World Ship Society Gloucester Branch 2017/2018

For its Monday 13 February meeting the World Ship Society Gloucester Branch enjoyed a presentation by Branch member Ted Tedaldi entitled "A Year In Gloucester Docks" - chronicling the twelve months from October 2015 and concluding with a Good Friday voyage down the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal aboard Britain's Scottish built twelve metre 1958 Americas Cup competitor "Sceptre". Also seen under restoration were the three masted barque "Kaskelot" with its variable pitch propeller, schooner "Den Store Bjorern" (pictured) and the Bristol Channel pilot cutters Mascotte - dating from 1904 - and Fleetwood built Alpha of similar vintage.Monday 11 September 2017 marked the start of a new season of meetings for the Gloucester Branch of the World Ship Society in a brand new venue: Community Space, Tesco Store, St Oswald Road, Gloucester GL1 2SG.  All meetings will start at 1930 and attendees are requested to sign in at the Customer Services Desk.  Everyone is welcome and the meeting programme is as follows:

 

 

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Greenock born Captain Edwin Gregson(1929-1987), master of the MV Tropic, on a summer 1976 voyage from Falmouth to the American Gulf Ports of New Orleans, Port Arthur, Galveston and Houston and thence via a transit of the Panama Canal to Australia, New Zealand and back via the Caribbean.On Monday 11 September our 2017/ 2018 season began at the new venue of The Community Space, Tesco store, St Oswald’s Road, with a traditional WSS Powerpoint presentation of slides taken by Greenock born Captain Edwin Gregson (1929-1987), master of the MV Tropic, on a summer 1976 voyage from Falmouth to the American Gulf Ports of New Orleans, Port Arthur, Galveston and Houston and thence via a transit of the Panama Canal to Australia, New Zealand and back via the Caribbean.
The 6 660 GRT MV Tropic (pictured above) had been built at Burntisland, Scotland, in 1965 as the Nova Scotia for Liverpool based Furness Withy Ltd but was renamed at Falmouth – just before the voyage in the presentation.  Retaining the IMO registration 6501305, MV Tropic stayed under charter to Shaw Savill and Albion until 1978 when she became the Booker Valiant.  A move to Saudi ownership in 1980 saw the name change again to Arab Dabbor and then, from 1986 to scrapping in 1998, to Arab Hind.
Edwin Gregson had previously served on Furness Withy's Vickers-Armstrong built refrigerator cargo ship Pacific Reliance and the liners Ocean Monarch and Queen of Bermuda. Edwin Gregson had previously served on Furness Withy’s Vickers-Armstrong built refrigerator cargo ship Pacific Reliance and the liners Ocean Monarch and Queen of Bermuda. Ocean Monarch, like its chilled out fleetmate, was built on Tyneside in 1951 but sank after a fire thirty years later. Queen of Bermuda meanwhile was a Vickers-Armstrong product of 1933 and became one of the “Millionaires ships”, cruising to Bermuda from New York.  However, her lavish wood panelled interior may have contributed – on safety grounds – to her retirement in 1966, by which time she had been reduced from three funnels to one.
The outward voyage of the MV Tropic, using long range radio navigation (LORAN), coincided with the opening of the Olympic Games in Toronto and landfall was first made in the grain exporting centre of New Orleans.  Further stops were made at Port Arthur ( home of Janis Joplin) to load oil products and also at Houston, sailing past Galveston’s Point Bolivar lighthouse to Houston where the Port Authority celebrated the MV Tropic’s first visit with a commemorative plaque.
Meanwhile, between Sydney and Melbourne, the MV Tropic’s lifeboat helped in the search for the missing crew of the five metre yacht Tiger Shark III which had been reported capsized in the area trying to cross the Bass Straits to Tasmania.  Sadly, two bodies were later washed ashore.  Captain Gregson then set a course for Brisbane where he collected a cargo of combine harvesters and took them, via New Zealand and Jamaica, to San Juan, Puerto Rico.  The voyage ended at Bridgetown Barbados where Captain Gregson relinquished command, flew home and later became the Chairman of the Mid Essex branch of the World Ship Society.
Our very welcome guest on Monday 9 October 2017 was Deryck Pritchard, operational crew member and fundraiser for the Severn Area Rescue Association whose PowerPoint presentation included still and moving images of the boats, vehicles and equipment used to assist those in trouble on Great Britain's longest river.Our very welcome guest on Monday 9 October 2017 was Deryck Pritchard, operational crew member and fundraiser for the Severn Area Rescue Association whose PowerPoint presentation included still and moving images of the boats, vehicles and equipment used to assist those in trouble on Great Britain’s longest river.
