# Clyde Tugs of 1960/70s Which Shipping Lines did they service?



## clydesiderman (Nov 28, 2004)

In the 1960s/70s there were two main tug firms, Steel & Bennie and Clyde Shipping, working on the Clyde and at Glasgow. Does anyone know which tug firm was the choice for the shipping lines? For example, which tug firm handled Clan, or Ellerman or Brocklebank or Blue Funnel, Furness Withy, Palm, Donaldson, etc. ? Dougie.


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## neil maclachlan (Aug 22, 2005)

*Clyde Tugs of 1960/70s*

Hi Fellow Seafarer,
I come from a long line of tugboat men my Grandfather being the Senior Skipper with The Clyde Shipping Company,in charge of "The Flying Scotsman" which he brought round from (I THINK) South Shields as a new boat,she was probably the last side paddler on the Clyde when I was a boy. I was raised on all the lore by my father who as a boy sailed with his father as a cabin boy.and told me tales of lying off Northern Ireland waiting to pick up a sailing ship coming from North America, and then they would follow her as far as she could sail before picking up the tow. Thru my fathers teaching I could tell almost every shipping line under the red duster,thats when we had Merchant Navy. I went to see as an engineer,but that was'nt the life for me. At a guess I would say Clyde Shipping was the main tugboat company on the River Clyde, they had a lot of tugs and at one time were alledged to be the oldest shipping line in the UK in existance>


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## Fairfield (Apr 26, 2004)

I do remember reading that in the 1950s to the 1960s Clyde Shipping handled Paddy Henderson/s ships in Glasgow. Though watching ships arriving and departing in those days I/m afraid I did not take much notice of whose tugs were doing the needful unfortunately.
Launches in the 1970s used to be one company only and if I remember would alternate at a particular yard, Steel and Bennie/Cory doing one then Clyde Shipping the next and so on.
Most certainly in the 1970s the berthing jobs were shared, by this time being Clyde Shipping and Cory until Cory took over the lot and now of course it has all gone under the Svitzer banner. There is only one true Clyde Shipping tug left now, FLYING PHANTOM built in 1981.


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