http://thesteamboattrust.co.uk/

Steam Tug Canning, Swansea Marina, Swansea (2026)

10/06/2026

Sorry we've been a little quiet over the last couple of weeks, but things have still been happening on board.

With the "mixed" weather we've had, most of our jobs have been concentrated on the inside of Canning to keep us relatively dry.

1. Crew Quarters

Most of the timbers were removed a few weeks ago and the steel ribs which hold the floor and add strength overall, have been cleaned off, wire brushed and today we began painting them, along with the surrounding hull.

New timber has been quoted for, to the tune of several thousand pounds. 👀

2. Master's Cabin

Some of the flooring has been removed from this area too, due to it more resembling carbon than timber from years of water ingress. The steel deck underneath doesn't seem too bad on first inspection, cross fingers.🤞

3. Engine and Boiler Room

The floor plates in these rooms have degraded significantly over time and need replacing. Some are very awkward shapes, to fit pipework and the hull, so these have been 3D laser scanned in situ so new plates can be cut to shape by the fabricators.

New lighting has been installed in both of these rooms today, thanks to a kind donation. It will make things a great deal easier not to have to move lighting around. The only downside...we can now see more debris than we could before! 🤣

One of the Mike's (we have several), was hard at work in the engine room today, hoovering the main engine to remove as much debris as possible. It looks a lot better. The surrounding area will need a thorough clean too, which is a big task and is definitely not very glamourous! But we'll press on! 🙂

A big thank you to those who have donated to our Go Fund Me over the last few weeks and those who have donated to us in person. It's really appreciated.

If anyone is able to spare a little something, our Go Fund Me page can be found here and everything goes towards Canning's restoration.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-restore-the-historic-steam-tug-canning

We are making some headway and are beginning to see the fruits of our labours, but we will definitely need your help to bring her back to life.

Thanks all,
The Steam Tug Canning Team

23/05/2026

We’ve just passed the 500 follower mark.

We really can’t thank you all enough for your support.

Let’s raise a flag to that…

13/05/2026

A good turn out for Canning again today with eight of us working on deck, below decks and some even floating on the raft beyond the stern...

The last couple of weeks has been a combination of trying to make Canning look a bit more presentable, so that you can see some improvement to her condition when you walk past, as well as some hard graft that is out of sight but has to be done.

Today we have finished repainting her name and original port of reigstry on the stern in bright canary yellow following a stencil being drawn by hand by Mike.

We hope to continue moving slowly around the gunwales (steel that encloses the deck), repainting the black panels with their distinctive yellow band. This takes some time to prepare the panels, with dust sheets preventing the flaking paint ending up in the marina and has to be done by hand.

Continuing that theme, we made a start preparing the portholes for eventually being re-polished, as they would have originally been. Many an hour tied up at the quayside when Canning was working would have been spent polishing the brassware, usually by the lowly deckhands, when they weren't making the tea!

Below decks, the last of the rotten crew room floor has been removed, the anchor chain hold has been swept and hoovered, with measurements taken for replacement Douglas Fir timber.

We also had a visit from David, who was an Ordinary Seaman on Canning when she worked in Liverpool and worked his way up to being a skipper on a great many tugs over a long career. A very supportive, knowledgeable and generous man, leaving us with a donation to our fund. Thank you from all of us.

The Steam Tug Canning Team

10/05/2026

We had a great day on board yesterday whilst the Wales on Wheels festival of classic vehicles was happening in Dylan Thomas Square.

So many of you walked past, read our billboard and had a chat with us from the quayside. We even had a donation to our fund - thank you very much!

And more good news for us and Canning, we have four new volunteers wanting to get involved to help get her shipshape.

05/05/2026

**Further update in the comments**

A quick update from Chris Bannister - Steam Tug Challenge, Portwey & Canning

"Most people we meet around Swansea Marina have been incredibly supportive of the restoration work on Canning.

Sadly, today I had a phone call from someone who preferred to remain anonymous but felt confident enough to tell me we “don’t know what we’re doing”, that we “have no competence”, and even that we’re “polluting babies’ lungs”.

