Southampton, May 26th

Some shots from a trip to Southampton today...I decided to go over and see the new Sea City Museum up at the Civic Centre (more on this in a bit) and, as usual, the camera came along too.

As usual, click for largest size and better quality -

Celebrity Eclipse was in so I went to Mayflower Park first to take her picture ~

Grande San Paolo was also in ~ 

And Balmoral, which my friend Patsy is on for a short cruise up to Zeebrugge ~

Then it was a walk from Mayflower Park up to Sea City Museum at the Civic Centre, via Waterstones and the Saints Store at West Quay. The museum costs £8.50 for an adult (£6 concessions) and, quite frankly, I think it is very overpriced. Obviously the thing has to be paid for but, given you're paying the thick end of a tenner, the exhibits are quite disappointing, unless you are into the Titanic as it is mostly dedicated to that ship. The Southampton: Gateway to the World exhibit is rubbish, with a lot of prehistoric and medieval exhibits (including the skull of a Barbary Ape!). The giant model of the Queen Mary, previously housed in the old museum at the Wool House, was great as were the smaller model ships mounted around it - I'd love that model here at home but there'd be no room and the cats would have a great time breaking bits off it! The rest of it was just boring - as well as the prehistoric and medieval stuff there were pieces about West Indian folk coming to England, the influx of Poles and something about Chinese people studying here, as well as a glass case displaying bags containing different species of rice. None of these pieces were in-depth and none featured the way these folk - and bags of rice - got here. I'd have liked to have seen more about the ships - and planes - they travelled on.

The shop was crap, with mostly Titanic items - dare I say Tatanic? - and overpriced at that, a lot of which was stretching the boundaries of taste a bit. I am not much of a humanitarian but 1514 people died when that thing went down and now it's an excuse to flog overpriced fridge magnets, tea towels, beer mats and iPhone covers. Whether the disaster happened 100 years in the past or not, this strikes me as somewhat tasteless.

Overall it was quite disappointing and not worth the £8.50 I paid (as a senior citizen my aunt paid £6) unless you are a Titanic enthusiast and I have to admit that I am not. That said the Titanic exhibits were well done but there is more to Southampton's maritime history than that 'epic fail' of a ship. What about all the other passenger ships which have called this port home over the decades? What about the other merchant ships? Southampton is a busy commercial port and I'd have liked to have seen more on the cargo ships that have called here over the years. Hopefully, once the 100th anniversary of the Titanic is over at the end of the year, they might change things round. I hope so. I did take the opportunity to fill in a feedback form and said as much on there. Oh yeah and £3.80 for a dry cheese and tomato baguette make the cross-Solent ferry companies look positively good value for money.

Back to Town Quay and the chance for some more photos. Princess Cruises' Caribbean Princess was at the Ocean Cruise Terminal, so I took a few pictures of her, although I couldn't get a decent shot without obstructions (I'd come over from the Island on the Red Jet so no opportunities for photos from the water). It's funny, I absolutely hated these ships - the Princesses, Azura, Ventura, etc - when they first appeared, but they are growing on me.

Town Quay really is a disgrace. The large fence on the southern end is still there and the place becomes more overgrown and decrepit by the year. I emailed ABP a few years ago, asking if they were ever going to repair the quay and remove the fence. They replied, saying they were aiming to do it within a year. Little did I think it would be a Plutonian year...! They rip people off for parking on Town Quay and there's a number-plate-recognition system there, so anyone who even drives onto the quay and drives off again without paying gets a hefty fine, so why can't they put the proceeds of that towards repairs and the removal of the fence?

There is a nice crop of ragwort growing on the end ~

And a Buddleia is nicely established, rapidly approaching large shrub proportions and providing food for any butterflies in the vicinity - maybe I should bring my macro lens ~

Ferry activity, with Hotspur IV off to Hythe ~

And here comes Red Jet 4, our ride home to the island ~

Malik Al Ashtar

The new UASC container ship Malik Al Ashtar made her first call at Southampton yesterday (bringing some long-awaited and overdue good weather with her!). I missed her coming in but was hoping I'd catch up with her as she left. She was scheduled to depart at 1130, so I watched Solent AIS until she was on her way down to the Solent.

She eventually appeared at Fawley at 1240. Naturally, all the white sails appeared as if by magic but, for once, didn't interfere too badly with the subject.

Malik Al Ashtar facts: 141077 GT; year of build: 2012; IMO number: 9525900; flag: Malta.

Click for largest size and better quality.

NYK Altair and Cassiopeia Leader were on their way in, so there was a bit of a rush on!

Liverpool have got their own way regarding becoming a turnaround cruise port. They have to now pay back the public money they used to build their terminal but, unfortunately, they are allowed to pay it back in instalments. However, nothing has been said about the £8.8 million of EU money they had - which Liverpool have not offered to repay - which they really should repay. The thoroughly-discredited Labour government bent over backwards to accommodate the north of England, usually at the expense of the south, but the current ConDem coalition are no better. If this isn't giving Liverpool an unfair advantage over those ports which have built up their business with their own and private money, then I don't know what it is.
That said, it is going to be interesting to see what happens now. They have their eyes on what they consider the big prize, Cunard, but Cunard have already knocked them back.

