OOCL Mexico heading out to sea on 10 April 2015.
 
I took the photograph very late afternoon just before it went dark and she was one of a number of ships that I photographed before the sun set over Cowes and I headed back to the caravan I was staying in.
 
She was built in South Korea by Hyundai Heavy Industries at Ulsan as Yard Number 1385 in 2002. Overall she is 294.1m long with a 32.2m beam and 13.5m maximum draught.
 
GT = 53,453  & DT = 66,686
 
She can carry 4839 TEU and is powered by a B&W 9K90MC-C (41,693 Kw)diesel engine giving a maximum speed of 24 knots.
 
MMSI -  636015496
REG - LR, Monrovia
IMO -  9231779
Call Sign - D5BC5
Container Ship
Built - Hyundai, Ulsan, KR
Yard No. - 1385
L 294.1m  W 32.2m
GT 53453
Year - 2002
East Cowes, 10 April 2015

We walked past this building whilst exploring Dublin on 11 November 2015.
 
This was originally the offices of the British & Irish Steam Packet Company which was designed by William Henry Bryne & Sons and completed in 1909.

The building faces onto the quay and is one of the older buildings left in the area.
 
The Company formed on 27 July 1836 after a group of Dublin businessmen met in the Commercial Buildings in nearby Dame Street.

The company’s first ships were all wooden paddle steamers and initially sailed between Dublin and London calling at Plymouth. Other vessels soon joined the fleet and by 1845 they were investing in auxiliary steam powered vessels.

In 1860 they bought the small paddle steamer 'Mars' to operate the Dublin to Waterford service but this route was abandoned in 1863 and the Mars was sold to American owners, interestingly she was later used as a blockade runner in the American Civil War.
 
In 1870 they bought the Waterford Steam Ship Company's London service together with a number of vessels and in 1920 took over the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company.
 
By 1917 all the B&I Shares were owned by Coast Lines who also owned a number of other companies, the Irish Government  bought the Company in 1965 and operations continued until the early 1990's. 

Railway cutting and a road bridge over the old line near Ripponden in Yorkshire on part of the Lancashire & Yorkshire (L&Y) Railways Rishworth Branch line. We walked along the old line for a while on 18 October 2015 as part of  a 6 mile circuit.
 
When the L& Y submitted plans for this branch in 1865 they envisaged continuing beyond the head of Ryburn Valley, through a long tunnel under Rishworth Moor, to rejoin the existing Calder Valley line near Rochdale so reducing the distance from Sowerby Bridge to Rochdale by five miles.

Difficulties in building the tunnel and landslips delayed opening until 1878 and progress with the extension west of Rishworth never got beyond the planning stage.
 
This section was opened to passengers on 1 July 1878 and to goods traffic on 5 August 1878.

The line was closed to passenger trains in  July 1929 and to goods traffic in 1958.

Jeanie Johnston photographed in Dublin during our day trip to the City on 11 November 2015.
 
She is a replica of a three masted barque of the same name that was originally built in Quebec, Canada, in 1847 by the Scottish-born shipbuilder John Mumm.

The original Jeanie Johnston was bought by merchant John Donovan & Sons as a cargo vessel and traded successfully between Tralee and North America for a number of years. The trading pattern was to take emigrants from Ireland to North America and then to bring timber back to Europe.

She made her maiden emigrant voyage from Blennerville, Co. Kerry to Quebec on 24 April 1848, with 193 emigrants on board. Between 1848 and 1855 she made 16 voyages to North America, sailing to Quebec, Baltimore and New York.

On average the length of the transatlantic journey was 47 days. The most passengers she ever carried was 254 from Tralee to Quebec on 17 April 1852.

Despite the number of passengers and the long voyage, no crew or passengers lives were ever lost on board. This is generally attributed to the captain James Atteridge not overloading the ship and the presence of a qualified doctor on board for the benefit of the passengers.

In 1855 the ship was sold to William Johnson of North Shields, England. In 1858 whilst sailing to Quebec from Hull with a cargo of timber she became waterlogged. The crew climbed into the rigging and after nine days clinging to their slowly sinking ship they were all safely rescued by a Dutch ship the Sophie Elizabeth.

