I was in Liverpool on 15 & 16 July 2013 and spent my time split between Princes Dock and offices in and around the City centre.

Tuesday was quiet with the only new ship being The World as seen in the picture above (IMO9219331, GT 43188, 2002).

Yesterday was better and although I did not see any new ships on my way into work I did see a number on the river after lunch. These comprised of the arriving Bulk Carrier Maestro Eagle  (IMO 9426879, GT 21000, 2010) and Jack Up Rig JB 114 (IMO 8770728, GT 3621, 2009) which seems to be being used for erecting wind turbines off the North Wales coast. This vessel was admitted into Cammel Lairds basin under assistance from four tugs. Just as I was leaving work I was passed by the Ellesmere Port bound cement carrier Romez (IMO 8102476. GT 837, 1982).

Later this afternoon I am driving up to Scotland and staying overnight in a hotel NE of Glasgow. Thursday following a day of meetings I hope to be on the road home by 5pm. Journey time home is between 4 and 5 hours depending on traffic. On the way past Glasgow I might make a quick stop to see if there are any ships to be seen.

The World

MMSI - 311213000
REG - BS, Nassau
IMO - 9219331
Call Sign -
C6RW4
Passenger Cruise Ship)
Built - Fosen MV, Rissa, NO
Yard No.  -71
L 196m W 30m
GT 43188
Year - 2002
Liverpool, 15 July 2013
 
The World is a private residential community-at-sea where its Residents may travel the globe without ever leaving home. Since it first set sail in 2002, The World has visited over 800 ports in approximately 140 countries. With a continuous worldwide itinerary that enables the vessel to span the globe every two-to-three years, the ship is a complete floating hotel, equipped with high-end facilities and  luxurious amenities that create an intimate, refined atmosphere for Resident owners. 

Knut U. Kloster Jr., the visionary behind The World, grew up in a family that was passionate about life at sea. After many years of working and vacationing on the world’s best yachts and cruise ships, Kloster had a dream to create a way in which travelers never had to get off board. As such, in 1997 he gathered together a team of experienced professionals and began working on the first vessel where people could travel the globe without leaving home. Kloster’s dream was realized in March 2002 when he delivered The World in October 2003.

There are 165 Residences aboard ranging from studios to expansive three-bedroom units and a palatial six-bedroom penthouse suite, which boasts accommodations for up to 12 people.

Facilities on board include a spa and four major restaurants.

A photograph taken on 9 July 2013 of the wall and entrance into Liverpool's Clarence Dock.

Clarence Dock was designed by by Jesse Hartley and opened on 16 September 1830, it was named after William, Duke of Clarence, who later became King William IV.

It was built as a self-contained steamship dock facility. This was for safety reasons to keep steamships and sailing ships separate to avoid the risk of fire spreading to timber sailing vessels which at the time were using the other docks.

The monumental gates are in a Greek Revival style with squared tapering piers on rusticated pitted bases with gabled caps and acroteria architectural ornamentation on the corners of the cappings. 

The wall itself was built in red brick with sandstone copings in the same style as 
John Foster’s 1821 wall around Princes Dock, but dates to between 1836 and 1841 when the docks were extended.

Clarence Dock was also the berth of the Irish ferry ships. During the Irish famine from 1845 to 1852 over 1.3 million Irish men, women and children arrived here and walked out of the docks through the gate shown in the photograph above. Many took a took ship to America from Waterloo Dock, there being no direct sailings to America from Ireland, others moved on to London and other British towns and cities. The small plaque seen to the right of the gate on the photograph above notes this fact.

The dock was in-filled in 1929 and the site was then used for a power station. The three large chimneys of the Clarence Dock Power Station were a familiar local landmark until the site was demolished in the 1990's.

Sea Melody seen unloading in Liverpool docks on 10 June 2013.

She is managed by Torbulk Limited, a Grimsby based Ship Management company who commenced operations in 1986. 

They operate a fleet of vessels capable of carrying between 1500 and 3500 tonnes of dry cargo including hazardous and dangerous goods. Some of the vessels are specially equipped for the self-discharge of bulk materials, including powdered cement. 

The fleet’s primary trading areas are the North Sea, Baltic Sea, Irish Sea and Mediterranean. Torbulk vessels carry in excess of one million tonnes of cargo per annum for a wide range of international organisations. 

