Five Tugs Dedicated in Port of Leith

At a special dedication ceremony at the Port of Leith this week, five Sanmar-built tugs were given a traditional marine blessing with their godmothers present. They form part of the large fleet of tugs and workboats operated by Targe Towing Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Forth Ports Limited, which provide towage, emergency response and other services 24 hours a day principally on the Forth and Tay, two of the UK’s busiest waterways, the North East ports of Scotland and offshore.

The ceremony also marked, by the merged entities, 40 years of continuous towage operations at Braefoot Bay and 30 years of operations at Hound Point Marine Terminal both located on the River Forth. Bishop of Brechin, the Rt Rev Andrew Swift, led the blessing of the tugs, which are named the Balmerino, Camperdown, Kittiwake*, Peterel and Queensferry and, to follow the tradition of assigning a female godmother to a marine vessel, each tug had its godmother at the ceremony.

• MT BALMERINO - Godmother Carole Cran – Chief Financial Officer at Forth Ports
• MT CAMPERDOWN - Godmother Lesley Dorman – Lesley is married to Captain Nick Dorman, MD of Targe Towing
• MT KITTIWAKE* - Godmother Pamela Smyth – Chief Legal and Property Officer at Forth Ports
• MT PETEREL - Godmother Karen Wallace – Karen is married to Stuart Wallace, CEO of Forth Ports
• MT QUEENSFERRY - Godmother Angela Gardner – Angela is married to Andrew Gardner, CEO of INEOS Forties Pipeline Services, owner of the tug.

[*The Kittiwake was operating elsewhere and not present at the ceremony.]

All five tugs have been built to exclusive-to-Sanmar designs from Canadian naval architects Robert Allan Ltd.

Sanmar was represented at the ceremony by Chairman Ali Gürün, Director of Corporate Strategy İpek Gürün, and Commercial Director Rüçhan Çıvgın. Robert Allan Ltd was also respresentedby Robert Allan himself.

Ali Gürün said, “We delivered our first tugboat to Targe Towing in 2017. The most recent, CAMPERDOWN, delivered earlier this year, is a representative of Sanmar Shipyards’ advanced engineering capabilities and technological superiority in the maritime industry.”

The tugs, crewed by expert mariners, are established work horses of the Target Towing and INEOS FPS marine fleets and have a long life span which can last decades. These state-of-the-art vessels demonstrate the latest technology and significantly enhance the overall towage capability and emergency response for the region.