The replica vessel was built in Blennervile at a cost of 13.7m Euro's which included the cost of the shipyard, workshops and visitors centre. She was laid down in 1998, launched on 6 May 2000 and undertook her maiden voyage in March 2003,
 
Overall she is 47m long with a 8m beam and 4.6m draft.
 
Her hull is constructed of larch planks on oak frames. The decks were constructed from Iroko and Douglas Fir with Douglas Fir masts and spars,
 
She has 18 sails with at total area of 6,940m2 and also has twin 290hp (216kW) Caterpillar 3306 diesel engines and a  single 50kW bow thruster.
  
MMSI - 250271000
IMO - 8633671
Call Sign - EIJL
L = 47 W = 8m
GT 301
Built - 2002

I saw quite a few new ships while I was on holiday on the Isle of Wight at the end of October 2015. This is despite it getting dark early meaning quite a few vessels didn't get on the list as all I could see were a few lights in the distance.

The order I saw them are listed below.

This can be summarised as:-

Cruise Ships = 2
Tugs = 2
Container Ships = 15
Bulk Carriers = 2
Vehicle Carriers = 5
Research Vessels = 1
General Cargo Ships = 2
Chemical / Oil Product Tankers = 6
LPG Tankers = 1
Crude Oil Tankers = 3
Offshore Vessels = 1
Military = 2

24-Oct-15 - Southampton

Anthem of the Seas, 9656101, Passenger (Cruise) Ship, 168888, 2015
Svitzer Eston, 9701968, Tug, 299, 2014
NYK Vesta, 9312808, Container Ship, 97825, 2007
Strandja, 9564140, Bulk Carrier, 19865, 2010
Torrens, 9293612, Vehicles Carrier, 61321, 2004
James Cook, 9338242, Research Vessel, 5368, 2006
Huelin Dispatch, 9518218, General Cargo Ship, 2597, 2012

24-Oct-15 - Solent / Fawley

CMA CGM Samson, 9436379, Container Ship, 91498, 2011
Bloom, 9365283, Chemical / Oil Products Tanker, 24112, 2007
LS Eva, 9379478, Chemical / Oil Products Tanker, 3264, 2007
Seaclipper, 9570101, Oil Products Tanker, 30302, 2013
Silex (15), 9085194, Tug, 543, 1994

25-Oct-15 - Sandown

Dong A Glaucos, 9441867, Vehicles Carrier, 72408, 2011
Bow Fuji, 9323778, Chemical Tanker, 11615, 2006
Morning Carina, 9338709, Vehicles Carrier, 60876, 2007
Atlantic Wind, 9341316, Chemical Tanker, 10546, 2007
Single, 9377664, Chemical / Oil Products Tanker, 23248, 2007
Liv Knutsen, 9409273, Chemical / Oil Products Tanker, 11889, 2009
Brook Trout, 9314181, Chemical / Oil Products Tanker, 42531, 2007

25-Oct-15 - Culver Point

Donizetti, 9174098, Chemical Tanker, 2335, 2000
Colorado Star, 9527609, Chemical Tanker, 8537, 2010
Kisber, 9713624, LPG Tanker, 8130, 2015
Cosmo, 9251755, Chemical / Oil Products Tanker, 4412, 2003
Crown Garnet, 9128049, General Cargo Ship, 10519, 1996

26-Oct-15 - East Cowes

Lizrix, 9428188, Chemical / Oil Products Tanker, 1343, 2008
HS Mozart, 9252254, Container Ship, 50243, 2002

27-Oct-15 - Ryde

CMA CGM Zheng He, 9706906, Container Ship, 168000, 2015
Fidelio, 9332937, Vehicles carrier, 71583, 2007

27-Oct-15 - Southsea

SCF Sayan, 9224465, Crude Oil Tanker, 81085, 2002

27-Oct-15 - Portsmouth

Kingdon of Fife, 9270062, Offshore Tug / Supply Ship, 1459, 2008
USNS Zeus (T-ARC-7), 7932408, Cable Repair Ship, 14934, 1984

