(as Loyal Celt – post 1957)

as Loyal Celt (post 1957)

Official Number:                      160491

Laid down:

Builder:                                  A Hall & Co Ltd., Aberdeen

Launched:                              6 April 1928

Pennant No:                          

Into Service:                           1944

Out of service:                        1949

Fate:                                     6 January 1964 broken up

Items of historic interest involving this ship: –

Background Data:  One of an additional group of ships requisitioned by the Admiralty during WW2 to augment the ships of the RFA

Career Data:

6 April 1928 launched by A Hall & Co Ltd., Aberdeen as Yard Nr: 610 named Foremost 43 for James Dredging, Towing & Transport Co Ltd., London

May 1928 completed

1930 purchased by Frank M Rose, St John, New Brunswick – name unchanged

1932 purchased by St. John’s Tugboat Co Ltd., New Brunswick – name unchanged

4 June 1939 Three persons were believed drowned and three survived when a motorboat capsized off Harvey Bank, Albert County, near the head of the Bay of Fundy. The tragedy occurred soon after the Saint John tugboat Foremost 43 left Harvey Bank about midnight towing a pulpwood-laden barge toward Saint John. The motorboat accompanied the Foremost 43 to take Charles Copp back to shore after he piloted the tugboat out into the bay. Finishing his job, Copp jumped from the tug to the smaller boat. He landed on the engine and disabled it by breaking a rod. The helpless motorboat then swung under the towline and overturned when the boat’s mast fouled against the hawser. Pilot Copp, his nephew and Long disappeared in the rough water. Brewster was hauled aboard the tug. Wright and Nickerson scrambled into a rowboat which the motorboat had been towing. After a long search for the missing trio the tug continued to Saint John. It towed the motorboat for ten miles before losing it when the line broke.

1944 acquired by the MoWT under management of Sierra Leone Coaling Co Ltd., London

12 February 1945 sailed Casablanca in unescort convoy CG147 to Gibraltar arriving the next day

1946 owners now MoT – name unchanged

1949 Steel & Rennie Ltd., Glasgow and renamed Battleaxe

1951 purchased by Albert O Richards, Swansea – name unchanged

1957 purchased by Bristol Channel Towage Co Ltd., Cardiff and renamed Loyal Celt

1964 R & J H Rea Ltd., Cardiff – name unchanged

5 January 1964 arrived Passage West in tow of the tug Tasman Zee for demolition by Haulbowline Industries Ltd.