Fugro Saltire photographed during her visit to LIverpool Docks on 10 March 2014. 

This time she was berthed with her stern to the road allowing me to take a photograph of her rear superstructure, deck and associated equipment.

Veteran General Cargo Ship Arbalist photographed at sea near Piraeus on 5 June 2012. 
 
The picture was taken from the stern of the Serenade of the Seas where after a full day ashore we were sat having a drink watching the Greek mainland gradually disappear over the horizon as we sailed to Santorini.

She was built in 1983 by Hakata Zosen in Japan as Yard Number 280 and is 114.65m long with an 18.2m beam and 7.67m draught. Over the years she has had a number of names including Twinflower (until 1993), Seng Wei (Until 1998), Assets Venture (Until 2003) and Kardaran Star (Until 2007).

GT = 6,788, NT = 2,982 and DWT 11,234

Propulsion consists of a MAN B&W 6L35MC engine driving a single four bladed fixed pitch propeller giving a top speed of 12 knots.

Currently I believe she is owned and operated by Successors Shipping which is based in Athens.

MMSI -375793000
REG -VC, Kingstown
IMO - 8301230
Call Sign - J8B3636
General Cargo Ship
Built -Hakata Zosen, Hakata, JP
Yard No - 280
L 114.65m W 18.2m
GT - 6788
Year - 1983
Piraeus, 5 June 2012

Bulk Carrier Oceanking photographed on a fine and sunny March day in Liverpool Docks.

She arrived in Liverpool after visiting Antwerp and Avonmouth and luckily for me was in one of the better berths for photography.

She was built by Namura in Imabari Japan as Yard Number 939 in 1995 and is 185m long with a 30m beam and 11m draught. The vessel is powered by a B&W C4X30T engine.

Until early January 2010 she was called Sanko Rose and part of the Sanko Line fleet before being sold with sister ships Sanko Reliance and Sanko Rejoice to Greek owners in 2010 for $14.3m and renamed Oceanking.

GT = 25676, NT 13991 & DWT 42529

At the moment she appears to be owned by Glitsa Maritime Co. and operated by Oceanstar Management.

As Sanko Rose on the 22 July 2000 whilst in the Malacca Straits she was attacked by seven pirates in a white speedboat whilst the ship was underway. Using a hook on a bamboo pole they attempted to board but the alarm was raised and the crew mustered on deck and prevented the pirates gaining access to the ship.

MMSI - 636010270
REG - LR, Monrovia
IMO - 9074834
Call Sign - ELRY9
Bulk Carrier
Built - Namura, Imabari, JP
Yard No. -  939
L 185m x 30m
GT - 25676
Built -1995
Liverpool, 11 March 2014

Type 45 Destroyer HMS Dragon (D35) photographed in Liverpool late afternoon on the 11 March 2014. Unfortunately she was not open to the public but did host a number of private events during a four day visit to the City.

I did not know that she was visiting the City (her AIS was not turned on although this is not unusual for a Naval vessel) and was surprised to see saw her as I walked to the river front. Luckily I had my camera with me but the light was not great as the sun was quite low in the sky, the picture does however show her angled superstructure to good effect. She was preparing to leave port when I walked past and I believe she left the Mersey shortly after dark.

She is the fourth of her class and was laid down on 19 December 2005, launched on 17 November 2008 and commissioned on 20 April 2012.

Her overall length is 152.4m with a 21.2m beam and 7.4m draught and she is powered by two Rolls-Royce WR-21 Gas Turbine (28,800 shp each ) giving a maximum speed of 29 Knots and a range of 7,000 nm at 18 Knots.

Armament consists of the Sea Viper Missile System and Aster 15 and 30 missiles, 4.5 inch naval gun together with CIWS, miniguns and GPMG's. 

The vessels phased array Sampson radar which has a range of 400 km enables the ship to react to and engage multiple targets. The Aster 15 missiles have a range of 30km and speed of Mach 3 whilst the Aster 30 variant has a range of 100km and with a speed of Mach 4.5 is the ships area Air Defence Missile. The 48 cell SYLVER A50 vertical launcher can be seen between the main gun and bridge. 

In her hanger she has Lynx or Merlin helicopters which can be armed with Sea Skua anti-ship missiles or anti-submarine torpedoes. 

