After my trip out on the tugs of the River Tyne earlier this year (read about it here), I was keen to get a trip out on my local waterway, Southampton Water. I've lived by Southampton Water for about 34 years and have seen all manner of ships come and go but had never been out on a tug in the docks. Luckily, the good people at Svitzer Marine were more than happy again to help me out.

I'd been saving this trip up for a while in the hope that I could pick a sunny day that would help me get some good quality photographs. However, as mid-August approached, and with the British weather just as unpredictable as ever, I decided to go for it. I selected Friday 14th August as the day for my trip as I had the day off work anyway and the shipping schedules looked pretty busy.

To my surprise, the weather looked ideal at 7am as I walked down Hythe Pier to get the ferry across into Southampton. The sky was clear and there didn't appear to be much wind at all. As I got to the end of the pier, I was even treated to the sight of Adsteam Surrey and Svitzer Sarah bringing a vehicle carrier into the docks.

I arrived just after 8am at the Svitzer Office where I met Ian and Andy. I had to collect some safety equipment such as hardhat, lifejacket, and high-visibilty vest before going onboard so this gave me a chance to have a cup of coffee and a chat in the office whilst signing the various bits of paperwork and reading the health and safety notes. After about 30 minutes, all the formalities were out of the way so Ian, the area superintendent, offered to give me a lift down to the quayside to the tug that I'd be on.

My hosts for the day would be the crew of the tug Bentley: skipper Bill, Mark, and Roger. Bentley, a 1996 vintage Damen 3211 tug, had only returned the day before from a dry-docking and maintenance period in Lowestoft so the exterior paintwork was looking particularly clean and pristine. The name of the vessel on the hull now also had the addition of the "Svitzer" prefix, a task that is stil ongoing in the fleet as Lyndhurst only recently had a prefix change from "Adsteam" and Surrey's hull still bears the name "Adsteam Surrey".

Initially, it'd been expected that the whole of Friday would be busy with towing activity. However, nothing's ever set in stone in the world of shipping it seems and so our first tow of the day wasn't going to be until midday. However, this did give the opportunity to have a very good look around Bentley taking photographs, which you can find on the Bentley Data Page.

Time flies when you're having fun though so it wasn't long before the time for action came around. We were sat in the mess when a message came over the VHF radio from the pilot on board our first tow, the Georgia Highway, saying that he was all ready to go and wanted to try to set sail a bit earlier than planned. Funnily enough, the Georgia Highway, a 199-metre vehicle carrier, was the same vessel that I'd seen coming in as I walked down Hythe Pier just over four hours earlier. I don't know how many vehicles they had to move off or on the vessel, but it was certainly a quick turnaround.

The berth where Georgia Highway was moored was opposite Southampton's new Ocean Terminal, which was occupied by the cruise ship Aurora. As the Aurora was due to sail at 5pm that evening, there was a lot of activity around it such as a small fuel tanker moored alongside. This meant that the tug on the bow of the Georgia Highway, Adsteam Surrey, would have limited room to manoeuvre whilst attempting to keep tension on the towline. Luckily, we were on the stern of the tow so we had pretty much clear water behind us. As it was explained to me, both Bentley and Svitzer Madeleine, another Damen 3211, have good forward winches and are therefore almost always employed on the stern of the tow.

The Georgia Highway was berthed with its bow pointing upriver so we needed to pull it astern until it was in clear water and could safely be turned 180 degrees to head down Southampton Water.

In my report on tugging on the Tyne, I mentioned how it was important that the tugs didn't have their towlines too long otherwise they might not have enough room to manoeuvre in the relatively narrow confines of the river. Well, Southampton Water certainly isn't as narrow as the Tyne, but that doesn't mean that the tug crews don't still have to be careful. The water is constantly being navigating by vessels such as pleasure boats, the Hythe Ferry, the Isle of Wight ferries and Red Jet high-speed craft, as well as fuel and garbage barges servicing the cruise ships. There's also the hazard of other ships tied up along the quayside.

So, in a relatively small area between the busy shipping channel and the quayside, we spun the Georgia Highway around to point it downriver.

