Fantastic Photo's of Queen Mary 2 & her Captain

Its been a wee while since time has allowed some updates on the blog however a lot of new things happening and in the meantime check out these amazing photographs of the Captain of the majestic liner Queen Mary 2.
The photographs are from friends of the Leith Shipyards website over at http://freeshipplans.com/
a great site of interest for all things to do with ships and you get free plans as well.

The Great Liners Story This history charts the hey-day of the great liners, those grand and lavish vessels that cruised around the world carrying their glamorous passengers from port to port. Decorated to the highest of finishes, fitted out in the most luxurious of styles, these floating palaces epitomised their opulent age. Their iconic names, from Titanic to Mauretania, from Queen Elizabeth to QE2, conjure up visions of power, grace, elegance and nostalgia for this golden age of travel. Written by maritime and cruise liner expert William Miller, and accompanied by stunning photographs, artworks, Did You Know facts and quotations, The Great Liners Story is a must-have addition to any maritime library.

There is always a bound between a ship and her captain. Mostly they try to have a picture with most of ships they are in command of. Queen Mary 2′s Captain Kevin Oprey posed with his ship in an unusual way, but the result is so amazing.


The Captain of the liner Queen Mary 2 walks on water or so it would seem from this amazing photograph, he is of course standing on her bulbous bow in a very calm sea



The Captain of the Queen Mary 2 stands on her bulbous bow and gives some indication of the scale of this magnificent liner


 

For more great photographs of the Queen Mary 2 and many other visit the Leith Shipyards photos pages.



Transatlantic Liners Prior to air travel there was only one way to cross the Atlantic: by ship. By the late nineteenth century, steam ships dominated the transatlantic passenger trade, growing exponentially in size as maritime technology improved and as more immigrants poured from Europe into the New World. As the liners got bigger, the scope for luxury increased, so that a substantial part of ships such as Titanic would be given over to sumptuous dining saloons, lounges, smoking rooms and even gymnasia for the most affluent passengers. Meanwhile, the bulk of passengers, the poor migrants with one-way tickets to America, were efficiently arranged in small cabins with bunks in the bows and stern of the ship. This book is an introduction to the age of the superliner, from 1900 to the modern day, exploring changes in the liner's design and role over a century that saw competition between shipping lines and between nations. The author describes the history and design of such great ships as Lusitania, Olympic, Imperator, Normandie, both queen Elizabeths, both queen Marys and, of course, the legendary Titanic. He tells the story of the heyday of the great liners before immigration to America was curtailed, the many races for the Blue Riband speed record, the experiences of rich and poor passengers, the role of the liners as troopships and hospital ships during the world wars, and the decline in the Atlantic trade after the 1960s, since when most passengers have travelled by air.

What Happened to THE MILLER

The Miller in winter Ship No 194


The above photograph was sent into the Leith Shipyards website from a lady who lived on this fine old coaster for around 5 years and it has found memories for her and many others which brings me to the question What happened to THE MILLER

Visit the E-Book library of Ships and the Sea

Has she been to the scrap yard or is she still around just wasting away in some back water siding, we are sure that one of our informed readers will be able to let us know, is this very fine example of a Short Sea Coaster still around she was built in 1932 at the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb Ltd and was one of the many used to ferry freight around the British Isles in the days before road transport took over to block most of our inner city roads and add to the pollution and congestion that we all seem to just take for granted these days, how many trucks were used to replace just one ship such as THE MILLER.

HMNZS MOA Ships name plate recovered

HMNZS Moa (T233) had an eventful war serving as part of a minesweeper flotilla in the Solomon Islands, and working long and dangerous hours in the area of Guadalcanal,

She took part in the sinking of the Japanese submarine I-1 and many other adventures, before being sunk by Japanese dive bombers.

HMNZS MOA (7^th April 1943) was hit by two bombs in Tulagi, Harbour while re-fuelling and she sank within 4 minutes with the loss of five crewmen, and a total of 15 wounded.

HMNZS MOA ships letters recovered for conservation and eventual presentation at the Devonport Naval Museum Auckland, New Zealand

HMNZS MOA Ship No 314 (photo credit unknown for now)

Her name plate has now been recovered by divers and is being looked after by the marine archaeologist Brigid Gallagher who was amongst others responsible for the successful BBC programme “Timeline” now working out of New Zealand it is her responsibility to bring the ships letters back to a presentation condition and then hand the ships name plates back to the Royal New Zealand Navy for display and further recognition as to the fine part played by this gallant little ship during action in World War Two

HMNZS MOA

I am a conservator in New Zealand, and have been commissioned to conserve the 3 letters, M,O,A from the above ship for the Naval Museum in Devonport Auckland. These letters were lifted from the seabed in the Solomons by divers and now returned officially to New Zealand.

The sinking of the replica ship Bounty

Relplica of the HMS BOUNTY at Halifax “Tall Ships” 2012 (The Loftsman Collection)

For tales of the original HMS BOUNTY

The US NTSB has released its report into the Sinking of the Bounty

 

A captain's "reckless decision to sail into the well-forecasted path of Hurricane Sandy" was the probable cause of the sinking of a ship off the North Carolina coast in October 2012, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a report released today. The captain and one crewmember died in the accident. Three other crewmembers were seriously injured

The Challenges of Command This book explores the ways that the Edwardian naval arms race forced the Royal Navy to address deep-seated structural problems caused by rapidly changing technology. It charts how an institution organised for three hundred years around sailing ships, faced the challenge of steel and steam, and what that meant for an officer class recruited largely on the basis of its social class rather than technical expertise.