MMSI - 314392000
REG -  BB, Bridgetown
IMO -  9006382
Call Sign - 8PAG7
General Cargo Ship
Built -Peene-Werft, Wolgast, DE 
Yard No. - 413
L 90m W 14m
GT 2450
Year - 1994
Liverpool, 10 June 2013 

I have spent the last two days in Liverpool and today after being in the City centre for most of the morning I now find myself in a nice office overlooking Princes Dock.

It is another fantastic hot summers day here in Liverpool today with only a few high clouds although there is a bit of mist/haze on the river. The above picture is of the Liverpool Pilots landing, normally there is at least one of the local Pilot boats moored here but this afternoon they are all busy out in the estuary and beyond. 

Whilst walking down to Princes Dock from the City I saw RFA Wave Ruler head out to sea after a lengthy spell across the river at Cammell Laird. Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me to take a picture of her or the Crude Oil tanker Thornbury who was inbound to Tranmere assisted by three tugs.

Although I have not seen any new ships today (yet) I did see three new ships yesterday these being the Container Ships Sophia (IMO 9433456, GT 7464, 2008) and MSC Sandra (IMO 9203954, GT 43575, 2000) together with the Bulk Carrier Michaela Della Gatta (IMO 9301055, GT 44891, 1995).

Interestingly earlier this year Micaela Della Gatta was bought by her current owners for US$ 17 million after being inspected by numerous potential buyers in Australia, this from reading articles on the internet is considered quite a high price and may represent a new found optimism in the Bulk Cargo market which can only be a good thing.

Although Michaela is still in port MSC Sandra and Sophia have both left, MSC Sandra is currently on route to Montreal whilst Sophia is sailing to Lisbon.

A couple of photographs I took whilst walking along the river front are below.

Broken steps lead down into the Mersey on the main river wall - These do not look like they have been used in a very long time.

The outgoing tide pulls against the 'old' landing stage in the River near Princes Dock - This structure is unsafe and sealed off from public access.

A photograph taken in Piraeus on 5 June 2012 of the research vessel Aegaeo.  

She is certainly one of the larger research vessels I have seen, most of the others are much smaller and many have not had an IMO number so have not made it onto my list. 

The Aegaeo is a multi-purpose research vessel which can carry out a wide variety of survey operations in offshore as well as deep sea locations, including acoustic and oceanographic surveys, buoy handling operations, environmental sampling as well as geological and hydro-graphic surveying. 

She is operated by Eurofleet an EU-Funded project to share resources by creating an alliance of marine research centres across Europe with the aim of improving the quality of marine research. 

The vessel can be equipped with a variety of ROV's as well as manned and un-manned submersibles. She also is fully equipped with a wide range of scientific equipment which can be supplemented by additional mobile equipment if required.

She is also equipped with a main 3.5 ton crane and a variety of other lifting devices.

MMSI - 237529000
REG - GR, Khalkis
IMO - 8412429
Call Sign - SXYY
Research Vessel
Built - Khalkis SY, Khalkis, GR
Yard No. 930
L 61m W 9m
GT - 777
Year - 1985
Piraeus 5 June 2012

Since last Friday the weather has been excellent with almost clear skies each day and temperatures reaching 26 Deg.C.

For the last two days I have been based in Liverpool, yesterday I was close to the river near Tranmere and today I have spent most of my time in an office overlooking the Mersey not far from the Cruise Liner terminal.

Yesterday was not a good day for new ships, I did see the General Cargo Ship Sea Melody (as picture above, IMO 9006382, 2450, 1994) unloading in the main docks on my way into work but having checked her IMO number I have seen her before but under a different name (Marianne K).

Today has been better and I took a couple of photographs of ships entering and leaving the Mersey at lunch which just happened to coincide with high tide.

New ships seen today are the Bulk Carrier Christianna (IMO 9510319, GT43500, 2010) and Chemical / Oil Product Tankers Ayana (IMO 9395991, GT 12137, 20100 and Shannon Star (IMO 9503926, GT 8539, 2010).

Shannon Star was the only out bound ship and was heading to Rotterdam.

Dutch registered General Cargo Ship Alana Evita (IMO 9356529, GT 2281, 2009) seen unloading at Salford docks yesterday.

She was a welcome and rare visitor to the docks, although quite a few ships transit the Manchester Ship Canal as far as Trafford Wharf not many actually make it all the way into the actual old dock complex.

Her cargo appeared to be silos which were being unloaded by a pair of cranes onto waste land adjacent to the Media City complex.

