Tilly the Tug Boat
(or An Overdose of Joy)
Tilly was such a happy little tug boat, chugging up and down the river all day long. She had a lovely shiny black funnel, a little red wheel house where Captain Salt would stand and steer her, and gleaming brass fittings which shone in the sun. In addition to Captain Salt, there were three other members of the crew. Jock the engineer, Paddy the stoker, and Bill the deck hand.
All the crew were very proud of Tilly. Captain Salt was always very careful with her, and would never try to work her too hard. Jock looked after the engines, making sure that the brasses were clean and that all the working parts had plenty of oil. Paddy made sure there was enough coal to keep the boiler going, and never let the fire gb out until the day's work had been done. Bill scrubbed the deck down every day and made sure that the towing ropes were secure.
"Toot! Toot!" Tilly would go as she towed the barges up and down the river. "Toot! Toot!" as she went under the bridges where the children usually stood and waved their handkerchieves. Even the men on the barges seemed much happier when Tilly was pulling them up and down the river. They would lean on the rudders as they went round the bends in the river and wave to the children on the bridges. Everyone worked at a steady pace, and every day seemed to be happy.
Tilly had lots of friends on the river. There was Harold the 'Puffer Tug'. He smoked a lot and would sometimes say one thing when he meant another, but on the whole he was a good sort. Then there was Teddy the 'Sailor Tug'. He was called 'Sailor' because everything had to be ship-shape, and he liked to go out to sea as well as chugging up and down the river. He was also very fond of music (he had a big musical siren) and laughed a lot. Teddy's laugh sometimes caused a problem because his bows would jump up and down in the water creating a lot of little waves, which occasionally made some of the pleasure boats very cross. No-one could be angry with Teddy for long, however, because he was such a bappy little tug.
One day, as Tilly went to pick up a string of barges, a new tug came bustling down the river. The new tug was very beautiful, and had a big diesel engine. She had a very short white funnel, and made a deep Pom, Pom, Pom, noise as she ploughed along. Her bow stood high out of the water, and she looked very proud and efficient. "Hello!" said Tilly as she chugged by, "What's your name?" "Zoop! it's Margo," she said haughtily, "Zoop!" and tossed her bows even higher in the air as she passed. "Zoop! Zoop! I intend to make a few changes around here! There's no time for old and inefficient tug boats these days. It's a hard world, and we must all learn to do better! Make no mistake," she went on, "I intend to get as much of the river traffic as I can."
Tilly was astonished but did not reply. She knew that her custom had been built on friendship. She believed that the barge owners would be loyal to Captain Salt. "Margo may be a lot more efficient," she said to herself, "But none of the barges she was towing looked very happy."
Nearly a whole year had gone by, with Margo, Tilly, Harold and Teddy steaming up and down the river, towing barges laden with all sorts of goods. Coal for the factories, barrels of beer for the breweries, fertilisers for the farmers, pulp for the paper mills, and wood for the timber yards. Captain Salt and his crew still took as much care as ever, but there was a strained look about their faces. "It's getting a bit worrying," Captain Salt would sometimes say to Jock. "That new tug is getting more of the work, and our customers are finding it a lot more difficult to stay with us. We will have to make some changes!"
Tilly knew that Captain Salt was a kindly man and would never willingly do anything to hurt anybody, and she understood when Bill was told he would lose his job. Bill also understood, and although he was very upset, he and Captain Salt parted good friends. "Maybe when things on the river are better," said Captain Salt, "we will be able to work together again. The bad times can't last for ever." Tilly couldn't hide her sorrow, and every now and then a little salt tear would trickle down her funnel.
Work on the little tug was a lot harder now and even Captain Salt had to take his turn, along with Jock and Paddy, to scrub the decks. Tilly missed Bill. Little patches of rust began to appear, and her funnel lost it's shine. Jock was so busy that he could not clean the brasses, and Captain Salt could not find enough money to do anything except essential repairs.
