# South African Steam Tugs



## ROY LORENTZ

Can anyone assist ?,I am trying to establish an indication of the BOLLARD PULL
of some of the better known Clyde built South African steam tugs such as the
FC STURROCK,J R MORE,DANIE HUGO, F T BATES, etc.

Kind Regards,

Roy Lorentz


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## treeve

have a look at
www.clydesite.co.uk/articles/steamtugs.asp 
I suggest contact them, maybe they can help?


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## ROY LORENTZ

Thanks very much


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## Kaskazi

Sturrock, Hugo and Bates were 27 tons, More was 29.5 tons. Strongest among the SA steam tugs built before 1940 and whose info is known to me was Sir William Hoy at 32 tons. I have not seen any listed at less than 27 tons, but there were a number of tugs built before the mid twenties whose BP was not stated.


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## ROY LORENTZ

Thank you so much.Regards,Roy Lorentz


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## 3rdEng

*Bollard Pull*



ROY LORENTZ said:


> Can anyone assist ?,I am trying to establish an indication of the BOLLARD PULL
> of some of the better known Clyde built South African steam tugs such as the
> FC STURROCK,J R MORE,DANIE HUGO, F T BATES, etc.
> 
> Kind Regards,
> 
> Roy Lorentz


Hi Roy,
I've got a complete set of all the SA Steam Tugs details, carefully taken off the original drawings and trial diagrams when I could get hold of them and then checked against an SAR&H list I have. Most of the technical details in David Reynold's '_A Century of South African Steam Tugs_' are just plain wrong ... length overall mistaken for length between perpendiculars, etc. I'm a marine engineer so I tend to get sticky about details, especially horsepowers.

Only one of the tugs, the _*J. R. More*_, had an actual bollard pull test done as part of her trial. She averaged 3110.5 iHp on trial and 29.5 tons bollard pull. All of the others are given as around 28 tons with the *Hoy* being 32 tons. This accords with the old tug master's thumbsuck: take the iHp and divide by 100.

Thing is often the horsepowers given in books like S. A. Ports were the designed horsepower. They said, for example, that all the 1930's class were 2600 iHp, whereas, on trial, for example, the F. Schermbrucker was 3393 iHp. On trial they ran with the valve gear fully linked out. No doubt for an economical run at sea, with the valves in line, they did only produce around 2600 iHp ... and also in port, with the valves fully linked out, but with the firemen struggling with dud Witbank cobbles, no doubt, it _was_ more like 2500 iHp at times!

The *Hoy* was given as 32 tons and 3577 iHp but one of her chief's, Carlos Castro, said that was more like her in-line horsepower and he took a set of cards at nearly 3900 iHp once.

So here's the official list, as best as I can make it:

Ludwig Wiener 2 TE, 18 /4", 28 /2" & 48 /4" by 28" 1 1 1
stroke, 2377 iHp (from trial diagram), 13,07 knots on trial
4 Babcock & Wilcox watertube
Engines by Ferguson Bros, Port Glasgow
240 tons coal

Sir David Hunter 2 TE, 18 /4", 28 /2" & 48 /4" by 28" 1 1 1
stroke, 2318 iHp (from trial diagram), 13,02 knots on trial
4 Scotch firetube
Engines by Ferguson Bros, Port Glasgow
180 tons coal

T. S. McEwen 2 TE, 18 /2", 30" & 50" by 36" stroke, 1
3300 iHp (uncheckable), 13 knots 4
Babcock & Wilcox watertube
Engines by Bow McLachlan, Paisley
369 tons coal

Sir William Hoy 2 TE, 19", 31" & 52" by 36" stroke,
3577 iHp, 13 knots on trial
4 Babcock & Wilcox watertube
Armstrong, Whitworth, Newcastle
358 tons coal

John Dock 2 TE, 17", 29" & 48" by 30" stroke,
2500 iHp designed (probably more as engine specifications same as all the rest), 12 knots
4 Babcock & Wilcox watertube
Harland & Wolff, Govan
209 tons coal

W. H. Fuller 2 TE, 17", 29" & 48" by 30" stroke,
2500 iHp designed (probably more as engine specifications same as all the rest), 12 knots
4 Babcock & Wilcox watertube
Harland & Wolff, Govan
209 tons coal

C. F. Kayser 2 TE, 17", 29" & 48" by 30" stroke,
3193 iHp (SAR&H list), 13,5 knots on trial
4 Scotch firetube
Engines by Lobnitz & Co, Renfrew
235 tons coal

T. Eriksen 2 TE, 17", 29" & 48" by 30" stroke,
3285 iHp (SAR&H list), 13,5 knots on trial
4 Scotch firetube
Engines by Lobnitz & Co, Renfrew
235 tons coal

F. Schermbrucker 2 TE, 17", 29" & 48" by 30" stroke,
3393 iHp (trial results and SAR&H list), 13,2 knots on trial
4 Scotch firetube
Engines by Lobnitz & Co, Renfrew
232 tons coal

John X. Merriman 2 TE, 17", 29" & 48" by 30" stroke,
3250 iHp (SAR&H list), 13,2 knots on trial
4 Scotch firetube (reboilered 1971 with 3 Scotch by John Thompson, Africa)
Engines by Lobnitz & Co, Renfrew
232 tons coal, later 278 oil

Otto Siedle 2 TE, 17", 29" & 48" by 30" stroke,
3259 iHp (SAR&H list), 13,5 knots on trial
4 Scotch firetube
Engines by Lobnitz & Co, Renfrew
232 tons coal

