The shipping topic

[DerangedCrackhead]

This container ship caught my attention the other day, as I believed that the docks it's moored at were already out of service, sand hence it was kind of surpring to see there a vessel this size there.

There used to be significant activity until few years ago when the company operating these docks as well as the plant on the back ceased or, at least, decreased activity and moved to the exterior port (keep in mind, this is located nearly 7 km upriver , the further merchant ships reach these days). The whole area has been eventually dismantled during the last few years. There used to be at least a second crane, a floating Ro-Ro ramp which I think has been gone a little longer and some kind of bulk conveyor terminal.

During my first high school year I would see the ships being loaded and unloaded from my classroom. Green dump trucks filled with scrap metal were common in the area, you would know where they were heading.

Moored a bit further there are a bunch of barges. As there are shipbreakers on a nearby tributtary, I thought they were lined up for scrap or even abandoned, considering the time they have been moored there and the poor condition they seem in. After further research, they are seemingly awaing for the works on the nearby channel, currently on hold, to be resumed.

On another point, do any of you guys use Marine Traffic, Vessel finder or any similar vessel tracking program?

[Aqua]

Yep, I use Marine Traffic.

[DerangedCrackhead]

I currently have VesselFinder on my phone, basically because it's free and it gets the basic job done, with the obvious limitations of being a free version of the app. I was considering purchasing the Marine Traffic app though, so I was wondering which of them is more complete and worth paying the money for the full version. Guess I will go with the second.

On a different note, and proving that the suggestion on my previous post that asumed that these docks were already out of service was wrong, I took these pictures of the Russian general cargo vessel Suna a couple days ago, moored at the same spot my previous pictures showed. There can see the Endeavor, covered on my previous post, moored behind. While the Suna has already departed and it's, according to MarineTraffic, on its way to Rotterdam, the Endeavor hasn't moved from these docks yet.

Curiously, older pictures of the Suna found on the net show that it previously had the name and stuff written in cyrillic instead of latin script like it currently has. The ship seems in significantly better condition than in older pictures used to be too.

They were unloading some sort of greyish granular material, perhaps fertiliziler, which emited bad smells that could be smelled from the other side of the river.

[MindCorrupt]

Few more from work

 

[Eram]

My "office" :

 

With this next one, anyone should easily find out where it is... :

 

May the good wind, always blow astern of you.

[Eram]

https://youtu.be/uW-522M7UbQ

[DerangedCrackhead]

Holy sh*t! Maybe it's the rusty appearance or the rather messy looking display of the cargo but for a second it seemed that that thing was going to flip. Definitely never seen like that... I guess ot works by ballast tanks. Is it towed or something?

 

Few captures from the last months.

 

 

 

 

The recently launched cable layer Living Stone, with this trendy deck design, in the Sestao shipyards.

 

 

 

 

Nord Pollux bulk carrier, leaving the port of Santander back in September.

 

I will be starting a logistics degree this year, guess I might end up working at the local port. Hopefully not too much office work, though it's very likely it will be so.

Edited January 1, 2017 by DerangedCrackhead

[CaptainDaniel23]

I love classical Liners.

1.HMHS BRITANNIC

2.RMS QUEEN MARY

3.RMS QUEEN ELIZABETH

4.RMS AQUITANIA

5.RMS MAURETANIA

6.RMS TITANIC.

 

 

[Eram]

What about the "Lusitania"?

[CaptainDaniel23]

What about the "Lusitania"?

Love her too. lol

[russeler97]

So our ferry crashed into the pier last week...

 

"The Wendy Ann was busy assisting the Ben. She was blown aground in the outer harbour whilst berthing due to a very low tide. We were booked to assist the berthing but the wind ,which was forecast east to north east 6 to 7, occasionally 8 in the south Irish Sea, suddenly freshened as the ship was making her approach, and beyond the point where the master could abort, and was gusting 45 knots. We were unable to prevent the ship going aground on soft mud and we also got aground for a time, but only on soft mud. We eventually got off the mud and with some difficulty got a line from forward on the ship and the master was able to work his engines and thruster and with us pulling as well the ship came off. In the video footage you can see her clipping the gangway platform which was fairly badly damaged as was a section if the rails on the ship. At this point we were pulling hard on the port bow and could not see what was going on the starboard side and the ship was making a stern board towards the berth, still with a very strong wind pushing her onto the berth. The master of the Ben did a magnificent job getting her alongside at all in those conditions, it never dropped below 40 knots the whole time. A diving inspection confirmed that there was no underwater damage and the ship was back in service in 24 hours. As you can imagine, there are all sorts of armchair experts on local web sites criticising the steam packet, the master, crew etc, none of these 'experts' have ever been to sea for a living or tried to dock a ferry in desperate conditions, or for that matter trying to assist in an elderly single screw tug."

 

Video of the incident:

 

Edited February 19, 2017 by russeler97

[Eram]