We try and keep our AGM short and this proved no exception and we handed over the rest of the evening to Ian Wells who showed us Part One of his collection of slides, �Tilbury Shipping 1994�.
1994 was an interesting year at Tilbury as it was a year when PLA policy changed allowing single trip voyages into Tilbury. This meant a greater variety of ships and shipping companies visiting the port. Ian showed us some of these visitors and also some of the regulars. Ian had at this time started keeping voyage details of various bulk carriers and first to be shown was the Unithai that was picking up a consignment of six small ferries.
Also comprehensively covered was the wind assisted bulk carrier Irazu. The wind assistance was only of use on certain journeys in the world but due to a drop in the price of fuel and the high maintenance cost of the computer controlled sails, they were later removed. Another regular shipment to Tilbury is newsprint, which is shipped from Norway, this time in Lys Skog. There were also ships at the cement berth, the scrap berth and the reefer terminal which has now been sold for other use.
We thank Ian for his accomplished commentary and ship research, and we look forward to Part Two in January.