Retired pair Alfred and Colleen Wilson enjoyed a jaunt around Port Glasgow - chauffeured by the shipyard's interim CEO John Petticrew - after stopping off in Greenock as part of a world trip on board the luxury Cunard cruise ship Queen Anne on June 1. Alfred was born in Glasgow and his family immigrated to the city of Christchurch in the Canterbury region of New Zealand's south island in 1961 - and for the last 20 years the former locomotive engineer has been helping out along with his wife to keep Tug Lyttelton in ship shape. The historic tugboat was built by Ferguson Brothers at the Newark site in the early 20th century and launched in 1907 under its original name Canterbury.
She left the Port with 15 crew on July 2, 1907 and arrived at her new home in Lyttelton, just outside Christchurch, 69 days later. Her title was soon changed in honour of the town she served and the vessel quickly made its name by escorting pioneer explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod out of the harbour before its famous Antarctic expedition. Tug Lyttelton was decommissioned in 1971 and a preservation society was formed two years later to save the vessel from the scrapheap.
Over the decades it has offered regular public sailings, as well as hosted many weddings, funerals and celebrations but soaring maintenance costs have placed its future in doubt. Ex-stoker Alfred told the : "We wanted to visit Ferguson's to see where our tug was built and how it was assembled, as the steel on the Scotch boiler wa.