One good thing about a large area of water like Southampton (or bad if you're a tugging fan) is that, unless the weather conditions are particularly treacherous, ships can navigate most of its length unassisted. Therefore, once we had the Georgia Highway pointing safely in the right direction, the message came over the VHF from the pilot informing us that we were free to retrieve our towline and stand down.

It's whilst retrieving the towline and detaching from the ship that the skill of all three of the crew working as a team really comes in: The guy at the helm accelerates the tug to get it as close as possible to the stern of the ship (perhaps even resting the bow of the tug on it); Meanwhile, the guy on the forward winch controls winds in the slack towline to prevent it drooping in the water where there's a danger that it might foul something; And all this time, the deckhand down by the forward winch is on hand to guide the towline onto the winch.

Although winding the towline onto the winch might sound like a simple procedure, the crew do still have to be careful. The line must be wound in such a way that it's readily available to be wound off when required for the next tow. If the towline is wound on unevenly then it could slip on the drum creating a trapped loop, which basically means that the line has tied itself to the drum. If you use a roll-up electrical extension lead then you may have experienced this kind of thing yourself. It's a pain when you want to get out and mow the lawn, so imagine what it's like when you're being dragged by a 100,000 tonne ship and need to let more line out.

Luckily for us, we detached from the Georgia Highway and retrieved our towline without incident. So, with a final "thank you" from the pilot over the VHF, we turned the tug around and headed back towards our berth.

We had about an hour until our next tow of the day so Mark put Bentley nose-on to the quay wall whilst Bill nipped ashore and up to the shop to get lunch.

Once Bill was safely back on board, it was time to head off round to the Southampton Container Port where out next tow of the day, the 338-metre container ship Osaka Express, would be waiting to depart. This would be by far the largest ship that I'd ever been up close to so I was especially excited about this. However, I was even more excited when Mark asked me if I wanted to drive the tug round there. I never got the opportunity to drive Rowangarth up on the Tyne so this would be my first experience of actually driving a tug boat.

I've operated vessels with a traditional wheel and throttle control system in the past but I've never operated one with ASDs so I must admit that I was a little bit nervous. The helm console (photo here) contained a throttle control for each engine but these went from "Stop" to "100%"; No "Astern" positions! Next to the throttles was a small wheel to control direction but this wasn't being used. Instead, direction was controlled by another pair of sticks, not unlike throttles, that controlled the direction that each stern unit pointed in. To go astern, you turn the ASDs 180 degrees rather than reversing the direction that the propellor is turning.

As I took over the controls, I realised that if you left the throttles in one position then you could control the vessel using the directional sticks just the same as if you were controlling a twin screw vessel using the throttles rather than a rudder. Put both sticks fully forward and the vessel goes forwards; Put both sticks fully back and the vessel goes astern; Have the port stick fully forward but pull back on the starboard stick and you turn to starboard, and vice versa. It was surprisingly simple really (when travelling on a fairly straight course, at least).

The level of control that you can get from these azimuth stern drive (ASD) tugs is pretty impressive but ASDs are a double-edged sword. A few weeks earlier I'd watched the mighty Queen Mary 2 come up Southampton Water and onto the Ocean Terminal berth with no tug assistance at all thanks to a combination of bow thrusters and azimuthing stern propulsion pods. Modern cruise ships are now designed not just for visitng major ports around the World but also for visiting small island resorts so they must be capable of getting onto berths without tugs to help them. This means that in ports like Southampton, unless there are extremely strong winds, you'll probably never see a massive cruise ship surrounded by a bevy of tugs again.

My stint at the controls of Bentley took us about 2 miles up Southampton Water from the Town Quay area to the container port. Apart from the dog-leg corner near the swinging ground, it was a fairly clear run so skipper Bill took the opportunity to demonstrate some of the bridge equipment to me including the autopilot with waypoint tracking.

For most of the journey, I was simply following in the wake of Adsteam Surrey, which would again be on the bow of our tow. However, as we approached the massive Osaka Express, I started to wonder what was the correct way to bring the tug to a halt. Pulling back on the throttles would be the traditonal and instinctive thing to do but by stopping the propellers you lose your ability to steer or slow the vessel using the ASDs. Luckily, Mark was on hand to demonstrate the correct method: By reducing the props to slow but not stopping them completely, you can then rotate the ASDs so that you hover on the spot. All that's needed then is the occasional blip on one or other of the throttle controls to fight the tide and keep the tug pointing in the right direction. It sounds simple in a controlled situation like that but you can imagine how much skill and experience is needed for it to become instinctive in a crucial situation with a massive ship bearing down on you.