Formed in 1973, SARA has stations at Beachley, Sharpness, Tewkesbury and Wyre Forest, near Kidderminster and its volunteers are funded entirely by donations.  SARA sub stations are also located at Newport, Gwent, and Gloucester and the Beachley station also covers the River Wye.  Beachley, the original SARA station, located on the former Aust Ferry slipway, includes volunteer staff with mountain rescue skills – useful in the steep Wye Valley.
All main SARA stations have staff trained in swift water wading rescue techniques and each crew member brings a new set of skills to the operation, including medicine, marine engine repair and navigation.  Among the various items of equipment used by SARA are inflatable mud sleds and mud lances – used to foam air or water under casualties being sucked into the many mudflats of the lower River Severn.
Current SARA boats can be either launched by trailer or crane and, like all SARA equipment, need to be thoroughly cleaned of salt water and mud before re use. Due to these hostile conditions, equipment needs to be regularly replaced with the distinctive white helmets and red lifejackets of each crew member alone costing £150 and £450 respectively. Most SARA boats are rigid inflatables (RIB) with either glass reinforced plastic or welded aluminium hulls although SARA 18 is made of solid polythene with air pockets - making it more durable as a flood rescue boat when working among urban street furniture. Also in the fleet is an ex Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue hovercraft, capable of 30 mph but prone to pitching and rolling in choppy water.Current SARA boats can be either launched by trailer or crane and, like all SARA equipment, need to be thoroughly cleaned of salt water and mud before re use.  Due to these hostile conditions, equipment needs to be regularly replaced with the distinctive white helmets and red lifejackets of each crew member alone costing £150 and £450 respectively. Most SARA boats are rigid inflatables (RIB) with either glass reinforced plastic or welded aluminium hulls although SARA 18 is made of solid polythene with air pockets – making it more durable as a flood rescue boat when working among urban street furniture.  Also in the fleet is an ex Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue hovercraft, capable of 30 mph but prone to pitching and rolling in choppy water.
Boats can be towed on trailers to optimum launch positions by winch and snorkel fitted Land Rover and Ford Ranger 4x4s which are permitted to travel on roads with blue flashing lights and two tone sirens.  Once in position, front tow hitches are used to push the boat trailers into the water, allowing the driver a better view of the operations.  SARA 2, which took part in the Diamond Jubilee River Pageant in 2012, is launched by a cradle trailer pushed by a New Holland tractor – galvanised against rust and snorkel fitted.  The Delta 6.5X RIB DAVE MOORE has twin 90 bhp outboard motors with post immersion restart features and a self righting airbag.  It also has towing bollards and a casualty stretcher.  More information can be found at http://www.sara-rescue.org.uk/
On Monday 13 November Branch Secretary Alan Drewett delivered his Powerpoint presentation “Rail and Shipping Entwined which has now been written up as a an article on this website.
Our 11 December meeting took the now-traditional form of a raffle and buffet following the photographic print competition for The Les Tibbetts Memorial Shield. In 2017 this was won by Branch member Tony Beaman with a dramatic picture of one of the Lake Geneva ferries. Our 11 December meeting took the now-traditional form of a raffle and buffet following the photographic print competition for The Les Tibbetts Memorial Shield.  In 2017 this was won by Branch member Tony Beaman ( pictured left in the black jacket with Branch Chairman Ken Guest in the white pullover) with a dramatic picture of one of the Lake Geneva ferries.  Thanks go to Branch Secretary Alan Drewett for organising the raffle, Chairman Ken Guest for organising the competition and to everyone who brought food and prizes.
