Our next talk on Sunday November 24th will be about the tugboat Daniel Adamson or Danny as known by its friends. She was built in what is now Cammel Lairds in Birkenhead in 1903 for the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company and named Ralph Brocklebank after one of the directors of the SURCC.
She was designed to tow long strings of barges laden from goods from the potteries and towns in Cheshire to the port of Liverpool. She also carried passengers from Ellesmere Port and Liverpool until 1915. After the first world war canal traffic declined. The SURCC stopped canal work in 1921 and started selling off its fleet. The Ralph Brocklebank was sold to the Manchester Ship Canal in 1922 for £3000. She had a radical refit in 1936 and renamed Daniel Adamson after a director of the Manchester Ship Canal. With increasing containerisation, Manchester Docks closed in 1982 and the Daniel Adamson was towed to Ellesmere Port. Initial interest faded with lack of funds for maintenance so that in 2004 it was scheduled to be scrapped in Garston. However Mersey tugboat skipper Dan Cross bought the Daniel Adamson for £1 and was offered dry dock facilities by Svitzer Marine to see whether the Daniel Adamson could be saved. After a lot of work from a large band of enthusiasts culminating in a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund of £3.8m the Daniel Adamson is now a fully functioning boat again taking visitors up the Manchester Ship Canal etc.
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