An early morning photograph of OOCL Chongqing en-route to Southampton taken from the end of the Esplanade in East Cowes before 8am on 30 October
2013.

She is an M Class vessel with a capacity of 13,208 TEU's.

After visiting Southampton her next port of call was Port Said.

She was christened at a ceremony at Samsung's Koje yard on 27 June 2013 and is the third 13,208 TEU containership that will be joining the company’s fleet this year.

Among the distinguished guests was the vessels sponsor Mr. He Guangbei, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive of BOC Hong Kong (Holdings) Ltd. and Bank of China (Hong Kong) Ltd., who performed the formalities to unveil the brand new ship.    
 
The OOCL Chongqing will be serving the Asia-Europe trade on the Loop 5 service  where her port rotation is: Kwangyang / Busan / Shanghai / Ningbo / Yantian /  Shekou / Singapore / Suez Canal / Rotterdam / Hamburg / Southampton /  Suez Canal / Singapore and back to Kwangyang in a 77-day round trip. 

MMSI - 477832400
REG - HK, Hong Kong
IMO -  9622629
Call Sign -  VRLZ4
Container Ship
Built - Samsung, Koje,  KR
Yard No. 2006
L 366m W 48m
GT 141003
Year - 2013
East Cowes, 30 October 2013

CMA CGM Vela photographed on the Solent inbound to Southampton from the deck of the Red Funnel Ferry on 26 October 2013. 

She passed close to our ferry and to be honest my pictures do not do her justice.  It was also quite late in the afternoon, the sky was overcast and the light was not great which did not help.

Her keel was laid on 28 April 2008, she was launched on 12 July 2008 and delivered 17 October 2008.

She can carry 11,000 20ft containers and 5477 40ft containers and is powered by a MAN B&W 12K98ME-C7 main engine.

MMSI - 218694000
REG - DE, Hamburg
IMO - 9354923
Call Sign - DFUM2
Container Ship
Built - Daewoo, Okpo; KR
Yard No. 4125
L 347m W 46m
GT 128600
Year - 2008
Solent, 26 October 2013

The above picture is the propeller from HMS Cavalier which I photographed on 27 October 2013 whilst on holiday in East Cowes on the Isle Of Wight.

HMS Cavalier once boasted proudly of being the fastest ship in the Royal Navy

She was one of 96 destroyers ordered for the war effort between 1940-42 and was built a short walk away from where I saw the propeller at J.White & Co's shipyard at Cowes.

Cavalier's keel was laid at the White yard on 28th February 1943, she was launched on 7th April 1944 and finally completed on 22nd November 1944. 

On completion HMS Cavalier joined the 6th Destroyer Flotilla (Home Fleet) and served during the war in the Arctic and the Western Approaches before joining the British Pacific Fleet as the war came to a close.

Refitted and modernized in 1957 she continued to play an active role until she was paid off at Chatham in 1972 where she is now on display.

So why is she known as the fastest ship in the fleet?

This followed a challenge set during an exercise in 1970 when a race was arranged between HMS Cavalier and the frigate HMS Rapid to decide which ship was faster. Both ships were similar as HMS Rapid was a former "R" class destroyer with a hull form and machinery identical to that of HMS Cavalier. 

On 6th July 1971 the two ships met off the Firth of Forth in perfect weather conditions and although it was a hard fought race HMS Cavalier was declared the winner by a mere 30 yards over a distance of 64 miles. Her average speed was 31.8 knots.

Nothing to do with ships but I saw this 'interesting' piece of equipment whilst on holiday among some other farm related bits and pieces. 

I believe it was made between 1920 and 1940 and as it says on the front it is a root cutter made by Bamfords Ltd of Uttoxeter. 

Root cutters were used to chop turnips and other vegetables into slices suitable to feed farm livestock, this model was was hand operated, during my 'research' I have seen others that were powered by belts presumably connected to an engine of some kind.

Bamfords Ltd were founded by Henry Bamford and his son Samuel Bamford in 1871 when a plot of land on the south side of the town close to the North Staffordshire Railway was acquired. This was later to become the Leighton Ironworks, initially they made pumps, taps and agricultural machinery.

Ten years later in 1881 the company is noted as employing 50 men, 10 boys and 3 women, at this time the 'Bamford catalogue' ran to forty pages and listed a complete range of “agricultural machinery, patent chain and lift pumps, etc.” 