One day, when Tilly was working very hard pulling more than her usual load of barges up the river, the engine broke down. Jock tried all he knew to get the lititle tug underway, but the engine would not start. "It's no good!" he sald to Captain Salt, "One of the main bearings has siezed up. We shall have to get a replacement." The men on the barges were very worried, because the tide had turned and there was a real danger that they would become stranded on the mud banks.
Just at that moment, there was a "Zoop-Zoop" in the distance and Margo suddenly came into view. Pom, Pom, Pom, Pom, she went, towing a string of barges behind her. Pom, Fom, Pom - "What's all this Tilly?" she smirked. "Letting your customers down again?" "Not really!" sobbed Tilly, "I've just broken down. My engine has stopped and Jock can't get it started." "Gross inefficiency!" scoffed Margo. "I shall have to take your barges in tow." Captain Salt had no alternative. He had to let Margo take over the tow, but he knew that he and Tilly would be in real trouble.
Jock worked all night on Tilly's engine, having got a replacement bearing made up by a little engineering works on the river bank. Paddy kept the fire going at a gentle heat and when Jock had finished his work and the tide had risen high enough for Tilly to float again, he stoked and stoked until the steam came hissing from her boiler. "Let's try the engine Jock!" said Captain Salt as the telegraph went Ding, Ding. Jock opened the steam valve and the engine burst into life. "Well done Jock!" sald Captain Salt, "We'll soon have her home now!" and the little tug ploughed her way down river.
The following day, Captain Salt went to see the barge owners to see if they had any work for him. One by one they shook their heads. "We're very sorry," they said, "But your little tug has cost us a lot of money. Margo is a lot more efficient and yesterday's breakdown could have been more serious, had she not come along just in time." "But it's the first serious breakdown we've had in years," protested Captain Salt. "Surely, you would not take the work away from us for one mishap, would you?" "No!" they retorted, "But we have noticed how run down Tilly is, and we've been expecting trouble for some time." Try as he might, Captain Salt could not change their minds, and sadly, he went back to Tilly with the bad news.
For nearly a whole year, Captain Salt tried everything he knew to get work. There was the occasional tow but in the main, Tilly spent more of her time on the mud banks than she did chugging up and down the river. Paddy no longer did the stoking. He had to leave the little tug boat because his wages were too low to keep his family. Jock and Captain Salt were now the only members of the crew left. Tilly would cry almost every night, and the little tears running down her funnel were so salt that it had almost rusted away. The engine was very run down, and the sides and bottom of the boat were thick with rust. Nore of the brasses shone any more, and the mast, which used to have such a proud little pennant at the top, had broken off. The wheelhouse, where Captain Salt stood and steered the tugboat, was falling to pieces. Tilly looked a sad, sad sight.
"It's no good Jock," said Captain Salt one day, "It's no good. We shall have to sell Tilly. We're losing so much money, we can't go on any longer." Sadly, both men went into the nearest town and put Tilly up for sale. One by one,the men who were interested in buying her came along the river bank to look and, one by one,they walked away shaking their heads, "I wouldn't buy a heap of scrap like that," Tilly heard one of them say. "What a load of junk!" said another. "You'd have to pay me to take it away," said a third. Nobody wanted to buy poor little Tilly.
One day, a big white Rolls-Royce drove up, and a man wearing a leather coat and smoking a cigar got out. He looked at Tilly from the river bank and asked to come on board. He went into the wheelhouse, checked her rusting hull, and looked at the engine. When he had finished the inspection, he went back to the river bank and puffed away at his cigar for a minute or two. "I'll give you five hundred pounds!" he said. "She's got a few good brasses and bronze propellers which should fetch a copper or two; the rest can go for scrap." "But . . . " protested Captaln Salt. "No buts," said the man "Five hundred, take it or leave it! You won't get a better price anywhere else." Sadly, Captain Salt agreed, and when the man had gone away, he went back on board Tilly and patted her rusting funnel. "I'm sorry old girl," he said emotionally, "but I had to do it." Tilly was too tired to cry anymore.
