‘Tay Discovery’ pilot boat christened in Scotland

Tay Discovery is now part of a fleet of tugs and work boats operated under the Marine Department as part of Forth Ports, providing towage, emergency response and other services 24 hours a day principally on the Tay and the Forth, two of the UK’s busiest waterways.

The 16.6m pilot vessel was designed by Camarc Design in Scotland and built by Holyhead Marine in Wales, and Forth Ports calls it ’one of the most advanced pilot boats in operation’.

Three generations of vessels named Discovery were in the Forth Ports-owned Dundee Port, the iconic original RRS Discovery, a 125-year-old Royal Research vessel; the current RRS Discovery, and the new pilot boat.

The original RRS Discovery was the vessel that carried Captain Scott and Ernest Shackleton on their first Antarctic expedition and today remains in Dundee, which is also known as ‘the city of discovery’.

Dundee was a major whaling port in the 18th-19th centuries, with many ships sailing from there to the Arctic for whale oil and baleen, the stiff bristly mouth parts of whales that sieve small prey from the water, which was historically used to provide structure for products like umbrellas and corsets.