Crew Transfer Photography – Tug Operations at Chatham

Aerial photography of a workboat crew transfer at first light on the Medway: a Damen Stan tug working onto the dockyard wall at Chatham to put crew ashore.

A crew transfer is one of the most routine things a workboat does, and one of the least photographed. It happens early, it happens fast, and it happens in the few metres between a moving vessel and a fixed wall. This set records a Damen Stan tug — the GPS Arcadia, operated by GPS Marine Contractors — working onto the dockyard wall at Chatham on the River Medway shortly before six in the morning on 17 July 2026. The sequence runs from the approach, through the turn onto the wall, to the tug held under power against the quay while crew step across. The visual interest is in the seamanship. Holding a tug steady against a wall in a tideway means driving continuously onto it, and the wash pattern astern shows exactly how much power is being used to keep the vessel still. Photographed from above, that relationship between vessel, wall and water is legible in a way it simply is not from the bank. Low morning sun on the Medway also does something specific for this kind of work: hard, raking light across the deck picks out fendering, towing gear, deck fittings and the texture of the dockyard wall, while the water stays dark enough to hold detail in the wash. These photographs were made independently as part of our ongoing record of vessels working the Thames and Medway. UAS London was not commissioned in connection with this operation and has no contractual relationship with the vessel's operator. Vessel identification is taken from markings visible in the images. The same tug, working with the GPS Iberia, appears in our aerial record of the final tow of HMS President 1918 later that same day — see the accompanying article for the full sequence.