''Forceful'' is a sea-going tugboat built for the Queensland Tug Company by Alexander Stephen and Sons Ltd in

Govan Govan ( ; Cumbric?: ''Gwovan'?''; Scots: ''Gouan''; Scottish Gaelic: ''Baile a' Ghobhainn'') is a district, parish, and former burgh now part of south-west City of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated west of Glasgow city centre, on the south ba ...

, Scotland in 1925. She worked at her homeport of

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

, Australia between 1926 and 1970 berthing ships and assisting nearby casualties. During World War II she was commissioned into the

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the principal naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister of ...

in early 1942 as HMAS ''Forceful'' (W126), based at Fremantle and Darwin, until returning to commercial service in October 1943. She is preserved as a museum ship at Brisbane.

Construction and commercial service

''Forceful'' was built in 1925 by Alexander Stephen and Sons Ltd in

, Scotland as their yard number 509 for the Queensland Tug Company's operations at

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, Australia. She is a steel-hulled steam tug of , with dimensions of length, and depth. Her steam engine, also made by the shipbuilder, is of

triple-expansion A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be tra ...

type producing 1050 ihp and powering a single screw. The engine is fed by two single-ended coal-fired boilers each with 2 furnaces. StateLibQld 1 250792 Cruise liner Orion is being turned in the Brisbane River by the tugboat Forceful

StateLibQld 1 250792 Cruise liner Orion is being turned in the Brisbane River by the tugboat Forceful

The tug was launched on 20 November 1925 and sailed from the

River Clyde The River Clyde ( gd, Abhainn Chluaidh, , sco, Clyde Watter, or ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. It is the ninth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third-longest in Scotland. It runs through the major cit ...

on 21 December, reaching Brisbane on 7 March 1926. After voyage repairs, she was registered at Brisbane on 31 March 1926 with

Official Number Official numbers are ship identifier numbers assigned to merchant ships by their flag state, country of registration. Each country developed its own official numbering system, some on a national and some on a port-by-port basis, and the formats hav ...

139366 and entered service in the

port of Brisbane Port of Brisbane is the shipping port and coastal suburb of the City of Brisbane, on the east coast of Queensland, Australia. In the , Port of Brisbane had no residents living in the suburb. The port is the largest in the state of Queensland. ...

. In addition to her regular ship-berthing duties, she was deployed as required as a salvage tug on the Queensland coast. After her naval requisition in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

she resumed her service at Brisbane but in due course was overtaken by newer technology; by 1964 she was the last coal-burning steam tug on the River Brisbane. On 28 September 1970 she was retired from service and laid up.

Naval service

On 4 December 1941 ''Forceful'' was chartered by the British Ministry of War Transport for service in the Mediterranean as a salvage tug. After reaching

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...

on 14 January, the charter was rescinded as the tug was required for service with the

. She was briefly an

examination vessel An examination vessel is a vessel used to inspect ships and boats entering a port during wartime. An examination vessel would typically be responsible for examining and verifying all merchant ships and small craft entering or departing a port. T ...

before being requisitioned, and then commissioned as HMAS ''Forceful'' (pennant W126) on 16 February 1942. She was initially attached to

HMAS Leeuwin One ship and one shore base of the Royal Australian Navy have been named HMAS ''Leeuwin'', after Cape Leeuwin in Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the lan ...

, the naval base at Fremantle, for general harbour and towing duties. In October 1942 ''Forceful'' was transferred to the naval base HMAS Melville, at

Darwin, Northern Territory Darwin ( ; Larrakia: ) is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. With an estimated population of 147,255 as of 2019, the city contains the majority of the residents of the sparsely populated Northern Territory. It is the smalle ...

as a harbour and salvage tug. During her war service she was based at Darwin. She operated there during a period when Darwin received repeated Japanese air attacks. On 4 November the tug rescued the crew of an American B-26 bomber which had ditched west of Bathurst Island after a raid on

Dili Dili (Portuguese/Tetum: ''Díli'') is the capital, largest city of East Timor and the second largest city in Timor islands after Kupang (Indonesia). It lies on the northern coast of the island of Timor, in a small area of flat land hemmed in ...

and in 1943 regularly took up salvage readiness at sea in support of naval destroyers during Australian irregular military operations in

Timor Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is East Timor–Indonesia border, divided between the sovereign states of East Timor on the eastern part and Indonesia on the western p ...

. In April and May 1943 ''Forceful'' was based at Thursday Island in support of the strengthening of allied facilities at

Merauke Merauke is a large town and the capital of the South Papua province, Indonesia. It is also the administrative centre of Merauke Regency in South Papua. It is considered the easternmost city in Indonesia. The town was originally called Ermasoe. It ...

, New Guinea. In August 1943 the tug returned from Darwin to Brisbane, where she was required as a harbour tug to assist the vastly increased volume of shipping. She was decommissioned from the Navy on 11 October 1943 and returned to her owners. HMAS ''Forceful'' received two battle honours for her wartime service: "Darwin 1942-43" and "Pacific 1943".

Museum ship

''Forceful'' was retired from service in September 1970 and was handed over to the Queensland Maritime Museum in Brisbane on 10 June 1971. The vessel was kept operational and used for trips along the

Brisbane River The Brisbane River is the longest river in South East Queensland, Australia, and flows through the city of Brisbane, before emptying into Moreton Bay on the Coral Sea. John Oxley, the first European to explore the river, named it after the Go ...

and to Moreton Bay until 2006, when a hull survey revealed that the tugboat was not safe to operate, and required extensive repairs. Despite further attention, in June 2012 ''Forceful'' was at risk of being condemned for scrap as a small leak had developed in the vessels stern. Forceful was given a deadline to be out of the water and repaired by Maritime Safety Queensland (MSQ). Anonymous funding was received to facilitate the required repairs and she returned to the Queensland Maritime Museum in July 2012. Following a number repairs to the vessel at the Brisbane slipway in order to preserve her in a safe condition, ''Forceful'' is now being maintained as a static exhibit at the Museum. She most recently re-opened to public tours in September 2018.

Construction and commercial service

Naval service

Museum ship

References

See also