She is powered by a Wartsila 8L20 (1440kW) engine and is one of two vessels owned by De Jonge Maritime, a Dutch company based in Emmer-Compascuum who operate world-wide. 

Alana Evita is named after the daughter of Gerhard and Andrea de Jonge who
are the founders of the company. Alana Evita is currently trading for Royal Wagenborg Shipping in Delfzijl, The Netherlands.

MMSI - 246443000
REG -  NL, Emmen
IMO -  9356529
Call Sign - PBRU
General Cargo Ship
Built - Veka Bijlsma, Lemmer, DE
Yard No. - 754
L 95m W 13m
GT 2281
Year - 2009
Salford 8 June 2013

On Thursday 27 June 2013 the alarm went off at 3am, this is the earliest start I have had in a very long time.

Leaving the house at 3.30am I made rapid progress along empty streets and an almost empty motorway and was parked up outside Manchester Airports Terminal 3 before 4.00am just as the sky was starting to brighten in the East. After checking in and eventually getting through security following a thorough search after setting off the metal detector I was soon tucking into a full English breakfast.

The Picture above is of my plane which is an Embraer ERJ-195LR operated by FlyBe. The flight time was about 75 minutes to Paris Charles de Gaulle and I enjoyed the flight. Unlike some of the larger planes I have been on in recent years where you seem to amble along the runway before slowly climbing into the sky the Embraer rocketed along the tarmac and was soon heading skyward at quite an acute angle before turning South for Paris.

Endless cloud cover over England - Not really unusual but the clouds were pretty much all the way to Paris.

More interesting clouds over France

Estonian Air Canadair CL-600-2D24 Regional Jet parked next to us at Charles de Gaulle's wet and windy Termimal 2E. 

Heading into Paris - Traffic was not good following a series of accidents, the rain had stopped though. The large building on the left is the Stadt de France where I went watching Croatia v France in the 1998 World Cup Semi-Final.

Nearing my destination in Paris's la Defense business district.

One of more than 70 steel and glass buildings in the business district photographed through the glass roof of the taxi.

Another tall building under construction.

Despite the heavy traffic I made the meeting on time at 10am. I took the above photograph before heading inside. 

Heading home on the1550.

View of a town in France.

Approaching the channel just West of Calais at 36000 feet.  Calais was just visible at the end of the arrow head of clouds on the left where they meet the sea. Soon after this the clouds were back and it was only after we were on final approach a mile or so from Manchester Airport that I saw the ground again.

Reached my front door just after 7pm.

MMSI - 305317000
REG -  AG, St.Johns
IMO -  9195913
Call Sign - V2DR7
General Cargo Ship
Built - Damen Galati, Galati, RO
Yard No. - 966
L 105m W 15m
GT 3660
Year - 2002
Liverpool 6 June 2013

General cargo ship Dyckburg photographed in Liverpool on 6 June 2013 where she has been detained since 9 September 2011. 

The vessel was detained in Liverpool because there were a large number of Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) related deficiencies which were objective evidence of a serious failure or lack of effectiveness of implementation of the ISM code on board the vessel.

Deficiencies identified included: the main engine was defective; also the engine room was very oily in some areas; the five year service on the immersion suit in the engine room had expired; there was no evidence that the freefall lifeboat had been manoeuvred in the water within the last 3 months also there was no evidence that the freefall lifeboat had been freefall launched within the last 6 months; in addition the deck officer was not familiar with launching the starboard life raft by davit.

FOR A BLOG UPDATE ON THIS VESSEL PLEASE SEE LINK BELOW

http://www.shipspottersteve.com/1/post/2014/02/alex-y-dyckburg-update.html

Unexpectedly I had to go to Liverpool again yesterday afternoon and although it was a flying visit I did manage to see a couple of new ships.

These were the General Cargo Ship Ammon (IMO 9319428, GT 2545, 2005) which was built by Damen Bergum and the Container Ship Margareta B (IMO 9121883, GT 3999, 1998) built by Siteas, Neuenfeld in Germany. These vessels have since left Liverpool and are both on route to Rotterdam.

On the way into Salford today I saw Arklow Rose (IMO 9238399, GT 2999, 2002) moored at Trafford Wharf. Photograph from the camera on my phone is above.

The picture was taken at about 0730hrs and the ship is catching the early morning sun, as can been seen there was no wind and the Manchester Ship Canal was like a mill pond.

The vegetation in front of my vantage point (which is the only one that can be safely accessed) is growning fast, this time next year it might be a struggle to get any sort of picture from here.