Henry Scarr began his career in shipbuilding working with his brother Joseph in a yard at Beverley on the River Hull.

It was fitted with a 200 ihp steam engine, and was still operational in 1921, when it became one of the first tugs owned by the newly formed United Towing Company.

It became the first seagoing ship to reach Leeds on the newly enlarged Aire and Calder Navigation, after having travelled to Cornwall to pick up 100 tons of china clay from the port of Fowey.

It reached Leeds in August 1901, after a difficult passage along the navigation, caused by the fact that its draught was at the extreme limit of the designed depth of the canal, and that its funnel and mast were too tall to fit under most of the bridges, requiring them to be lowered many times.

[3] The yard built a variety of ships, including steel sloops, such as Kate, which had works number S.164 and was launched on 22 February 1906.

[3] Not all of the ships remained in their original state, for S.315 Eleanor B, launched on 6 October 1923, was built as a Sheffield-sized sailing keel, but the masts were removed in 1946, and a 40 bhp (30 kW) diesel engine was fitted.

Motorman, which was a twin-screw tug, fitted with two Gardner diesel engines, each developing 78 bhp (58 kW),[4] was used to transfer railway carriages from Carlton near Nottingham on the River Trent to Hull in 1927.

Each had a 9 ft (2.7 m) draught, and in 1982, both were bought by Waddingtons, a carrying company based at Swinton, South Yorkshire on the River Don Navigation.

[6] In 1932, Richard Dunston's shipyard at Thorne on the Stainforth and Keadby Canal was no longer adequate, and so he bought out Scarr's yard, where larger ships could be launched.