Anglian Princess to be scapped!

Halfhidden

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A coastguard tug based in Cornwall is to be scrapped as part of the government's spending review.

The emergency towing vessel, based in Falmouth, is one of four in Britain. Two are in Scotland and one in Dover.

All four were to come out of service, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) confirmed.

Their scrapping would save £32.5m over four years, the government said. The vessels are to be taken out of service from September 2011.

The tugs, which are available 24 hours a day throughout the year, are mainly deployed when vessels break down, but also have firefighting capabilities.

The MCA said: "The government believes state provision of emergency towing vessels does not represent a correct use of taxpayers' money, and that ship salvage should be a commercial matter between a ship's operator and the salvor."

The Falmouth tug covers Britain's south western approaches.
 

treeve

Major Contributor
As our useful and indeed vital service are being eroded, safety seems to be a matter of relying on technology, let alone the fact that it appears not to cost "the pubilc" to have scrapping done. Aren't men so lucky in this to have some agency which is not eroded by the savings and povided and manned by stalwart men and provided through public subscription as that of the RNLI
 
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Halfhidden

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I agree with you treeve. In fact there has been far too much of this going on. The RNLI is being pushed more and more as the government reduces vital coastguard services... it seems that the more the charities do, the less government invests. Another example is the Air Ambulance and how that is being used for minor injuries saving cost to the RC trust on land ambulances.
It is a sad day, and a great loss to the coastguard.
 

Halfhidden

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Don't know... I guess it must be. That makes the title a bit strong... they can't scrap something that they rent.
 

treeve

Major Contributor
The scheme not the tugs is to be scrapped .. the idea of the coastguard tugs was intoduced in1993, following the Braer incident.... ..the reason for the scrapping of the scheme is because the tugs have not been used in any major incident ... surely it is better that we do not continue that policy thoughout
 
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The four tugs are owned by the J.P. Knight Group, Chatham trading as J.P. Knight (Anglian) Ltd. Interesting to see where they are re deployed when the Coastguard contract is terminated.
Ostara
 
Very big crew even for a factory trawler, though without a PLN she is a klondyker rather than catcher. Nearer to Brittany coast and crew being picked up from liferafts - good job it is calm. Still with power she should not need assistance with towage though may well be escorted.
Ostara.
 
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