The big P&O Party in July

On 3rd July 2012, there will be the big P&O bash celebrating their 175th Anniversary, when all seven of their current cruise fleet will be in Southampton. I haven't given it much thought, beyond planning to go to Southampton that day, take photos, return to the island and watch them all sail past Cowes in the evening or go to Culver Down if Cowes and East Cowes were too busy. I wasn't planning to join the special Red Funnel trip, although I had thought about it, not at £55 (plus we still have to pay to get to Southampton to join the cruise and home again later - and my email to RF asking about this didn't receive a reply so sod 'em. A 'no, sorry' would have been fine, but no reply is just rude) and the timings are awkward for Isle of Wight residents because the RF cruises don't begin and end here, only in Southampton.

Anyway, out of the blue on Wednesday I get a text from my good friend Patricia Dempsey who is going to be sailing on Oriana that evening (I was mildly envious). Patsy's text said that a friend who was supposed to be also going on Oriana with her can't, after all, make the trip - a four night cruise to Amsterdam and Zeebrugge - it's already paid for and would I like to come along? Is the Pope's religious leaning Catholic? But I initially said 'no' as I am flat broke after a trip to the USA in April and some extortionate vets' bills for my dog a couple of weeks ago, but after some gentle persuasion (although admittedly it didn't take a lot) I caved in and said 'count me in!'. Just as well I didn't fork out £55 for a Red Funnel ticket!

It should be a great trip and a marvellous occasion in Southampton. I'm going on an hour-long Blue Funnel Harbour trip at 1130, as is Patsy, and once that's over, we'll head to the City Terminal (Berth 101) and the ship.

Oriana at Southampton, December 2009

Star Stratos

The acquisition of new material has finally begun! The weather isn't exactly favourable for photography (the calendar says 'May 17th' today but you could have fooled me, as it looks and feels more like November) and hasn't been for a while.
I was out at Seaview today and took this photo of the refrigerated cargo ship 'Star Stratos' as she approached Portsmouth. I used my 400mm lens for the shot, due to the distance, as the only other lenses I possess are a 70-200mm and an 18-135mm.

Ship facts - Built in 2007; IMO number: 9350991; gross tonnage: 14030; flag: Singapore

Click on the photo for the largest size.

St Catherine's Lighthouse

I visited St Catherine's Lighthouse last week. I'd never visited a lighthouse before, so it was an interesting experience.

The sky really *was* this colour.

The lantern

The view from the top

The foghorns

Fight club

There has been an on-going dispute for a while between the ports of Southampton and Liverpool over the lucrative cruise industry, of which Southampton has the lion's share. Ever since Cunard moved their express liners to Southampton just after World War One, and the port since built up its passenger shipping and cruise industry, envious Scouse eyes have been cast in this direction. Liverpool can only offer its services as a port-of-call and not a turnaround port (i.e. cruises can start and finish there) because they used public money to build their terminal (Southampton port is privately funded). They are not happy about this, and have been making ever-louder noises about wanting to be a turnaround port although they have been repeatedly - and rightly - denied this because they are publicly funded. I say 'rightly' not just because I am biased but because if Liverpool can do this on the back of public money then it gives them an unfair advantage over those ports - including Southampton - who built up their trade from scratch using private money.

Liverpool offered to pay back £5 million of the tax-payers' money they used but the UK government has said 'no'. Ok, said Liverpool, we'll pay the lot back (but not, it seems the £9m of EU public funding they also got). However, according to BBC South Today, Liverpool will pay all the UK Government money back with Liverpool City Council money - also public money! This will be paid back in annual instalments, timescale unknown. What the EU will say about their money remains to be seen.

Of course, on a personal level, being a southerner and living close to Southampton, I hope that Southampton comes out on top in this dispute but, in reality, competition is no bad thing and I don't seriously think that Liverpool is going to steal all of Southampton's trade despite the fact they might want to. It's the smaller ports, such as Dover, Harwich and even Portsmouth (who are aiming for a slice of the cruise industry themselves), who will probably suffer most.
Liverpool is not in the best place for starting and ending cruises that are going to the Mediterranean or the near Continent as Southampton is closer, although Liverpool is probably better placed for cruises to Scandinavia and Greenland. Also in Southampton's favour is the double high tide, caused by the Isle of Wight which lies in the estuary, and no lock system, meaning ships can arrive and depart at any time.
Reading between the lines I believe Liverpool have their eyes on what they consider the 'big prize', the return of Cunard to their port but, frankly, I don't see that happening, not least because Cunard's (Carnival) European head office is in Southampton and they have said they have no plans to move. That said, I don't think there could be any reason why one or two Cunard cruises shouldn't depart from Liverpool during a season. I just hope that Liverpool don't think that they can grab all of Southampton's trade or try to.

Southampton (rightly) won't give up and I don't think we've heard the last of this! I think this one will run and run.

