Admiralty Coaster C642
Typical of many such craft built for servicing fleet vessels. One of a group built by Yarwoods of Northwich, C.642 was launched in 1946 and served until being placed for disposal in 1956. Purchased by F.T. Everard & Sons Ltd of Greenwich, Kent, C.642 was renamed the ‘Clanity’ and used for a short period as a dry cargo carrier before being lengthened and widened in a conversion to a tanker. Steam propulsion was retained until she ended her days in a scrap yard in Antwerp in 1969.

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Steam Pinnace

199 is a steam pinnace of the Royal Navy, built in 1909 by J. Reid of Portsmouth. She is now owned by the National Museum of the Royal Navy, and is based at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.[1][2][3]
History
During its restoration, the ship was misidentified and it became known as Steam Pinnace 199.[1][3] However, it was later determined that the ship's machinery originated from pinnaces 208 and 224, and that its hull, stern cabin, and funnel also came from 224. Despite these findings, the name Steam Pinnace 199 was retained.[1][3][4][5] Steam Pinnace 224 was built in 1909, and was assigned to the battlecruiser HMS Inflexible in 1916.[1][3] It was sold out of the Royal Navy on 6 August 1948,[3] and in 1952 she was sold to a private owner, renamed Treleague, and was converted into a houseboat located on the Thames.[1] During this time its steam machinery was removed, and replaced by a petrol engine.[4] After serving as a houseboat for about 20 years, she was purchased by an antiques dealer who intended to restore her.[1][4] However, the project was deemed too expensive and its hull was sold to the National Museum of the Royal Navy in 1979.[1][4]
Restoration
She was restored by a group called the Steam Launch Restoration Group, based in Gosport.[2] In 1983, she was given a boiler and compound engine from a similar steam pinnace,[1][4] found at the Royal Navy shore establishment HMS Sultan.[1][4] Her original steam auxiliary engines were found at a yard in Belgium.[1] During her restoration, the ship was given a replacement Hotchkiss 3-pounder gun dating from 1887, and salvaged from the sea by a trawler in 1980.[1][5] The gun has been restored cosmetically; however, it is not functional and the inside of the barrel is corroded.[1][5] The ship was finally recommissioned in 1984, and was kept in the Mast Pond of Portsmouth Historic Dockyard until 1998,[2][4] when she was brought to Gosport for a refit.[2][4] From 1999 to 2001 her machinery was given a major refurbishment.[4] Since then, she has taken place in many events such as the International Festival of the Sea, the Yarmouth Old Gaffers Festival and the Southampton Boat Show.[1][4] In May 2011, she developed leaks in her boiler tubes and was transported to the Maritime Workshop in February 2012.[1] She was given a refit, and she was relaunched in 2015.[1] Steam Pinnace 199 is preserved afloat in Boathouse 4 at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.[2][5]

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TeThe Fifie is a design of sailing boat developed on the east coast of Scotland. It was a traditional fishing boat used by Scottish fishermen from the 1850s until well into the 20th century. These boats were mainly used to fish for herring using drift nets, and along with other designs of boat were known as herring drifters.
Design
While the boats varied in design, they can be categorised by their vertical stem and stern, their long straight keel and wide beam. These attributes made the Fifies very stable in the water and allowed them to carry a very large set of sails. The long keel, however, made them difficult to manoeuvre in small harbours.
Sailing Fifies had two masts with the standard rig consisting of a main dipping lug sail and a mizzen standing lug sail.[1] The masts were positioned far forward and aft on the boat to give the maximum clear working space amidships. A large fifie could reach just over 20 metres (66 ft) in length. Because of their large sail area they were very fast sailing boats.
Fifies built after 1860 were all decked and from the 1870s onwards the bigger boats were built with carvel planking, i.e. the planks were laid edge to edge instead of the overlapping clinker style of previous boats. The introduction of steam powered capstans in the 1890s, to help raising the lugs sails, allowed the size of these vessels to increase from 30 feet (9.14 m) to over 70 feet (21.34 m) in length. From about 1905 onwards sailing Fifies were gradually fitted with engines and converted to motorised vessels.
Isabella Fortuna 830820
There are few surviving examples of this type of fishing boat still in existence. The Scottish Fisheries Museum based in Anstruther, Fife has restored and still sails a classic example of this type of vessel named the Reaper. The Swan Trust in Lerwick, Shetland have restored and maintain another Fifie, The Swan, as a sail training vessel. She now takes over 1000 trainees each year, and has taken trainees to participate in the Cutty Sark Tall Ships Races to ports in France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Ireland as well as around the UK. The Isabella Fortuna is owned by the Wick Society.st