1t was a week or two before anything happened. Two men from the scrap yard came aboard and started to get Tilly ready for a journey up river, "It will be a very high tide today," she heard one of them say. That ought to float her off, and we will get another tug to tow her to the breaker's yard. They've got an immersible cradle there. We can float her over it and let her settle onto it as the water drops. The winches will soon pull her out, and we will cut her up in no time." Tilly felt so alone and miserable. There was no Captain Salt to offer comfort, and it seemed as though her friends had all deserted her. Poor Tilly, she just wanted to drift out to sea and sink.
It was another 48 hours before Tilly had been hauled onto the slipway and if anything, she looked even worse out of the water than she did in it. Mud and barnacles covered her bottom so thickly that it was almost impossible to see the shape of her hull. The man in the white Rolls-Royce drove into the yard and stood looking at her, puffing away at his cigar. "I must have been mad to have paid five hundred pounds for a heap of junk like that" he said. "It will cost more to break her up than the scrap's worth."
Standing beside him in the yard, was a very thoughtful young man wearing a blue boiler suit. He looked at Tilly for a moment or two and asked for a ladder to climb aboard. One of the yardmen collected a ladder from a nearby shed and positioned it against the side of the little tug. The young man clambered up and had a good look round. It must have been at least twenty minutes before he rejoined the man with the Rolls-Royce. "Suppose I offered you the five hundred pounds you gave for the tug and repaid all the money you spent getting her here," he enquired. "What would you say?" "I would say you were off your head," said the man with the Rolls-Royce, "But it's your money and I would be a fool not to accept.it." "Done!" said the young man. "You've got a deal."
They spent a few minutes more discussing the cost of getting Tilly to the yard and a sum was agreed. "My father will send you a cheque first thing in the morning," said the young man as he patted the little tug boat on her bows and gave the anchor chain an affectionate little 'tweak.' "That little tug is the only one of her type still in existence. With a bit of luck I think we could restore her and make her look as good as new."
It so happened that the young man's father owned the breaker's yard, and the young man was a very important member of a local Preservation Society. The society's maln purpose was to find old steam boats l1ike Tilly, repair them where possible, and put them to good use. Tilly could hardly believe what had happened. Was it really true that, in the nick of time, this nice young man had saved her? She wanted to nudge him with her fender but was held too firmly in her cradle. She wanted to sound her little whistle and chug up and down the water front for sheer joy, but she was on dry land and there was no steam in her boiler. Her relief and happiness were almost too much to bear, and she could hardly wait for the restoration work to begin.
The job of repairing Tilly took a long time because it all had to be done by members of the society in their spare time. First they cleared off all the mud and barnacles from her bottom. Then they replaced all the rusting plates and rotting woodwork. The funnel and mast were completely rebuilt and the boiler replaced. The engine and propeliers were taken right out to be cleaned, oiled, and refurbished. The brasses were polished, and the little boat was painted from top to bottom. It took nearly two years to complete the job, but when they had finished, she locked as good as new. No one would ever have known it was the same sad little tug boat that was lying on the mud bank waiting to be broken up.
It was a bright summer weekend when the young man and his helpers came to look at the work they had done. "She looks beautiful," said one. "We must have a proper launch!" said another. "Let's dress her up!" said a third. "We'11 Iaunch her next weekend and you can dress her up as much as you like," said the young man. "I've already arranged for the local brass band to be present. The press will be coming, and the lady Mayoress has agreed to 'Do the honours'. With a bit of luck, we should have a crowd of about five hundred people to see her off." He paused for a moment. "We'll need to raise steam and put a full crew on board. I have organised a mooring above the lock 'Up river'. From there, Tilly will be well placed to undertake pleasure trips to her heart's content."
Tilly was so excited she wanted to slip into the water at that very moment and go steaming up the river. She wanted to see if any of her old friends were still around so that she could show them her new paintwork, polished brasses, and shiny black funnel. Above all, she wanted them to meet all the people who had so lovingly restored her and given her a new lease of life.
