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 a safe haven or kept in place against wind and current until commercial assistance by

tug boat A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, such ...

s has arrived on site or until it has been repaired to the extent of being able to manoeuvre on its own. The need for ETVs as a preventive measure has arisen since the number of available commercial

salvage tug A salvage tug, also known 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 ...

s was reduced while potential dangers from individual vessels have increased. E.g.

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

has fourteen,

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

has eleven,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

operates eight,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

has seven,

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

has five,

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

three and the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

and

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

each have one official emergency tug boat. Australia also operates emergency response vessels. The

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

's four strong ETV fleet was to be disbanded in September 2011 due to budget cuts but the two vessels operating in Scottish waters received an extension of contract until the end of 2011.

External requirements

Distressed vessels that request the service of towing vessels have means to make towing as safe as possible. Oil tankers have emergency towing equipment fixed at the forward and aft part of the vessel that will allow to connect the towing line. The connection of these apparatuses to the vessel's hull is reinforced according with class requirements.

Bulk carrier A bulk carrier or bulker is a merchant ship specially naval architecture, designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo—such as Grain trade, grain, coal, ore, steel coils, and cement—in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrie ...

s and general cargo vessels are not required to have a specialized emergency towing arrangement. Depending on the vessel's type and keel laid date, in accordance with the MSC256(84) standard they must have on board an emergency towing procedure manual. This ship-specific manual describes procedures that will allow the vessel to be towed using its own equipment. The procedure should make use of the standard mooring equipment like mooring ropes, bits, rollers and Panama chock.

National ETV fleets

Algeria

Rescue_Tug_El_Mousif_in_the_English_Channel_MOD_45165130

In 2010 Algeria ordered three tug boats of the ''Bourbon'' class which was already in use in the French harbours of Brest and

Cherbourg Cherbourg is a former Communes of France, commune and Subprefectures in France, subprefecture located at the northern end of the Cotentin peninsula in the northwestern French departments of France, department of Manche. It was merged into the com ...

. The ships were built by STX OSV in Norway and STX Tulcea in Romania. A first vessel ''El Moundjid'' was ready for delivery in December 2011, the two others were scheduled for delivery in June and September 2012. With a

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

of 200 tons and a speed of , the Algerian ETVs are an improved version of the French ''Bourbon'' class. They are based in

Oran Oran () is a major coastal city located in the northwest of Algeria. It is considered the second most important city of Algeria, after the capital, Algiers, because of its population and commercial, industrial and cultural importance. It is w ...

and

Skikda Skikda (; formerly Philippeville from 1838 to 1962 and Rusicade in ancient times) is a city in northeastern Algeria and a port on the Mediterranean. It is the capital of Skikda Province and Skikda District. History The Phoenicians and Carthagi ...

. By acquiring these three ships, Algeria became the leading Mediterranean nation in terms of marine salvage as of 2012.

Finland

The Ministry of the Environment operates the ''

Louhi Louhi (; alternate names include Loviatar (), Loveatar, Lovetar, Lovehetar, Louhetar and Louhiatar) is the ruler of Pohjola in Finnish mythology.Frog; Siikala; Stepanova (2012:179). She is regarded as a goddess of death and disease. She is also t ...

''. The ship is listed as a multi-purpose oil recovery vessel and can be used for emergency towing, fire-fighting, icebreaking, mine-laying, to combat oil/chemical spills, as well as other rescue operations. The vessel has a bollard pull of 60 t. YAG ''Louhi'' is based at the Port of

Upinniemi Upinniemi () is a village in the municipality of Kirkkonummi in southern Finland. It is located approximately 12 km south of the municipal centre. Upinniemi is dominated by the Finnish naval base, which is one of the largest military instal ...

approximately 40 km west of

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

in the

Archipelago Sea The Archipelago Sea (, ) is a part of the Baltic Sea between the Gulf of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland and the Sea of Åland, within Finnish territorial waters. By some definitions it contains the List of archipelagos by number of islands, larges ...

