User:IanDWilson/sandbox

FAMMC Archive number: 0554
His Majesty's Rescue Tug TURMOIL was the seventh of the "Bustler Class" tugs to be built and launched from the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb as Ship No 337 At the end of the war she was chartered out by the navy and from 1946 to 1957 she was under charter to Chartered Overseas Towage & Salvage Co Ltd, London as Turmoil She was then brought back to serve as RFA TURMOIL. The rescue tug TURMOIL was involved in many adventures and most of them happened after the war had ended, including the strange disappearance of a battleship lost at sea-6 November 1951 She sailed from her home port of Falmouth to assist her sister BUSTLER and aircraft from Gibraltar, the U.S.Navy and Portugal in the search for the old Brazilian battleship São Paulo which had broken adrift from its tow during a gale with a crew of eight aboard. The old battleship which was on her way to be broken up for scrap was never seen again and many theories have been put forward as to the reason for her loss, even some as far fetched as being taken by aliens, but in all likelihood she was just in the wrong place and too far from land during this very violent storm. At the start of the year of 1952 she was involved in the attempt to rescue the Tramp Steamer "Flying Enterprise" an event that at the time was daily news to the people of Britain with pressmen on every available ship trying to cover the story. TURMOIL was given a major refit at the Adrossan dockyard in 1961 but was then laid up before being sold to Greek shipping interests at Piraeus in 1965 TURMOIL under her new names was to work for Greek towage companies for another twenty or so years before she was sold for scrap.

For more information and pictures see:

http://leithshipyards.com/ships-built-in-leith/1939-to-1945/142-hmrt-turmoil-yard-no-337-bustler-class-rescue-tug-royal-navy-built-1945.html