PRESSMAN on the mud

Jack Willis

The tug PRESSMAN on the mud at Gravesend. She was previously the TYBURN BROOK. She was owned by the United Towing Ltd and was built in 1950.

Comments about this page

Add your own comment

  • This tug had “been around” a bit. It was built in 1950 by Henry Scarr Ltd, Hessle, Yorkshire, as TYBURN BROOK (68 tons gross; 545bhp) for River Lighterage Co Ltd and as such was seen at Tilbury quite often. In March 1963 it was sold, and went back to close to its birthplace under the ownership of United Towing Ltd, of Hull, and the new name PRESSMAN. United Towing used her in the docks at Hull for almost ten years, when she came back to London again, and in 1972 her new owner was S B Towage Co Ltd, an outfit owned by Gravesend man Mervyn Street, who over the years owned several tugs, although they did not seem to have been kept very busy. Mr Street gave the tug the new name PRESSTAN (in Jack’s photo there is a gap in the name where the M has been painted out). It didn’t stay at Gravesend for long, and in 1973 was sold to Greenhithe Salvage Services of Rochester. There followed three more changes of owner, but with the name PRESSTAN retained, and these owners were located in Cowes, Grimsby and Hull. The tug was finally broken up at New Holland in 2004.

    By Roger Jordan (03/07/2014)

Add a comment about this page

Your email address will not be published.