The Osaka Express really was an impressive sight at the quayside. With a beam of 42-metres, it was actually wider than our tug was long... by about 10 metres! The height of the thing was just as impressive.

As we were getting our towline attached and getting into position behind the ship, our fellow tug Surrey was doing the same almost a quarter of a mile away at the bow of the vessel. If it had been a windier day then we might have had a third tug to assist us. One of these container ships is like a block of flats on its side so it's not hard to imagine how much force a strong wind would exert upon it. However, the sun was shining and the wind was fairly calm so the combined power of Bentley and Surrey were more than adequate for the job.

Like the Georgia Highway earlier, the Osaka Express was berthed pointing upriver so it would need to be turned around. This can't be done directly off the container port so the ship would need to be towed astern to the swinging ground.

This task was made a little bit more difficult due to the fact that the huge container handling crane on the quayside directly aft of the ship was being worked on and so was stuck in the down position. This meant that the Osaka Express would have to be pulled directly sideways out from its berth before we could start pulling it astern.

After a bit of hanging around waiting for the mooring lines to be let go, the 100,000 tonne monster was under the control of our two little tug boats.

I must admit that at first I wasn't sure if the ship was ever going to start moving. After all, ships hulls aren't really designed to travel sideways. However, after what seemed like an agonisingly long time, the laws of physics came into play and we started to get some sideways motion on the beast.

It's at times like those that you're glad about the safety margins that go into tug design; the tug shakes as though the propulsion units are going to rip themselves out of the hull whilst trying to get some sort of movement going; the towline stretches out in front looking very thin even though it's actually about the thickness of your arm; and the forward winch stays locked soild despite having 60 tons of tension put on it. Despite the initial trepidation though, it all comes together and the tug does exactly what it's supposed to do.

As we were going through all this, Surrey was going through the same thing up on the bow. With a combined bollard pull of 1000 times less than the total weight of the ship, we finally got the Osaka Express moving sideways off its berth.

The strange thing is that this was the last time that we'd actually see the Surrey until the tow was over. For the rest of the time, it was totally hidden from our view by the mass of the ship. It's a strange experience really. You know it's there and that it's doing its job but you just can't see it.

Once the Osaka Express was out far enough to clear the extended jib of the quayside crane, the pilot gave the instruction to start pulling the ship astern downriver towards the swinging ground. Although the ship was happier going astern than it was going sideways, it still took some effort to get it moving. Once it started travelling in the right direction though it was a stunning sight.

The stretch of Southampton Water around the container port is pretty free from general marine traffic. We did see the occasional pleasure craft, probably coming from the little harbour upriver at Eling, but they know better than to get too close to a container ship under tow (or under its own power for that matter).

Since the wind was fairly calm on this day, the ship behaved itself and so the run down to the swinging ground was straightforward and uneventful. That's not to say that I wasn't loving every minute of it though as I most definitely was.

Although the swinging ground is a fairly large area of water, it's surprising how tight things become when you're maneuvering a huge ship. In this case, the space was made even tighter by the presence of the condemned LNG carrier Margaret Hill sat on the berth on the corner of the swinging ground.

The swinging ground is actually at a dog-leg in the river so the turning procedure would be very similar to a three-point-turn in a car rather than spinning the ship 180 degrees on the spot. We would have to tow the ship astern round the corner and then let Surrey pull the bow round to point downriver.

Because we were basically being backed into a corner, the skill of the pilot and the tug crews became all the more important. If we got too tight into the corner then there's no way that we'd have space between the ship and the quay wall to move so every metre counted.

With the Osaka Express and its stack of containers towering over our relatively small tug, it wasn't hard to imagine how nasty the situation could become if something went wrong. The reassuring thing was though that my fate was in the hands of experienced professionals, some with 35 years or more experience of this sort of work.

It's also when working in these tight situations that you appreciate the level of control that modern azimuth stern drive tugs give to the crew. The ability to keep the correct level of tension on the towline whilst moving the tug from one side of the ship to the other is very important. If one of the tugs unexpectedly lets tension off their towline then it could spell trouble for the tug at the other end of the ship if it starts moving towards them.

