The Port Auxiliary Service - History

The civilian service which operated auxiliary vessels for the British Admiralty
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jbryce1437
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The Port Auxiliary Service - History

Unread post by jbryce1437 »

The Port Auxiliary Service (PAS) was a civilian service which operated auxiliary vessels for the Admiralty, primarily around HM Dockyards and Naval Bases. The service was originally known as the Admiralty Yard Craft Service and was renamed Port Auxiliary Service in 1958.
The service operated harbour ferries, launches, tugs, ammunition and stores lighters as well as ocean going tugs.
Seperate to the service was the Admiralty Dredging Service and Fleet Coaling Service, although their crews were frequently inter mingled.
The Port Auxiliary Service was renamed the Royal Maritime Auxiliary Service in 1976.

A typical harbour ferry operated by the Port Auxiliary Service
pas-56140col.jpg
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HMS Raleigh 1963 , HMS Collingwood 1963 & 67 , HMS Ark Royal 1964-7, HMS Undaunted 1968-71, HMS Victory (Fleet Maintenance Group) 1971-72, HMS Exmouth 1972-74
JEM, EM, OEM, LOEM, POOEL
Then 28 years in the Fire Brigade
Retired since 2002
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ivorthediver
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Re: The Port Auxiliary Service - History

Unread post by ivorthediver »

Whilst doing some research on specific types of Tugs I unearthed all manner of facts on them as well as types , which amazed me ....hope this is the right area to show what else these hard worked vessels coupe with

Coupled with this was the amount and variety of Tugs used in Canada in addition to harbour duty , the logging tugs were everything from a small tender on log pulls to massive great monsters , referred to as Log barges were 120m long as against an average size tug of 37m with 3,600 horsepower engines

These Log Barges had two gantries built into them and by partial flooding were almost capsized to shed its load of logs which were then shepherded into local miles for working on .

This is certainly a huge industry and the ones I refer to were around the Queen Charlotte sound and Hecate strait / British Columbia

If you think that a tall story take a look at the attachment from a book "Skookum Tugs" and the photographs by Robb Douglas which I bought and it made fascinating research
on both the men and machines used to collect this product .
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