Another photo from Kevin Blair showing tugs, tugs and more tugs plus a couple of mothballed minesweepers and maybe a couple of whale catchers.

Max and Imp in the background in Ridley Colours so I would guess this dates beween March 1956 and January 1959 when they were chartered to Tyne Tugs???

TDE had 2 Algerine minesweepers for refit in 1956 I would make the out board one Albacore ( she unlike most others did not have the extensiion at the front of the bridge) this would make the other .one Seabear

It was not unusual for the M.O.D. to spend money on expensive refits on vessel's held in Reserve only to scrap them shortly after as it would appear to be in the case of the Seabear (scrapped 1958) unless they were hoping to sell her and the sale fell through, in the 1950's the Sale/ Give Away of RN Ships to friendly Nations usually after an expensive refit paid for by the British Taxpayer when we could hardly afford it went unnoticed until it came to the rearming of the West German Navy, then the doodaa really hit the fan not because of the Ships themselves and their refits paid for by the British Taxpayer but what was considered to be an insult to both our Navies by the Germans naming them after their Wartime vessels which were involved in the sinking of British vessels and the deaths of some of their Crews, the papers made a meal of the situation and it rumbled on for quite a while eventually calming down when it was declared that the transferred vessels mainly Frigates would only be used as Training Ships.