I've always been interested in ships, large and small. On these pages are a selection of photos i've taken around the UK. If you have any thoughts, opinions etc you may contact me here
OOCL Belgium in the Crosby Channel, Mersey estuary.
| Page 1 |
North Wales - below |
| Page 2 |
River
Mersey and docks, part 1 |
| Page 3 |
River
Mersey and docks, part 2 |
| Page 4 |
River
Mersey and docks, part 3 |
| Page 5 |
River
Mersey and docks, part 4 |
| Page 6 |
Eastham
and the Ship Canal, part 1 |
| Page 7 |
Eastham
and the Ship Canal, part 2 |
| Page 8 |
The
Ship Canal, part 3 |
| Page 9 |
Northern
Ireland |
| Page 10 |
Caledonian
Macbrayne - part 1 |
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Caledonian
MacBrayne - part 2 |
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Scotland
- west coast |
| Page 13 |
Aberdeen,
part 1 |
| Page 14 |
Aberdeen, part 2 |
| Page 15 |
Great
Yarmouth |
| Page 16 |
Felixstowe |
| Page 17 |
England
- south coast |
| Page 18 |
Here
and there in the UK, part 1 |
| Page 19 | Here and there in the UK, part 2 |
North Wales
'Peru' at Llandulas jetty on the North Wales coast. The jetty is still active and limestone is regularly loaded onto small bulk carriers such as this. At one time there more than a dozen such jetties along this coast, this is the last.
Arklow Flair at Llandulas. The ships are loaded via a conveyor belt direct from the quarry. The limestone quarried here has a pinkish colour making it in high demand for prestige products.
Eendracht passing Point of Ayr lighthouse with a cargo of wind turbines for Mostyn, May 2010. The lighthouse had been newly painted to feature in a TV advert for Dulux paints, it could do with another coat now!
At one time Mostyn port on the Dee had a very varied selection of coasters calling but nowadays it concentrates on providing a base for wind farm support vessels. The only exceptions to this are the airbus vessels which call to collect the wings for the A380 plane. The wings are taken to Bordeaux and eventually Toulouse.
In February 2013 things went very wrong when Ciudad de Cadiz was attempting to dock in a gale. The wind took over and the ship ended up on a sandbank where it remained until refloated a few days later.
'Natacha' unloading marble chippings from Italy at Mostyn in March 2003
Commercial shipping on the Dee had ended many years ago but a surprise development saw it revived. Nowadays the wings for the A380 airliner are carried down to Mostyn on a new purpose built barge, the Afon Dyfrdwy. The reason for this is that the wings are too large to be carried by any aeroplane. Here the Afon Dyfrdwy is about to pass under the road bridge at Queensferry. The reason for the barge's low superstructure is obvious in the background!
Nostag 10 high and dry on the beach at Prestatyn in August 2011. The vessel was engaged in laying a cable from the nearby windfarms.
Port Penrhyn near Bangor was originally built to export slate from the quarry of the same name. In recent years it has seen fairly frequent calls by the 'City of Cardiff' unloading sea dredged sand.
A number of fishing boats work out of Port Penrhyn and harvest the local mussel beds. This is Valente.
Stena Superfast X backing onto its berth at Holyhead on its regular sailing from Dublin.
Holyhead now receives regular calls from cruise ships. This is Oceania Marina leaving, its next port of call is Cork.
Page 2: River Mersey