In 1942 tugs were urgently needed for War duties both in the U.K and overseas and the British Admiralty requested the construction of a standard 'Utility' vessel, which could be built quickly and easily. Known as 'TID's', 182 of these little prefabricated tugs were built by various yards around the U.K. Brent started life as TID 159 and was the very last to be constructed. Built by William Pickers
gill & Sons of Southwick, Sunderland in 1945, she missed being used for Admiralty War service, being finally launched in 1946. At the end of the War many of these and other Admiralty vessels became surplus and were put up for sale or disposal to help replace the large number of vessels which had been bombed, sunk or damaged beyond repair, by enemy action. The Port of London Authority were able to buy TID 159 for £4,000 renaming her 'Brent', after a Thames tributary. They also purchased TID 115 renamed 'Dollarbay', TID 167 renamed 'Deanbrook' and TID 168 renamed 'Lea'. Brent initially came under the PLA Dredging Department and was used to tend hoppers, dredgers and their barges stationed mostly in the Thames, on mud and silt clearance work. After 1960 she was moved to the enclosed dock system where she towed lighters and barges between ships, docks and shoreside warehouses helping to move the many types of cargo in transit. With the opening of the new expanded Port at Tilbury and the adoption of containerisation, the London Docks went into a slow decline with most closing by the mid 1960's. This, along with rising labour and fuel costs, meant that many older steam vessels became obsolete or were replaced by more modern Diesel driven designs. As a result Brent's sisters were laid up and eventually sold for scrap in 1969. Brent was retained and kept in steam ready for use, on her berth, and so she became the last steam driven vessel left in service with the Port of London Authority. However, she was soon considered redundant to need and finally went to the shipbeakers, Stour Salvage Co at Mistley in 1970. From the mid 1960's onwards, the era of steam driven ships or boats began to draw to a close, with most vessels in the U.K and around the World being sent to shipbreakers. Within 15 years commercially working steam engined ships had become more or less extinct. Brent's survival is remarkable in that she was a pioneering preservation project, done at a time when little thought was given to saving steam boats of any age or design. Being only 25 years old when rescued she had little or no recognised heritage value, but as the majority of older tugs had already been scrapped, Brent was one of the last survivors of her kind. Her new owners felt that she should be saved for posterity, the best way being by converting her into a family home and tug yacht. Janet Hall who with her husband Ron saved the Brent in 1970 and went onto preserve and look after her until the 1990's. She was given to the Steam Tug Brent Trust by Janet in 2010.
