Thanks for that Taximan, would certainly like to see the new vessel.
From recent exchanges on the Tugtalk forum it seems this is not ABLE ONE but ABLE THREE after all!
There may have been some swopping of names/hulls after a batch was bought from USA that had been based at Hythe.
This is from Piet van Damme:
.....you will find this is ABLE THREE, bought by the same owner, but left at Whitby; ABLE ONE moved to and pictured in the USA:
1955 ST 2113 CHARLESTON, 1995 ABLE THREE
(US Army ST tug Design 3004, 82 in all)
Registered:
72 GRT, 57 NRT, (70'(65.0')x19.5'x8.5')
1 fpp, diesel White Atlas Imperial, 600bhp
ST 2113 CHARLESTOWN
1955: Built by "C.W. Smith Shipyards Inc" at Pensacola, Fl.(USA)
1955: delivered to the "USATC - US Army Transportation Corps" at Fort Eustis, Va.(USA)
19xx: stationed at Portsmouth (GBR)
1992: retired
1993: sold by the US Army Depot at Hythe (GBR), to "Pounds Marine Shipping Ltd" at Portsmouth (GBR)
1995: resold to "Read Heavy Lift" (Gordon Read) at Newquay, Fl.(USA) but remained at Saxon Wharf, Southampton (GBR), renamed ABLE THREE
(by error identified as ABLE ONE by the sandblasters of Saxon Wharf)
199x: engine removed
199x: spotted lying at Whitby (GBR)
2005: still present, partly rebuilt
2014 -01/05: spotted remaining at Whitby (GBR) and seems to have been abandoned next to the Parkol Shipyard
ABLE ONE pictures in the USA to be found on:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/23612601@ ... otostream/ http://www.pelicanpassage.com/images/sc ... -Atlas.gif