27-Oct-15 - East Cowes

Norwegian Escape, 9677076, Passenger (Cruise) Ship, 163000, 2014

28-Oct-15 - East Cowes

Mathilde Maersk, 9632179, Container Ship, 194849, 2015

28-Oct-15 -  Sandown

Baltic Sun 2, 9286059, Chemical / Oil Products Tanker, 23235, 2005
Alterego II, 9247376, Crude Oil Tanker, 83616, 2002
Maersk Mizushima, 9392389, Bulk Carrier, 28054, 2009

29-Oct-15 - East Cowes

HMS Somerset (F82), East Cowes, 6128410, Type 23 Frigate, 4900, 1996

30-Oct-15 - East Cowes

Grande Togo, 9465370, Vehicles Carrier, 55700, 2011

30-Oct-15 - Ventnor

Overseas McKinley, 9530228, Crude Oil Tanker, 157048, 2011

31-Oct-15 - Solent / Fawley

Stena Performance, 9299159, Chemical / Oil Products Tanker, 36168, 2006

31-Oct-15 - Southampton

Viking Odessa, 9398876, Vehicles Carrier, 20216, 2009
NYK Hermes, 9622631, Container Ship, 141003, 2013
Singapore Express, 9200809, Container Ship, 66793, 2000

Liner passenger tender Cill Airne photographed on the River Liffey, Dublin on 11 November 2015. We were in Dublin for the day having got up at 4.45am for a 8.00am flight from Manchester. Flight time was only 40 minutes and there was a bus straight into the city centre which only cost 12 Euros return. Despite a really bad weather forecast we had a good day and the only time it did rained we were in a pub.

As can be seen the vessel is now a floating bar and restaurant.

She was originally one of two passenger liner tenders commissioned by the Irish Government in July 1961 her sister ship being the Blarna. The tenders were commissioned to service the passenger liners that plied between ports in England and New York. The liners were too large to enter Cork Harbour and the two sisters would bring mail and passengers to and fro.

She was built in the Liffey Dockyard in Dublin as yard number 182 in 1961 and was one of the last riveted ships to be built in Europe.

The Blarna was sold to a Canadian ferry company in Quebec and the Cill Airne was handed to the Maritime College as a training vessel for engineers. The Cill Airne brought marine engineers to sea where they familiarized themselves with radar, lifeboats and engine room practices.

In 2003, the Maritime College was rehoused in a new state-of-the-art building with a mock-up engine room and ship sailing simulators, making the Cill Airne obsolete.

The College placed the vessel up for auction where she was purchased by a group of Dublin City investors. She spent nine months in Cork dock undergoing major restoration work under the inspection of the Maritime Safety Directive. The work has ensured the long-term preservation of the ship. In January 2006, she sailed under her own power to Hegarty’s Boatyard in West Cork, where a quality team of old style shipwrights restored the MV Cill Airne to her present condition.

St James Parish Church, Yarmouth photographed on our visit to this small town on the North East coast of the Isle of Wight on 30 October 2015.
 
The church is on the site of a much earlier medieval church that was destroyed during a French raid in 1377, it was rebuilt only to be again reduced to a ruin in 1543.
 
The church was rebuilt between 1614 and 1626 with a chapel added in 1692.
 
The tower was increased in height in 1831.

Framed menu from the SS Llanstephan Castle I saw in a pub on the Isle of Wight last week.

This was difficult to photograph due to the glass reflecting the lights in the pub but you can make out what was on the menu, interestingly it is written in French, shame that it is not dated.

The SS Llanstephan Castle was a Union Castle line vessel that was built in 1914. She was just over 500ft long, GT 11,348 had four holds and accommodated 213 First Class, 116 Second Class, and 100 Third Class passengers.

As soon as she was delivered she departed London on her maiden voyage to East and South Africa. During her second voyage on the homeward sailing, a report came to the captain that the German cruiser “Konigsberg” was in the vicinity and the ship was turned around. Upon arrival in Durban Union-Castle  transferred her to the London, South African West coast service.

In 1917 she was requisitioned for the war effort and placed in the North Atlantic transporting troops.

