The "Clearway" was a self discharging hopper dredger, built in Aberdeen in 1926. A year later  the vessel came under the ownership of Whitehaven Harbour Commissioners.  The ship served the harbour all its' working career, apart from a requisitioned period in the Clyde during World War II and necessary dry-docking and survey periods on the slipway.

In 1992 the ship was withdrawn from service after the regular cargo imports of phosphate rock ceased.

The triple expansion steam reciprocating engine and water-tube boiler were mothballed by the crew and harbour work force during the summer of 1992.  The commissioners searched for alternative work for the harbour but little commercial trade materialised.

After three hundred years of coal exporting and nearly one hundred years of  trade in phosphates, chemicals, grain, timber, cement no commercial future for the harbour could be seen and the need to maintain the approach channel and depth was no longer required.

In 1997 the disposal of "Clearway" was taken after extensive enquires locally and nationally with a view to preservation societies as a museum piece.

During August 1998 with a nostalgic crowd of towns people and former crew watching with subdued emotion, has the ship was towed silently and majestically from her berth in Queens Dock, through the harbour, out through the new sea lock and onwards down the Cumbrian coast to Millom to be dismantled.

A continuation of this story is the fact that the power plant and some ancillary equipment have been purchased  by a Norwegian preservation society currently renovating the "Oster" a 1908 built fjord steamer. The "Oster" has been under going trails in Bergen, which is truly a testament to engineers and crew who maintain the ship for nearly seventy years.