a free trial with some colourising software, I ran it through that and made a jpg image of it.  Next I dug out a slide I took of the same tug in San Francisco in the 1990’s.  It's in the extras.  Day gone!

Eppleton Hall was built in 1914 at South Shields for the *Lambton and Hetton Coal Company.  She was designed to tow vessels, sailing ships, colliers and cargo vessels in and out of local harbours, saving much time in manoeuvring and pilotage costs.  She was sold to a Tyne towage company in 1945.  She served with them until 1964 then moved to the Seaham Harbour Dock Company.  She was partially scrapped by 1967.  

*Many mine owners had their own brick manufacturing facilities and I’ve found many of Lambton bricks around my (old farm) garden.  The colliery was about 4 miles from here.

The British National Maritime Museum had preservation rights to Reliant, a sister tug at Seaham and the last running steam paddle tug in service in the world.  She was also built at South Shields - for the Manchester Ship Canal Company and originally called Old Trafford.  Cutting a long story short, the San Francisco Maritime Museum tried to but Reliant but was thwarted by the NMM.  They diverted their attention to and acquired Eppleton Hall, now partially scrapped, she had to be rebuilt at Bill Quay, near Hebburn on Tyne, Co. Durham.  On being converted to diesel power and fitted with navigation aids she sailed to the US via Dover, Lisbon, Cape Verde, Georgetown, Panama and San Diego, running out of fuel in the Bay of Biscay, vacuum pump failure in mid Atlantic, rescuing a fishing vessel off the coast of Mexico, and nearly foundering in a storm out of San Diego on the final leg to San Francisco.  She passed under the Golden Gate Bridge 6 months and 9 days after leaving the UK.  My other extra shows her at the Hyde Street Pier, San Francisco on their air day around 1994/5.  A USAF Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II flies overhead (aka Tankbuster). The white building in the background is Alcatraz.  I was using a long lens for the fighter plane shot.

Meanwhile, Reliant, now in the hands of the NMM was converted to a static exhibit and lasted until 2005 then she was scrapped and cut up.  A couple of small parts were retained.