France

For assistance and salvage, 5 ocean-going tugs and their crews are ready to respond around-the-clock *''

Abeille Bourbon ''Abeille Bourbon'', whose name was changed to ''Abeille Bretagne'' in 2025, is a high seas emergency tow vessel (salvage tug), long with a tractive power of , a crew of 12, designed by Norwegian naval architect Sigmund Borgundvåg. She was ch ...

'': based in Brest, bollard pull of 200 tons. *''

Abeille Liberté ''Abeille Liberté'' is an emergency tow vessel (salvage tug) based in Cherbourg Harbour, France. It is a sister ship of . It was built at the Myklebust Verft shipyard in Gursken, Norway, which is part of the Kleven Maritime group. It was deliv ...

'': based in

, bollard pull of 200 tons. *'' Abeille Normandie'': based in

Boulogne sur Mer Boulogne Sur Mer is a town in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is in San Isidro Partido and forms part of the Greater Buenos Aires urban conurbation, north of Buenos Aires. It has a population of 89,046 (2001 INDEC census). The town is na ...

, bollard pull of 280 tons. *'' Abeille Méditerranée'': based in

Toulon Toulon (, , ; , , ) is a city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera and the historical Provence, it is the prefecture of the Var (department), Var department. The Commune of Toulon h ...

, bollard pull of 280 tons. *''Jason'': based in

, bollard pull of 124.2 tons. The tugs are chartered by the French government and crewed by merchant marine sailors. France also shares funding of the

Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast 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 southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...

based British ETV.

Germany

Responsible for the German ETV flotilla is the

Central Command for Maritime Emergencies The German Central Command for Maritime Emergencies (CCME; German language, German: ''Havariekommando'') is the authority for mutual maritime emergency management in the German EEZ of North Sea and in the Baltic Sea. The federal office provides r ...

(CCME) in

Cuxhaven Cuxhaven (; ) is a town and seat of the Cuxhaven district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town includes the northernmost point of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River. Cuxhaven has a footprint o ...

. The German concept of emergency towing prescribes a maximum response time of two hours for any incident in German coastal waters. This requires three ETVs in the North Sea and five in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

despite a considerably smaller area to cover there. Equipment and performance of the vessels have been adapted to the size of the vessels in the respective areas of operation and include the ability to operate in shallow waters. Moreover, it is mandatory to have one vessel with 200 t of

and 100 t each in the North Sea and Baltic respectively. Both ship types are also required to be able to operate under hazardous conditions such as explosive areas and gas leaks. Four out of the eight German ETVs are multi purpose vessels owned by the Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration and are part of the

German Federal Coast Guard The German Federal Coast Guard () is a civilian law enforcement organisation whose primary missions are border protection, maritime environmental protection, shipping safety, fishery protection and customs enforcement. The ''Küstenwache'' is an ...

, while another four have been chartered from tug companies. Since 2001 a cooperation agreement with the Netherlands comprises the Dutch ETV and the German ''Nordic'' (successor to ETV ''Oceanic''). Current fleet: ;North Sea *''

Nordic Nordic most commonly refers to: * Nordic countries, the northern European countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and their North Atlantic territories * Scandinavia, a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern ...

'': operating off the

East Frisian Islands The East Frisian Islands (, ; ; ) are a chain of islands in the North Sea, off the coast of East Frisia in Lower Saxony, Germany. The islands extend for some from west to east between the mouths of the Ems and Jade / Weser rivers and lie about ...

while based in

, bollard pull of 201 t *''Mellum'': southwest off

Heligoland Heligoland (; , ; Heligolandic Frisian: , , Mooring Frisian: , ) is a small archipelago in the North Sea. The islands were historically possessions of Denmark, then became possessions of the United Kingdom from 1807 to 1890. Since 1890, the ...

, bollard pull of 100 t *''Neuwerk'': southwest off Süderoogsand (

Nordfriesland Nordfriesland (; ; Low German: Noordfreesland), also known as North Frisia, is the northernmost Districts of Germany, district of Germany, part of the state of Schleswig-Holstein. It includes almost all of traditional North Frisia (with the e ...

), bollard pull of 113 t ;Baltic Sea *''Bülk'':

Kiel Fjord Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Bay of Ki ...

