SHE’S a national treasure and almost 90 years old.

The tender tug Calshot is considered so important she’s listed in the core collection of the National Register of Historic Vessels, alongside shipping heavyweights such as HMS Victory, SS Great Britain and HMS Belfast.

Among the numerous liners Calshot attended were Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary, United States, Mauretania, Normandie, Statendam and Nieuw Amsterdam.

Since being launched on November 4, 1929, her vast and varied career took her from the Solent to Ireland and back again.

Calshot doubled up as a ferry in the 1930s, working the Red Funnel route from Southampton to Ryde during the busy summers.

She was then requisitioned in 1940 for Admiralty service, sailing to Scapa Flow to tender Royal Navy vessels.

Just two years later and she was on the Clyde, working as a tender to Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth who were both on trooping duties, before returning to Southampton in May 1944 to prepare for the D-Day invasion in Europe.

After the war, Calshot underwent a major refit before returning to civilian work where she spent the following 20 years working ceaselessly up and down Southampton Water and the Solent.

An Irish operator purchased the vessel in 1964, tendering before becoming a ferry between Galway and the Aran Islands.

In the early 1970s she was sold once more and renamed Galway Bay.

For the 16 months after, the tug carried thousands of passengers from Galaway to Kilronan.

She hadn’t been regularly maintained during this period, so by the time Southampton City Council bought her back in 1986 as a centrepiece for a proposed maritime museum, she was in disrepair.

The plans for the museum failed to come to fruition and so Calshot changed hands once again – this time by the Tug Tender Calshot Trust who were keen to restore the tug to her original glory.

She was due to be on display at the Aeronautica Museum in Trafalgar Docks before Associated British Ports withdrew the location for the museum in 2012 because of the relocation of the Red Funnel ferry services.

In January this year the tug’s future was reported to be in jeopardy.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency declared the vessel unseaworthy and it was estimated that £400,000 in repairs would be needed.