Precious days of the steamers

Our festive contribution from John Aitken concerning the colourful history of the steam tug Kerne has yielded a glowing

response from Geoff Bray. The former Royal Navy artificer – a specialist mechanic charged with repairing engines, guns and other equipment while out on the great blue expanse – found the story of the Montrosebuilt vessel that is still afloat 109 years after being launched fired up his own memories of his years serving aboard craft that have also now become part of the collective seafaring heritage.

Geoff, from Letham, by Forfar, says: “Once again, the Craigie page has not failed to arouse my interest in all things ‘steam’.

“I served in the Royal Navy as an engine room ‘tiffy’ at a time when all but a few surface ships were powered by steam turbine from heavy fuel oil-fired high pressure boilers.

“We did though still rely on steam reciprocating pumps for supplying the fuel to the boiler registers, and also as auxiliary boiler feed pumps. I later served in nuclear submarines, also powered by steam, so it was good to see a steam reciprocatingengined vessel such as Kerne appear on the page.”

He adds: “During my service I was stationed at Chatham on a couple of occasions – where on the Medway and Thames in that area many forlorn looking and forgotten vessels like her could be found in muddy creeks.

“But as you say, Kerne is now happily preserved and operational in the Mersey and Manchester Ship Canal area.

“One doesn’t, however, need to make the journey south to see such treasures, as a search on Youtube for ‘steam tug Kerne’ will find several videos of her in action, along with links to similar videos of interest on historic working ships in the area, and also on the construction and operation of the Manchester Ship Canal, which in itself was a great feat of engineering.”