One for the ship/boat buffs

[NewcastleFalcon]

I took a picture the other day of a fishing boat. Not unusual I do like a ship/boat image. The image is not particularly outstanding but no place collecting all things water transport together as a nice subject matter. Until now.

A pair of "O's" to start.

Osprey

Olympic

Neil

[mickthemaverick]

The boat from our Thames cruise at Easter:

MTMO

[Gibbo2286]

Here are a couple form my past, The troopship Empire Ken which took us out to Egypt in 1953 and the Cunard Georgic which we returned on in December 1954 when Nasser insisted 'Brits out!'
Two much different ships, Empire Ken sloshing about with vomit, Georgic commandeered straight off the New York route and still set up and catered for the tourists.

[NewcastleFalcon]

...The troopship Empire Ken which took us out to Egypt in 1953

Interesting stuff Gibbo, you may have already come across this

https://www.shipsnostalgia.com/threads/ ... hich%20was

Empire Ken was a 9,523 GRT passenger ship which was built by Blohm & Voss, Hamburg. Launched in 1928 as Ubena for Deutsche Ost-Afrika Linie. Requisitioned in 1939 by the Kriegsmarine, used as depot ship for the 3rd, 5th and 21st U-Boat Flotillas. Converted in 1945 to hospital ship, participated in the evacuation of Germans from the Baltics. Seized in May 1945 at Travemünde. To MoWT and renamed Empire Ken. Conversion to troop ship completed in December 1945. In collision with HMT Empire Medway in Valletta Harbour, Malta in 1951. Involved in the Suez Canal landings in 1956. In September 1957 scrapping commenced at Dalmuir, Dunbartonshire. Hulk arrived on 16 December 1957 at Troon, Ayrshire for final demolition.

Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Olympic and Titanic Belfast 1912



There is a wealth of information written about the Titanic and its ill-fated maiden voyage. As a prelude to that the timing sailing date of Titanic's maiden voyage would have been earlier and avoided any danger of collision with icebergs en route, were it not for an accident of the Titanic's sister ship Olympic and HMS Hawke through the Solent.

https://www.shipsnostalgia.com/threads/ ... -3.302802/

After removing the Olympic's cargo, temporary repairs were effected and two weeks later she proceeded at slow speed, under her own steam to Belfast for permanent repairs. To speed the repairs, parts were taken from Titanic enabling Olympic to return to Southampton on 23 November 2011. She again sailed for New York on 29 November.

On 24 February 1912 Olympic suffered a further mishap. Homeward bound, off the Grand Banks, she struck an unidentified object and one of the bolt-on port propeller blades was broken off the propeller boss. She limped back to Britain, before again returning on 6 March to Belfast, which at that time had the only dry-dock big enough to take the White Star giants.

The replacement propeller blade was again taken from Titanic. As a result of Olympic's problems Titanic's completion date was delayed. If this had not happened, Titanic would not have struck the iceberg. One side result of Olympic's propeller problem was the production of the only set of photographs to be taken of the two sisters together.

Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Bit more on the Empire Ken in the description provided on Flickr on clicking the image

Empire Ken by TimWebb, on Flickr

Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

This is a nice thing to do at Seahouses. The eponymous Billy Shiels of Billy Shiels Boat Tours fame was on the radio this morning after coming across a Basking Shark doing its enormous stuff off the Northumberland Coast on one of his trips.

Here is what they describe as a Sunset Cruise heading out of the North Sunderland harbour-Seahouses. Yes North Sunderland is nowhere near actual Sunderland, as North Berwick is nowhere near actual Berwick.



Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

This Ship I came across purely by chance in one of those "Look at Life" series of films.

Look at life Report on a river The River Thames 1963

Quite significant for me, as it was a "ship in a bottle" souvenir brought back by Uncle Jim as a souvenir of his "passage to America" aboard the "Pacific Envoy" on his retirement trip to the USA in the 1960's. It had an interesting regular run over to the West Coast of the USA and Canada...I remember Uncle Jim did go through the Panama Canal and visited Los Angeles and San Francisco.

