You have all often heard me "wax lyrical" about the last Naval tugs
ever built in the world...the mighty 'Director" class paddle tugs of
the RMAS (Royal Maritime Auxilliary Service)
Recently our new member David Allinson askedme about them:
>FORCEFULL certainly is business like looking ship. In the book
"British Steam Tugs" by P.N.Thomas, he just has one sentence at the
end of the section on Naval and Wartime Tugs where he states that, and
I quote "The one big surprise was the appearance in 1956 of seven
diesel electric paddle tugs for working with aircraft carriers, a
final tribute to the acknowledged maneuverability of the paddle tug."
He does not mention that they were the Director class, but I presume
that these are the ones you are referring to. (THESE WOULD HAVE THEM,
DAVID)
<snip> Incidentally why did the aircraft carriers need such especially
maneuverable paddle tugs?? Where they exceptionally difficult to
handle?? I don't imagine that they moved very fast when docking!!!!!
The "Directors" had EXCEPTIONAL handling characteristics because (like
all independant paddlewheel driven tugs) their turning moment was
clearly on their paddle shaft axis rather some fuzzy point determined
by a rudder. Their twin Paxman-powered diesel electric systems
coupled to very wide paddle floats (overall beam almost 60') made them
extremely powerful...with a respectable bollard pull of 10... but
with a difference...the paddles being alongside the hulls reduced the
stalling effect of a propeller wash close to a large hull. Combine
this with the centre of effort being AHEAD of the tow hook pivot point
(unlike a propeller which would be ASTERN of the hook) and you reduce
the very dangerous possibility of being capsized by your tow. (the
nautical term for this disasterous tug conditon completely escapes me
at the moment). This made them eminently suitable as berthing tugs
for the Royal Navy's huge Aircraft carriers and the tugs were
stationed in major Royal Navy Ports. "Faithful" and "Favourite" in
Devonport, "Forceful", "Grinder" and "Griper" in Portsmouth with
"Dexterous" and "Director" stationed for much of their service lives
in Gibraltar and Malta respectively. The tugs had folding masts
which would allow them to slip close under the overhangs of the
aircraft Carriers during berthing "pushes". The remarkable "Tractor"
type tugs which replaced the "Directors" were apparently a propeller
development of them. (thrust from AHEAD of the towing pivot point)
The 7 'Directors" had a very short service life of barely 20 years and
were destroyed either by torches or missiles (shamefully as target
practice!) during the early 80's. Ray Brigden of Model Boats Magazine
visited the last survivor "Forceful" in 1980 and found her still to be
in excellent mechanical and physical condition. Surface missiles
apparently fired at her on Aberforth Range in 1980 made pretty short
work of this beautiful ship..and actually the pinnacle of Paddle Tug
technology! A romantic notion of "Forceful's" fate has her
mysteriously disappearing on her way to Hartlepool for restoration as
a museum! George Peat of Scotland has just sent me photos he took
aboard "Director" prior to her being scrapped in Spain in 1980.
It's such a shame not one of these "modern" paddlers could have been
preserved to mark the end of an era! I guess this is what we do when
we build models of them and talk about them in email groups!
PJ
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