, bollard pull of 40 t *''Scharhörn'':

Hohwacht Bay Hohwacht Bay () is a wide bay in the state of Schleswig-Holstein on Germany's Baltic Sea coastline. It is named after the village and seaside resort of Hohwacht. The nearest large town is Oldenburg in Holstein, about 5 kilometres inland. A number ...

(between Kiel and

Fehmarn Fehmarn (; ; from Old Wagrian Slavic languages, Slavic "''Fe More''", meaning "''In the Sea''") is an island in the Baltic Sea, off the eastern coast of Germany's northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein. It is Germany's third-largest island, afte ...

), bollard pull of 40 t *''

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages *Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...

'':

Warnemünde (, literally ''Mouth of the Warnow'') is a seaside resort and a district of the city of Rostock in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Mecklenburg, Germany. It is located on the Baltic Sea and, as the name implies, at the estuary of the river Warnow (river ...

, 127 t of bollard pull. *''Arkona'':

Stralsund Stralsund (; Swedish language, Swedish: ''Strålsund''), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Stralsund (German language, German: ''Hansestadt Stralsund''), is the fifth-largest city in the northeastern German federal state of Mecklen ...

, bollard pull of 40 t *''Fairplay 25'':

Sassnitz Sassnitz (, before 1993 in ) is a town on the Jasmund peninsula, Rügen Island, in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. The population as of 2012 was 9,498. Sassnitz is a well-known seaside resort and port town, and is a gateway to th ...

Rügen Rügen (; Rani: ''Rȯjana'', ''Rāna''; , ) is Germany's largest island. It is located off the Pomeranian coast in the Baltic Sea and belongs to the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The "gateway" to Rügen island is the Hanseatic ci ...

, bollard pull of 65 t

Iceland

has the ICGV ''Þór''. With a bollard pull of about 110 tonnes it has been specified so, that in case of emergency the new

Icelandic Coast Guard The Icelandic Coast Guard (, or simply ) is the Icelandic defence service responsible for search and rescue, maritime safety and security surveillance, national defense, and law enforcement. The Coast Guard maintains the Iceland Air Defence ...

vessel will be able to tow stricken tankers of up to about 200,000 dwt.

Netherlands

The

Netherlands Coastguard The Netherlands Coastguard () is a civil organisation that carries out tasks on the Netherlands North Sea for six Ministries under administration of the Royal Netherlands Navy. Its operational command falls under the Ministry of Defence (Netherl ...

operates one ETV on charter. She is based in

Den Helder Den Helder () is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Den Helder occupies the northernmost point of the North Holland peninsula. It is home to the country's main naval base. From here the Royal TESO fe ...

. As of April 2014, the ''Ievoli Amaranth'' is in operation and crewed by Svitzer Wijsmuller. Previously operated tugs are the ''Waker'' (former names: ''Smit Houston'', ''Solo'' (Greenpeace)) and the ''Ievoli Black''. A new charter contract is under construction. The ''Waker'' was damaged by a fire and scrapped. The ''Ievoli Black'' was succeeded by the ''Ievoli Amaranth'', which remains in operation as ETV until January 2016. * ''Guardian (ex Ievoli Amaranth)'',Ievoli Amaranth word … Guardian!
Newdeep.nl 7 January 2016 ''(niederl.)'' 130 ton Bollard Pull, Den HelderGuardian
kustwacht.nl * ''Multraship Commander (ex ALP ACE)'',Multraship levert Kustwacht noodhulpslepers Noordzee
transport-online.nl 8 September 2022 192 ton Bollard Pull, RotterdamMultraship Commander
kustwacht.nl * ''Multraship Protector (ex ALP IPPON)'', 198 ton Bollard Pull, TerneuzenMultraship Protector
kustwacht.nl

Norway

The

Norwegian Coast Guard The Norwegian Coast Guard () is a maritime military force which is part of the Royal Norwegian Navy. The coast guard's responsibility are for fisheries inspection, customs enforcement, border control, law enforcement, shipping inspection, enviro ...

owns three Barentshav class OPV multi-purpose vessels and operates another multi-purpose vessel named NoCGV ''Harstad'' on charter. Their main purpose is the prevention of pollution by oil tankers along the Norwegian coastline. Therefore, the ships can also be used in the ETV role with a bollard pull exceeding 100 tonnes. Norway also charters the following tugs: *''Beta'', bollard pull of 118 t *''Normand Jarl'', bollard pull of 150 t *''North Crusader'', bollard pull of 144 t

Poland

The Polish Ministry of Transport has organised a marine pollution-combatting service in Poland. It operates one ETV on charter, the tug ''Kapitan Poinc'', bollard pull of 74 t.

