TID was a standardized British design for a tugboat drawn up and built during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. One hundred and eighty two (TID-1 to TID-12 and TID-14 to TID-183) were built for the
Ministry of War Transport
The Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) was a department of the British Government formed early in the Second World War to control transportation policy and resources. It was formed by merging the Ministry of Shipping and the Ministry of Transpor ...
.
Manufacture
Richard Dunston Ltd., a shipbuilding company with yards at
Thorne on the
Stainforth and Keadby Canal
The Stainforth and Keadby Canal is a navigable canal in South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, England. It connects the River Don Navigation at Bramwith to the River Trent at Keadby, by way of Stainforth, South Yorkshire, Stainforth, Thorne, Sout ...
and at
Hessle
Hessle () is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, west of Kingston upon Hull. Geographically it is part of a larger urban area consisting of the city of Kingston upon Hull, the town of H ...
on the
Humber
The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Trent, Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms ...
, had pioneered the use of welded construction, rather than the more conventional rivetting, since 1933, although they had never built an all-welded vessel. An order for 12 tugs in 1942 was the opportunity to try such a design. They designed the hulls so that they could be made up from eight separate sections, which were fabricated by manufacturers with spare welding capacity. Shipbuilders with spare capacity were in short supply at the time, but other non-shipbuilding industry was available. Each of the sections was a maximum of by by , and weighed less than 6 tons, so that they could be transported by road to the Thorne yard. At the yard, the sections were fitted together by welders, many of whom were women, and the engines were installed. The first tug was ready for despatch in February 1943, and for more than a year, one left the yard every five days.
The first 90 tugs built were fitted with coal-fired boiler, while subsequent ones were oil-fired. Dunston's built a total of 159 TID tugs, of which 152 were built at Thorne and seven at Hessle. These were supplemented by 23 which were built at the yard of William Pickersgill & Co., of Sunderland. Several of the oil-fired tugs were shipped to the Far East as deck cargo on larger vessels.
As designed they were long by in the beam by deep, measuring 54
GRT. Draught when laden was - a displacement of 124 tons. Propulsion was a 220
ihp 2 cylinder
reciprocating steam engine driving a single screw. Steam was from coal or later oil - the change being to allow use in the Far East. They were capable of around 8 knots.
Gallery
File:Steam Tug Brent - geograph.org.uk - 370942.jpg, TID 159 renamed as ''Brent'' and moored at Maldon
Maldon (, locally ) is a town and civil parish on the Blackwater Estuary in Essex, England. It is the seat of the Maldon District and starting point of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. It is known for Maldon Sea Salt which is prod ...
in 2005
File:TID 164, Chatham Historic Dockyard - geograph.org.uk - 894384.jpg, TID 164 at Chatham Historic Dockyard in 1994
File:Tug 108.jpg, TID 172 at Ostend
See also
*
CHANT (ship type) - a standardized coastal tanker
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
External links
pictures of preserved TIDSteam Tug TID 172 History & Preservation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tug, Inshore And Dock
Ministry of War Transport ships
Tugboats of the United Kingdom