The great day came, with a crowd gathering well before nine-oclock. By mid morning, the scrap yard and river banks were full of people, and the brass band had already started playing. A platform had been constructed near Tilly's bow and the little boat was covered in red, white and blue bunting. It was eleven-o-clock when the lady Mayoress arrived. She climbed up to the platform and made a speech praising the work of the Preservation Society, saying how wonderful Tilly looked and what a pleasure it was Lo see something good coming out of a scrapyard.
A bottle of Champagne was broken over Tilly's bow to complete the formalities, and the crowds waved as she gently slid into the water. The young man thanked the Mayoress for taking part in the launch ceremony, and made a little speech of his own. "I am delighted to tell you,"" he said, "That not only have we restored Tilly to her former self, but the original crew have agreed to give up their spare time to look after her and take her out as often as they can."
Tilly was overjoyed. Captain Salt was back in his little wheelhouse, Jock was tending the engine, and polishing the brasses so much that you could see clearly enough to shave or powder your nose. Paddy had 1it the fire immediately after the launch to generate a good head of steam, and Bill had the decks so clean, you could have eaten your dinner off of them.
Soon, Tilly was steaming up river where children were lining the banks and standing on the bridges to wave their handkerchieves. They waved and cheered all the way to the lock. "It's just like old times," Tilly said to herself. "No! it's not like old times," she corrected herself. "Where are all the other tug boats and barges?" She hadn't passed one as she journeyed up the river. "Perhaps it's because of the weekend," she thought, "I'1l ask somebody when I get to the lock."
It was almost two-o-clock when Tilly reached the lock. The lock keeper helped ease her through the first set of gates and closed them behind her. The sluices were opened, and the water guickly rose. Tilly chugged forward as the second set of gates opened, and gently glided into a beautiful tree lined part of the river. There were lots of children and grown-ups waiting to greet her. They were all cheering and waving. "Good old Tilly!" they said. "Doesn't she look beautiful?"
When Tilly had composed herself, she took a good look round the lock and could hardly believe her eyes. There, right in front of her, she saw Harold the 'puffer tug' and Teddy the 'sailor tug' moored beside the river bank. She tooted in excitement. "Teddy! Harold! is it really you?" "Of course it's us!" laughed Teddy. "We heard you were coming and made a special journey to meet you - didn't we Harold?" "Of course we did," said Harold. "We wouldn't have missed this for all the tea in China."
The friends were overjoyed to see one another again and were soon talking away happily. "How did you come to be here?" Tilly asked. "I've been preserved!" replied Harold. "I've been given special duties at river functions, 1ike taking the mayor up river when there's a festival." He paused for a moment to puff out a little more smoke, "It must be very important. As you will see from my nameplate, they prefer to call me 'Lord Harold' now." "I've got a special job too," said Teddy as he sounded his siren. "There are not many tugs with my seagoing experience, and I sometimes get a job rescuing ocean going yachts when they get into trouble."
The conversation broadened a little. "It's lovely to see you again," sald Tilly, "But what happened to Margo and the rest of the river traffic?" "It's a sad story!" said Harold. "Yes!" sald Teddy, "When the price of oil went up, the river traffic slowly disappeared, and Margo's owners could no longer make a profit. I think they sold her to some American chap." He paused for a moment. "The last I heard, she had been put alongside the Queen Mary in California." "Yes!" Harold interrupted. "She always did think she was royalty."
Captain Salt and his crew left Tilly in the company of her friends while they went into the riverside pub for a drink. This gave them plenty of time together. Harold smoked so much that he almost choked some of the people who were standing on the river path. Teddy's laugh was also a problem. His bows rose and fell so much that the waves tangled up the lines of some fishermen who were standing on the bank. Nobody really minded though — they were all so happy to see Tilly and her friends back together again.
The little boats spent many long days together, chugging happily up and down the river, tooting to one another as they passed. Tilly was happier than she had ever been, and loved taking the children and their parents out for trips along the river. Harold also seemed contented with his very important new role, and Teddy loved all the seafaring jobs he had to do. Their joy was almost too good to last, but Tilly often said a little prayer of thanks and hopefulness to herself as she was 'tucked up' for the night at her moorings,and we have every reason to believe that her prayers were answered.