During the 1880's the company had expanded considerably and by 1891 they had to obtain more factory space due to demand for their products. 

Up to 1920 the company had only manufactured agricultural machinery but now they commenced making stationary engines with the introduction of two horizontal oil engines.

The company ceased trading in 1986.

As a side note family member Joseph Cyril Bamford split off from the Bamford company in 1945 to set up what has become known as JCB - J C Bamford Excavators Ltd.

Whilst on holiday we visited Ventnor which is a town on the South side of the Isle of Wight facing the English Channel.

The picture above is of the relatively new 'Haven Harbour' which was opened in 2003 for the berthing of smaller vessels, this replaced a relatively short lived harbour which was destroyed by the sea in the 1860's.

The haven has been expanded into a New England style working port and marina for all sizes of vessel and is currently the only stop off point South of Cowes and Yarmouth for round-island sailing. 

Catmaran manufacturer Cheetah Marine have workshops close to the harbour and some of their vessels can be seen moored up.

The actual port building on the pier was also quite busy selling seafood 'straight from the boat'.

Photograph taken 31 October 2013

I saw the above vessel on 28 October 2013 in Bembridge on the Isle Of Wight.

Although she is now a houseboat she was originally ordered on 27 August 1940 and commissioned on 23 August 1941 as Fairmile C Class Motor Gun Boat MGB 320.

Built by William Osborne Ltd of Littlehampton, England she was part of 12th Flotilla.

Powered by 3 Hall-Scott Defender Petrol Engines (2700 bhp) she had a maximum speed of 26.5 Knots and range of 500nm at 12 kts. Her overall length was 33.53m with a 5.31m beam and 1.73m draft.

Originally she had a crew of 16 personnel and was armed with 2 Pdr Guns, 20mm Oerlikon AA Guns and 4 No. depth Charges.

Using the Hovercraft and sailing from Ryde to Southsea we visited Portsmouth on 30 October 2013.

Whilst walking into the town center I noticed the above large rock which was inlaid with a bronze plaque describing an engagement in 1854.

In 1854 during the Crimean War a landing party from HMS Hecla was attacked by a large body of Cossacks and many would have been killed if it had not been for the courage of two sailors who taking cover behind this stone kept the enemy at bay until the safety of the whole party was assured. After the engagement the commander of the vessel Captain Hall had this boulder carried to his ship and transported to Portsmouth. 

HMS Hecla was a 2nd class steam powered sloop launched on 14 January 1839, she was armed with 6 guns had a wooden hull and a displacement of 1096 tons, she was sold in 1863.

Another story relating to HMS Hecla relates to one of the earliest act of bravery to win a Victoria Cross. This was carried out by Charles Davis Lucas, a twenty-year-old mate serving on HMS Hecla with the Baltic Fleet under Admiral Sir Charles Napier in the summer of 1854. 

Napier was a highly popular admiral but he and his fleet had come under public and parliamentary criticism for lack of success against the enemy. The Russians were content to stay in port sheltering inside their coastal fortresses, one of which was at Bomarsund which guarded the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia.

Although perhaps not normally good tactics for ships to attack heavily defended shore forts on 21 June 1854 Captain Hall commanding HMS Hecla led his ship and the two 16-gun paddle-steamers HMS Odin and HMS Valorous through the narrow channel to Bomarsund. 

Although the ships were fired on by troops and artillery from the shore and also from the main batteries in the fort all three ships dropped anchor in the evening and began an intermittent bombardment which lasted until one o'clock the next morning. This apparently resuted in little lasting damage to the shore defences and although Captain Hall was later commended by the King of Sweden he was criticised by the Admiralty for using so much ammunition.

At the height of the bombardment a live shell from an enemy battery landed on Hecla's upper-deck, with its fuse still hissing. All hands were ordered to fling themselves flat on the deck, but Lucas ran forward, picked up the shell and tossed it overboard. It exploded before it hit the water resulting in some minor damage to the ship and two men being slightly hurt but thanks to Lucas nobody was killed or seriously wounded. He was immediately promoted to Acting Lieutenant for his bravery and the Admiralty later confirmed the promotion on Napier's strongest recommendation. Lucas's Cross was gazetted in the first list of 24th February 1857 and he was present at the first Investiture to receive his Cross from Queen Victoria in Hyde Park on 26th June that year.

As a side note Captain Hall's only daughter married the then Captain Charles Davis Lucas in 1879.