Wednesday 16 November 2011

ABEILLE NO 8-Update

ABEILLE NO8 seen here on a tow (right) with the tug Abeille No22 towing a floating dock in 1939



ABEILLE NO8 Ship No 226

This order from the famous French towing company Comp.De Remarquage & De Salivatage, was built to help the two new "Cunard Queens" manoeuvre in the port of La Harve before they took of on there trans Atlantic voyages.

Built and launched in 1936 only three years before World War II was to start, once the port had been over run by the Blitzkrieg of the German advance into France in 1940 this modern powerful tug was taken over as a war prize by the Germans and used by them in the war against the British, but 2 years to the day that she was commissioned into the German navy she was sunk by Allied war planes who bombed the port and any shipping in the port.

It would seem from photographs that I have received that she may have been salved after the end of the war and she went back to work. For more on ABEILLE No8 visit the Leith Shipyards website.
Now seems that she was not so lucky and she was indeed destroyed by bombs.

Should you know different then please get in touch with the website and we will bring her history right up to date

Sunday 6 November 2011

TENNYSON-Update

Builders Plate Ship No 449

The plate above is from the M.V.TENNYSON launched from the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb 1956

More at the website about this ship and lots of other updates on the ships built at Leith and more.

Saturday 5 November 2011

Update-THE MILLER

Ship No 194 THE MILLER is an old coaster which is thought to be a preserved ship so is she still around?

Seen here at Fowley, England in this photo from 2007 (Photo by Alan Faulkner)
Does anyone out there know if she is still around as the old ship looks pretty good in the photo above, she was launched from the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb in 1932 so is getting on for 80 years.
This little coaster is a little bit like the more well known Clyde "Puffers" that were/are around from the same time, for more on THE MILLER go to the website by clicking on the highlighted name.