Dragon's 4.5 in / 55 Mk 8 Mod 1 gun is capable of firing 25 rounds/min up to 27,000m in an anti-surface role and 6,000m in an anti-aircraft role.

Dragons 'badge'

The white ensign at the stern.

One of two Raytheon 20mm Phalanx Block 1B Mk15 CIWS Phalanx Block 1B Close In Weapon Systems.

This is the latest upgrade for this weapon and uses a thermal imager Automatic Acquisition Video Tracker (AAVT) and stablilisation system that allow the CIWS to engage small surface targets, slow-moving air targets, and hovering helicopters.

The rate of fire is up to 4500 rounds / min.

This type of weapon was first deployed on the USS America in 1980.

Photograph taken on 31 May 2012 of the Crude Oil Tanker Hermione berthed against the sea wall in the Port of Livorno.

I took this photograph as we were heading out of port en-route to Civitavecchia.

Surprisingly she was only one of three Crude Oil Tankers I saw on my two week cruise around the Mediterranean, the other two were both anchored off shore at  Barcelona and I only saw these as we were sailing into port on the very last day of my holiday.

She was built in China in 2008 by New Century Shipbuilding, Jingjiang as Yard Number 307331 and is 232m long with a 32m beam and 13.2m draught. 

In total she has six tanks (81,320m3 @98%) with a single slop tank (2,027m3).

Powered by a Hyundai MAN B&W 5560 MC-C (11,300 kW) engine the vessel has a service speed of 15 Knots.

DWT = 73,981 & NT 22,444

The vessel is noted as being managed by Searrland Management Services Singapore.

MMSI -636091469
REG - LR, Monrovia
IMO -  9307944
Call Sign -  A8OF4
Crude Oil Tanker
Built - New Century SB Co, Jingjiang, CN
Yard No. - 307331
L 232m W 32m
GT 42010
Year - 2008
Livorno, 31 May 2012

Harbour Street photographed during our visit to the ancient city of Ephesus on
4 June 2012.

Being built near the mouth of the River Cayster it was one of the busiest inland harbours on the Aegean Coast.

Harbour Street is approximatly 500m long and 11m wide and connected the harbour to the city terminating outside the theatre. The street which is finished in fine marble slabs was originally constructed in the 1st Century BC but extensively repaired and widened during the reign of the Emperor Arcadius (AD 395-408).

At both ends of the street once stood triumphant arches each with three gates and along the sides of the road was a portico with a roof supported by columns, this provided a place for pedestrians to walk and afforded some protection from the sun or inclement weather. Behind this portico were shops and other establishments which no doubt made good use of the passing trade on what would have been a very busy road.

According to an inscription found during excavations the road was illuminated at night by 50 lamps. I imagine the shops and other establishments would have stayed open late into the night and the street would have been busy with merchants, sailors, visitors, soldiers and locals enjoying a night out. 
 
The harbour had continual problems with silting up and many times would have been cleared of silt and made navigable until the 4th Century AD when the city was finally cut off from the sea. 

Where there was once a harbour full of ships from all over the known World there are now fields. The road is still there but it no longer links a busy port with a thriving city.

Visiting the City today most people I imagine will remember the theatre and library and the road will be largely forgotten, but it is along this road that goods would have traveled to and from the port and people would have walked into the city after arriving by ship.

The city is well worth a visit, we spent two hours there and I did feel a bit rushed when we were visiting the covered exhibition as we were trapped for a while in a very slow moving queue, three hours would have been better but I do tend to dawdle and try to look at everything. Basically you get dropped off at one end of the city and walk through to a pick up at the other end. At the taxi rank back in Kusadasi some of the drivers were doing deals based on being on the site 1 hour which would be too much of a rush in my opinion. This is no doubt geared to getting as many cruise ship visitors to the site and back they can in a day.

I am heading over to Liverpool in about an hour, checking out AIS for the River Mersey and Docks there are a number of ships I have not seen before but none appear to be in positions where I can get a photograph. 

This is a shame as its looking to be a nice day out there with a clear blue sky and only a few high wispy clouds. It has been nearly two weeks since I last went to Liverpool and I was hoping that the prime photography freindly berths would be occupied but sadly this is not the case. Typical!