I tried to have a calm, adult conversation, but it’s difficult when someone refuses to listen, interrupts constantly, and won’t even give their name.

We know and feel very humbled by the support we've had since starting to restore Canning and just for the avoidance of doubt, I would like to say that we:

- We work cleanly, safely, and responsibly
- We contain all waste and follow proper environmental practice
- We are restoring a vessel that would otherwise be lost forever
- We are doing this with skill, professionalism, and passion
- We are using our knowledge from our other vessels to help us restore Canning.

Whilst major work on vessels is not generally permitted in the marina, it is permitted on the historic vessels moored on the "Helwick" pontoon.

To everyone who has supported us, asked questions respectfully, or simply appreciates the importance of saving maritime heritage, thank you. We’re here to protect history, not argue with those who have nothing constructive to say and only wish to complain or criticise.

As usual, the dedicated team of volunteers will be onboard tomorrow. Give them a shout if you're passing by.

Thanks all
Chris
The Steam Boat Trust"

29/04/2026

Fantastic morning onboard today.

We’ve been very fortunate with the weather lately, so our outdoor jobs continue.

More paint scraped off the outer engine room top cover, some of it is proving quite stubborn but no match for Len with his collection of “persuasion” tools, i.e. a series of hammers 😊

Down below, the floor of the crew quarters has now been sufficiently removed. The anchor chain hold is now fully exposed and in need of a thorough clean.

The pièce de résitance for today was one of our newest volunteers, Mike, renewing the lettering on the stern. So now, when you walk past, Canning’s name is proudly displayed once again.

It had reached the point of being illegible from the quayside but no more!

A good day.

As always, please like, share and follow. It means a huge amount to us.

Thanks all - The Steam Tug Canning Team

26/04/2026

Following on from our last article where Len, one of our volunteers and a crew member of Canning and other Alexandra Towing Company tugs, explained the role of the fireman.

Len has given us an insight into who else was on board and how it all worked.

"Further to the fireman's duties on board, the rest of the crew were made up of the master(captain), chief engineer, second engineer, mate, and 2 deck hands.

The chief engineer's role was to maintain the engines, check boiler water levels, fuel levels, lights and anything mechanical, making sure everything was oiled and greased and working as it should. He also operated the levers for the main engine receiving instructions from the bridge via a telegraph system of what speed the captain wanted either forward or astern . The second engineer was his back up, mainly checking levels, oiling, greasing all moving parts and relieving the chief operating the tug controls as needed. Sometimes he would help on deck if a heavy hawser had to be pulled aboard fast to stop it getting wrapped around the propeller.

The mate was in charge of the deck , when picking up a ship to tow into port he normally threw the line on board and made sure the right hawsers were used for each job. Foreign ships liked to use their own gear but it was never trusted to be safe, so we always insisted they used our ropes and the firm got paid more when using our own gear. When on day work, he organised any cleaning or painting that had to be done and kept a check on the hours we worked to make sure we were all paid correctly. The deck hands, one worked the deck with the mate and the other was on the bridge as helmsman. Each tide they would alternate from deck and helm as 3 am on a winters morning, it was warmer on the bridge than on the deck. They also had general duties, tying up along aside, painting etc and most important making the tea.

Now the captain, the most important man on board. His word was law. He had a lot of responsibility by making sure all his crew were safe when on board. When docking a ship, the weather could be rough sometimes and freezing cold. It was his job to get the tug along side the ship, which was moving quite fast and make sure the towing line got on board. He was telling the helmsman what to steer, speaking to the pilot regarding manoeuvres, liaising with the deck crew, operating the telegraph what speed he wanted the engines, ensuring the safety of every one at all times.

When bringing a ship in, she normally had 3 tugs, 2 astern and one on the bow as head boat. The tugs would meet the ship on the outer fairway and es**rt her into the locks then on to her berth. The same when sailing one from the docks out to sea, into the locks and safely on her way.

All in all, every one had a role to play to ensure everything run smoothly and each crew member looked out for each other. Good times."