One of the comments from a former crew member.
"It was a fantastic run - as you say mostly whisky but I also recall fancy sports cars, and for some reason cases of Robertson's jam come to mind.. all sorts of stuff. On the return apart from lumber we had oranges and apples." .

Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Ah yes brings to mind and old Bahamian Folk Song, and its popularisation in Pet Sounds


Nassau Harbor After 1877
Albert Bierstadt
, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

and in other song related boats and ships we have this


Edmund Fitzgerald, 1971, 3 of 4 (restored; cropped)
Greenmars, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Neil

[bobins]

^^^^^^^^
I've always thought that Gordon Lightfoot song was exceptionally good and told the story well.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Nimrod down at Amble. In the space of 15 minutes sunshine, hail, thunder and lightning, wind, rain then sunshine again. Fishing Boats also have their Registration Letters and Numbers

Both Osprey and Nimrod have Port of Blyth Registration BH followed by a vessel number.
At the bottom of this article on Registration is a list of all the Registration codes for the Ports of the UK

Not sure if South Shields has much of a fleet now but I like the port's code SSS. There's a bit of a Falcon thing to look out for, see if I can capture a SSS boat with a shutter click.

Spoiler: show

The Fishing industry also has its own registration system which identifies the port of origin of each vessel. It is the law in the United Kingdom (including Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales) as well as some other European countries that commercial fishing boats are registered. Once registered, each boat is issued with a carving and marking note that must be, as the name would suggest, both carved and marked on the vessel.

This process is an official one and requires the boat to be measured by either an approved surveyor or the local coastguard depending upon the overall length of the vessel. The carving and marking note is valid for five years and, if you continue to fish for profit, must be renewed regularly.

Only boats that have been surveyed and conform to the latest (or prevailing if built before 2007) standards for safety and seaworthiness.

All of this compliance comes at a cost to the operators of a vessel but remain an important part of the strict procedures operated by the UK Government to keep standards as high as possible across the industry.

Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Cars with ships/boats
Clemencau Class Aircraft Carrier
Agosta Class Submarine

When car adverts were sillier and tongue in cheek and didn't try to sell either a lifestyle or got too geeky about the mechanical bits and performance.

Aircraft Carrier, by Roux Séguéla Cayzac Goudard Paris for Citroen Visa GTI, 1985



Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

There is a link of some notoriety with Hartlepool from the Citroen Visa Advert. The exact carrier in the advert is not identified but there were only 2 Clemenceau Class Aircraft Carriers, Foch and Clemenceau. When they came to the end of their useful lives both had troublesome disposals.

Ghost Ship Arrives in North-East (Feb 2009)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tees/7877204.stm
A former French aircraft carrier - rejected by India and Egypt as being too toxic to be broken up - has arrived at its final resting place in Teesside. The Clemenceau is to be dismantled and recycled at Graythorp, Hartlepool.
Campaigners say asbestos on board will damage the environment and the health of workers, but the Environment Agency says it has rigorous controls in place. Last year, a local firm won a long legal battle to scrap four former US naval vessels, dubbed "ghost ships". Able UK says the project to dismantle the 32,700-tonne Clemenceau is one of the largest of its kind in Europe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clemencea ... ft_carrier

Clemenceau, lead ship of the class, was laid down in 1955, launched in 1957, and commissioned in 1961. She served in numerous roles with the French Navy alongside Foch for 36 years until finally decommissioned in 1997. After the end of her service she became embroiled in controversy over her disposal. She was dismantled and recycled by Able UK at Graythorp on Teesside, England.[7]

Foch followed "le Clem" by about two years in building, and served slightly longer than the lead ship, from 1963 to 2000. She was then transferred to the Brazilian Navy where she continued to serve as São Paulo until 2017. She was sold for scrap to a Turkish firm in 2022, but after plans to scrap her in Turkey fell through because of issues relating to the ship's asbestos pollution, the Brazilian Navy scuttled her in the Atlantic.

Forward flight deck of French carrier c1970s
U.S. Navy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Two for the Canal Boat buffs

One for the Beano readers

Flower power

Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Two for the boat Buffs

Blyth Boat Buff discovers Antarctica viewtopic.php?p=819301#p819301

Blyth's Williams II tall ship

Princess Royal for company next berth

Neil