Ships Monthly

Welcome to this bumper 92-page issue of Ships Monthly, which marks 120 years of cruise ships with a series of six detailed articles covering everything from the early days of the cruising pioneers to the modern innovations in the industry. While few

Editor • Nicholas Leach [email protected] Art Editor • Mark Hyde Talk Media Sales • www.talkmediasales.co.uk Group Commercial Manager • Mason Ponti Telephone • 01732 920499 Email • [email protected] Managing Director • Phil Weeden Finance Director

BALTIMORE The clean-up of the wreckage from the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse took a week longer than anticipated. The Unified Command team, responsible for clearing the debris and restoring the shipping channel to the Port of Baltimore, had the

Southampton’s Mayflower Park once again played host to the 25th Seawork Civil Marine exhibition over three days in early June 2024. The exhibition of the leading companies in the marine and maritime civil construction sector saw thousands of attendee

James Hendrie is a part-time freelance writer whose interests range from social history to transportation. He is a regular contributor of articles to Ships Monthly. Malcolm Cranfield’s interest in ships started while he was living at Portishead in th

The Canadian shipyard Seaspan has begun work on Canada’s first heavy polar icebreaker in more than six decades. More than 70 per cent of the vessel’s functional design is complete, while the vessel’s 3D modelling is ‘well advanced’, and Seaspan expec

Thecla Bodewes Shipyards has delivered another multipurpose (MPP) dry cargo vessel to the Vertom Group. The yard officially handed over the 7,280dwt Vertom Anette at the Harlingen facility in May. Vertom Anette is the fifth vessel in the LABRAX serie

On 11 June Damen Shipyards and Portland Harbour Authority (PHA) signed a contract for the delivery of one of Damen’s latest tugs, the Damen ASD Tug 2111 (pictured). The tug is just 21m in length but delivers 50 tonnes of bollard pull and is highly ma

The new 13m Shannon class lifeboat The Campbell-Watson was formally named and dedicated at Oban on 29 June. The christening was marked by a member of the crew pouring a quaich of Oban whisky over the bow of the new boat, which arrived on Scotland’s w

Veterans headed for Normandy in early June for three days of D-Day 80th anniversary events. Vintage and serving Royal Navy warships escorted the ferries transporting around 40 men and women connected with the Normandy landings as they headed to Franc

SPECIAL TRIPS Local excursion boats were on the scene as new Cunard Line vessel Queen Anne made her maiden departure from Southampton on 3 May. Blue Funnel Cruises’ Ocean Scene (1994/350 passengers) and Solent Steam Packet’s preserved screw steamer S

VICTORIA 1 From June, Tallink-Silja Line’s Tallinn-Stockholm capital cities service became a two-ship operation, with cruise ferry Victoria I (2004/40,975gt) brought in from sailings to Estonia to operate in tandem with Baltic Queen (2009/48,915gt).

Southampton-based Red Funnel is planning to replace vessels currently operating car ferry services to East Cowes on the Isle of Wight with newbuildings to be delivered towards the end of the decade. The present 3,963gt line-up of Red Falcon and Red O

The Spanish operator’s latest high-speed passenger and vehicle catamaran Margarita Salas started sea trials from Gijon’s Arman Shipyard in early June. She will be the second in the fleet to be fitted with dual-fuel Wärtsilä engines, joining elder nea

Ticketing solutions producer Expain is being brought in by P&O Ferries to supply new technology to sell and manage passenger bookings, with the roll-out due to start later this year. The new technology will first be implemented on the Irish Sea North

Wightlink has a new chief executive, with Katy Taylor moving from Southern Water, where she had been chief customer officer since 2021, to succeed Keith Greenfield, who retired after nine years at the company’s Portsmouth Gunwharf headquarters. Takin

SEA CLOUD CRUISES The founding vessel of the Sea Cloud Cruises fleet, the 1931-built Sea Cloud, will be taken out of service at the end of the 2025 European season and will be given a life-lengthening refit, to ease her to her 100th birthday. ASTRO O

