I had arrived arrived on board the old steamer that was soon to be towed to the breakers yard, stowed my thermos & lunch in one of the forward cabins, then set off to document the "old girl." In the space of about 3 hours I had photographed all of her forward section, wheelhouse, officers cabins, bosun's stores which was interesting in itself as it carried items in it that could be used on board for pretty well any type of emergency possible plus gallons of paint. It soon became time to grab a coffee & snack so I took the bag and headed aft. I had noticed when i had come aboard that the engine room hatch was open and figured they were removing items from her to be used on other ships. I made my way down to her engine room through the labyrinth of steps, catwalks & pipes to find the hatch open. As it was a nice balmy summer day and the open hatch afforded a good breeze it acting as a bit of a forced draught. I pulled up a chair and sat down took a well earned bit of my ham & mayo sandwich and had just poured my first coffee when came the sharp pronounced blast of the horn of a tug and a few seconds later she came into view framed by the engine hatch a silt barge lashed to her chugging toward the dead channel. Interesting & different I could see. I sat back drank the coffee, finished the sandwich then gathered my stuff, made my way topside and down the gangway to my car, drove the roughly the 1/2 mile to the end of the channel, parked, got out and stood there watching as the tug came along side then dredging barge, lashed the tug and silt barge to it. The big 5 cubic yard jaw shovel sat on the dredges deck the crew it seemed had broken for lunch. I sat in my car, made sure that I had an extra roll of film in my pocket then settled back to wait till the crew was done lunch then could get the shots of the dredge in action....pt 2 to follow....thanks for the peek.......