The beauty of the shores of Lake Geneva and of the sites of many of the places near its banks has long been celebrated. However, it is only from the eastern end of the lake, between Vevey and Villeneuve, that the scenery assumes an Alpine character. On the south side the mountains of Savoy and Valais are for the most part rugged and sombre, while those of the northern shore fall in gentle vine-covered slopes, thickly set with villages and castles.   In 1827, Lake Geneva was the site for the first measurement of the speed of sound in (fresh) water.  French mathematician Jacques Charles François Sturm and Swiss Physicist Daniel Collodon used two moored boats, separated by a measured distance, as the transmit and receive platforms for the sounds of exploding gunpowder. The loud airborne sound coupled into the lake, establishing a loud underwater sound that could be measured at a distance. The flash of the exploding gunpowder provided the visual starting cue for the timepiece, and the underwater explosion sound striking a bell provided the finish cue.  More recently, the late David Bowie moved to a chalet to the north of Lake Geneva in 1976, which inspired him to take up painting and informed the first stages of his Berlin Trilogy of LPs.  Drummer and singer Phil Collins lives in a home overlooking the lake while rock band Queen owned and operated Mountain Recording Studios (which is still in use today) in Montreux and a statue of lead singer Freddie Mercury, who also owned a second home in Montreux, stands on the northern shore of the lake. 
For our Monday 8 January meeting Branch member Hugh Conway-Jones screened a number of motion pictures on the theme of Gloucester Docks, ranging from a mute amateur-shot documentary on changing timber handling methods to parts of the 1986 TV mini series Return to Treasure Island starring Brian Blessed as Long John Silver and the tall ship KASKELOT renamed SARACEN. For our Monday 8 January meeting Branch member Hugh Conway-Jones screened a number of motion pictures on the theme of Gloucester Docks, ranging from a mute amateur-shot documentary on changing timber handling methods to parts of the 1986 TV mini series Return to Treasure Island starring Brian Blessed as Long John Silver and the tall ship KASKELOT  renamed SARACEN.  Footage from the 1980s also explored the lower reaches of the River Severn including the Bore, Purton Hulks and Sharpness Docks.  A recurring theme however was the redevelopment of Gloucester Docks for tourism.
“Modern Timber Handling Methods” showed timber arriving from the Baltic at Sharpness before being discharged from ocean going ships on to the shore, railway wagons or lighters for the onward voyage along the canal to Gloucester Docks.  The bundles of planks were lifted off the ships in chains and the lack of hard hats and high visibility clothing was very noticeable.  At the Price Walker yard in Gloucester, planks were manually unloaded one at a time by men on piecework.  Railway wagons loaded with timber were then seen being pushed along by wheeled diesel tugs but more mechanisation arrived in the form of derrick and mobile diesel cranes and diesel powered straddle carriers.  These specialist vehicles required a new layout for the yard.
The opening sequence of Return to Treasure Island featured a number of Gloucester Dock buildings which have since been demolished, while documentaries from the 1980s featured salmon fishing with hand nets, the wrecked petrol barges Wastdale H and Arkendale H and an interview with Fred Rowbotham (1909-1999).  Fred was for many years District Engineer for the Lower Severn District of the Severn River Authority where among other things he was responsible for land drainage, clearing the principal tributaries, and improvements to flood defences.
Hugh's final film was of the former RFA FRESHSPRING at Newnham on the River Severn, including interviews with the late Oswald Burgess and WSS Gloucester Branch member John Hooper.In this instance he was talking about Nodense, the Roman God of the River Severn and his manifestation in the power of the Severn Bore.  At the M48 bridge, the River Severn has a 55′ tidal range, necessitating a sea lock at Sharpness to allow the import of grain and timber and the export of scrap metal.  The traditional Severn sailing vessels, known as Trows, were also built with flat bottoms and an internal keel to cope with the shallow water available at low tide.
Later in the 1980s both Birmingham based Central News and Bristol’s HTV West recorded the decline of Gloucester as a working port and its rebirth as a tourism honeypot.  While Priday Metford’s hi-tech flour mill remained in use for many years afterwards, much screen time was taken by the launch of the National Waterways Museum and the Robert Opie Museum of Packaging as well as the trip boat HEATHER SPRAY.  A visit to Gloucester as a city on the A38 trunk road by historian Anthony Burton also revealed a 1972 plan by the British Waterways Board to fill in Gloucester Docks with the rubble of its demolished warehouses.  Today however, a gentrified Gloucester Docks survives.
