# British Waterways tug Speedwell



## davidwheeler (6 mo ago)

Does anyone remember this steam tug? Does anyone have a photograph of her?
In the 1950s British Waterways operated a number of ancient steam and motor tugs, the youngest of which dated from 1915. One of the oldest, the Speedwell had been built somewhere in 1876. She used to potter about the Gloucester and Berkeley Ship Canal, towing a single barge. It was interesting to watch her pass through a swing-bridge, with her tall funnel and marked list, phizzing and hissing but otherwise silent. My favourite. Does anyone else remember her? And what became of her?


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## BillH (Oct 10, 2007)




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## BillH (Oct 10, 2007)

Courtesy of a Belgian research colleague obviously scanned from printed source


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## davidwheeler (6 mo ago)

Thank you and your Belgian colleague both. 
I don't remember seeing this tug after the late 1950s. By that time she was, I believe, the second oldest tug at work in the British Isles. 
I do not know where she was built - I thought Abdela & Mitchell but I think she predates that Brimscombe Port shipbuilder. I believe that the whole of her working life was spent on the Gloucester & Berkeley Canal and upper Severn - I do not think she worked the River Severn below Sharpness. I never saw her with more than one barge - some of the others towed strings of six or more. We sometimes had trouble when meeting them.
Does anyone know anything of the history of this tug? One of the former BW tugs is conserved at Bristol I believe - the oldest one of the lot.


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## BillH (Oct 10, 2007)

Screw Steamer SPEEDWELL built by G. K. Stothert & Co. in 1876 for Sharpness New Docks and Gloucester & Birmingham Navigation Co., Gloucester, Tug


Screw Steamer SPEEDWELL built by G. K. Stothert & Co. in 1876 for Sharpness New Docks and Gloucester & Birmingham Navigation Co., Gloucester, Tug



shippingandshipbuilding.uk


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## davidwheeler (6 mo ago)

Well thank you once again.
That is really helpful. Save that I suggest that this vessel was not broken up in 1949. I believe she was alive and well, well into the late 1950s. Because I saw her. Many times. And at very close contact. Not only do I claim she was still afloat then, but she is included by H M Le Fleming in his 1960 edition of British Tugs. Can anyone support us?


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