The lifeboat’s hull was of best quality steel, the plates being triple rivetted together with 72,000 rivets – torpedo boats of the period were double rivetted – without a single continuous seam, in order to counter the stresses smashing into waves, whereas other steel hulls were single rivetted. It was not self-righting beyond 110°, the mast being 20° below the horizontal, but featured modified end boxes designed similarly to self-righting vessels, and contained fifteen water tight compartments, bilge pumps and steam ejectors. 15.24m long with overall beam of 4.36m and 1.07m deep, including a flush deck with inset accommodation for up to 40 persons, it was powered by twin horizontal direct acting compound steam engines complete with one boiler and at full speed, a 1,000-rpm fan created forced draught, and it had twin funnels. Recognition must be given to the fortitude of the engine room crew including stokers of these steam lifeboats when being tossed around in storms but the forced draught would have provided ample ventilation. A fuller account may be read here.

This lifeboat was transferred in 1892 to New Brighton temporarily then was based at Holyhead – there, in 1901, while on passage, a boiler room explosion killed two firemen. It was retired from service in 1928.

TRACKER DUNDEE PILOT BOAT
FORTH Ports, the UK’s third largest port group, has placed an order for two new pilot boats to join their fleet working on the Rivers Forth and Tay. The investment in the vessels to work on the busy waterways will see the arrival next year of the next generation of pilot boats built by Holyhead Marine.
Pilot boats are important vessels on the river as they transport maritime pilots to the ships that need guided safely into port through the lock gates in Leith and Grangemouth, to a berth at a quayside in Dundee or Rosyth or to one of the deep-water anchorages in the River Forth. As the statutory river authority for the Forth and Tay, Forth Ports marine team operate over an area of 280 square miles of navigable waters.
The two pilot boats have been designed in Scotland by Camarc Design and will be built this year by Holyhead Marine in Wales. The pilot boats are 16.6 metres long and are the most advanced boats in operation with an updated hull design and engines offering increased efficiency. In the future, the engines would be capable of operating on HVO fuel (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil) which could result in a C02 emission reduction of up to 90%. [**NB: further tech info is listed below]
Alan McPherson, Chief Harbour Master for Forth Ports’ Scottish operations, said: “It is important that we invest in our marine fleet to deliver the best service for river users and at the same time, decarbonise our vessels using the very latest engine technology. The Rivers Forth and Tay are two of the largest and busiest waterways in the UK with thousands of vessels using the rivers each year, ranging from very large offshore drilling rigs in Dundee, to container vessels heading to Grangemouth and cruise liners sailing into both rivers. We look forward to receiving the new pilot boats next year.”
Forth Ports currently has 5 pilot boats and 11 tugs operating across the River Forth and Tay.

AMSTERDAM TUG
The Amsterdam tugboat was built at the Johan Alkers Shipyard in Hamburg, Germany in 1971. It was specially built to handle and serve very large ships and super tankers of this modern age. Three other sister-ships where built, called Malabar, Tenace and Centour, and these are serving at this moment with the French navy.

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MS Grove (L77) was a Hunt-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She had been completed in early 1942 at the Swan Hunter yard at Wallsend-on-Tyne.

Service history
Initial success
Grove, along with other ships of the 2nd Escort Group, namely Aldenham, Volunteer and Leamington, had sunk the German submarine U-587. This followed a 'Huff Duff' (High frequency Direction finding) interception.

Loss
While escorting convoy MW-11, Grove was hit by two torpedoes fired by U-77 on 12 June 1942. The ship sank with the loss of 110 men.[1] The destroyer Tetcott rescued 79 survivors. She had been returning to Alexandria from Tobruk, having run aground at Tobruk, damaging the port propeller shaft and the screw itself; her speed had been reduced to 8.5 knots (15.7 km/h; 9.8 mph).[2]

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