Press release from THE TRUSTEES OF THE STEAM TUG PORTWEY TRUST LTD, May 2024:
We are continuing to make plans for Portwey’s future. We need to find new custodians for Portwey and a new location.
In brief, the problems we face are these:
- Our number of regular, active volunteers is falling and it has not proved possible to recruit new people with the right skills, especially those with marine steam engineering experience.
- It has been difficult to find new trustees to manage the tug. We only have the minimum number of trustees to make decisions and only one of these is under 60.
- The Canal and River Trust, which now manages the West India Docks, is seeking to negotiate a new lease with us which will impose limitations on what we can do and where we can moor. We would also have to pay high charges to use the lock out onto the Thames.
- It is now very hard to obtain suitable coal or alternative substitute fuel and have it delivered in viable quantities to central London.
- New climate change regulations are coming into force from 2025 for River Thames shipping which are likely to make no concessions for historic, coal-fired vessels to operate.
So the trustees of the Steam Tug Portwey Trust have spent the last six months looking at our options to ensure the survival of Portwey to her 100th birthday in 2027 and beyond.
We are grateful to National Historic Ships and the Maritime Heritage Trust for the enormous help they have given us in researching alternative homes for the tug. In particular, we would like to thank Hannah Cunliffe, Director of NHS-UK, Peter Green, Projects Manager at NHS-UK, and Henry Cleary of MHT for their input. NHS helped us to prepare a Statement of Significance for Portwey which explains how important a part of the UK’s maritime heritage our unique ship is. You can read it on the National Historic Ships’ website: https://www.nationalhistoricships.org.uk/register/54/portwey
We had a very serious look at the Exeter Heritage Harbour in Devon which offered Portwey a new berth in Exeter’s historic dock on the Exe Canal. We would like to thank Jon Bell, Hannah Hurford and the Exeter Heritage Harbour Group for their interest and for coming up to visit Portwey earlier this year. Although Exeter was a very attractive proposition, as a lively and accessible visitor destination, we had to rule it out because of the distance Portwey would have to be towed to get there and the need to create, from scratch, a new group of volunteers with the skills to maintain and operate her.
We also had an offer from Chris Bannister, the owner of the well-known steam tug, Challenge, to take on Portwey, which will involve the creation of a new charitable trust, to be called the Steam Boat Trust, to manage both vessels. It is Chris Bannister’s intention to base both tugs on the River Medway in Kent. Although the Steam Boat Trust will not be a membership organisation as the present Portwey Trust is, the new charity will be looking for volunteers and supporters. Challenge already has an active volunteer group and is steamed regularly.
Zone
South East