Tugs SEAWAY and WRESTLER assist the Shell tanker ARIANTA into berth at Ardrossan Harbour

Captain Docherty had brought the tug WRESTLER from Greenock to assist in docking the all-aft Shell tanker ARIANTA at Ardrossan Harbour and WRESTLER put her tow line onto the tanker in the Ardrossan roadstead
Tug SEAWAY at the bow and tug WRESTLER at the stern assisted the tanker bow-first from the roadstead into the berth 12 at Montgomerie Pier

Tug WRESTLER is released by Shell tanker ARIANTA and leaves Ardrossan and returns to Greenock

Captain Docherty had brought the tug WRESTLER from Greenock to assist in docking the all-aft Shell tanker ARIANTA at Ardrossan Harbour and WRESTLER put her tow line onto the tanker in the Ardrossan roadstead
Tug SEAWAY at the bow and tug WRESTLER at the stern assisted the tanker bow-first from the roadstead into the berth 12 at Montgomerie Pier

Now at 0430, with the tanker fast alongside, the Ardrossan Pilot released WRESTLER and the tug departed Ardrossan to return to Greenock

Tug SEAWAY assists Greek cargo ship DESPOINA to leave Ardrossan Harbour

Tugs SEAWAY and STRONGBOW assist the Greek cargo ship DESPOINA from Eglinton Dock, Ardrossan Harbour to the roadstead

Greek cargo ship DESPOINA departs Ardrossan for Pepel (Sierra Leone, West Africa)

Tugs SEAWAY and WRESTLER assisted DESPOINA from Ardrossan roadstead into the berth in Ardrossan Harbour. It was a very tight squeeze for DESPOINA whose beam was 16.5 metres / 54 feet to pass through the dock gates into Eglinton Dock, the entrance being only 17.68 metres / 58 feet, so there was only 0.5 metre / 2 feet clearance on each side for the ship to go through.

DESPOINA would load about 4,500 tons of Railway rails, sleepers and associated material, destined for the construction of a new railway in Sierra Leone, West Africa

Tugs SEAWAY and STRONGBOW assist DESPOINA from Eglinton Dock, Ardrossan to the roadstead off Ardrossan Harbour.

DESPOINA then departed on her passage down the Irish Sea and across the Bay of Biscay to Pepel, a port on the Atlantic seaboard of Sierra Leone, West Africa

Encyclopaedia Britannica describes :
Pepel, town, Atlantic seaport, western Sierra Leone, on Pepel Island, near the mouth of the Sierra Leone River (an estuary formed by the Rokel River and Port Loko Creek). Beginning in 1933 it exported iron ore brought by rail from the Sierra Leone Development Company’s mines at Marampa, 41 miles (66 km) east-northeast. Until iron-ore mining was suspended in 1975, Pepel, the nation’s only iron-ore port, had an annual turnover of 2–3 million tons of ore. Only Pepel and the port of Freetown have docking facilities. The local Temne population is also engaged in fishing and rice farming. Pop. (latest est.) 6,469.

Coastal tar carrier PALM arrrives at Ardrossan to load a cargo of tar for Belfast

Clyde puffer BOER leaves Ardrossan Harbour on her way to Troon

William Sloan's coaster DEVERON brings a general cargo from Belfast to Ardrossan