Does anyone know the name of the tugboat that William Holden's character captains in the movie? I don't mean the name of the ship that was used in the movie (that was H.M.T. Restive); I mean what the ship was called in the movie, if it was ever called anything. If it is not mentioned in the movie, perhaps it had a name in the script or the production documents?
shareIt was simply designated W 88........
shareRestive was a rescue tug of the Assurance class, built in 1940. Her pennant (hull number) was W39. She stood in for W88, which was not a pennant # used during World War II.
Captain Van Dam explains that W88 was formerly a Dutch civilian tug that escaped from the Netherlands when the Germans invaded and was impressed into Royal Navy service (much the way Holden's character is yanked out of the Canadian army and made its captain).
This was an historical occurrence that formed the basis of several de Hartog novels. Often such craft would have numbers but not names.