John Burling supplied this month’s mystery ship, sending in two photos to test readers’ knowledge. He saw the ship moored in the river Tamar at Plymouth in the mid-1980s, and the dredger in mid-river was photographed in Portsmouth harbour in…
Captain Paul Sellers, master of Irish Ferries’ chartered ro-pax Epsilon, talks to Jehan Ashmore about his career and the role of the Italian-flagged ferry Epsilon, which operates two routes: Dublin to Holyhead and, at weekends, a roundtrip between the Irish…
Captain Rune Andreassen, master of the purpose built, ice-strengthened specialist adventure cruise ship Fram owned by Hurtigruten, talks to Steve Newman about his career, ship and the challenges of ice navigation. Why did you go to sea?I guess the sea…
The October Mystery Ship is the 4,119grt ‘turret’ steamer Pearlmoor, which was designed and completed in 1905 by W. Doxford & Sons at their Pallion Yard on the Wear, to the order of Walter Runciman & Co’s Moor Line of…
This month’s mystery ship was supplied by Jim Shaw, who commented: ‘All I know is that the photo was taken in Kaohsiung, Taiwan and is rumoured to be that of a former Dutch passenger/cargo vessel. Unfortunately, there is not much…
This month’s mystery ship was supplied by Mr M. Stevenson, of Tockington, Bristol, who wrote: ‘My grandfather, a ship’s captain in the early 1900s, may have been involved with this ship, possibly around Japan. Unfortunately I don’t have much information…
Close scrutiny of the photograph reveals the vessel to be Lempa, the second of two identical fruit ships completed in late 1952 by the German shipbuilders Bremer Vulkan atVegesak for the Honduran subsidiary of the US-controlled United Fruit Company, Empresa…
Captain Ian Hutley has had a long career at sea, starting with P&O cargo ships, and later P&O cruise ships. But he is now a senior master with Red Funnel on waters much closer to home, as he explained to…
The August Mystery Ship was the liner Hikawa Maru, which is preserved in her company colours of the Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) Line (Japan Mail Steamship Co)at Yokohama. The 11,622grt vessel was built in 1930 as a passengercargo liner for…
This month’s mystery ship shows some kind of small cargo vessel berthed in port. The name on the ship is unreadable, unfortunately, making identification more difficult. So can any reader supply more information about this ship, or indeed the vessel…