South Africa

The tug '' Smit Amandla'' (bollard pull of 181 t) has been contracted for emergency towing. She is based in the

port of Cape Town The Port of Cape Town is a seaport situated next to the central business district of Cape Town, South Africa. The port, which lies within Table Bay, is managed by the Transnet National Ports Authority, a subsidiary of state-owned enterprise ...

Spain

The

Sociedad de Salvamento y Seguridad Marítima Sociedad is a municipality in the Morazán department of El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on t ...

has a total of 14 multi-purpose vessels for

search and rescue Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...

and pollution prevention duties. * ''Don Inda'' Class - 2 sister ETV's based on

Ulstein Ulstein may refer to: Business *Ulstein Group, a group of various marine-related industries, mainly known for shipbuilding and design *Ulstein Verft, a Norwegian shipyard Places *Ulstein Municipality, a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Nor ...

's ''UT 722 L'' design (bollard pull of 228 t.) * ''Luz de Mar'' Class - 2 sister ETV's (bollard pull of 128 t.) * ''Alonso de Chaves'' - (bollard pull of 105 t.) *'' Punta Salinas'' - (bollard pull of 97 t.) *'' Punta Mayor'' - (bollard pull of 81 t.) * ''María de Maeztu'' Class - 7 sister ETV's (bollard pull of 60 t.)

Sweden

The

Swedish Coast Guard The Swedish Coast Guard () is a Sweden, Swedish civilian Government agencies in Sweden, government agency tasked with: * maritime surveillance and other control and inspection tasks as well as environmental cleanup after oil spills at sea. * co-o ...

operates three EVT's of the same type. Built by Damen, these multifunctional patrol and emergency response vessels have a bollard pull of 100 tons. They were taken into operation during 2009 and 2010 and are operated by the

. * ''Poseidon'' (KBV 001), based in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

* ''Triton'' (KBV 002), based in

Slite Slite is a locality situated in Gotland Municipality, Gotland County, on the island of Gotland, Sweden with 1,500 inhabitants in 2014. Geography Slite is situated on the northern east coast of Gotland. The town is divided by the Sjuströmmar in ...

Gotland Gotland (; ; ''Gutland'' in Gutnish), also historically spelled Gottland or Gothland (), is Sweden's largest island. It is also a Provinces of Sweden, province/Counties of Sweden, county (Swedish län), Municipalities of Sweden, municipality, a ...

* ''Amfitrite'' (KBV 009), based in

Karlskrona Karlskrona (, , ) is a locality and the seat of Karlskrona Municipality, Blekinge County, Sweden with a population of 66,675 in 2018. It is also the capital of Blekinge County. Karlskrona is known as Sweden's only baroque city and is host to ...

Turkey

The Turkish Directorate General of Coastal Safety operates 11 ETVs along with numerous SAR, oil spill response and fire fighting vessels at

Bosphorus The Bosporus or Bosphorus Strait ( ; , colloquially ) is a natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in Istanbul, Turkey. The Bosporus connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and forms one of the continental bo ...

and

Dardanelles The Dardanelles ( ; ; ), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli (after the Gallipoli peninsula) and in classical antiquity as the Hellespont ( ; ), is a narrow, natural strait and internationally significant waterway in northwestern Turkey th ...

, where the organization has a ''de jure'' monopoly for marine salvage along with the

Sea of Marmara The Sea of Marmara, also known as the Sea of Marmora or the Marmara Sea, is a small inland sea entirely within the borders of Turkey. It links the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea via the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, separating Turkey's E ...

