Tony presented ships seen on some of his recent forays to Europe in search of ships. We were shown some of the coastal ships seen in Norway on a trip to Bergen, but the majority were taken in the Keil Canal and the New Waterway. This included a good mix of all ship types from tugs to container ships and bulk carriers to cruise ships. Ships of note were the 442,000 deadweight ton TI Europe recently purchased from the Hellespont Group, which is one of four unique three million barrel ULCCs.
Nearer home Tony showed us the Zen Hua 6 delivering container cranes to Felixstowe, and in the Thames, at the Tate & Lyle jetty, the John P which was originally the Govan built Lord Byron, and then back to the continent with the ex-ferry now cruise ship Van Gough.
In the second half Ian showed us ships at Tilbury in 1982, the basis for his forthcoming show to be presented to the Swansea branch. These included a lot of old favourites and it was good to see the Alexander tugs again. Visiting ships of Pakistani, Indian, and Russian ownership were particularly prevalent at that time.
It was interesting to note that a large proportion of the ships shown were either still trading or had only gone for scrap in the past couple of years. Notable ships were the Royal Odyssey, ex-Shalom that sank on the way to the breakers, the Almeria Star of 1976, (later renamed Avila Star), and now trading as Ice Bell. Ian ended his show with a sequence of photos of the Russian cruise ship Baltika leaving Tilbury Landing Stage.
Our thanks go to Tony and Ian for presenting a good selection of ship types to please all, and well-researched commentaries to accompany them.