Eppleton Hall is a paddlewheel tugboat built in England in 1914. The only remaining intact example of a Tyne-built paddle tug, and one of only two surviving British-built paddle tugs (the other being the former Tees Conservancy Commissioners' vessel, ), she is preserved at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park in San Francisco, California.
History
Eppleton Hall was built in 1914 by Hepple and Company of South Shields, for the Lambton and Hetton Collieries Ltd, She was designed to tow seagoing colliers from sea to wharf side and back, primarily in the River Wear
The tug was operated from 1914 by the Lambton & Hetton Collieries Ltd which, merged with the Joicey Collieries in 1924 to form the Lambton, Hetton & Joicey Collieries Ltd. In November 1945, a little before the collieries themselves were nationalised and vested in the National Coal Board, the towage business was sold to France, Fenwick Tyne and Wear Ltd which, after refurbishment, operated her at Sunderland on the River Wear until 1964.
The plan met with opposition, as the British National Maritime Museum had prior claim to the 1907 built Reliant, as they planned to scrap the hull and preserve one or both of the Side Lever ( or Grasshopper ) engines and perhaps a paddle wheel. It was suggested that a deal could be done, if the SMM were to buy the Eppleton Hall and pay for the cost of fitting out the display for the NMM in exchange for the operable Reliant.
Despite the fact that Eppleton Hall was already in a partially scrapped condition and would have been equally suitable to provide either or both of her two engines, attempts to negotiate with the then NMM Curators Mr. Basil Greenhill and the Viscount Runciman of Doxford collapsed following six months of deliberations on the part of the NMM. The final communication between the two museums was described by Newhall in his book as being "fatuous, uncooperative or downright insulting", as it seemed to suggest that adapting the identical non-running engines from the scrap tug for display in Greenwich would require "massive re-planning", that Reliant could not possibly steam intact from Newcastle to San Francisco, and, by implication, that the San Francisco Maritime Museum could not afford to pay for either venture.
Newhall then attempted to acquire Reliant by subterfuge, leading a team to Seaham to collect the tug pretending to be representatives of the NMM. This attempt apparently failed when the police were called.
The day after this Newhall acquired the remains of the derelict Eppleton Hall from Mr. HW Clayton of Clayton and Davey with the intention of restoring her for return to San Francisco.
Donated by Kortum to the National Park Service in 1979, she is now berthed at Hyde Street Pier, San Francisco. She has been restored to resemble her condition post-War 1946, when refurbished for France Fenwick, Tyne and Wear Ltd.
Present day
Not eligible for grants reserved for US built vessels, the ship is visible from and moored to Hyde Street Pier but is not open to the public for boarding. Despite this it is in a superior condition to , a similar paddle tug built in Scotland in 1931, currently lying at Chatham awaiting funds for restoration, having been sunk in 1994 and then salvaged some years later.
Reliant was dismantled by the National Maritime Museum and sectioned for display in pride of place in the museum's Neptune Hall, where it remained on display until 2005. The tug was then controversially removed and scrapped as a cost reduction exercise, with only a single engine and a sectioned representation of one paddle wheel remaining on display (as had been originally intended back in 1969). Further controversy followed as members of the public complained to have been told that the tug, having been visited by many during its nearly 25 years on display, had been put into 'storage' when this was not the case.