. Some of these ETVs also serve as escort tugs for vessels passing through

and

, which make up the Turkish Straits System, one of the busiest and dangerous seaways all around the world. The organisation also deals with navigational aids all around Turkey, SAR, pilotage at both straits and some other Turkish ports and most importantly Turkish Straits Vessel Traffic Systems. * ''Gemi Kurtaran'', bollard pull of 39 t * ''Kurtarma 1'', bollard pull of 53 t * ''Kurtarma 2'', bollard pull of 53 t * ''Kurtarma 3'', bollard pull of 70 t * ''Kurtarma 4'', bollard pull of 70 t * ''Kurtarma 5'', bollard pull of 65 t * ''Kurtarma 6'', bollard pull of 66 t * ''Kurtarma 7'', bollard pull of 60 t * ''Kurtarma 8'', bollard pull of 60 t * ''Kurtarma 9'', bollard pull of 105 t * ''Kurtarma 10'', bollard pull of 105 t * ''Kurtarma 11'', bollard pull of 75 t * ''Kurtarma 12'', bollard pull of 73 t * ''Kurtarma 13'', bollard pull of 82 t * ''Kurtarma 14'', bollard pull of 83 t * ''Kurtarma 15'', bollard pull of 91 t * ''Kurtarma 16'', bollard pull of 91 t * ''Seyit Onbasi,'' Oil spill response vessel * ''Nene Hatun'', bollard pull of 205 t

United Kingdom

The UK's ETV vessels were chartered by the

Maritime and Coastguard Agency The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) is an executive agency of the United Kingdom that is responsible for implementing British and international maritime law and safety policy. It works to prevent the loss of lives at sea and to prevent mar ...

(MCA) for use in pollution control or towing vessels that were in difficulty. The vessels are a combination of

tugboat A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, suc ...

, anchor handler,

fireboat A fireboat or Fire-float Pyronaut, fire-float is a specialized watercraft with pumps and nozzles designed for fighting shoreline and shipboard fires. The first fireboats, dating to the late 18th century, were tugboats, retrofitted with ...

and buoy tender. 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 A ...

'' and ''Anglian Monarch'', were based in strategic locations around the UK, with two covering the

south coast of England Southern England, also known as the South of England or the South, is a sub-national part of England. Officially, it is made up of the southern, south-western and part of the eastern parts of England, consisting of the statistical regions of ...

, at Falmouth in

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

and

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, and two in Scottish waters, at

Stornoway Stornoway (; ) is the main town, and by far the largest, of the Outer Hebrides (or Western Isles), and the capital of Lewis and Harris in Scotland. The town's population is around 6,953, making it the third-largest island town in Scotlan ...

the

Western Isles The Outer Hebrides ( ) or Western Isles ( , or ), sometimes known as the Long Isle or Long Island (), is an island chain off the west coast of mainland Scotland. It is the longest archipelago in the British Isles. The islands form part ...

(the Outer Hebrides), and

Lerwick Lerwick ( or ; ; ) 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. It is the northernmost major settlement within the United Kingdom. Centred ...

in the

Northern Isles The Northern Isles (; ; ) are a chain (or archipelago) of Island, islands of Scotland, located off the north coast of the Scottish mainland. The climate is cool and temperate and highly influenced by the surrounding seas. There are two main is ...

(Shetland and Orkney). The four strong ETV fleet was intended to be operational 24 hours a day 365 days a year and maintained at 30 minutes readiness to sail, with one tug is allocated to each of the four operating areas on a rotational basis, worked around maintenance schedules. The Dover station was funded jointly with French maritime authorities. A fifth tug, the ''Anglian Earl'', was an anchorhandling and salvage tug regularly used on commercial work, but also fitted the ETV criteria, and acted as cover for any of the four ETV stations as and when required. In 2010, the Government announced as part of the

Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport ...

'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 ...

, 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". On 30 September 2011 it was however announced that the two ETVs operating in

the Minch The Minch () is a strait in north-west Scotland that separates the mainland from Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides. It was known as ("Scotland's firth") in Old Norse. The Minch's southern extension, which separates Skye from the midd ...

and the

Shetland Islands Shetland (until 1975 spelled Zetland), also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the Uni ...

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

References

External links

Maritime Search and Rescue AssetsThe United Kingdom's Response and the National Contingency Plan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Emergency Tow Vessel Ship types