ANTIQUES Roadshow expert Paul Atterbury has become patron for Britain's last steam tug tender, currently undergoing restoration on Merseyside.

He described the project to save the SS Daniel Adamson, in Liverpool, as “Britain’s most important maritime conservation project”.

The tug-tender was built in 1903 at Tranmere for Mersey ferry and towing duties.

Latterly the Manchester Ship Canal directors’ inspection vessel, it is now being restored in Sandon Dock for public excursions.

Dr Paul Atterbury, an expert for 20 years on the popular BBC antiques series, is a life-long maritime history buff and a vice-president of the Waterways Trust.

On the Antiques Roadshow, he specialises in 19th and 20th-century art and design.

His other TV and radio work included a BBC4 series on ocean liners.

A prolific writer and lecturer, he has been an exhibition curator with the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

Dr Atterbury describes the Daniel Adamson’s restoration as a very exciting project and is thrilled about the ship’s unusual art deco-style, and double-deck passenger saloon.

He said: “I am delighted to be involved with the Daniel Adamson, a project that brings together three of my great interests: steam power, maritime and waterway history and art deco, the design style of the 1920s and 1930s .

“No surviving vessel can better express both the vitality of the canal age and the stylish elegance of the 1930s ocean liner.

“For this reason, the restoration of the Daniel Adamson is for me Britain's most important maritime conservation project.”