Steam tug ‘W. E. Dorrington’ was built in 1906 for the Shropshire Railway and Canal Company (SR&CC). The bell from the long-scrapped vessel is on public display for the first time in Warrington Museum until 28th February, 2026. This has prompted further research into her role in the First World War and it has been discovered that for three years, the Admiralty took over the vessel.
picture was taken on the ‘Daniel Adamson’
Research has revealed that she played a vital role in helping bring World War I to an end. On 30th May 1917, the Admiralty sent her to the port of Le Havre in northern France where British and Commonwealth regiments were landed, assembled, trained and prepared for the trenches before being transported by rail to the battlefields on the Western Front. Le Havre was 280 miles from the war front at Arras but it was well served by rail networks. It also had hospital and rest and recuperation facilities.
After the United States of America joined the war on 6th April 1917, troopships poured across the Atlantic. American soldiers had the nickname “Doughboys”, the equivalent of British “Tommies”, and 2,000,000 of them were sent to France, 840,000 via Liverpool and Le Havre.
‘W. E. Dorrington’ was a steel towing tug weighing 175 tons. She would no doubt have been used to tow and push troopships onto the harbourside as quickly as possible.
War hostilities ceased on 11th November 1918 with the Treaty of Versailles being agreed in 1919.
‘W. .E. Dorrington’ finished her time with the Admiralty in Southampton, probably carrying returning troops and equipment. She finally returned to service for the SR&CC on 15th September 1919 where she resumed the cross -Mersey trade until she was sold for use on the Manchester Ship Canal in 1922. She was scrapped at Preston in 1937.
On Display at Warrington Museum
The cast bronze bell from ‘W. .E. Dorrington’, clearly marked 1906, was preserved and is the centrepiece in a display at Warrington Museum about waterways in the north west and with a strong emphasis on nostalgia for shipping and tugs in particular in the early part of the twentieth century. It features ship-spotting books and items from the Manchester Ship Canal on which the ‘W. E. Dorrington’ once traded. The sister ship to the vessel is the ‘Daniel Adamson’ (the Danny) which has been preserved and now mostly cruises on the River Weaver.
Les Green, a volunteer for both the Shropshire Union Canal Society and the Daniel Adamson Preservation Society said “We were delighted to receive the bell as a gift and to make it a centre piece of the display. It is important that these historic items are both retained and researched. The fact that the American army was quickly put into action with very few ships and lives lost inf Le Havre due to U-boat activity may have been helped in no small part by this humble tug that once belonged to the SR&CC”.
More details on Warrington Museum can be found at museumsofcheshire.org.uk/venues/warrington-museum-art-gallery and more details of the Daniel Adamson Preservation Society can be found at thedanny.co.uk.