No idea why my family has preserved this photo. As there are ladies on board it may be some kind of excursion, but the figures are too small to identify. From the faded nature of the print it fits in with other family photos from the 1920s. Maybe it will be of interest to tugboat enthusiasts.
Jill
Comments
Bon Voyage to a brother
After peering at this photo under magnification, I realize that there is a personal story contained in it that justified its being kept. The two standing figures in the bows are my uncle Leslie Warren and his wife, Cicely. I guess the date is summer 1928 when Leslie’s brother, Arthur left for England to get treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis. He hoped to return to Hong Kong a year later, but died at the Southampton Isolation Hospital in 1930, aged 23. In his will he left his camera to Leslie – probably the one that took this photo recording the last time the brothers saw each other. I haven’t been able to find which ship Arthur travelled on. I wonder if it was a normal custom to cadge a lift on a tug to go as far as possible out to sea when saying goodbye to a close relative.
Jill
Possible location?
This photo may have been taken from a ship anchored off the Taku Bar at the entrance to the port of Tientsin (Tianjin).
Tug 5 is possibly one of five tugs operated by the Tientsin Lighter Company Ltd., a joint venture between Alfred Holt & Company (Blue Funnel Line) and Butterfield & Swire, which operated lighterage services at Taku Bar and Tientsin (Tianjin).
Tugs 1-4 were small tugs raging from 136 to 179 gross tons. Tug 5 was a larger tug of 236 gross tons built in 1929 by Taikoo Docks & Engineering Hong Kong.
Only vessels with a shallow draft were able to cross the Taku Bar and sail up the narrow and shallow Hai (Pei) Ho river to Tientsin (Tianjin). Tugs and lighters conveyed cargo and passengers to and from the larger deep sea ships anchored off the bar.
The difficult approach to Tientsin is described by Captain William Worrall in his memoirs No Cure No Pay (chapter 6 - published SCMP 1981)
Ref: Sold East - Traders, Tramps and Tugs of Chinese Waters
H.W. Dick & S.A. Kentwell
ISBN 0 9599079 4 7
Regards degahkg