Bon Accord

Ah that perennial chestnut being peddled by Stuart Ballantyne tht Catmarans are the answer/will cure cancer/bring about world peace etc. He just so happens to own a company which designs and builds them and it is that company's designs he's pushing. No conflict of interest there at all of course....

I spy a solitary PONL box amongst all the Maersk examples, nearly 20 years after their demise.

The bottle did break, it just didn't smash into a hundred pieces. It was also full of whisky rather than champagne, so no foam etc.

I should imagine so, she's only been fitted with air brakes at the latest overhaul. Still rather baffled why they're going for Express Blue livery however.

Today marks the eightieth anniversary of the sinking of a ship few if anyone shall have heard of: the P&O cargo ship BEHAR. She was built in 1943 by P&O to replace a war loss of the same name which had herself been sunk in 1940. BEHAR was less than a year old and on the return leg of a voyage to India and Australia with approximately 110 persons onboard (both crew and passengers) when she was attacked by the Japanese cruisers TONE, CHIKUMA and AOBA, these vessels making up what was later known as "the Indian Ocean raid". BEHAR's Master refused to stop when ordered and transmitted the "RRR" code to signify he was being attacked by surface raiders. Eventually shelled into submission with the loss of about three of her crew, the vessel was abandoned with over 100 survivors picked up by the cruiser TONE. Admiral Sakonju - in command of the Japanese ships - sent a message of rebuke to Captain Mayuzumi of TONE, admonishing him for not capturing BEHAR and also for rescuing survivors. In consequence he ordered that they all be killed. The Captain of TONE protested this order on a number of occasions both via radio and in person, but his protests were ignored. On 15th March the Japanese vessels reached Tanjung Priok where 36 survivors (including four of the fourteen officers, two female passengers and anyone else deemed to be of "value") were transferred to AOBA, with the remainder of the crew - some 69 men - staying onboard TONE. The three ships sailed again for Singapore on the 18th March and that night all 69 prisoners onboard TONE were murdered; all were beheaded on the fore deck of the cruiser by that vessel's officers. The 36 survivors aboard AOBA were later landed ashore and after transfer to various prison camps all survived the war. Admiral Sakonju was later prosecuted by the Allies for war crimes and hanged in 1948. Captain Mayuzumi was give a 7 year sentence, in part due to his attempts to prevent the massacre. The Imperial War Museum records that 69 men were murdered onboard TONE, however some dispute between the various records that remain indicate that this may be the lower end of the scale and the number in reality was nearer 100. The actual crew lists were of course lost when BEHAR sank. The attached grainy picture is very likely the only one in existence of BEHAR, due to wartime restrictions and her short lifespan.

Maintenance dredger. The for'd funnel is for all the dredging machinery. The concept goes back many decades and Lobnitz on the Clyde (which specialised in such craft) built a number of steam dredgers with the funnel forward.

It's ok assuming the ballast water has either been treated to kill all the wee beasties or if it's "deep ocean fill", i.e. it's from open water at least 200 miles from land with a depth of at least 200 metres. Ships unable to treat their ballast water will usually exchange it for "clean" water mid ocean.

Who didn't see this coming... https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/hms-queen-elizabeth-heading-to-scottland-for-repairs/

Good damage control and the manpower to implement it is still a requirement for when the RN manage to get themselves into deep trouble all on their own, e.g. Ambush, Endurance, Superb, Trafalgar, Nottingham, Campbeltown, Grafton, Southampton...

Only noticed today, but from pictures of POW's departure on exercise she does not have any Phalanx CIWS fitted. Now 20 years ago the RN/RFA was 'robbing Peter to pay Paul' as there wasn't enough Phalanx to go around, especially after a load of were pinched, bolted down to a flatbed artic and used for base defence in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, all these years on and with a corresponding huge reduction in the fleet of operational vessels it's rather unforgivable and really quite embarrassing that one of our two most expensive and high profile naval assets is heading to sea with only small arms available for self defence.

RNVR were those recruited into the RN who had no seagoing experience at all. RNR were either ex full time RN or Merchant Seamen. Both sets of reserves were amalgamated in the 1950s, however there remains distinct "lists" of officers dependant on whether they're ex RN, Merchant Seamen or whether they're volunteers who don't fall into either category (which is most of them).

I was delighted that a preservation era Maude was produced simply because that era alone holds many happy memories for me. The livery itself isn't modern per se. A few post rebuild C/J36 did carry lined NB black as per Maude and there is photographic evidence to prove it. Not all were fitted with air brakes either.

As I remember the Hunt class are twin screw fixed pitch props running from medium speed diesels through a gearbox with ahead/astern clutches. The engines, gearboxes, control systems etc were all fitted new to Chiddingfold in 2012. Therefore with an unresponsive control system, i.e. jammed one way, there should be three ways to save the day in order of increasing desperation: 1) Emergency (backup) controls either on the bridge, in the ECR or locally at the gearboxes. 2) Emergency declutch the shafts from the gearbox, this can usually be done both on the bridge and in the engine room. 3) Emergency stop of main engines, again both on the bridge and in the E/R. Those ships are fitted with a bowthruster, so if options 2 or 3 are used and you lose the main engines you can still steer partially with the thruster when going astern. Plus there's always the anchor to put out. It'll be interesting to hear just how this all happened as if it's pure mechanical failure of some description then options 1-3 should be the automatic fallback for those on the bridge and engine room.

A peaceful day in the western Gulf of Aden. Not taken today, but in fact 15 years ago (August 2009) at the height of the Somali piracy episode. This GPMG and it's siblings were there to deter the natives in small boats with an AK/RPG, plus of course those with a more vicious ideological motive. The warship escorting us was the German frigate Bremen, this not long after the security corridors had been set up and various countries and organisations (e.g. the EU) set up regular patrols in the area. Many countries made a point of escorting their own flag merchant ships through the corridor, however the UK determinably was not one of them despite always having ships in the area.

The big passenger ships of the day all had massive cargo capacity as that's where the real money was made. For example, the P&O/Orient ships such as Arcadia/Oronsay had cargo capacities of circa 8-10000m3, whilst the likes of Rangitane (NZSCo) and Dominion Monarch (Shaw Savill) had cargo capacities of approx 18000m3. Those ships also had passenger capacities of anywhere from 400 odd (Rangitane) to over 1300 (Arcadia). The cargo ships of the companies mentioned steamed out there more or less directly and weren't as slow as many would perhaps assume, even 70 years ago. Those cargo ships engaged in "liner trades" were generally reasonably fast compared to contemporary merchant ships of the time. Most of those ships that went to NZ had significant refrigerated capacity for the perishable items (foodstuffs) that were brought home, accordingly speed was key to making sure as much of it got here in as good condition as possible.