Following the liquidation of American Queen Voyages, the company’s two ocean ships were acquired by John Waggoner (founder of American Queen Voyages, which he later sold to Hornblower Group) and will return to service on the Great Lakes in 2025. Ocea

The first in the next series of ships being built for Regent Seven Seas Cruises by Fincantieri at Ancona in Italy will be named Seven Seas Prestige, and is due in service in 2026. She will be larger than the recently delivered trio, carrying 850 pass

AUKUS HII and Babcock have established a new Canberra-based joint venture. H&B Defence will focus on equipping Australia with the requisite industrial base, supply chains and workforce required to support and manage all aspects of the nuclear-powered

Japan’s Maritime Self-Defence Force has selected Rolls-Royce to supply the world’s first twin MT30-powered hybrid electro-mechanical propulsion arrangement to power the forthcoming Aegis System Equipped Vessel (ASEV). The new destroyer platforms are

Construction of the German Navy’s first new F126 frigate is under way following a ceremonial keel-laying ceremony at the Peene shipyard in Wolgast, on 3 June. The future FGS Niedersachsen is scheduled for delivery in 2028. The Dutch shipbuilder Damen

AMMONIA-POWERED BOXBOATS On 6 June, at the Posidonia trade fair, classification society DNV awarded HD Hyundai Mipo an Approval in Principle (AiP) for the design of a new ammonia dual-fuel feeder container vessel. HD Hyundai Mipo, WinGD, HD Hyundai H

The world container shipping industry has made great strides in reducing the number of containers lost overboard at sea during the last year. It follows on from a similarly good record in 2022. The World Shipping Council announced that, in the first

Five new designs of very large gas carriers have been developed by Deltamarin and China Merchants Heavy Industry (Jiangsu). An Approval in Principle (AiP) from the classification society Lloyd’s Register was issued for the next-generation concept des

The EU has approved more sanctions against Russia, the 14th set since the war with Ukraine started in 2022. The latest restrictions focus on the shadow fleet carrying Russian crude oil and oil products, as well as LNG carriers. Currently ports in Bel

It couldn’t be easier to sign up for a whole year of shipping news and views with a subscription to Ships Monthly, the magazine which gives you the in-depth coverage of ships and shipping, past and present, maritime heritage, and with a glimpse into

• Passengers have two hours on board MyStar and Megastar, as the ferries are the fastest on this route. This was once the world’s biggest international ferry service with more than ten million passengers using it before Covid. Although the trip is sh

With much interest I read Trevor Coppock ‘s most sad report (SM, May) detailing the fate of the famous Bounty, the replica ship built for the 1982 movie ‘The Bounty’, starring Mel Gibson as Fletcher Christian. As an AB and photographer, I crewed in t

• We are thrilled to announce our latest competition, offering you the chance to win an unforgettable adventure to either of the beautiful archipelagos of Shetland and Orkney. • PRIZE One lucky winner will receive a return ferry trip to Shetland or O

This month’s colour mystery was supplied by Thomas Rinaldi, who found an old black and white negative at a flea market in New York. Hesays: ‘Myguessisthat this is somewhere in Germany, circa 1930, as other photographs in the set showed a crossing on

On the outbreak of war in 1914, the Royal Navy found it required more small craft than it possessed to carry out minesweeping, anti-submarine patrols and coastal defence. This led to the formation of an auxiliary force of civilian vessels, including

One of the world’s best-known cruise lines, P&O Cruises can trace its history back over 180 years. Through an impressive and unique collection of photographs and images, this new and updated edition of A Photographic History of P&O Cruises details th

The Tall Ship Glenlee in Glasgow has become a paid attraction again, having reintroduced a small admissions charge for visitors coming on board from 1 July. Up until now, the iconic visitor attraction on the River Clyde, which welcomes 200,000 visito