I have noticed that I am getting quite a few visitors to my site from Brazil. Why I have no idea, this only seemed to have started a few weeks ago, before this I only got the occassional visitor from this part of the World. If anyone knows why this is the case I would be interested to know.

One thing I like to do is look at the towns and cities where people live that visit  my site. My site has been on line for a year now and I still think its amazing that people from all over the World have looked at my photographs. 

Container vessel Charlotte Borchard photographed in Salerno on 8 June 2012. 

She entered port in the late afternoon taking the berth vacated by Ibrahim Dede before unloading / loading and leaving port in just a few hours. I think that the photograph above is one of my better pictures, I seem to have the angle just right and the sun was on the right side for once. 

Built by Sietas in Neuenfelde, Germany in 2004 as Yard Number 1142 she is 134m long with a 22.5m beam and 8.70m maximum draught.

Maximum TEU = 868.

Powered by a MAK 9M43 (8,400kW) engine she has a maximum speed of 18.5 Knots.

GT = 9962, NT = DWT = 11,200, NT = 14,278.

The vessel has had a number of names in the past including Ruth Borchard (2006 & 2009) and Allegro (2007).

She is operated by Borchard Lines and is one of 10 dedicated container vessels in the fleet. The Borchard Group operates throughout Europe and the Mediterranean and has been operating since 1933. 

Borchard Lines is a British company and operate weekly container services with fixed day sailings from Northern Europe throughout the Mediterranean.

MMSI - 304642000
REG - AG, St.Johns
IMO - 9246554
Call Sign -V2CQ5
Container Ship
Built - Sietas, Neuenfelde, DE
Yard No. - 1142
L 134m W 22.5m
GT 9962
Year - 2004
Salerno, 8 June 2012

HMS Pursuer pictured 24 May 2013 in the Albert Dock, Liverpool as  she and other naval vessels were preparing for the Battle Of The Atlantic celebrations.

She is an Archer Class P2000 patrol and training vessel having a displacement of 54 tonnes with a length of 20.8m, 5.8m beam and 2.2m draught.

She is powered by Rolls Royce M800T diesel engines giving a top speed of 16 knots.

Until 2010 she was part of the Royal Navy Cyprus Squadron (RNCS), formed in
February 2003 in support of Operation Telic, the U.S. led invasion of Iraq.

Ibrahim Dede photographed in Salerno on 8 June 2012.

I took the top photograph as we entered the port early in the morning, the other pictures were taken late afternoon after we had returned to the ship after a trip to Pompeii. As usual we took a taxi to Pompeii which was quite a bit cheaper and more flexible than using the service offered by the ship, we got back just after midday and had lunch onboard. We then took a free courtesy bus into Salerno itself and had a walk around for a while before getting back in time for the final part of our trip back to Barcelona.

The port was relatively busy and I saw a number of vehicles carriers, tugs and ferries, there were also a number of fishing vessles which made it to my list as they have IMO numbers, unfortunately I saw these from the courtesy bus on the way into Salerno so could not take any pictures.

Getting back to the photographs..Ibrahim Dede is a single decked, gearless container vessel with five groups of container bays. 

She is operated by Turkon Transportation & Shipping and built  by Sedef Gemi Endustrisi in Tuzla, Turkey as Yard Number 153 in 2008. Overall length is 182.85m with a 28m breadth and 10m draught.

She is powered by a B&W 13,280kW engine which a single propeller giving a cruising speed of 19.5 Knots and range of 17,500nm. There are two thrusters located at the bow and aft and a semi spade rudder for manoeuvring.

TEU = 1850

GT = 20850, DWT 22,600 & NT 8,600

She is operated by Turkon Transportation and Shipping which was established in 1997 with a scheduled service between Turkey and the United States, Turkon now operates services to Turkey, Israel, other Mediterranean ports and North
America.

The vessel was designed by Istanbul based Company Delta Marine
which was founded in 1996 by a group of naval architects

The vehicles carrier in the background is Grande Europa.

MMSI - 538090373
REG - MH, Majuro
IMO - 9365843
Call Sign - V7QW6
Container Ship
Built - Sedef Gemi Endustrisi, Tuzla, TR
Yard No. - 153
L 182.85m W 28m
GT 21092
Year - 2008
Salerno, 8 June  2012