As part of the scrapping process her wooden afterdeck and interior were destroyed by fire prior to being broken up. The tug remained there for two years, deck frames warped, wood burned or rotted, hull part flooded and engines rusty but intact. Preservation News of the sale of the last steam paddle tug still in service anywhere in the world, the Reliant, reached Karl Kortum, then director of the San Francisco Maritime Museum. Kortum informed museum trustee Scott Newhall, who proceeded to Newcastle to purchase the ship. The plan met with opposition, as the British National Maritime Museum had prior claim to the 1907 built Reliant, as they planned to scrap the hull and preserve one or both of the Side Lever ( or Grasshopper ) engines and perhaps a paddle wheel. It was suggested that a deal could be done, if the SMM were to buy the Eppleton Hall and pay for the cost of fitting out the display for the NMM in exchange for the operable Reliant. Despite the fact that Eppleton Hall was already in a partially scrapped condition and would have been equally suitable to provide either or both of her two engines, attempts to negotiate with the then NMM Curators Mr. Basil Greenhill and the Viscount Runciman of Doxford collapsed following six months of deliberations on the part of the NMM. The final communication between the two museums was described by Newhall in his book as being "fatuous, uncooperative or downright insulting", as it seemed to suggest that adapting the identical non-running engines from the scrap tug for display in Greenwich would require "massive re-planning", that Reliant could not possibly steam intact from Newcastle to San Francisco, and, by implication, that the San Francisco Maritime Museum could not afford to pay for either venture. Newhall then attempted to acquire Reliant by subterfuge, leading a team to Seaham to collect the tug pretending to be representatives of the NMM. This attempt apparently failed when the police were called. The day after this Newhall acquired the remains of the derelict Eppleton Hall from Mr. HW Clayton of Clayton and Davey with the intention of restoring her for return to San Francisco. Rebuilt at Bill Quay, near Hebburn on the river Tyne, during 1969, the tug was modified to enable her to cross the Atlantic Ocean under her own steam, requiring the fitting of modern navigational aids, radio,