Design and construction
Built for a War that had just ended – originally named the Empire Raymond, her build was commissioned as part of the Ministry of War Transport’s “Empire” fleet — a rapid‑build programme intended to support Operation Overlord – the planned invasion of Europe.
Laid down in 1945, launched 21st January 1946. Cervia was not completed until after WWII, although she retained all her wartime features; an armoured wheelhouse, gun emplacements, a powerful 1,000 hp (750kW) triple-expansion steam engine, built with an oil-fired boiler convertible back to coal, built to be Mediterranean (warm climate) operation capable inclusive of a ‘walk in food chiller’ and rear deck canopy for shading.
Empire Ships – An Empire ship was a merchant vessel whose name began with “Empire,” operated on behalf of the UK Government during and after the Second World War. Most served under the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT), which owned the fleet and contracted various British Merchant Navy companies to run them.
Merchant ships that were ordered by the British government during the War period were given the prefix Empire which was the equivalent of the wartime Liberty Ships building programme in the United States of America. The Cervia is the last “Empire” class ship surviving in the United Kingdom.
One of the most famous of the Empire Ships is Empire Windrush. Captured ships were renamed ‘Empire’. Launched in Germany in 1930 as the MV Monte Rosa. She was built as an ocean liner for the German shipping company Hamburg Süd. After World War II, the United Kingdom seized the ship as a prize of war and renamed her HMT Empire Windrush. She remained in British service as a troopship until 1954.
The Cervia design closely followed an early designed steam tug known as the Foremost Class which had been conceived in 1923.
The reasoning behind the recycling of this old design was due to Britain’s need to quickly replace losses, and because of the government’s rapid rebuilding programme, using the best of pre-war proven tug designs would avoid the need for any new design and avoid design type approval delays with the Admiralty.
History
Cervia was launched from the yard of Alexander Hall & Co. Ltd in Aberdeen on 21 January 1946 and delivered to the Ministry of War Transport. Later that year, in December 1946, she was sold to the towing firm William Watkins Ltd for £36,000. The company funded the purchase using compensation received for several of its tugs lost during wartime service, including Napia and Muria, both sunk after striking mines near Ramsgate in 1939 and 1940.
In 1947, the tug’s original name, Empire Raymond, was changed to Cervia, after the Italian Adriatic resort where the Watkins family owned a holiday villa. The name had previously been carried by an earlier William Watkins tug that took part in the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940, returning with 230 troops on board.