ST Cervia was built in 1946 as a seagoing tug for use as a fleet auxiliary by Alexandra Hall & Company Ltd[1] of Aberdeen, Scotland.

The reasoning behind the recycling of this old design was due to Britain’s need to quickly replace losses, and because of the government’s rapid rebuilding programme.

Empire Raymond, as the Cervia was originally named, was part of the revised building programme ordered for Operation Overlord, the invasion of Europe on D-Day.

[4] The Cervia was launched from the yard of Alexander Hall and Co. Ltd[5] in Aberdeen, Scotland, on 21 January 1946 and was handed to the Ministry of War Transport.

In 1947 the Empire Raymond[5] name was changed to Cervia after the Italian Adriatic resort where the Watkins family owned a holiday villa.

[6] The name had previously been used on an earlier tug owned by William Watkins which taken part in the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940 returning from there with 230 troops.

During the working life of Cervia the main role that she was deployed in was as a towing and salvage tug between ports in the United Kingdom and mainland Europe.

The subsequent court of enquiry into the case, recorded that the deaths were accidental, and the sinking was caused by the failure of a quick release pin on her towing hook.

With the fledgling museum’s lack of income, List-Brain and Stevens decided that one solution was to put the Cervia back to work in the towing business.

The knock on effect of these decisions gave a welcome boost to the local economy of Ramsgate which saw a resurgence of commercial ship repairing in the harbour.

Nonetheless, ITL saw its business rapidly expand becoming an international operation all thanks to the reliability and hard work of Cervia and her sister tugs.

To meet customer demands, Cervia and Goliath were joined further modern deep sea diesel powered tugs in 1978.

[6] by the 1980s, ITL’s fleet had grown to include the two most powerful tugs in the northern hemisphere and the business was sold off to the Far East.

It was after this time that Cervia fulfilled a different role as a film location in an episode of the BBC comedy series Ripping Yarns called The Curse Of The Claw with Michael Palin.

Cervia became the centre point of the 'Historic Harbour' initiative and was joined by other vessels from the maritime museum's collection and privately owned classic boats.

The East Kent Maritime Trust attempted to put together a joint restoration project for both the Smeaton's Dry Dock and the steam tug "Cervia".

[6] The ST Cervia remains moored in Ramsgate harbour, a rare survivor of steam ship development.

[6] In June 2022, National Historic Ships UK announced that, as sufficient restoration funding was not available, the owner intends to "deconstruct" the tug.