British India's BULIMBA or BAMORA at Colombo around 1966

30 January 2020.

 e-mail from “Jim the engine” of Morecambe (England)

 I was interested in reading the P & O / British India entry.

   In all my time at sea I never saw any P & O cargo ships, and only once, around 1966, when in Colombo on Brocklebank’s MAGDAPUR or MANGLA, saw one of the small British India ships, possibly BULIMBA, BAMORA or the like, berthing at Colombo.

   The general opinion was they worked on the Australian coast, and since she was maybe only 400 feet long we thought would be too small for regular trips to Colombo.

   But out East there seemed to be the blue hulled Maersk ships everywhere you went.

   Can someone tell where the BULIMBA and the sisters actually worked ?

Cloch Lighthouse on the Firth of Clyde, Scotland

Contributed by Jim Montgomery, Gourock.

    I bought this undated photograph today in the town.

It shows Cloch Lighthouse (near Gourock, Firth of Clyde) ... the lighthouse is now unmanned and is fully automated, although the building was sold and is now someone’s home.

    The image shows the Firth of Clyde as it broadens out at Gourock, with the snow-topped hills of Argyll in the background and one of the red-hulled Western Ferries having left McInroy’s Point, Gourock and making her way towards Hunters Quay on the Argyll side of the Clyde.

   It may be of interest that Hunters Quay is at the Holy Loch, where, for many years, the U.S. Navy Nuclear Submarines had their base and their depot ships PROTEUS, HUNLEY and SIMON LAKE.

Why was Irish Lights Tender IERNE registered in Liverpool ?

Why was Irish Lights Tender IERNE registered in Liverpool ?

 J R of Birkenhead e-mails :

   I read your item about the IERNE, a lights tender owned by the Commissioners of Irish Lights, Dublin, Ireland.  

   Why was she registered in Liverpool and not Dublin ? and what was her eventual fate ?

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Paddle Steamers at Pusser River, Chalna, Bangladesh

Paddle Steamers at Pusser River, Chalna, Bangladesh

E-mail 23 March 2020 from N.L. of Cardiff, Wales

   I was looking at your item on the WAVERLEY which calls herself the “Last seagoing paddle steamer in the World.”

  It reminded me of the last time I was at Chalna (Pusser River, Bangladesh) in early 1980s where there were many largish paddle steamers about 300 feet (100 metres) long chugging around.  

   I never thought of what they were doing, maybe bringing the gangs of workers to the anchorage to load Jute (who remembers the biting Jute Flies) onto the ships, or maybe taking passengers to some place downriver.

   But these were big working paddle steamers.   Does anyone else remember them ?

Fridge (refrigerator) magnet of cruise liner OASIS OF THE SEAS

Fridge (refrigerator) magnet of cruise liner destinations in the Caribbean Sea

Fridge (refrigerator) magnet of Salou (Spain / Espana)

Fridge (refrigerator) magnet of Tighnabruaich (Kyles of Bute, Clyde, Scotland)

Fridge (refrigerator) magnets of Tenerife

Museum static exhibit coaster KYLES at Scottish Maritime Museum, Irvine, Scotland

A busy day in James Watt Dock, Greenock (Scotland, UK)

Tanker MURRAY STAR arrives at Rothesay Dock, Clydebank with oil grades from Kalundborg (Denmark)

All images courtesy of Ally Mackenzie (Facebook profile is Ally Mackenzie)

   This collection of wonderful images, all taken by Ally, shows

the German owned Tanker MURRAY STAR arriving at Rothesay

Dock, Clydebank, Scotland on 21^st April 2020.

   Ally advises that she was carrying a cargo of oil grades

from Kalundborg, Denmark, for discharge at the Tank Farm

at the Dock, and in the Clyde her pilot tug was BATTLER

and her stern tug was AYTON CROSS.

 The first photo shows MURRAY STAR entering the dock stern first

with AYTON CROSS. The second and third images as she is positioned

into the fuel dock.  Photo four shows BATTLER nudging MURRAY STAR

  into the docking position.  Number five is Rothesay Dock with

MURRAY STAR docked. Photo number 6 is BATTLER and AYTON CROSS

heading back to Greenock.  Photo number 7, is Sunset over Rothesay

Dock with MURRAY STAR.

 Often you just see images of tugs … this time, as in Ally’s work,

you can see and feel tugs at work.

Caledonian MacBrayne's CALEDONIAN ISLES in Eglinton Tidal Basin, Ardrossan Harbour

   1200 hours on 23rd April 2020 and Caledonian MacBrayne's

CALEDONIAN ISLES at berth 10 Eglinton Tidal Basin, Ardrossan Harbour.

   In the background is HEBRIDEAN ISLES at berth 16, the Arran berth, and

she is on the Ardrossan to Brodick service. 

   In the Cal-Mac fleet CALEDONIAN ISLES is known as "CALEY ISLES"

and HEBRIDEAN ISLES is known as "HEB ISLES"

Royal Wagenborg's EEBORG arrives in the River Clyde with a cargo of Grain from Ontario, Canada

All images courtesy of Ally Mackenzie (Facebook profile is Ally Mackenzie)

    This collection of absolutely stunning images, all taken by Ally,

shows EEBORG in the River Clyde, Scotland, on 6th May 2020.

   Ally advises that she was carrying a cargo of Grain from Ontario,

Canada, for discharge at Riverside Quay, Shieldhall, Glasgow, and

in the Clyde her pilot tug was AYTON CROSS and the stern tug

ANGLEGARTH.

    The first images show EEBORG passing the Erskine Road

Bridge around 1100 hours, then passing Dalmuir then passing

the massive Clydebank "Titan" crane and the last images show

her arriving about 1200 hours at Shieldhall, berthing with her

head east.

 The final image, artistically and beautifully presented,

shows the enormous head of the giant cantilever crane

beside Diesel Wharf, Whiteinch, Glasgow on the north

bank of the Clyde, this crane being a relic of the long

gone Barclay Curle Shipyard.

.

Elder Dempster / Blue Funnel ship scrapped at Dalmuir (Glasgow) around 1980

e-mail from Tommy Robertson   (Dumbarton)

21 May 2020

Elder Dempster / Blue Funnel ship scrapped at Dalmuir (Glasgow) around 1980

Does anyone know the name of the Alfred Holt Blue Funnel

ship that was scrapped at the Arnott Young yard at Dalmuir. 

  She was definitely a Blue Funnel job but had the Elder

Dempster buff funnel.

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