The latest news on the newest twist to the ongoing spat ~

Captain Greybeard - 'Liverpool claims victory in battle over its Pier Head Cruise terminal'
Daily Echo (Southampton) - 'Liverpool to launch turnaround cruises within months, council leader claims'
BBC - 'Liverpool settle Pier Head cruise terminal row'

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No photos recently, it's the depths of winter, the weather's inclement, work has got in the way and I have not managed to get out anywhere. The main website is in dire need of new material, as is this (hence the diversions taking in the Lusitania and the Southampton-Liverpool cruise spat), but hopefully once spring has got underway, the weather has improved and my current temporary job has ended, I can get out and about more. I certainly will once my seasonal job begins again.
I have a trip to Rotterdam lined up for June and am planning to join a couple of TSS cruises round the Solent.

'Lusitania - An Illustrated Biography'

April 2012 is the 100th anniversary of the sinking of a certain White Star liner on her maiden voyage. The Titanic has been the subject of countless books, articles, films, tv programmes, etc, over the years but there have been other, much more interesting ships, which have had longer lives and equally dramatic deaths but which have had nowhere near as much coverage as the Titanic. One such was the Cunard liner Lusitania of 1907, also a Victim of a Tragic and Untimely Demise but which had seven-and-a-half years of life before being on the receiving end of a torpedo from a German U-boat, which sent her to the bottom of the ocean in May 1915.

I was browsing through Amazon just after Christmas and found a book titled 'Lusitania: An Illustrated Biography' by J. Kent Layton and bought it on a whim. I don't read many books these days, as most of my reading now seems to be internet-based, but as the Lusitania is one of my three favourite liners of the past (the others are her sister Mauretania and the American liner Leviathan of 1914, the latter ship the subject of a six-volume book by the late Frank Braynard - the six volumes are superb but not holiday reading!) and the reviews were good I decided to buy this one.

It took me several evenings to read the book and it was very good, worth the £42 I paid for it (this book is also not one to take on holiday flights, it is large and heavy!). It is well-written, reads like a novel (as all well-written factual stories should), has a lot of good photos and does not dwell on her untimely end at the hands of U-20. I have read other books about the Lusitania which gloss over 7.5 years of her life in the space of a chapter before getting into the gory details of the events of 7th May 1915; this is a pity because she was an interesting ship in her own right.

Lusitania at speed. Pic from *somewhere on net!*

The book describes the building of the ship, as well as the initial problems of severe vibration which rendered the Second-class accommodation all but uninhabitable and which necessitated rebuilding and strengthening of the stern areas before Lusitania could be handed over to Cunard. Life aboard the ship is described in detail, both for the passengers and the crew (and which included some dodgy goings on!), as well as accounts of hair-raising Atlantic storms which left Lusitania battered - one smashed her bridge in, shattering the windows and pushing the entire steel bridge front back; it took her crew a while to clear up the mess and get underway again. The ship equivalent of getting your lights punched out, I suppose! The 'Lusi' and her sister, Mauretania, were 'wet' ships which dove through huge waves, rather than rode over them - this was a feature of their slim hulls, designed for speed, but meant the ships were not the most comfortable in bad weather and were damaged now and then. However, the ships were never in any real danger, even if they did get beaten up occasionally, thanks to their strong construction.

Another interesting piece of information concerns the ship's watertight divisions - in the most ironic of ironies, Lusitania (and Mauretania) would never pass today's SOLAS regulations while the Titanic would!

Another interesting thing I didn't know about Lusitania was that she had to be taken out of service for eight months from December 1912 to August 1913 for major engine repairs. She had been run at high speed continuously for a period of three weeks during 1912 to make up some lost time from strikes in Liverpool and her turbines were not allowed to cool during the very brief turnarounds in New York and Liverpool. This, and a couple of other incidents, damaged the engines badly enough that the ship needed major repairs.

As well as the story of 'Lusi's' far too brief life, the book contains lots of photos of the ship from throughout her life some of which I have seen before but a lot of which I hadn't. She was a beautiful ship, both inside and out. Times move on and, as I have said before, I am a massive fan of modern merchant ships but 'Lusi' was a very pretty ship indeed, probably the prettiest, built for speed rather than cruises, no unsightly balconies there and far more attractive than even the best-looking modern cruise ship today (yes, Queen Mary 2, I do mean you ;) ).

The book isn't about the Lusitania's premature end but, obviously, as it dealt with her life it had to deal with her death as well. As is well known, she was on the wrong end of a torpedo from U-20 on May 7th, 1915. Lusi sank in 18 minutes, along with 1198 of the 1959 people she was carrying and, unfortunately, this is what she is most known for, all these years later. Poor old Lusitania deserves better than being remembered only as a casualty of a stupid war, she had nearly eight years of happy life and this book goes a long way to portraying her as the beautiful and successful ocean liner she was, rather than as just a victim of a tragic and pointless death. As it says in the final chapter, what would she achieved if she'd survived the war and had a long life alongside her sister and fellow liners? If you're interested in ocean liners of the past, this is definitely worth a read and I think it is worth the price for the pictures alone.