The John H. Amos was the last paddle tug built in Great Britain for civilian owners.
She is the last surviving paddle tug in the UK.

Some diesel-electric paddle tugs were built latterly for the Royal Navy, but the last one, Forceful, was scrapped after being used as a missile target.

The last but one steam paddle tug in the UK, Reliant, was controversially scrapped after being on display in the Neptune Hall at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

It is thought that the only other British built paddle tug in the world is the Eppleton Hall in San Francisco.

The tug was completed in February 1931 but the Tees Conservancy Commissioners would not accept her due to the speed not being up to specification. It was to be two years before she was formally accepted.
The hull was constructed from riveted steel plate and some other details are as follows: -

Official Number : 160734
Yard Number : 497
Previous Port of Registry : Middlesbrough
Present Port of Registry : London
Length : 110 feet
Breadth : 22.5 feet
Moulded Depth : 11.5 feet
Overall Width (paddle to paddle) 43 feet
Gross Tonnage : 202 tons
Actual Weight, approx. : 300 tons
Registered Tonnage : nil
Two compound diagonal engines with Bremme valve gear
Nominal Horsepower : 126
Indicated Horsepower : 500
Length of Stroke : 44 inches
Diameter of H.P. Cylinders : 17¼ inches
Diameter of L.P. Cylinders : 34½ inches
Engines can be worked separately or joined by a dog clutch.
Boilers : Two coal fired twin furnace Scotch type
Working Pressure : 125 p.s.i.
The estimated cost, delivered complete, was believed to be £18,500 but it cost less than the estimated price because of the problems with specification.

Working Life 1931 to 1967

During research done by Martin Stevens and Chris Jones in February 2004 in connection with the HLF Project Planning Grant, many of the myths relating to the John H Amos were laid to rest. It had been understood that she was a failure as a tug. This is not true.
For 27 years between 1940 and 1967, the period covered by the Daily Towage Records at Teesside Archives, she worked an almost monotonous daily routine doing exactly the work she was built for. She took barges to dredgers and the dumping grounds, towed the dredgers as they had no propulsion of their own, and transferred the crews.

This was confirmed by a one time Chief Engineer of the John H Amos, Ron Young.

Ron told of minor problems such as the Sissons generator being difficult to regulate.
The only shortcoming concerning the boilers was the reluctance of the management to provide a second stoker. This meant that one man had to stoke four furnaces during a full day's work all by himself.

Ron Young tells of an incident in 1959 when the vessel was arrested for smuggling. She was involved in towing barges to ships anchored offshore and illicit trading in alcohol was taking place.
There is no mention of this incident in the ship's log, although it is noted that the skipper changed for a while during the critical period.

Although the case was taken to court, nobody was disciplined or sacked. According to Ron Young this source of alcohol was common practise and a widely used perk.

Ron tells of races between the John H Amos and a TID tug named Lackenby (ex TID 182) in the same fleet. The paddle tug always won.

The last skipper of the John H.Amos, Archie Taylor, had told of his four years experience with the tug. "We used to tow barges to the dredgers, then we would take the superintendent round and then pick up the men again, and take water to ships that needed it."

"She was good, but was a bit hard on the steering." (no steam steering engine)
"The man feeding the boilers had to work hard to keep up steam. We would get through about three tons of coal in a full eight hour day."

When towing barges, they were always lashed alongside. In this configuration it was normal to use only one paddle. With the width of the barge added to the 43 feet of the tug this would have been a significant obstacle to meet in the narrower reaches of the Tees.

Ron Young confirms the archive entries that the tug operated with the following crew: -

Skipper, Mate, Two engineers, Fireman and Ships Boy (known as 6th hand)

One engineer was responsible for the port engine and the other for the starboard engine.
Unlike all passenger carrying paddle steamers, the John H. Amos was able to work each engine independently. This gave the manoeuvrability necessary for a tug. It was found that on passenger vessels, when approaching port, the passengers went to one side of the boat to disembark. If the engines were then worked independently the uneven distribution of weight could capsize the vessel.
The John H Amos invariably worked with the clutch disengaged.

The Tees has been referred to disparagingly as a muddy ditch. The raison d'être of the John H Amos was to be a key part of the continuous dredging team.
Her relatively shallow draught compared with a propeller driven screw tug enabled her to work in the shallow waters as far up river as Stockton.

1967 to 1976

The John H. Amos was withdrawn from service in 1967, and two years later was presented by the Tees and Hartlepool Ports Authority to the County Borough of Teesside for "The People of Cleveland".

In December 1971 she was moved from Middlesbrough to Stockton Corporation Quay.
A team of eight young people working under the Community Industrial Scheme, organised by the Youth Employment Service were part of a plan to convert the tug into a floating museum.

In 1973 when Martin Stevens and Michael List Brain from the Medway Maritime Museum visited the vessel in Stockton there was supervised work in progress, mainly concerned with the bilges and the interior of the hull.

In June 1973, the John H. Amos was dry docked.
It is said that £19,000 was spent on replating part of the hull. This was done by welding the new plates and not by traditional riveting. The work was done at Smiths Dock, Middlesborough.