 

The 16-page report details how a mostly inexperienced crew - some injured from falls, others seasick and fatigued from the constant thrashing of 30-foot seas - struggled for many hours to keep the ships engines running and bilge pumps operating so the seawater filling the vessel would not overtake it.
In the early morning hours of October 29, 2012, about 110 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C., the Bounty heeled sharply to the starboard side after taking on more than 10 feet of water in the final hours of a three and a half day voyage that the NTSB said, "should never have been attempted."
Despite hurricane winds gusting upwards of 100 mph, the U.S. Coast Guard was able to rescue all but two of the Bounty's 16 crewmembers by hoisting them from the sea into three Jayhawk helicopters in the midst of the storm. The body of one crewmember was found, still in a protective immersion suit, about 10 hours after rescue operations had commenced. The captain was presumed lost at sea; his body was never recovered.

The Way of a Ship When, as a young man in the 1880s, Benjamin Lundy signed up for duty aboard a square-rigged commercial sailing vessel, he began a journey more exciting, and more terrifying, than he could have ever imagined: a treacherous, white-knuckle passage around that notorious "graveyard of ships," Cape Horn. A century later, Derek Lundy, author of the bestselling Godforsaken Sea and an accomplished amateur seaman himself, set out to recount his forebear's journey. The Way of a Ship is a mesmerizing account of life on board a square-rigger, a remarkable reconstruction of a harrowing voyage through the most dangerous waters. Derek Lundy's masterful account evokes the excitement, romance, and brutality of a bygone era -- "a fantastic ride through one of the greatest moments in the history of adventure" ( Seattle Times ).

The KOBENHAVN Builders Plate

Representation of a builders plate from the Barque KOBENHAVN built at the Leith Shipyards of Ramage & Ferguson Ltd, 1921

This picture of what may or not have been a builders plate from the unfortunate ship KOBENHAVN Yard No 256 built at the Ramage & Ferguson shipyards at Leith in 1921, when she was lost in the Winter of 1928 has now been assessed by experts in Denmark and in Glasgow and the consensus of opinion is that this particular builders plate is not from the poor ship, although it may have been made as a commemoration of the mysterious loss of the KOBENHAVN with all her 15 crew and 45 cadets.

So one of the great maritime mystery stories continues and perhaps one day we shall find out what happened to this 5 masted Barque 3,901 grt, which was the largest sailing ship ever built in a British shipyard.

Ocean going Salvage Tugs

In the quest to bring more photographs and information to the maritime interested public about the ships built at the Leith Shipyards we now have the following photographs on the website along with many more shown and still to be shown.

The dangers of Ocean Going Salvage and the power required to tow Super Tankers is amply shown here in the following two photographs sent into the Leith Shipyards website by Bob Terry one of the crew on the mighty Ocean going tug Wolraad Woltemade Ship No 516

A tow on this ship that is on fire shows some of the danger involved in Ocean Going Salvage work, nothing that the Wolraad Woltemade could not handle from this photograph taken by Bob Terry in 1982 and shown by permission

The mighty Ocean Going Salvage Tug Wolraad Woltemade Ship No 516 arriving at Cape Town towing a "Super Tanker" in 1982 photo by Bob Terry and shown by permission

Super Tanker tow into Cape Town in 1982 the Woltemade was well capable of handling such a tow by herself.

If we go back to the dark days of World War Two, when the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb took to the building of the then mighty Salvage and Rescue tugs of the Bustler Class.

A new book is almost ready for publishing, it will be on the bookshelf in April 2022

HMS HERALD - New Photographs

The Blog and website are now fortunate enough to have been gifted many photographs of the survey ship HMS HERALD Ship No 512
The photographs have been sent in by W. Russell who was a member of the ships company from the time the Royal Navy arrived at Leith to do there work on the new ship as she was being built in the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb from 1972/1973

HMS HERALD outfitting at the basin in Leith winter of 1973
photograph by W. Russell and shown here by permission

Over time many more photographs will be seen in the new series of books on the Leith-Built Ships, with HMS Herald being in Volume-IV which should be out in 2023.

Royal Navy, The Since 1900, the Royal Navy has seen vast operational changes. This book tells the story, not just of victory and defeat, but also of how the Navy has adjusted to a century of rapid technological and social change. The extensive reforms made by Admiral Fisher at the dawn of the twentieth century saw the navy's nineteenth-century wooden fleet replaced with the latest modern technology - battleships (including the iconic dreadnoughts), aircraft carriers and submarines. In World War I and World War II, the navy played a central role, with unrestricted submarine warfare and supply blockades becoming an integral part of combat. However it was the development of nuclear and missile technology during the Cold War era which drastically changed the face of naval warfare - today the navy can launch sea-based strikes across thousands of miles to reach targets deep inland. This book places the wars and battles fought by the navy - from Jutland to the Falklands - within a wider context, looking at political, economic, social and cultural issues, as well as providing a thorough operational history.