Hugh’s final film was of the former RFA FRESHSPRING at Newnham on the River Severn, including interviews with the late Oswald Burgess and WSS Gloucester Branch member John Hooper.  The last water tank vessel built for the Royal Navy, powered by a 450 bhp triple expansion engine, has since been moved to Bideford for restoration. RFA Freshspring was launched by Lytham Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, on 15 August 1946.   After trials in February 1947, she sailed to her long term base in Malta. Initially coal fired she was converted to run on heavy fuel oil in 1956 whilst in Malta with three burners, one in each of the coal furnaces. She returned to the UK in 1967 to replace a sister ship, Freshpond, at Devonport. Prior to being put into reserve in 1976 at Gareloch, she also worked in and around the Clyde and Pembroke docks and she was surveyed and refitted at Ardrossan in 1969.  She was offered for sale in 1977 and sold two years later to a private owner who towed her to Bristol, which is where she was last steamed. After problems in Bristol with thefts including much of the wheelhouse equipment, she was then moved to Newnham on Severn.
Our Monday 12 February meeting took the form of a PowerPoint presentation by branch member Keith Reed entitled "Transatlantic Westbound" about his autumn 2016 voyage aboard Norwegian Cruise Line's NORWEGIAN JADE ( IMO 9304507 93,558 grt 7,500 deadweight) from Barcelona to Tampa, Florida, by way of Cartagena, Malaga, Madeira, Nassau and Miami.Our Monday 12 February meeting took the form of a PowerPoint presentation by branch member Keith Reed entitled “Transatlantic Westbound” about his autumn 2016 voyage aboard Norwegian Cruise Line’s NORWEGIAN JADE ( IMO 9304507  93,558 grt 7,500 deadweight) from Barcelona to Tampa, Florida, by way of Cartagena, Malaga, Madeira, Nassau and Miami.
Built at Germany’s Meyer Werft shipyard in 2006, the 294 metre long vessel with the radio call sign C6WK7 was originally named PRIDE OF HAWAII and flew the American flag before being re registered in the Bahamas and re flagged as part of Norwegian Cruise Line’s Jewel Class in 2008.  NORWEGIAN JADE features swivelling podded engines and thrusters but no rudder and is in contact with 24 navigation satellites.  At 22 knots (28 mph), the $ 510 million cruise liner with the MMSI 308416000 burns a gallon of fuel every second and features 16 different restaurants with cuisine ranging from Brazilian and Italian to steak.
The currency used aboard is US$ and the average age of the  2 200 British, American and Canadian passengers, Keith noted, was over 70.  Despite the operating company, none of the crew were Norwegian: being mainly Filipinos and Swedes under a series of Bulgarian captains.  Keith chose this trans Atlantic voyage rather than the more obvious Southampton to New York route as it was more interesting.  Barcelona itself yielded the sight of fleet mate NORWEGIAN EPIC bound for Florida’s Port Canaveral, the roll on-roll off ferry GNV EXCELLENT,  container ship DUSSELDORF EXPRESS and the COSTA FASCINOSA with its distinctive yellow funnel.
Cartagena was a walled city with a heritage of the empires of Carthage and Rome with a coliseum discovered in 1988 and a preserved bull ring.  Mainly known as a naval port, Cartagena had one jetty for cruise ships.  Malaga meanwhile yielded the sight of a cathedral was built between 1528 and 1782 on or near the site of a former mosque. While original plans had allowed for two towers, both lack of funds and money donated by Spain to the cause of American Independence resulted in the completion of only one, giving rise to the name by which the cathedral is affectionately referred to, La Manquita, loosely interpreted as “one armed woman”.  Also noted afloat in Malaga was the former Stranraer ferry STENA GALLOWAY.  Moving to the Portuguese territory of Madeira, NORWEGIAN JADE encountered P&O’s OCEANA,  a replica of Christopher Columbus’s SANTA MARIA and Fred. Olsen’s BALMORAL, a former Norwegian Cruise Lines ship also built by Meyer Werft.
During this brief stop in the current home of Sean Connery, NORWEGIAN JADE encountered fleetmates NORWEGIAN SKY and NORWEGIAN BREAKAWAY as well as the "fun ship" CARNIVAL PRIDE with its distinctive winged funnel.From Funchal, the 3 000 mile journey to the New World took four days although due to the presence of a force 9 gale and 25′ waves, the scheduled landfall in Bermuda was not possible.  However, a one hour stop had to be made at Nassau, Bahamas to allow a passenger with a broken hip to be taken to hospital.  During this brief stop in the current home of Sean Connery, NORWEGIAN JADE encountered fleetmates NORWEGIAN SKY and NORWEGIAN BREAKAWAY as well as the “fun ship” CARNIVAL PRIDE with its distinctive winged funnel (pictured left).