John H. Amos in dry dock
Smiths Dock, Middlesborough

1976 to 2001

When the government of the day re-organised local councils the Youth Training Scheme was discontinued by the new council. This left them in an embarrassing position of having spent rate-payers money on a "white elephant" which was now destined for the scrap yard.

Martin Stevens and Michael List Brain heard of the predicament and negotiated to buy the John H. Amos for £3,500 thus allowing the council to save face.

During February 1976 Martin Stevens on the steam tug Cervia had towed four trawlers from Grimsby to Blyth in Northumberland for scrap. (They were Northern Prince, Northern Sea, Northern Sun, and Northern Chief). He then diverted to Stockton to collect the John H.Amos.

There was controversy among local politicians right up to the point of hand over.
Cleveland County Archives Department refused to release papers relating to the vessel. Councillor Tony Ellwood is quoted as saying that the incident was the "last straw in a bloody-minded attitude adopted by the County towards Stockton." The Archives Department agreed to release the documents only half an hour before the John H.Amos was due to depart.

Stockton's Mayor, Councillor Norman Duff, headed a civic party on the bridge of the John H.Amos to accept a cheque and perform a re-naming ceremony by breaking a bottle of champagne on the deck.

Watched by a crowd of 400, and to the accompaniment of "Rule Britannia" played by a local brass band, the strangely "time-warped" tow set of down the Tees late in the afternoon of March 4th 1976.

For a while the tug was re-named Hero, and was owned and managed by a company called ITL International Towing Ltd. These name changes were part of a strategy employed by the Medway Maritime Museum to give confidence to customers who may have had doubts about a Museum tug being used to tow their vessels.

It was known from the outset that the John H.Amos was in a different league to the other three working tugs. The policy of the Museum was that the best way to preserve vessels was to work them. But they acquired the John H.Amos knowing that the most they could do was to prevent her from being scrapped because of the enormous costs involved in total restoration.

Later in 1976 the Medway Maritime Museum fleet was divided and Martin Stevens took on responsibility for the steam tug T.I.D. 164 and the John H.Amos.

When Lloyds Insurance bought Gun Wharf, Chatham, the John H.Amos was no longer welcome and was moved to Milton Creek and then Faversham Creek, towed by T.I.D. 164.
A paddle tug is not the easiest vessel to find a home for. In the South East of England there are many tidal mud berths where working vessels can sit on the mud at the edge of a river or creek when the tide goes out. A paddle tug cannot use such a berth because, where a conventional vessel would normally sit, she has a paddle. The hull would sit on the slope to the centre of the creek or river.

Every time the tide went out the tug slithered to the centre of the creek. A local tug had to be chartered when other vessels wanted to get past, and in an effort to hold the tug on her mooring she was tied to a small building. When the tide went out the wire rope demolished the building.

English Partnership, who were developing the neighbouring part of the dockyard, were asked for help and the two tugs were allowed to occupy a disused slipway, free of charge, with the opportunity to do repairs to the hull of the John H. Amos.
To date a large part of the hull has been grit blasted and numerous patches have been welded.

In November 1999 the National Historic Ships Committee included the John H. Amos in their "Core Collection" as a vessel of "Pre-eminent National Significance" and among the most worthy vessels for preservation.

2001 to 2006
In 2001 the ownership of the John H. Amos was transferred to a Charitable Trust, the Medway Maritime Trust, and funding is being sought for total restoration to steaming condition.

The first funding has come from the PRISM Fund at the Science Museum and Martin Stevens on the transfer of ownership.

Among the first Trustees of the Medway Maritime Trust are:

Dr. Robert Prescott, formerly Project Director of the National Historic Ships Committee, head of the Scottish Institute of Maritime Studies at St. Andrews University, and holder of a Caird Senior Fellowship at The National Maritime Museum at Greenwich.

He is now Chairman of the Advisory Committee of National Historic Ships, reporting to the Secretary of State at the Department of Culture Media and Sport. (See www.nhsc.org.uk/committee/advisory.cfm)

Martin Stevens, Chairman of theTrust, is the proprietor of a family business in Kent. He ran the last fleet of working steam tugs in the UK and has been instrumental in the saving of several vessels, including the steam tug
TID 164 and more recently the 1902 Customs Cutter VIGILANT.
(www.vigilant.co.uk)

Alan Peake
Alan's father was Managing Director of the New Medway Steam Packet Company which owned a fleet of paddle steamers including the Medway Queen.
He became a Lloyds Insurance broker and set up a scheme to insure Thames sailing barges, sailing smacks, steam tugs, etc.
He is chairman of the operating company of the paddle steamer
KINGSWEAR CASTLE.

Heritage Lottery Fund Project Planning Grant.

In March 2003 an application for a Project Planning Grant was accepted by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

This £50,000 grant paid for:

• a full Conservation Plan prepared by the Scottish Institute of Maritime Studies at the University of St.Andrews,
• preparation of the vessel to enable the appropriate surveys to be carried out.
• preparation of a full restoration specification,
• the obtaining of quotations for the full restoration of the vessel,
• preparation of the business plan to support the future operation and use of the vessel.

