Tyne Tug Owner Tyne Towage

Select

Owner

Above: Select the required Tug Owner by using the initial letter of the Owner's Name eg: Batey, Lawson or Tyne.
KEY BELOW: D / H / P (D = basic dimensions are shown; H = a history is given; P = one or more photographs are available)

Tug Owner: Tyne Towage Ltd, Hebburn

Tyne Towage was owned by Mikey Devlin and started from a base in Dunston on Tyne in 1986. The company carried out general towage services on the Tyne and in 1989 moved to a more convenient down river location at Tyne Dock. They stayed at Tyne Dock for a couple of years and in 1991 moved to their own quay, "Devlin's Quay", in Hebburn. Devlin's Quay was immediately down river from the then Swan Hunter Hebburn Dock shipbuilding complex and formerly Palmers Drydock at Hebburn.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s the river Tyne was still a very active river. Shipbuilding and shiprepair, although in steady decline, were still busy industries requiring regular towing work and the Offshore Industry was at its peak at this time. Unfortunately these industries declined to almost nothing in the early years of the new century and the general towage work all but disappeared. Tyne Towage was more or less excluded from Port of Tyne vessel movements as they were largely contracted to Cory, Wijsmuller and then to Svitzer.

Svitzer were looking for a base for their tugs because their regular moorings at South Shields were not secure and eventally Mickey sold Devlin's Quay and the existing Tyne Towage tugs to Svitzer Marine in 2003.

The majority of the Tyne Towage tugs were either sold just before the Svitzer deal or passed to Svitzer and were immediately placed in lay up pending disposal. The only exception to this was the second, but older, SARAH D that Tyne Towage had purchased as the CLEVELAND ENDEAVOUR.

As well as being a tug owner, Mikey Devlin was also a tug dealer, buying and selling tugs on a regular basis. He also modified many of the tugs that he owned. See the following fleet photos to understand the variety of conversions undertaken.

My thanks to Kevin Blair for his help with this short history and also to Ken Lubi who has provided many of the fine photos.

The following tugs were owned or operated by the company:

Tug Name	Year	D / H / P
Alys Ann	1952	D / H / P
Asp	1959	D / H / P
Bantam 1	1948	D / H / P
Boa	1959	D / H / P
Bonchurch	1946	D / H / P
Cherry	1970	D / H / P
Cob	1911	D / H / P
Dockman	1949	D / H / P
Dunheron	1955	D / H / P
Kielo	1922	D / H / P
M B 1	1957	D / H / P
Mikey Dev	1962	D / H / P
Pengarth	1962	D / H / P
Primrose	1906	D / H / P
Pullwell Bravo	1955	D / H / P
Pushy Dev	1956	D / H / P
Sarah D	1881	D / H / P
Sarah D	1990	D / H / P
T H Dev	1952	D / H / P
Tommy Dev	1959	D / H / P
--------------------	-----	----------

To complete the fleet list, Tyne Towage also operated the following non-tugs:

Vessel Name	Year	D / H / P
Anya Dev	1972	D / H / P
Louise Dev	1965	D / H / P
--------------------	-----	----------

My thanks also to Susan Lively for identifying these additional Tyne Towage vessels. Susan worked at Tyne Towage for a number of years and then at Svitzer Marine for a time after their takeover of the Tyne Towage business.