Luckily, this is a procedure that the tug crews and pilots go through every day so it went without a hitch. I must admit though that I was surprised when I looked towards the stern of our tug at one point and saw mud being churned up in the water. Our propellers were enclosed in nozzles so it's not like they could actually chop at the riverbed but we must have been close to a shallow spot for the props to draw mud into the nozzles.

It's hard to contemplate the physics of two little tugs spinning around a 338-metre, 100,000 tonne container ship like the Osaka Express but they did it. In some ways it was like a well choreographed dance with every participant knowing exactly where they should be at any one time. When you consider the trouble that some people have parking a car or reversing with a caravan attached, the task of moving a huge ship seemed surprisingly easy. As I mentioned ealrier though, it's skill and experience that makes it seem that way. As I discovered during my spell at the controls of Bentley, there's a fine art to manipulating the throttles and directional sticks to get the tug moving in just the way that you want.

The Osaka Express was now pointing in the right direction so, since there were no real wind issues, the pilot gave us the all-clear to disengage the tow just as we came level with the Town Quay area of Southampton Water.

So, once again, we accelerated towards the stern of the huge ship until our rubber bow fenders were pressing against the steel, winding in the towline onto the forward winch as we went. The deckhands on the stern of the Osaka Express then lowered the towline down onto the bow of our tug in a safe, controlled way so as not to cause danger for Roger, who was there waiting to stow it.

With the towline back on the forward winch and the heaving line tidily stowed, we dropped back from the stern of the ship and Mark gave the message over the VHF to the pilot on the Osaka Express that we were all clear. With a polite "Thank You" from the pilot, we peeled away from the Osaka Express and left it to its journey.

Although we were obviously focussed on getting the Osaka Express off its berth and on the move as quickly as possible, there was another reason why everything had to go to plan. Out in the Solent, an even bigger container ship, the 350-metre CMA CGM Butterfly, was preparing to enter Southampton Water on its way up to the container port.

Now, as you can imagine, getting two huge container ships to pass each other in opposite directions must be done carefully. In order to achieve this, they time the arrival and departure of the two container ships so that they pass near the Fawley Oil Terminal where the deep water channel is at its widest to accommodate the oil tanker movements. If we'd been either significantly early or significantly late with the departure of the Osaka Express then the two ships might have passed in a narrow part of the channel and things might have got a bit tight. Luckily, we were right on the ball though.

As we came out from behind the huge mass of the Osaka Express, we finally saw the Surrey again for the first time since we left the container port. As Surrey would later be involved in the arrival of the CMA CGM Butterfly, it moored up temporarily alongside Svitzer Madeleine to wait for the ship to make its way in from the Solent.

Bentley would also be involved in the Butterfly tow but as the day was getting on, I decided that I would call it a day. We tied up at the quayside just astern of Surrey and Madeleine and I got my things together ready to leave the vessel.

I needed to go back around to the Svitzer office to drop off the lifejacket and other protective equipment that I'd borrowed and Roger needed to go there to pick up some supplies for Bentley so Mark gave us a lift round there. After saying my thank yous up the office, Mark was kind enough to give me a lift round to Town Quay to catch the Hythe Ferry back home again.

As I was stood at Town Quay waiting for the Hythe Ferry to arrive, I saw Surrey and Bentley leave the quayside on their way down to meet the Butterfly. It was a shame to miss out on that tow but about twenty minutes later as I was on the Hythe Ferry travelling back across Southampton Water, we passed the Butterfly coming in and I got the opportunity to get some shots of Bentley in action with its fresh new paint job (see the Svitzer Bentley data page).

All in all, it was a fabulous and exciting day out on Southampton Water. In my 34 years living in this area, I've never had such an insider's view of the workings of the port before so I'm very thankful to Ian and Andy at the Svitzer office and Bill, Mark, and Roger on Bentley for giving me the opportunity. I'd also like to apologise to the crew of Bentley for seriously depleting their sugar supply with my three-in-a-cup-of-tea habit. I blame the mysterious teaspoon shortage!

Jason Webb

For more photos of the individual tugs mentioned in this article, please follow the links below:

Svitzer Bentley

Svitzer Madeleine