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.

For an example of a passenger ship schedule, see the following link detailing that of Shaw Savill's Southern Cross in 1955.

Depending on the shipping company used, it'd take anywhere between 6-10 weeks. The five main players engaged in the direct Kiwi trade at the time were the New Zealand Shipping Company, Shaw Savill Line, P&O/Orient Line, Port Line and Blue Star Line. The former three operated faster passenger ships which also had significant cargo capacity and which made the run in about 6 weeks, as well as slower cargo vessels which took a few weeks longer, whilst the latter two companies operated cargo ships. There were other British companies involved in the NZ trade, but those were the big five. General cargo (mostly manufactured goods) was the outward bound trade, the return was generally NZ foodstuffs such as apples, lamb, butter etc. Hull wasn't a primary port of departure for NZ, that was usually London, Liverpool or Southampton. Before heading outbound a vessel would call at a number of ports around the UK to load prior to final departure. Voyages were usually direct with only short calls at places like Aden or Curacao for bunkers (fuel) depending on whether the route was westbound or eastbound. Upon arrival in NZ, Auckland and Wellington would be visited first, then the South Island ports in turn, usually 2-3 weeks after Auckland. It normally took about a month to turn the ship around in NZ, i.e. discharge and then back load for home. As is the case today, how long it takes depends on how much a shipper was prepared to pay. Cargo space on the faster passenger ships came at a premium.

This is Chernihiv (M310) exercising in Loch Broom last month, her sister was also in the vicinity.

See a picture in GSWR colours here (embedded link): Lined green it would seem, including brass dome and copper cap chimney. There was a thread about this very engine a decade ago, see here: It would seem ian@stenochs did make a model as per the thread, but the pictures have been lost after various server dramas.

One of the MOD's seemingly endless value for money exercises focused on those ships at around the 10 year anniversary of their introduction. It concluded that of all the PFI's enacted up until that point - government wide - the Foreland project was the only one to deliver a substantially cheaper and far more efficient service - which also substantially exceeded the contracted requirements - than anything the government owned incumbent could provide. Although considering the alternative was the RFA you could argue it was always going to be a massively one sided competition. Ironically when the RFA Sea Centurion/Chieftain etc project was in the process of floundering the RFA decided they didn't want the ships as some high up the food chain felt it beneath them. The net result was that RFA didn't get the investment in ships or manpower and even more importantly they lost one of their reasons for being. Turkeys voting for Christmas etc. Of course the Foreland ships aren't quite straightforward Ro-Ro's in that they're built to MOD specifications which includes their own damage stability requirements (far more compartmentalisation, double hulls etc), strengthened decks for operating with Chinooks, the ability to carry boxes like a box boat via twistlocks in the decks (they can carry 400TEU) and the cranes etc are certified for ammunition handling. They did however have two major drawbacks which were only really identified through operational experience. Firstly their exceptional survivability meant that they were very stiff ships, even with the addition of two huge FLUME tanks and they were very uncomfortable in heavy seas. Rolling through an arc of 60+ degrees was not uncommon although the crews could take comfort from the fact the angle of vanishing stability was some 70 degrees from the vertical! Stabilisers had been considered at the build stage but had been discounted. Secondly their status as cargo ships able to carry a maximum of 12 "passengers" did hinder them operationally and accommodation for say 50 would have made them much more useful, but then that opens a legal can of worms with the passenger ship regs. There have however been a couple of occasions during Op Telic when substantially more persons were carried, but they were one offs and to keep the MCA happy the ships were officially STUFT for the duration and the crews all "called out" to keep things legal. The crews of those ships are all RN reservists as this is a condition of employment.

The other four ships still used by the MOD do occasionally make the trek from Southampton to Brunei and even Diego Garcia a couple of times per year. There's also always one heading to the Falklands (via Ascension) and another on it's way home.

As far as I'm aware amongst the 'heritage' operators only LSL has fitted CDL to their coaches. Everyone else has an exemption, at least for the moment.

Got mine within a few days of ordering. Might be worth chasing BCC in your case.

Another jolly boys outing on Sunday, this time aboard WAVERLEY for her last sail of the season. This was another opportunity for a bunch of old shipmates to meet up, go for a sail and destroy a few brain cells. I took all three photographs as she approached Tighnabruaich on the homeward leg - we'd jumped off there prior to her cruise to the south of Bute - she then called again (as seen) prior to returning to Glasgow via Rothesay, Largs and Greenock. She had a near capacity crowd onboard that day, some 740 odd passengers. Apparently this has been WAVERLEY'S most successful season in some four decades. The brakes going on approaching the pier. Unlike a conventional screw driven vessel, as a paddler WAVERLEY can stop in near her own length. Alongside Tighnabruaich pier for her last call of 2023.

If you think the most recent passport type tickets were bad you should see the new credit card/driving license type. I renewed mine last year and got one of them back. I've resorted to using a magnifying class to read the details on the new cards. They have QR codes on them etc so hopefully the time will come when it'll all be on the card rather than having to carry half a filing cabinet of paper around with you. On the upside you can revalidate electronically now and submit all documents via email, with only a small percentage having to submit all their original bits of paper as a sample. Must say sending my entire working life off in an envelope entrusted to the Royal Mail every five years was always heart in mouth stuff for me. I'm on my third discharge book, alas the newer types are too small for my Tennents Lager book cover. I wonder how many out there still have one of those covers, or the rarer Watneys version?!