Photographed from the end of the Esplanade in East Cowes at about 8 am on 30 October 2013 CMA CGM Alexander von Humboldt is an Explorer Class container ship.

Built by DSME (Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering) in South Korea, she is 396m long, 54m wide, with a draft of 16m and sails under the UK flag. 

She is powered by a Wärtsilä-Hyundai 14RT-Flex 96C (80,080kW) engine with a single shaft and fixed pitch propeller giving her a top speed of 25.1 knots. 
This vessel is the second in a series of three 16,000 TEU vessels all to be named after great explorers. 

She operates on the French Asia Line (FAL 1), which calls at Pusan, Qingdao, Ningbo, Shanghai, Xiamen, Hong Kong, Chiwan, Yantian, Port Kelang, Suez, Tanger, Southampton, Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Rotterdam, Zeebrugge, Le Havre, Malta, Suez, Khor Al Fakkan, Jebel Ali, Port Kelang, and Ningbo. The FAL1 route is run by the largest vessels in the CMA CGM fleet and offers its customers a fixed-day, weekly connection between Central and South China and Northern Europe.

So who is Alexander von Humbolt?

Considered by many to be the father of Geography between 1799 and 1804 Humboldt traveled extensively in Latin America, exploring and describing it for the first time from a modern scientific point of view. His description of the journey was written up and published in an enormous set of volumes over 21 years. He was one of the first to propose that the lands bordering the Atlantic Ocean were once joined (South America and Africa in particular). Later, his five-volume work, Kosmos (1845), attempted to unify the various branches of scientific knowledge. Humboldt supported and worked with other scientists, including most notably, Aimé Bonpland, with whom he conducted much of his scientific exploration.

MMSI - 2350966472
REG -  UK, London
IMO - 9454448
Call Sign - 2GEH4
Container ship
Built - Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, KR
Yard No. - 4162
L 396m W54m
GT 101053
Year -  2013
East Cowes, 30 October 2013

HMS Archer is the lead ship of the Archer Class of Patrol Boats and one of several to be built in 1985 by Watercraft Marine who were the original shipsbuilders.

Most of the remaining vessels in this Class were completed or built by Vosper Thornycroft.

She has a displacement of 54 tons, is 20.8m long with a 5.8m beam and 1.9m draft.

Powered by Rolls Royce/Perkins CV12 (1590 bhp) engines she can make 15 knots. 

Range is 550nm.

Photograph taken in Liverpool on 24 May 2013 as she prepared with other vessels for the Battle of the Atlantic celebrations being held over the weekend.

Calshot Castle was built in 1539 by Henry Vlll, it formed part of a chain of castles and defences constructed along the South coast of England to counter a possible invasion from both France and Spain.

The Castle was built on a strategically important shingle spit close to the deep water channel at the mouth of Southampton Water and for over 400 years acted as an artillery position.

The castle was severely damaged by fire in the reign of Elizabeth I and its repair required the felling of 127 oak trees from the nearby New Forest.

Calshot Naval Air Station opened in 1913, from here in this year First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill took his first seaplane flight.

Manned during World War I Calshot provided Channel defence and a training base for pilots. 

It was renamed RAF Calshot in 1918

Calshot was the venue of the famous Schneider Cup Trophy race in 1929 and 1931 at which one of the servicemen assigned to help with event was Aircraftsman Shaw, better known today as Lawrence of Arabia.

Calshot played an important role in the Second World War and became home to the Sunderland Flying Boat.

In 1945 it became a coastguard station until it was handed over to English Heritage.

The buildings to the right of the castle form the Calshot lifeboat station. The station is built on the grounds of the old military flying boat station. A lifeboat has been on this site site since 1970.

In the background is the Fawley Terminal where I have seen and photographed many ships whilst sailing down the Solent on one of the three Red Funnel ferries The site was originally developed in 1921 by the Atlantic Gulf and West Indies Petroleum Company.

Photograph taken 2 November 2013.

A photograph showing the stern of the Cargo Ship SS Caslon in Liverpool Docks. 

This photograph was taken circa 1950.

My Grandfather served on this vessel from 24 June 1952 to 26 July 1952. 

Boarding her as an Able Bodied Seaman in Manchester he left her at somewhere known as Dock Lane (which could be just about anywhere!), before signing on the SS Orcades at Tilbury and heading off to Australia on 5 August 1952.

She was built as Yard Number 744 by Fairfield Govan and was launched in February 1949 before entering service in June 1949.

At 5684 tons and 138m long she was one of the larger vessels my Grandad served on.

Powered by 2 steam turbines she could make 11.5 knots.

She was scrapped in Davica, Turkey on 1 November 1971.

Credit for this photograph goes to Norman J. Page who is on the boat in the foreground on top of the wheelhouse facing the camera with his arms on his knees. 

My special thanks go to Will Page who found my website through a random internet search and got in touch.

Photographed on 30 October 2013 in Portsmouth New Aquarius (NN92) is a wooden hulled fishing vessel built in 1971.

She is 9.37m long with a registered gross tonnage of 4.88 and is powered by a 56KW engine. 

I took the photograph as we walked from Southsea towards Portsmouth Naval Base.