Eppleton Hall (1914)

250px The Eppleton Hall in San Francisco
Career (England)
Name:	Eppleton Hall
Owner:	Lambton and Hetton Collieries
Ordered:	1914
Builder:	Hepple and Company, South Shields
Launched:	1914
In service:	1914-1967
Homeport:	San Francisco, California
Status:	static, no public access
General characteristics
Type:	Tugboat
Propulsion:	steam

The Eppleton Hall is a paddlewheel tugboat built in England in 1914. The only remaining intact example of a River Tyne paddle tug, and one of only two surviving British-built paddle tugs (the other being the former Tees Conservancy Commissioners' vessel, John H Amos), she is preserved at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park in San Francisco, California.

History

Eppleton Hall was built in 1914 by Hepple and Company of South Shields, for the Lambton and Hetton Collieries, Ltd, and named after the Lambton family's ancestral home near Penshaw.

A steam powered side wheeler with side-lever engines, she was designed to tow ocean-going coal-carrying ships to and from Tyne Dock, which served Newcastle upon Tyne. For sailing ships, this saved time, while for larger motor vessels it saved navigation and pilotage costs. She was also used to tow newly-built ships out to the North sea.

She operated from 1914 to 1946 by Hepple and Company, who post World War 2 were nationalised as part of the National Coal Board. Being rather old now, rather that being transferred to the British Transport Commission like many of the former collieries transportation assets, she was sold to France Fenwick, Wear and Tyne Ltd., which after refurbishment operated her on the River Wear until 1964. In 1952, the tug was modified slightly to obtain a Passenger Certificate, so that she could transport officials from newly-launched steamers, after the boats had completed their sea trials. In 1964 she one of the last three steam tugs decommissioned in the River Tyne, sold from Sunderland harbour to Seaham Harbour Dock Co. in November 1964.

Sold for scrap in 1967 to Clayton and Davie, while sitting on a mud bank in Dunston, as part of the scrapping process fire destroyed her wooden afterdeck and interior.

Preservation

The news of the fate of the last Tyne Paddle tug reached Karl Kortum, then director of the San Francisco Maritime Museum. Kortum instructed associate Scott Newhall to proceed to the scrap yard and purchase the vessel, and then restore her for return to San Francisco.

Restored at Bill Quay, Sunderland, from 1969-1979 Eppleton Hall served as the private yacht of Kortum, modified for the trans-Atlantic ocean journey to San Francisco via the Panama Canal, she passed through the Golden Gate bridge in March, 1970. Newhall subsequently wrote the book "The Eppleton Hall," which tells the story of the discovery, restoration and journey from the Tyne to San Francisco of the ship. (Howell-North Books, Berkeley, CA, 1971).

Donated by Kortum to the USA National Park Service in 1979, she is now berthed at Hyde Street Pier, San Francisco. She is presently being restored to resemble her condition post-War 1946, when refurbished for France Fenwick, Wear and Tyne Ltd.

Media

In the Hit Television South and Clearwater Features T.V. Show TUGS, Stack #3 O.J. is based on "Eppie".^{[citation needed]}

External links

• Tyne Tugs - details on Eppleton Hall

37.80932°N 122.422°W / 37.80932; -122.422