MERCI II

[SAILFIN]

Does anyone have any recollection of the Tees Port Health authority vessel MERCI II she used to be birthed in Middlesbrough dock
cut alongside the customs cutter Speedwell.
Just to update I got the spelling wrong it is MERCIE II.

[Hornbeam]

I might remember her if a photograph becomes available, however I do remember the "Speedwell" and her close connection/ encounter with the "John H Amos" which was worthy of an Ealing Comedy as I watched it all happen whilst I was one of the Engineers on No10 taking Leads on the bearings of her Top Tumbler.

[taximan]

I remember Merci though i do not know any details. She had the look of a large steel built cabin cruiser, about the only other thing I recall was that she had a very small engine in relation to the size of the craft.
The speedwell was well named because she was .....fast

[Hornbeam]

On first impressions you would have thought that with a name like "Speedwell" a Customs Cutter would be a very fast looking narrow gutted speedboat type vessel, not so with the "Speedwell" she loooked more like a little Steel Tug except that she had an 'office' twixt Bridge and Bow a bit like the TCC "Joanetta" except that "Speedwell" did not have a heavy Boiler, Coal Bunkers and associated equipment of a steam job but a Diesel engine. No idea of the make or power output of the Diesel Engine fitted but as Taximan has indicated she was fast and certainly built to take any contact 'sport' when dealing with possible Smugglers vessels depending on their size of course.
The John H was fast and as a motorbike riding Engineer I was always keen to give her ' the Gun' when the opportunity arose usually after we had delivered a Barge to the Reclamation Plant in the then incomplete 'new' Tees Dock and returning to the moorings sans Barge for a job and finish, a quick wash and change ready for home, nobody wants to catch the "M" Bus at the Transporter looking like 'Stig of the Dump'.