hello Manxman, she was only 3 years old when that picture was taken, She was towing the Interstate liner Canberra from Sydney to Genoa and it took them four and a half months to do it bunkering from the ship at sea, she was away from home for 18months,and towed right around the world, that tow actually became a record holder for a while as the longest non stop tow,and she used an 18" Manilla rope, a section of which is still in the British ropes co museum,and that is actally my old dad standing on the foredeck.
All of the Englishman and Modified englishman classes were built with a wooden wheelhouse front and sides to aid compass correction and she did not have radar until the early fifties, she was eventually wrecked very close to her home port of London , whilst assisting a ship aground on the Longsands bank in the Thames estuary.
I remember going aboard her in the thames when I was a youngster and would not go down below as it was hot and smelly, and then what did I do for a living for 50 years? I was a marine engineer of course!!! Ha Ha.all the best geo.
