Deep Sea Rescue Tugs

[Peter Clare]

DEEP SEA RESCUE TUGS (D.S.R.T)
Thousands of seamen of all nationalities owe their lives to the brave men who manned the Deep Sea Rescue Tugs. Introduced in September, 1939, they were manned by volunteers from the Merchant Navy and from the Fishing Fleets. All came under the authority of the Royal Navy. A base facility was set up at Campbeltown on the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland and named HMS Minona. As the war progressed, the tugs were based at Loch Ewe, Oban and Londonderry in Northern Ireland and even at a base in Iceland. Later on in the war, the Deep Sea Rescue Tugs were based at ports around the Mediterranean. As more tugs became available, they even accompanied the slower convoys across the Atlantic and were responsible for saving hundreds of ships that were towed to safety after being torpedoed or bombed. On and after D-Day about 160 of these tugs were deployed in the transportation of the Mulberry Harbour across the English Channel to the Normandy beaches. The 59 merchant ships, used to form the breakwater, were also towed across to be sunk. The huge drums containing the Pluto pipeline, which supplied 1.25 million gallons of fuel every day to the Allied armies, were also towed across the Channel by these tugs. In all, 41 Deep Sea Rescue Tugs were lost during WWII. The American equivalent is the N.A.F.T.S. (National Association of Fleet Tug Sailors).

[adrian roberts]

Were these a specific class, or was it a general designation for impressed civilian tugs?
If the former, do you have a picture and any specifications?

adrian

[von Poop]

IWM Photo Search for 'Rescue Tug' reveals quite a few 'tuggy' results, but sadly not much of the usual accompanying text.

[Kyt]

I had a look at this post the other day and found the

Deep Sea Rescue Tugs Association which peter mentioned:

http://www.nafts.com/dsrta.htm

[Peter Clare]

There were numerous classes of Deep Sea Tugs so I'll just give the details of the above tug.

Bustler Class.
HMS Turmoil
Pennant No. W.169
Displacement: 1,120 tons.
Dimensions: 190 (pp) 205 (oa) x 38.5 x 12.5 ft.
Machinery: 2 - shaft Diesel motors. B.H.P 4,000 = 16 knotts.
Armament: 1 - 3in AA: 1 - 2pdr AA: 2 - 20mm AA (2 x 1) 4 -m (2 x 2 LG) guns.
Complement: 42.

[Salvage Sailor]

Aloha Everyone,

I'm a member of NAFTS & our sister organization in the UK is DSRTA. We recently held our annual US reunion in October and two of the UK men came across the pond, (Deane Wynn, Donald Graham) as they often have for the past several years. I spent many an hour with Deane Wynn as he recounted his career in the Rescue Tugs.

He became a member as a 'boy seaman', after being rescued himself from the Atlantic by a rescue tug. He was hauled aboard after clinging to the keel of an overturned lifeboat for many hours as all his mates drowned or succumbed to hypothemia in the icy waters.

....and this was just one of many tales he told.

We also premiered a preview of a movie being produced entitled "Tugs of War" which will recount the expolits of the US/UK/Dutch/French etc rescue tugs of WWII.

As for myself, I served on the USS GRASP (ARS-24) & USS BOLSTER (ARS-38) during the Cold War years.

There are plenty of photos of the Rescue/Salvage tugs on our website National Association of Fleet Tug Sailors and we also have a quarterly publication called "Towline" which has stories of the Salvage forces from WWII, Korea, Vietnam and beyond.

Anchor's Aweigh
Craig