Miami, the cruise ship capital of the World, heralded the fingerprinting of passengers courtesy of US Immigration as well as glimpses of  the Florida East Coast Railway, gated communities, Art Deco hotels, Little Havana and one of the many houses owned by Justin Bieber.  The Gulf of Mexico was then reached via a 12 knot voyage round the Florida Keys with Tampa also sheltering Royal Caribbean International’s ENCHANTMENT OF THE SEAS, buoy tender JOSHUA APPLEBY and Liberty ship AMERICAN VICTORY.  From Tampa, Keith took a coach to Orlando airport, from where he flew back to Britain via Reykjavik with Icelandair.
The Arkendale H and Wastdale H lay together on the mud in the middle of the river above the bridge and although attempts were made to salvage the vessels, they all failed. So that they would not float again both barges were ripped open with explosives. To this day they both lay there, clearly visible from the shore at Purton, a reminder of the Severn Bridge Disaster.For our Monday 12 March meeting Branch member Chris Witts gave a PowerPoint presentation on The Severn Bore.  Although not unique in the World, or even Britain, the tidal bore on the River Severn has a special fascination – not least for the expert surfers such as Steve King who set a record distance of 7.6 miles in March 2006.  However, such is the power of the gravity wave confined by the narrowing banks of the river that inexperienced surfers can be thrown on to the banks.  And surfers also have to contend with dead animals, tree branches and even oil drums!  Chris Witts is an internationally acknowledged expert on the Severn and its Bore and his Severn Tales website is definitely worth a visit.  Among the topics covered are the wrecked oil barges ARKENDALE H and WASTDALE H,which  still lie in the Severn off Purton following the Severn Railway Bridge of 25 October 1960.
From their introduction on the 100 minute scheduled Bristolian in June 1959 until the withdrawal of D832 "Onslaught" in December 1972 the D800 Warships served their railway well in spite of teething troubles with their paintwork, multiple unit wiring and inside-framed spring-and-link suspended Krauss-Maffei bogies. The latter needed a complete redesign for the somewhat top heavy D800s which ran at considerably faster speeds than their V200 ancestors. Data obtained from tests with D813 "Diadem" during 1960 was then applied to all other class members and also to the later Westerns, starting with D1000 “Western Enterprise” seen here. The D800 Warships were supplanted by D1000 series Westerns on top link duties as the 1960s progressed. Double headed runs to Cornwall and services from Waterloo to Exeter were among their final duties although D821 "Greyhound" and D832 "Onslaught" have been preserved. Indeed, both the D800 Warships - and later C-C bogied D1000 Westerns - were later to prove that the compact lightweight construction offered by stressed skin techniques could be a double edged sword. The D800 Warships were not fitted with air ( as opposed to vacuum ) braking or electric train heat (ETH) and as such were not compatible with British Railway’s later Mark II coaching stock. More to the point, the Bristol Siddeley Maybach prime movers were already near the limit of their output. Warships pictured hard at work nearly always have their roof vents firmly open to let out the surplus heat! Despite this, a scheme was drawn up to apply charge air cooling ( later successfully used on the English Electric Class 50s ) to the Maybach engines so that they could be uprated to drive an electric train heat generator and D870 "Zulu" was to have carried this as an experiment. Some parts were ordered, including the jumper cables, but the engine went into traffic without the generator.For our  Monday 9 April 2018 meeting Branch member Peter Evans gave a nostalgic presentation with old fashioned 35mm transparencies. Like Alan Drewett’s Rail and Shipping Entwined Powerpoint this embraced Sharpness and Southampton Docks but also took the audience on a romp through the 1960s and the lens of his Ilford Sportsman camera.  In fact Ilford was one of the few places Peter didn’t go in his quest for steam and diesel power. Locations included Birkenhead ( with its allocation of 9F 2-10-0s), Dundee and Aberystwyth and even a quick foray to what was then West Germany two weeks after Geoff Hurst’s World Cup Hat Trick.
“Photografen dampf bitte?” was the phrase which allowed Peter to access many German depots around Emden, inmates at the time including 01-10 4-6-2s and 23067, a 2-6-2.  West German steam lasted to 1972 and was kept in good condition to the end while across the Iron Curtain “der dampfloken” puffed on into the 1980s, Western enthusiasts providing the old DDR with a source of valuable foreign currency.
