Revised 18 February 2003
TEESSHIPS
LOCAL
VESSELS
TEES FLOATING CRANE
18.2.03: Roy Martin provides the definitive answer as to what was the fate of the Tees Floating Crane:
She was bought by Risdon Beazley after they stationed their 400 ton sheer legs R.B. TELFORD on the Tees. I think the jib was cut off before she left the Tees, Our intention was to scrap the unit but we were contracted to remove the partially cut down wreck of the PANDO SOUND that was blocking the river at Briton Ferry. we bought a jib from Christian Neilson and did the job with the Tees crane and that jib. After that the old unit was scrapped at Briton Ferry.
The WSS book P&O - A FLEET HISTORY confirms that on 13.2.1974 the PANDO SOUND (8782/54, ex Bendigo-68) having been delivered to Briton Ferry in May 1972 and where partial demolition commenced mid-September 1973, was blown broadside across the River Neath. The hulk was removed only with considerable difficulty.
This dovetails reasonably well with the May 1974
disposal date I have for the TFC.
Early days of containerisation!
The German coaster HARBURG was the first container ship to use the Tees and berthed at Middlesbrough Wharf. Here, on 6 June 1967, the Tees Floating Crane assists her operations. In the background the NORSEMAN is fitting out at the Furness shipyard, Haverton Hill.
On 31 August 1972 the TFC was resting in Middlesbrough Dock. The coaster is the SUSANNE SCAN.
CAREER DETAILS
TEES FLOATING CRANE (60 ton heavy lift): 615gt; pontoon built by Fairfield SB & E Co. Ltd., Chepstow; crane completed 6.1943 by Palmers of Hebburn as MOWT 4 for Ministry of War Transport, wartime management by Port of London Authority. 2.1947 purchased by Tees Conservancy Commissioners and 8.1948 renamed TEES FLOATING CRANE. 1.1.1967 ownership passed to Tees and Hartlepools Port Authority (circa 1969 the 's' was removed from Hartlepools upon unification of West Hartlepool and Hartlepool). 5.1974 sold to Risdon Beasley Ltd.
Subsequent career/fate not known - but someone asked me recently if she had foundered on her way south after sale. Anyone know the answer? George tells me that one of the former Hull based floating cranes did founder in the early 1970s; perhaps that is the source of possible confusion?
15.7.02: Two and a half years
after posting this page I am pleased to get some further comment from Mike
McNichol:
I was looking at your site at your floating crane page. Perhaps I can shed a little light as to her fate.
Whether or not she lost or not I do not know, but I do remember seeing the tug which was to take her away along side her in Tees Dock.
Actually, the tug was so small I would have described it as a launch. I did not see her leave but a day or two later she was back, but
without her jib. The buzz was that when she had left the first time, the jib had not
been secured for sea {two large steel "wedges" should have been in place}. It
seems that when the barge started to roll at sea , the jib was slewing back and forth
until something carried away and it went over the side
somewhere off Whitby. Again, the buzz was she was not required to work as a crane for her
new owners so she left the Tees for the last time a few days later. I think if she had been lost on the second attempt, we would have
heard on the bush telegraph. I seem to recall that she was to be used in some harbour improvement
work in Southampton.
HARBURG: 499gt; built 1967 at Hamburg; West German flag; 1982 HARBURG I (Lebanese); 1983 SEA CLOUD (Lebanese); (to be completed)
NORSEMAN: 29400gt; built Cammell Laird, Birkenhead in 1967 (but definitely fitting out on the Tees!); PAN WESTERN (Panama); 1978 South Korea flag; (to be completed).
SUSANNE SCAN: 300gt; built 1967 at Ulsteinvik; Danish flag; 1974 WELLOWGATE (British); 1975 MAR ANTIL (Netherlands Antilles); (to be completed)