E. S. Steytler 2 TE, 17", 29" & 48" by 30" stroke,
3220 iHp (SAR&H list), 13,2 knots on trial
4 Scotch firetube
Engines by Lobnitz & Co, Renfrew
232 tons coal

T. H. Watermeyer 2 TE, 17", 29" & 48" by 30" stroke,
3251 iHp (SAR&H list), 13,3 knots on trial
4 Scotch firetube
Engines by Lobnitz & Co, Renfrew
232 tons coal

J. D. White 2 TE, 17", 28" & 46" by 33" stroke,
2960 iHp (SAR&H list), 12,2 knots on trial
4 Scotch firetube
Engines by Plenty & Sons, Newbury
206 tons coal

F. T. Bates 2 TE, 17", 29" & 48" by 30" stroke,
3066 iHp (from official trial diagrams & SAR&H list), 13,1 knots on trial
3 Scotch firetube
Engines by Ferguson Bros, Port Glasgow
431 tons oil

A. M. Campbell 2 TE, 17", 29" & 48" by 30" stroke,
3246 iHp (from official trial diagrams & SAR&H list), 13,35 knots on trial
3 Scotch firetube
Engines by Ferguson Bros, Port Glasgow
431 tons oil

R. B. Waterston 2 TE, 17", 29" & 48" by 30" stroke,
2796 iHp (from official trial diagrams & SAR&H list), 12,1 knots on trial
4 Scotch firetube
Engines by Simons, Renfrew
200 tons coal

Danie Hugo 2 TE, 17", 29" & 48" by 30" stroke,
3096 iHp (from official trial diagrams & SAR&H list), 13,3 knots on trial
3 Scotch firetube
Engines by Rankin & Blackmore, Port Glasgow
404 tons oil

F. C. Sturrock 2 TE, 17", 29" & 48" by 30" stroke,
3269 iHp (from official trial diagrams & SAR&H list), 13,4 knots on trial
3 Scotch firetube
Engines by Ferguson Bros, Port Glasgow
404 tons oil

J. R. More 2 TE, 17", 29" & 48" by 30" stroke,
3110 iHp (from official trial diagrams & SAR&H list), 13,9 knots on trial
3 Scotch firetube
Engines by Rankin & Blackmore, Port Glasgow
404 tons oil

I know a lot of Capetonians are upset when I tell them the Danie Hugo and the F. T. Bates (which many regard as the best of the tugs) were less powerful than the A. M. Campbell and the F. C. Sturrock ... but I've checked the trial book from Ferguson's themselves. An interesting extra is that the J. R. More's engines are the last built by Rankin and Blackmore.

Andrew


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## Old Se Dog

*bollard pull tugs*

the bollard pul for some of the tugs

sir william hoy = 32 tons
f shermbrucker = 32 tons
jr more = 29.5 tuns - she was also the only tug fitted with 2 rudders

contact me via pm - if i can assist further


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## david.hopcroft

Remember limping in to Durban at 4 kts from Beira with less than half an engine. The Tug coming out seemed impatient, and when the Pilot eventually came aboard he said 'Full ahead Capt' to which the Capt replied 'This is full ahead' and we were promptly dragged in slightly quicker that we had managed for a long while !!

David
+


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## Old Se Dog

*sar & h tug boat symbols*

hello andrew - off subject here - but still on the tugs - why did some tugs have symbols on there masts? jd white had a springbok as did the es steytler and and the t erickson - the cockerel- also can you recall christmas trees on the masts ? many thanks


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## Old Se Dog

*tug boat symbols - and oriana*

further to my posting - a read from another site shared this symbol of the - golden cockerel - awarded to the oriana - for the fastest crossing from uk to australia


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## point fortin

hello guys,does any body remember a tug Captain on the tugs,called TonyPearson,frrom the deep sea fleet served as Mate in Saf MARINE.


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## Stephen J. Card

Do the three Alaska bears qualify? 
Nw AMSTERDAM at Sydney 2000.


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## 3rdEng

Kaskazi said:


> Sturrock, Hugo and Bates were 27 tons, More was 29.5 tons. Strongest among the SA steam tugs built before 1940 and whose info is known to me was Sir William Hoy at 32 tons. I have not seen any listed at less than 27 tons, but there were a number of tugs built before the mid twenties whose BP was not stated.


Yes, most of the bollard pulls were thumbsucks. The standard way of estimating them in the days of steam tugs was to take the iHp and divide by 100. The *designed* horsepower of all the tugs from the _*John Dock*_ onwards was 2600iHp for coal burners and 2700iHp for oil burners. This makes sense when you realise they all had exactly the same engine specs 17", 29" & 48" × 30" stroke (*J. D. White* excepted - 17", 28" & 46" × 33" stroke. The only one which did an actual bollard test as part of her trials was the *J. R. More *which achieved 29.5 tons. However her horsepower on trial was 3110.5iHp as opposed to the *F. C. Sturrock*'s 3269iHp so it makes no sense that the _*Sturrock*_ would be so much lower than the *More*. The _*Schermbrucker*_ on trial was 3393iHp on trial. So it's best to regard 2600iHp/2700iHp/27tons bp as design figures.
For those really interested I'm attaching a pdf of all tugs specs taken from actual SAR&H SMEs sheet, and everything checked against the actual trial diagrams which I have obtained (not all unfortunately) and against dimensions on plans so they're *really* accurate.


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## Scotch Boiler

There is an apocryphal story told about the Auckland steam tug "Aucklander". Built in Scotland 1953. There was a bollard pull test with some sort of a guage. The guage registered at least 28 tons when the bollard showed signs of being pulled out of the wharf. The trial was then abandoned. 28 tons was the required number.


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