The Type 837 tug with the
NATO reporting name Hujiu (沪救, meaning Shanghai Rescue in Chinese) is a type of ocean-going
tug that
China developed for the
People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). Out of a total of 20 ships built in the 1980s by the
Wuhu
Wuhu () is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Anhui province, China. Sitting on the southeast bank of the Yangtze River, Wuhu borders Xuancheng to the southeast, Chizhou and Tongling to the southwest, Hefei city to the northwest, Ma'ansh ...
shipyard, 18 are still in PLAN service and all of them still remain active as of the early 2010s. One ship was exported to Bangladesh in 1984, and another was sold in 1995.
The ships in the type 837 series in PLAN service are labeled with a combination of two Chinese characters followed by a three-digit number. The second Chinese character is Tuo (拖), meaning tug in Chinese, because these ships are tugs. The first Chinese character denotes which fleet the ship is in service with; for example, with East (Dong, 东) for
East Sea Fleet
The Eastern Theater Command Navy (), or East Sea Fleet (ESF; ), is one of the three fleets of the People's Liberation Army Navy, operating in the East China Sea under the Eastern Theater Command. It was the first naval force formed by the Peop ...
, North (Bei, 北) for
North Sea Fleet, and South (Nan, 南) for
South Sea Fleet
The Southern Theater Command Navy (), or the South Sea Fleet (SSF; ) is one of the three fleets of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy, operating in the South China Sea under the Southern Theater Command. It is headquartered in Zhanjiang, ...
. However, the pennant numbers may have changed due to the change of Chinese naval ships naming convention. Specification:
Type 837
/ref>
*Length (m): 60.2
*Beam (m): 11.6
*Draft (m): 4.4
*Displacement (t): 1470
*Speed (kn): 15
*Rang (nmi): 2200 @ 13 kn
*Crew: 50
*Propulsion: two LVP diesel engine
The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-ca ...
s @ 1800 hp
*Armament: Provisions for heavy machine guns
References
{{Ship classes of the Chinese Navy, state=uncollapsed
Auxiliary ships of the People's Liberation Army Navy
Tugboats of the People's Liberation Army Navy
Auxiliary tugboat classes