A new Saint will soon be seen working in the harbour with the acquisition by the Falmouth Towage Company of the tug Hallgarth from Switzer Towage.

Hallgarth will be named St Piran in the near future to become the latest Saint in the Towage Company's long history. She inherits the name from the former St Piran which left the port in 2007 destined for Malta to tow floating tuna cages each 50 metres in diameter and containing 250 tonnes of tuna from Libya to Malta.

St Piran came to the port in May 1984 as the Dalegarth and played a major role in manoeuvring vessels around the docks. For a majority of her time in the port she was under the command of Maurice Fuller.

The 30-year-old tug Hallgarth, built on the Clyde in 1979, is a twin Voith-Schneider type with multi-directional rudders making her a very manoeuvrable. When launched she had a bollard pull of 23.5 tons although on test at the docks some weeks ago she achieved 20.5 tons.

Hallgarth arrived in the port in April for evaluation by the tug crews and pilots. Since then she worked on a number of towing jobs to the satisfaction of all parties.

Falmouth Towage has promoted two new tug masters. Alan Jones who joined the company as a deck boy in the 1960s takes command of the Percuil and John Devine goes to the Ankorva.

Senior tug master David Hughes has been assigned to the new St Piran.