Photo - Canning as "head boat" bringing in "Rowanmore".

22/04/2026

The weather was perfect today for some of the guys to focus on priming the top of the engine room cover.

A huge amount of paint and rust has had to be persuaded to leave by various methods, including, but not limited to, the needle scaler, SDS chisel and an old fashioned hammer.

But I think you'll agree, it's now looking in good shape. The sun had cured it by lunchtime.

Below decks, a few of us returned to the crew room to continue removing the rotten floor. We did find some pieces the water had not found but they were few and far between. Most came up with worrying ease.

Quite unbelievably, most of the bolts that were holding the floor down were able to be undone with relative ease. A touch of copper slip must have been added all those years ago.

Douglas Fir seems to be the material used in the original flooring, which no doubt would have lasted even longer if kept dry.

As always, please like, share and follow us. We really do appreciate the comments and the positive response from you all.

If you are able to support us with a donation, our Go Fund Me link can be found below. To give an idea of the money involved, just in priming that engine cover, we've used around £150 of paint.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-restore-the-historic-steam-tug-canning

Thanks all - The Steam Tug Canning Team

20/04/2026

The tale of two deckheads (engine room top cover).

Sometimes you forget just how much has been done and what it was like to start with!

Thankfully, the photos remind us.

19/04/2026

The Long Read - a look inside a steam tug.

This week, we're going to follow on from the boiler and have a look at Canning's main engine.

Much like her boiler, Canning's engine is original and hasn't changed much, apart from some wear and tear, since it was installed in 1954. It also needs a thorough clean of debris and prerserving grease.

It is a triple expansion marine steam engine, again built by the well-established marine engineers, C. D. Holmes & Co of Hull and produces a nominal 1000 indicated horsepower (IHP).

Indicated horsepower, mostly used when discussing steam engines, is slightly different to the figures you would see for your car in brake horsepower (BHP), because it is the theoretical maximum, rather than the actual power you get when all the losses are considered, such as the friction of the pistons going up and down.

In any case, a 1000 horsepower tug was a force to be reckoned with in the first half of the 20th century and Canning's main engine turns a cast iron propeller that measures around 10 feet in diameter! To put that in perspective, it's taller than the ceiling in your living room.

The engine is directly connected to the propeller via the crankshaft. There is no gearbox, so every turn of the that shaft means a full turn of the propeller and a huge amount of water would be moved in a single rotation.

So, why "triple expansion"?

The simple answer is efficiency, making the most of the steam. The power behind steam is that it expands. So in a triple expansion engine, you have three cylinders and steam enters the smallest, "high pressure" cylinder, first. It expands, gets fed into the next "intermediate" cylinder, which is larger and expands again, before ending up in the even larger "low pressure" cylinder to expand a final time.

The timing of the steam ending up in the right place at the right time, is down to the "eccentrics". These are connected to the crankshaft, like the rods from the cylinders, but they are offset to ensure everything is synchronised. i.e. the inlet and exhaust valves open and close at precisely the right time.

The steam has now expanded below ambient pressure and is fed into a vacuum condenser where the remaining latent heat is removed, it is then returned to the boiler as water (condensate) to be used again. A strong vacuum pump maintains a low pressure in the condenser and returns the water to the hot well, where it can then be pumped back to the boiler.

Canning was designed to be 90%+ efficient with water use, so almost all of it is used again.

Photos as follows;
1. Bottom end crank lobes and the smaller eccentrics
2. High Pressure connecting rod and vacuum pump rod (right)
3. Low Pressure connecting rod and condenser behind
4. Top of Low Pressure cylinder

As always, please keep sharing and following our page.

It's been great to see so much interaction over the last few weeks and if anyone is in a position to donate to us, our Go Fund Me page can be found here https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-restore-the-historic-steam-tug-canning

All the best - The Steam Tug Canning Team

Steam Tug Canning

10/06/2026

23/05/2026

13/05/2026

10/05/2026

05/05/2026

29/04/2026

26/04/2026

22/04/2026

20/04/2026

19/04/2026

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