A Project Manager, Chris Jones, was appointed for a year.

• Project Manager Chris Jones, and Martin Stevens stabilised the funnel which had become detached from its base, and cut up the collapsed remains of the smoke box. The funnel was later removed completely.
• Anglia Waterblast Ltd. removed the mud.
• Multiple patches were welded both by Anglia Waterblast Ltd and Paul Armstrong Welding Ltd.
• Metal thickness was tested by Spree Engineering and Testing Ltd.
• A report on a full structural survey was produced by Mr. Wyn Davis.
• A full Restoration Specification was produced by the Project Manager.
• A research visit to Teesside by Martin Stevens and Chris Jones in February 2004 revealed much more information on the John H Amos than was expected.
  
  Teesside Archives allowed studying and photographing of towage records and other documents, including photographs of Commissioner John Hetherington Amos himself. Ron Lowes, who works for the present Port Authority, PD Teesport Ltd, facilitated access to minutes of the Tees Conservancy Commissioners' meetings which included the discussions on the controversy of the tug not being accepted for two years.
  Ron Young, chief engineer, was tracked down and interviewed on video.
  
  

2006

The Pontoon PORTAL NARVIK
and the floating crane ATLAS

The Medway Maritime Trust has now acquired the services of a giant pontoon named Portal Narvik.
Its dimensions are 60 x 16 metres, (200 x 50 feet). That's nearly a quarter of an acre!

With the John H Amos supported on the pontoon the Portal Narvik will be used as a mobile 'Restoration Platform' and towed locally to where the restoration work is to be done.

While investigating which pontoon would be suitable, Martin Stevens found some which were relatively modern but needed extensions to accommodate the John H Amos. The most suitable was the Portal Narvik owned by Kier Plant. It was the biggest but it was also the most expensive and the idea was shelved.

After the diversion of the Number Seven Slip episode the pontoon idea had to be resurrected, and by chance Martin was telephoned by Kier Plant who said they had had a change of management. It evolved that the man who originally showed him round the pontoon and was very supportive towards the John H Amos project, had become the new Managing Director.

He made an offer which could not be refused and the pontoon had new owners.

The pontoon Portal Narvik is an historic ship in its own right.
She was originally a 1946 LST, Tank Landing Ship, called HMS Narvik.

She was used for the first UK atom bomb tests in Monte Bello, and was the mother ship for Doctor Penny's team at the Christmas Island hydrogen bomb test in the early 1950s. The present vessel is the LST with the stern chopped off.

The Trust is saving up for a Geiger counter!

(Click here to see press cutting from Old Glory magazine, March 2007)

"History of the "Narvik" click here.

The transfer of the John H Amos onto the pontoon will be carried out during 2008 by a large floating crane capable of lifting 400 tons.

GPS Marine Contractors operate the Atlas (formerly Smit Tak's Taklift 3), and have generously underwritten the shortfall of the Trusts funds to complete the lift.

The specialist Dutch team who operate the Atlas have visited the John H Amos twice to plan the lift.

Meanwhile final preparations are underway on the John H Amos and Portal Narvik.

Railway lines have been fixed to the hull of the John H Amos to spread the force of the strops across the frames and large pipes across the decks to prevent buckling.

Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust have kindly lent some dock blocks on which the John H Amos will sit. These will give a good working height when it comes to replacing the hull plates.

The deck of the pontoon has been cleared to allow the timber mats to be laid so the point loading of the 300 ton John H Amos is reduced when she is placed on the dock blocks.

The eleven and a half inch circumference wire strops are now in position on the slipway sitting in a "V" cut into some inset timbers.

Gary Spencer of GPS used the small tug Felucca to move the John H Amos over the strops.
As on other occasions she pivoted on the stern.
Precisely on high water Gary snatched again at the tow and this time the tow rope did not break and the John H Amos moved.
Working on a falling tide in these circumstances is not ideal.

Before she settled back onto the slipway the John H Amos was placed in approximately the right position over the strops.
At £4000 per strop it was important that she did not crush them with her keel.

She sat on three lengths!

But extraordinary luck was on our side.
By chance a large tow rope had placed itself between the keel and a strop thus protecting that strop and lifting the keel just high enough to protect the others!

The next problem was how to move her off the strops but the next morning the John H Amos had moved herself, despite being flooded.
Final adjustments were made with ropes in all directions to prevent any further movement.

Because the John H Amos is overhanging the slipway, it was thought that water retained in the forward cabin would put too much strain on the hull. So a hole was purposely made to allow free draining at low tide and the vessel is flooded at high tide to maintain her position over the strops.

At a site meeting with Martin Stevens and John Spencer it was decided to fabricate a third stretcher, in the form of another two foot diametre pipe across the deck, to prevent crushing during the lift.

To make room for this pipe the boiler room vents will disappear in the coming weeks.
The mast will also be unbolted before the lift.

That's the story so far.

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