The Tug "Bennett" was named after Abraham
Bennett (click here for more
info),
the millwright to whom the famous pioneering canal engineer
James
Brindley
was apprenticed and was launched by Mrs Florence Freemantle,
Abraham Bennett's great granddaughter.
Built by Isaac Pimblott & Sons at Northwich in 1951(length 55'-3'', beam
10'-9'',
draught 3'-7", her original engine was a 60 b.h.p. Widdop diesel and she
was re-engined
with a 68 b.h.p. Gardner in 1956-8 (cost £9641 - £10318 including
re-engine).
"Bennett" in foreground coming around Weaver bend,
with weaver sluices to the left, and ICI on
the right. Weston Point church is in the distance, with Runcorn Docks about a
mile from this picture.
"Bennett" is passing another tug towing a
dredging barge, the tug is either the "Diana" or "Daphne".
The tug towed the barge to a dredger to be filled with silt and was then towed
to a
pumping station at frodsham. The silt was deposited onto the lagoons on
the marshes.
"Bennett" tucks in behind one of the barges in Walton Lock.
"Bennett" on station on the MSC, at "No mans
land", Runcorn where the dredging tug fleet
was based until about 1988 - waiting for the barges to come in off the
Mersey.
The tug was needed to get laden barges over the mud in
the Walton Arm and in the Mersey, which
hadn't been dredged since traffic to the paper works on the Chester Road cut
ended some 2 years previously.
"Bennett" at Walton.
"Bennett" in Walton Lock with "Panary",
who is still trading - taking specialist grain to Frodsham on the Weaver.
("Panary's" master now is Len Clark, who took the "Trader"
up in these pictures.)
("Humber Trader" and "Panary" took the last waterborne cargo of grain to Fairclough's Mill in October 1983).
"Bennett" on the Ship Canal.
"Bennett"
nudging the gates fully open for "Humber Trader" to come up.
"Humber Trader" was one of the last boats to use the Walton Arm and
Lock from the
Ship Canal to the River Mersey at Warrington in 1983.
"Bennett" probably on her permanent berth at Runcorn, with other large MSCCo Tugs.
"Bennett" was lifted out of
the water at Old Quay workshops and scrapped in the early
80s (exact date unknown) despite serious offers to purchase her from the
MSCCo:-(
It is though that a similar fate befell "Baddeley" (one of Bennett's 2 sister Tugs).
MSC "Appleton" (Bennett's other
sister Tug) was until recently working as the canal's diving boat.
She is presently berthed at Old Quay workshops awaiting repair.
With the exception of the Tugs "Dawn" and "Dainty" the
dredging fleet was sold off,
the majority going down to the Thames (several are still working there).
MSC "Dawn" is currently the MSCCo. diving boat.
MSC "Dainty" is a spare working tug.
Of the fleet that assisited the big ships, there are now only 4 left, these
being:
MSC "Viceroy"
MSC "Victory"
MSC "Volant"
MSC "Viking"
(These are now operated by Carmet Towing UK Ltd.)
Below are 2 photos taken by Harold Darbyshire and kindly supplied by
Peter Whitby:
MSC "Archer"
MSC "Puma" (1952)
I would be most grateful for any further
information and pictures of
"Bennett" or any of the other past and
present MSC Tugs
I am indebted to Frank Brown for much of the
above information
and to David Long of the Sankey Canal Restoration Society (SCARS).
Thanks also to Ed Burrows
(Link to Jim Shead's MSC Web Site)
(Trips on the Manchester Ship Canal - link to Mersey Ferries site)
(Click
here to Email)