Name Severn Enterprise

SEVERN ENTERPRISE is a tug built in 1930 by Watson of Gainsborough to join the towing fleet of the Severn & Canal Carrying Company Ltd. Her original name was ENTERPRISE, but the SEVERN prefix was added in 1933. Her hull is made of locally mined low moor iron and she has a pointed bow, with a plumb straight stem and a counter stern. The current engine is a Deutz with six cylinders and 160 brake horsepower, but this is due to be replaced. She was launched on the River Trent and was initially fitted with a two cylinder Kromhout engine. She was designed to tow six narrow boats or two barges on the River Severn above Gloucester. Also in her towing fleet were the steam tugs ACTIVE, ALERT and VICTOR plus her sister tug, SEVERN PROGRESS, built by Charles Hill & Sons Ltd. of Bristol and launched in 1931. SEVERN PROGRESS and SEVERN ENTERPRISE alternated tows between Gloucester and Stourport. The tows were normally picked up after they passed through Gloucester lock. The tugs were based at the Ship Inn and crewed by two men. Voyage times varied from twelve to forty-two hours, depending on whether the river was in spate. Narrow boats bound for the Midlands would be left at Worcester to pass into the canal there. Cargos for the barges included cocoa, copper, timber, flour, sugar, aluminium and petrol in the tankers SHELL MEX 7 and CLEPROD 1. At the beginning of World War Two, SEVERN ENTERPRISE was based at Avonmouth to assist in the quick turnaround of ships and to tow unmanned, insulated, food barges to Bristol. At the end of the war, she returned to Gloucester where the growing aluminium trade was being carried by six new SABRINA barges. However, in 1948, SEVERN ENTERPRISE was laid up as the supply of tows dried up. In 1957, she was loaded onto a trailer at Sharpness and taken to the River Thames.