| Meeting Report March 2008 |
At our meeting on Monday March 3rd Roland Whaite showed us a large selection of slides taken by himself and others of shipping in the waters around Greece. Roland became �hooked� on ships following a visit to Southampton at an early age and saw the last remaining four-funnel liner AQUITANIA. His interest in Greece started with a cruise around the islands aboard the converted Fairmile MTB, SMALL WORLD 1. Since 1971 he has made at least 15 return visits. Ship photography, Roland explained, was and is not always easy or advised as the Greek authorities believed that anyone taking photographs of ships or ports is either a Turkish spy or a terrorist! Finding ships histories is not always easy due to the transliteration of Greek into English. Greece has at least 70 islands served by ferries and Roland did an exceptional job in showing a large number of these. The show however was by no means restricted to ferries, with a good selection of other vessels; coastal traders, tankers, tugs and cruise ships. At times there was almost a quiz atmosphere, identifying the large number of ex northern European ferries that work or had worked in the area. We spotted several VIKINGs, and Belgian Line vessels and the local Harwich / Hook ST GEORGE. Other second hand ships came from the Antipodes. It seemed that when all these ferries had reached the end of their life in the Mediterranean they were sold on to China and Indonesia (if they hadn�t foundered, caught fire or been laid up). Starting in Corfu with cruise ship visitors and ferries to mainland Greece and across the Ionian Sea to Brindisi, we moved around the islands taking in as many as possible. These included Patras, Kefalonia, Volos, Samos Patmos, Rhodes, Crete, Cyclades and Roland�s very favourite island Naxos. Mainland visits were also made to Thessalonica, the Corinth Canal and to Athens (Piraeus) where we saw pictures of the trots of laid up vessels. We thank Roland for taking the time to visit us and imparting his vast knowledge of the ships that have and continue to sail in Greek waters. |
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| Map of Greece and some of it's 70 Islands |