92214 seen at the top here is a sister engine to 92220 “Evening Star”, the last steam locomotive built for British Railways.Talking of Westerns (pictured above), the much loved Swindon designed C-C diesel hydraulics appeared at the now long gone Cheltenham Malvern Road station in Peter’s presentation along with Peak and Brush Type 4 diesel electrics on what is now the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway.  It was quite eerie seeing the line double tracked – and hosting trains heading for Bristol from Newcastle and York as well as working 1V33 – the Wolverhampton to Penzance Cornishman.  A diesel hydraulic B-B Hymek was also noted at the now demolished Haresfield station and Gloucestershire was further represented by Central and Eastgate, the two Gloucester Stations, Stonehouse, Brimpscombe and Bullo Pill Junction, Speech House, Coleford, Cinderford and Lydney Junction.  These locations, along with the Eastern United colliery signal box, were visited in 1964 as part of a six brake van Forest of Dean railtour, hauled partly by ex GWR small pannier tank 1684.
As Japan was not to formally capitulate until 2 September 1945, the new Bulleid light pacifics were built under Austerity conditions while British industry slowly transitioned back from war to peacetime production.Other Western Region steam classes included Hall 4-6-0s, 43xx Moguls, 14xx 0-4-2Ts and a number of 72xx 2-8-2Ts.  Although sometimes hauling iron ore trains all the way from Ebbw Vale to Salisbury, these mighty tank engines were mainly associated with South Wales, also home to the awe inspiring Crumlin and Walnut Tree viaducts.  Crumlin Viaduct was the tallest in the UK at 200′ while Walnut Tree was engineered by Sir James Szlumper, the man behind the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway.  These mighty structures were eventually dismantled for the scrap value of their iron, while Gloucestershire’s Dowdeswell Viaduct was blown up – knocking Peter on to his back as he was standing too close to the explosion!  After picking himself back up, Peter also visited Bournemouth, the Isle of Wight, Shap, Edinburgh and Glasgow as well as depots at Leeds Holbeck, Burton on Trent and  Nine Elms, home of rebuilt examples of O.V. S. Bulleid’s West Country (pictured), Battle of Britain and Merchant Navy 4-6-2s
Following our Monday 14 May 2018  Annual General Meeting Branch Chairman Ken Guest gave a Powerpoint presentation entitled "Norwegian Odyssey".  This followed the July 2017 voyage of P&O Cruises blue funnelled AURORA ( IMO 9169524  76 512 GT ) from Southampton to Bergen via Haugesund, Olden and Geiranger.  The first port of call featured Norwegian artist Nils Aas's sculpture of Marilyn Monroe, sited on the docks as a tribute to her father, Martin Edward Mortensen, who hailed from the village of Skjold, 20 kilometres away.Following our Monday 14 May 2018  Annual General Meeting Branch Chairman Ken Guest gave a Powerpoint presentation entitled “Norwegian Odyssey”.  This followed the July 2017 voyage of P&O Cruises blue funnelled AURORA ( IMO 9169524  76 512 GT ) from Southampton to Bergen via Haugesund, Olden and Geiranger.  The first port of call featured Norwegian artist Nils Aas’s sculpture of Marilyn Monroe, sited on the docks as a tribute to her father, Martin Edward Mortensen, who hailed from the village of Skjold, 20 kilometres away.  Geiranger meanwhile offered the Seven Sisters waterfall and the Eagles Nest viewpoint while Bergen had a funicular railway, a Hanseatic League museum and just 30 days of sunshine a year.
Ken was to point out the difference between P&O Cruises AURORA and the Russian museum ship cruiser Aurora which is permanently moored in St Petersburg.  The P&O vessel is not armed for a start, nor was fleetmate BRITANNIA (IMO 9614036 143 730 GT) seen at the recently redeveloped Ocean Terminal in Southampton on departure from Southampton with the escorting tug SVITZER ESTON (IMO 9701968 299 GT) as AURORA slid past the former Calshot Spit lightship and Hythe Pier with its narrow gauge railway.  No indeed was the crude oil tanker SUVOROVSKY PROSPECT (IMO 95222324  62 504 GT) seen en route to Haugesund.  As well as the Marilyn Monroe statue, the town boasted houses with dragon carvings to ward off evil spirits and a church dating from 1858.  Also noted was Fijordlines’ STAVANGERFIJORD (IMO 9596605  31 678 GT) the first ferry in the World to run on Liquid Natural Gas.  In contrast, Ken could not help noticing the blue haze that followed his own and other cruise ships in Norwegian waters.