MBT 10.20.037 Sea tug MS "Zwarte Zee" (III) (1933) - L. Smit & Co

In 1933, the second Zwarte Zee was sold to Germany. The successor to this steam tug was not only the company’s flagship for many years, but also the most powerful sea tug in the world until the Clyde entered service in 1957. The ship was designed to compete with the Seefalke, fitted with 4,200 hp diesel engines, from the German company Bugsier. To be able to reach ships in distress quickly, the Zwarte Zee was designed with a high speed of over 17 knots for a tug. The ship cost 600,000 guilders, a substantial sum for the time and, given the economic crisis, something of a gamble. The Zwarte Zee was built by L. Smit & Zoon’s Scheeps- en Werktuigbouw NV in Kinderdijk. The launch took place on 2 June 1933 and the official sea trial was held on 3 October 1933, with Princess Juliana on board.

Second World War[edit]

When the Second World War broke out on 10 May 1940, the Zwarte Zee was requisitioned by the Royal Netherlands Navy and towed the as-yet-unfinished destroyer H.M.S. Isaac Sweers from Vlissingen to The Downs in England. On 20 August 1940, the Zwarte Zee was hit during a bombardment of Falmouth and capsized. The ship was salvaged and towedto a dry dockwhere it was repaired. During the salvage operation, sailor J. van der Zee became entangled in a steel cable and was killed. From February 1941, the Zwarte Zee served with the British Admiralty’s Rescue Tug Section as W 163. During the war, the tug regularly visited American ports. The Americans based their V4-M-A1 tugs on the Zwarte Zee. These tugs all came under the management of Moran Towing and Transportation Corporation, which used them after the war to attempt to break the Dutch hegemony in maritime towage.

After the war[edit]

In 1945, the Zwarte Zee returned to Smit. In 1948, the ship underwent a partial refit, during which the stern was modified. On 31 December 1951, the ship was severely damaged in a collision with the Danish vessel Bjørn Clausen and had to be towed to Saint-Nazaire. On 11 January, the Zwarte Zee arrivedin Rotterdam, where it was repaired. In 1961, the ship was renamed Zwarte Zee III, as the new Zwarte Zee entered service. In the spring of 1962, the ship was renamed once again, this time to Ierse Zee. On 27 October 1966, the ship was towed via the Kinderdijk and the Kijkduin to N. V. Frank Rijsdijk’s Industriële Ondernemingen in Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht to be scrapped.

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