Bon Accord

Was very surprised to be sent this link earlier: https://ellermanlines.com/ JRE reborn it would seem? I believe the rights to what was left of the Ellerman trade/name etc went to Hamburg Sud nearly 20 years ago, so I'm curious as to how this fits in. It's notable that the logo is very similar to the final Ellerman lines logo. When with the Andrew Weir Empire I did sail in CITY OF MANCHESTER and CITY OF LONDON (box boats) which both had Ellerman funnels at least - the former also had a 3 cylinder Doxford!

That one is an ex Bank Line "Fish" class, not sure which though. One of this class - Global Mariner ex Ruddbank - was the nearest thing the UK ever came to a national training ship in a similar vein to the US marine schools. She was lost in 2000 on the Orinoco after a collision.

A pity the majority of the crowds seem more interested in capturing the procession on their mobile phones more than anything else.

See attached screenshot. I find it bizarre that eBay has decided to take a stand against these armbands when it otherwise permits all manner of supposedly commemorative drivel/tat/rubbish to be advertised on the website. There are many hundreds if not thousands of mugs, plates, towels etc and all manner of other nonsense being advertised that supposedly "commemorate" her death and which are blatant profiteering, yet seemingly that is somehow more acceptable. Perhaps because the aforementioned tat hasn't had a social media reaction it's therefore ok?

Perhaps not unexpected, but the price is mind boggling. 5 grand?! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185585721166?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=JAjqdRfNQri&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=l3BdnK2wShC&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

I don't recall seeing any in the catalogue, only the four wheel version. Hatton's are however going to produce such vehicles.

Considering the amounts being quoted it'll be our children and grandchildren that will be paying it off.

Possibly St Eustatius or Curacao? Those were the regular bunkering haunts in those parts.

As I remember once bunkered we would then be down to our loaded draft of 22 metres. There then followed a leisurely 6 week steam to California via Bali and Guam - so crossing the equator and the dateline on the same trip - and normally a few weeks alongside in Long Beach. They didn't have the ullage ashore to take the full cargo in one go, so it would be a routine of discharge for a day, stop for a few days, discharge again, stop for a few days and so on. Much shore leave in Long Beach, jollies into LA, upto Malibu, San Francisco and all the tourist stuff including an interesting afternoon taking a behind the scenes tour on the Queen Mary followed by a very boozy meal and cocktails onboard which our local agent had organised for us. Then another 6 week steam back to the Gulf via SIngapore and so on. As tankers go it was a rather pleasant way to spend 5 months, helped of course by having a really good crowd onboard from old man to deck boy. All the same, I only did two more and that was me finished with tankers forever.

The last VLCC I was in was on a regular run and always took bunkers in Fujairah when outbound from the Gulf, this happening once every 3 months or so. We used to take 7000t of HFO in one go, usually from a bunker barge that itself must have been 20000dwt.

Scottish postboxes do not have the EIIR cypher for the reasons you state, they simply have the Scottish crown on them usually with the words Royal Mail underneath. Even back in the wholly different world that was 1952 Elizabeth being proclaimed "the second" caused disquiet in Scotland such that it required intervention from Churchill (PM at the time) to compromise a solution. One of the olive branches given was the establishment of a protocol with regard to future monarchs; that being that if a future monarch was of a different number on both sides of the border then the Scottish number would always be used if it was higher, e.g. a future King James would be proclaimed King James VIII as the previous version was James II of England/James VII of Scotland. Royal Mail did cock up a few years ago and installed an English postbox (with EIIR cypher) in I think Dumbarton, however it was swiftly removed when the error was pointed out. Those 'boxes from previous monarchs do however still have the appropriate royal cypher, e.g. the postbox down the road from me bears "GR V".

Thankfully it would seem Admiralty paper charts shall still be available from third party suppliers which have their own printing presses, which to be fair has been the case for quite a few years now anyway. It's all done under license. I've still never sailed with a proper ECDIS; all these years on and the primary medium for my current ship is still the (rather thinner than they used to be) paper charts. We moved to electronic books, e.g. pilot books, mariners handbook etc the other year and the PC version is actually harder to use and much less convenient than the paper version in my opinion. Of course to many, the likes of me are no more than dinosaurs!

You're actually correct with regards to the common modern attitude to both such systems. Heads buried in screens rather than looking out the window, usually in a fully enclosed wheelhouse, all very quiet beyond the noise of various PC fans and other computer sounds. Then everyone's shocked when a "real world intrusion" occurs...

I wouldn't be enormously surprised if it didn't earn it's keep, nowhere near in fact. A few steaming days at Didcot and the odd jolly to a preserved line for a gala and that's it, in much the same vein as the King, the Saint and likely 4079. If memory serves all three of them were also originally intended to go main line.

You mean in much the same way that many will view a quasi-replica 47XX as "just another Western 2-8-0"?

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This is the one at Bo'ness, as seen this afternoon.

Just received my BR late crest version. Is it just me or have they tweaked the BR green slightly? Compared to that used on the Clan and A2 releases it looks a bit more "right".

I once watched Borgnine being interviewed on "This Morning" and when asked as to his favourite films he mentioned Emperor of the North Pole (the original title on release). Of course the rest of them had never heard of it.

They look to be NB shunt signals. Bo'ness has one in use as an exit signal from the headshunt.

Was wondering myself. I sent them a message enquiring about my order 13 days ago but no response as yet.

My favourite airline for quite some time as a result of a very long sojourn in eastern parts. They were always particularly helpful and attentive to seamen in transit (we of course had special tickets and marked as such on the pax manifest as you'll remember) and the stewardesses would always come around to make sure we knew where and when we'd be connecting onto, make sure your glass was never empty, wake you up on arrival etc. Particularly so when homeward bound, as everyone would usually be very "jolly" before and during the flight after completing the usual 5-6 month trip away at sea. One thing that was a regular feature was that the stewardesses would always hand out packs of SIngapore Airlines playing cards to us, usually when outward bound. The usual type available to the public had the airline logo on the back of the cards, but those handed out to us reprobates had pictures of 52 different stewardesses on the back instead - all in entirely respectful (and fully uniformed) poses I might add. Precious few ship's bars didn't have a few packs of those cards! That was still the case well into the 2000s, although I should imagine it's considered dreadfully sexist now. Regarding health precautions, ever since SARS first made an appearance about 20 years ago Singapore (and HK) were always way ahead of the curve compared to other countries with regard to precautions and prevention, embarrassingly so compared to the UK at least. N.B. For the benefit of the unknowing: Singapore Airlines staff are always immaculately turned out - even more so than is usual in the industry - and their attention to detail, patience and courtesy is from my own personal experience unparalleled.

Welcome back jjb! My most recent visit to Singapore was in 2019 when I managed to enforce a 3 day stopover en route home from Oz for my own interest as it'd been well over a decade since my previous visit. I was expecting changes, however I must say I was gobsmacked to find Clifford Pier had transformed from the somewhat rough and ready ferry terminal it had been to become a posh offshoot of the Fullerton, i.e. what was once the GPO. Presumably jaspers - amongst other undesirables - are no longer a feature! The Penny Black was still where I'd left it, although Muddy Murphys was sort of in the same place but not quite (underneath the Orchard Hotel). I daren't enquire as to Ipanema, the Caveman or indeed Peoples Park!

For much the same reason as ASLEF still stands for "Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen", it's just a name, albeit a historical one. P&O's official name is still the "Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company", or at least what's left of it is after Lord Sterling and his cronies progressively destroyed that great company from the '80s onwards.

Prototype HST, APT complete with motor coach, all under OHLE and a steam era oil tail lamp to round it off!