After the war she returned to the company and was made ready to return on the London, Cape Town service. In 1920 she was placed on the East African service. Another change took place in 1922 when she was transferred to the “Round Africa” service, visiting Naples or Genoa, Suez, Aden, Mombasa, Tanga, Dar-es-Salaam, Beira, Lourenco Marques, Durban and East London, Cape Town returning via West Africa.

In 1938 she received a refit and at the same time she was converted from coal to oil fuel saving a considerable amount for the company.

During the Second World War she first operated as a military troop transport ship for the Ministry of War. However in August 1940 she transported 300 evacuees from Liverpool to Cape Town the majority of which were children. A year later in 1941 she departed Liverpool in charge of a convoy and transported some 200 Polish airmen released from prison. She continued to operate in the Far East but was later transferred to the Royal Indian Navy.

After World War II she was returned to Union Castle Line who had her refitted turning her into a two class ship accommodating 231 First Class and 198 Tourist Class passengers. Upon completion she returned to her pre war round Africa service.

In March 1952 the aging Llanstephan Castle was withdrawn from service and sold to the British Iron & Steel Corporation who delivered her to J. Cashmore shipyards at Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales where she was broken up.

Naval memorial photographed in Victoria Park, Portsmouth on 27 October 2015.
 
The memorial commemorates the lives lost by a gunnery accident on HMS Royal Sovereign caused by the premature ignition of a cartridge in a six inch gun before the breech had been closed, the men killed were all buried at sea.
 
The memorial reads - 'ERECTED BY THE OFFICERS AND MEN IN MEMORY OF THOSE KILLED IN A GUN ACCIDENT ON BOARD HMS ROYAL SOVEREIGN OFF PLATCA NOVEMBER 9TH 1901 WHILST DISCHARGING THEIR  DUTY.' 'CAPT. H.W. SPURWAY, R.M.A. / C. PRIMMER CH. ARMr / F. OSBORNE P.O. 1st Cl / L. COLBORNE ARMr /H. GARDNER PO 2nd Cl / C. CONNOR Ld SEAm' 'ALSO TO THE MEMORY OF THOSE/WHO DIED DURING THE/COMMISSION' 'MR R.E. JOHNSTON M.D. / H.J. CUDDLEYFORD M.A. W.W. MASON A.B. / R. HEARD CH. STO. C. NEWMAN A.B. / W. WALKER P.O. 1TC D. RUNDLE STO. / A. MITCHELL A.B. A. JORDAN STO.'
 
HMS Royal Sovereign was the lead ship of the Royal Sovereign class of battleship and was the largest warship in the world at the time of her construction. She was laid down on 30 September 1889 and completed in 1892. Built at the Portsmouth Dockyard at a cost of £913,986 she was 125.1m long with a 23m beam, 8.38m draught and had a complement of 712 officers and men.
 
Powered by twin coal fired Humphreys & Tennant 3 cylinder triple action steam engines (9,700kW) and twin screws she had a cruising speed of 15.7 knots.
 
Armament consisted of four 13.5 inch guns in two open barbettes, ten quick firing 6-inch guns, ten 6 pounders and six 18 inch torpedo tubes. Armour varied from 64mm to 76mm on the deck to 356mm to 457mm in the main belt.
 
She was christened by Queen Victoria on 26 February 1891 and after sea trials was commissioned into the fleet on 31 May 1892. In September 1909 she was paid off in Devonport and sold for scrap in October 1913.

Stothert & Pitt crane photographed in Portsmouth on 27 October 2015.

Although this crane and the associated docks now form part of the Gunwharf Quay shopping centre they were originally part of HMS Vernon the Royal Navy's Torpedo Branch which occupied this site from the end of the First World War until 1996.

Stothert & Pitt were founded in Bath in 1785 by George Stothert after taking over an Ironmongery business. As an agent for Abraham Darby's Coalbrookdale Iron Company George sold all kinds of domestic ironmongery but by 1815 he had set up his own foundry .They became Stothert and Pitt in 1844 when Robert Pitt joined the business and in 1851 they exhibited a hand crane at the Great Exhibition.

The Company supplied electric powered cranes to the Southampton Dock Authority in 1892 and developed the first bulk handling cranes in 1927.

During the second World War they built tanks and miniature submarines.