The United Kingdom's emergency towing vessel fleet were a maintained fleet of

emergency tow vessel An emergency tow vessel, also called emergency towing vessel, (ETV) is a multi purpose boat used by state authorities to tow disabled vessels on high seas in order to prevent dangers to man and environment. The disabled vessel is either towed to ...

s (ETV) from 1993 through 2011. The vessels were privately owned and operated for

Her Majesty's Coastguard His Majesty's Coastguard (HMCG) is a section of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency responsible, through the Secretary of State for Transport to Parliament, for the initiation and co-ordination of all maritime search and rescue (SAR) within the ...

. Four vessels were stationed around the

UK coastline The coastline of the United Kingdom is formed by a variety of natural features including islands, bays, headlands and peninsulas. It consists of the coastline of the island of Great Britain and the north-east coast of the island of Ireland, as ...

, while a fifth was held in reserve.

History

The first vessels of the UK's ETV fleet were introduced in 1994 following the recommendations of Lord Donaldson's report 'Safer Ships, Cleaner Seas' published in May 1994 following the MV ''Braer'' oil spill of off the coast of

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

, Scotland. Klyne Tugs Ltd of

Lowestoft Lowestoft ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . As the most easterly UK settlement, it is north-east of London, north-east of Ipswich and sou ...

took over the ETV contract in 1999, and in February 2001 signed an eight-year contract to own and operate a four ETV vessel fleet, which in 2006 was extended by two years, to run until September 2011. ''Sovereign'', entering service in 2003, and here near identical ''Princess'', entering service in 2002, were both built for Kline's in China, being sailed to Britain to join ''Monarch'' and ''Prince''. ''Monarch'' was built in 1999 in Japan. Klyne Tugs was taken over in 2007 by the JP Knight Group, Britain’s oldest tug and barge company, becoming JP Knight (Lowestoft) Ltd. The tugs wear the red and white livery of the MCA, with the black and white funnel colours of JP Knight. In 2010, the Government announced as part of the

Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The d ...

's share of cuts in the

Comprehensive Spending Review A spending review, or occasionally a comprehensive spending review, is a governmental process in the United Kingdom carried out by HM Treasury to set firm expenditure limits and, through public service agreements, define the key improvements that t ...

, that the ETV fleet would be no longer be funded by the MCA from September 2011, saving £32.5m over the Spending Review period. The Department stated that "state provision of ETVs does not represent a correct use of taxpayers money and that ship salvage should be a commercial matter between a ship's operator and the salvor". Two days after the announcement that the fleet was to be disbanded, ''Anglian Prince'' was sent to the aid of the UK's newest nuclear submarine HMS ''Astute'', which ran aground off the

Isle of Skye The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye (; gd, An t-Eilean Sgitheanach or ; sco, Isle o Skye), is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated ...

in Scotland during sea trials. As part of the spending review, it was also announced that the status of the

Maritime Incident Response Group The International Maritime Rescue Federation (IMRF) is a global organisation that unites and represents the world's operational marine rescue services, whether civilian or military—full-time or voluntary—large or small. All member organisations ...

(MIRG), comprising specialist teams of firefighters formed in 2006 from fifteen UK Fire and Rescue Services set up to respond to incidents at sea, would be reviewed, stating that "ships' crews are trained in basic firefighting techniques and there is little evidence that MIRG has changed the outcome of ship fires", and had not been involved in any significant incidents in its existence. A full cessation of the MIRG would save the Department £340,000 annually. On 30 September 2011 it was announced that the two ETVs operating in

the Minch The Minch ( gd, An Cuan Sgitheanach, ', ', '), also called North Minch, is a strait in north-west Scotland, separating the north-west Scottish Highlands, Highlands and the northern Inner Hebrides from Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides. It ...

and the

Shetland Islands Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

received a moratorium of three months with an interim funding by the United Kingdom's government.

Fleet

As of 2010, four ETVs, ''Anglian Prince'', ''Anglian Princess'', ''

Anglian Sovereign The ''Sovereign'' is a large sea-going tugboat owned and operated by Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. The vessel is powered by conventional propulsion and was built as a multi-purpose anchor handling tug supply vessel. It was christened on 27 Au ...

'' and ''Anglian Monarch'', were based in strategic locations around the UK, with two covering the south coast of England, at Falmouth in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

and

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, and two in Scottish waters, at

Stornoway Stornoway (; gd, Steòrnabhagh; sco, Stornowa) is the main town of the Western Isles and the capital of Lewis and Harris in Scotland. The town's population is around 6,953, making it by far the largest town in the Outer Hebrides, as well a ...

the

Western Isles The Outer Hebrides () or Western Isles ( gd, Na h-Eileanan Siar or or ("islands of the strangers"); sco, Waster Isles), sometimes known as the Long Isle/Long Island ( gd, An t-Eilean Fada, links=no), is an island chain off the west coas ...

(the Outer Hebrides), and

Lerwick Lerwick (; non, Leirvik; nrn, Larvik) is the main town and port of the Shetland archipelago, Scotland. Shetland's only burgh, Lerwick had a population of about 7,000 residents in 2010. Centred off the north coast of the Scottish mainland ...

in the

Northern Isles The Northern Isles ( sco, Northren Isles; gd, Na h-Eileanan a Tuath; non, Norðreyjar; nrn, Nordøjar) are a pair of archipelagos off the north coast of mainland Scotland, comprising Orkney and Shetland. They are part of Scotland, as are th ...

(Shetland and Orkney). The four strong ETV fleet is intended to be operational 24 hours a day 365 days a year and maintained at 30 minutes readiness to sail, with one tug allocated to each of the four operating areas on a rotational basis, worked around maintenance schedules. The Dover station is funded jointly with French maritime authorities. ''Monarch'', ''Sovereign'' and ''Prince'' are purpose built offshore tugs, while ''Prince'' is a converted

salvage tug A salvage tug, known also historically as a wrecking tug, is a specialized type of tugboat that is used to rescue ships that are in distress or in danger of sinking, or to salvage ships that have already sunk or run aground. Overview Few tugbo ...

. A fifth tug, the ''Anglian Earl'', is an anchorhandling and salvage tug regularly used on commercial work, but also fits the ETV criteria, and acts as cover for any of the four ETV stations as and when required. The

bollard pull Bollard pull is a conventional measure of the pulling (or towing) power of a watercraft. It is defined as the force (in tonnes force, or kilonewtons (kN)) exerted by a vessel under full power, on a shore-mounted bollard through a tow-line, commo ...

capability of the fleet is as follows: * '' Anglian Monarch'': 152 tonnes * '' Anglian Prince'': 170 t * '' Anglian Princess'': over 180 t * ''

'': over 180 t ETV vessels can be temporarily relieved of station duties as required, such as when ''Prince'' was despatched on a four-day voyage to come to the aid of the Canadian submarine HMCS ''Chicoutimi'', stranded in the Atlantic after a fire broke out during a delivery voyage from Scotland to Canada. In that instance, ''Prince'' was contracted commercially by the Royal Navy, with another ETV capable vessel quickly arranged to take her place in Stornoway.

References

External links

*{{commonscat-inline, Emergency tow vessels of the United Kingdom Emergency towing