FAREWELL TO AN ICON

PHOTO: THOMAS RINALDI The number of historic ships

NEWS IN BRIEF

RENAMED The 1998-built Grimaldi Lines roro Eurocargo Istanbul

MSC continues to expand fleet

FLEET EXPANSION

UK Dredging expands fleet

NEWBUILD

Tenth year of preservation

DANIEL ADAMSON

Shields Ferry looks to renewable fuel

SMALL FERRY

Altera becomes Maran

COMPANY NEWS

Historic visitor

MOTOR YACHT

Another new LNG Capesizer

NEW BULKER

Move halted

ARCTIC CORSAIR

Stena Connecta launched in China

STENA LINE

Aground but no pollution

INCIDENT

Grampian Tweed named

WINDFARM

Earthquakes and taxes have an impact

SANTORINI

Sea trials for World America

MSC CRUISES

NEWS IN BRIEF

ROYAL CARIBBEAN The third ship in the 248,000gt

New for German market

TUI CRUISES

NEWS IN BRIEF

ATTICA GROUP TT-Line’s Akka has arrived in the

End of the road for British veteran

NORSEA

Channel Islands ferry furore

JERSEY/GUERNSEY

Simply not been good enough

ISLE OF WIGHT

Wandering Star goes back to the Baltic

BALTIC

New fast craft on the horizon

GOTLANDSBOLAGET

Viking’s shuttle alternative

BALTIC

Bienvenue Saint-Malo

NEW FERRY

Drone carrier commissioned for service

IRANIAN NAVY

Arafura’s delayed debut

RAN

One of the best made better

SWEDISH NAVY

Carrier collision could have been worse

US NAVY

Type 23 frigate concludes LIFEX

ROYAL NAVY

Underwater defence system

GERMAN NAVY

NEWS IN BRIEF

ROYAL NAVY The renaming of a submarine from

NEWS IN BRIEF

NEW BOXBOATS Taiwanese shipping company Evergreen Marine Corp

Golar sells its last ship

SALES

FPSO named in Singapore

NEWBUILD

HMM look to buy SK Shipping

INDUSTRY NEWS

Off to Norway for new life

DREDGER

New boxboat Sparkles

NEWBUILD

Grande Brasile suffers fire

CASUALTY

Farewell SS United States

HISTORIC LINER

PICTORIAL

Have you an outstanding photo that would grace our gallery? Send your image to Ships Monthly for inclusion in these pages, which showcase the best in ship photography around the world

BRINGING THE OIL ASHORE

Most people assume that North Sea oil comes ashore by pipeline. A lot of it does, but since the first oil was landed in 1975, much has been shipped by shuttle tanker. These tankers, and their ingenious offshore loading systems, have worked safely and reliably for 50 years. This anniversary is a good time to acknowledge a small group of ships which have made a huge contribution to the economy, as Steve Barron explains.

THE NEW GENERATION OF BALTIC FERRIES

In the past few years a new generation of exceptionally large and technologically advanced ferries has entered service on routes across the Baltic Sea. Bruce Peter looks at the most significant vessels that have recently entered service.

COASTERS CALLING MISTLEY

Mistley, on the River Stour in Essex, is one of the smaller ports in the UK, but a steady stream of coasters brings a variety of cargoes. This selec tion of photos from Derek Sands shows some of the ships that have visited.

COLD WAR CRISIS 1962

Malcolm Cranfield looks at the ships involved in the Soviet Union’s Operation Anadyr, which culminated in the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, an event of which the author was reminded in 2022 when Russia began its invasion of Ukraine.

A TRIP ON QUEEN ELIZABETH

Remembering a trip on board the 1938-built liner Queen Elizabeth in 1950, when the ship was calling at Cherbourg.

TWILIGHT OF A QUEEN

Having first encountered the famous Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth when she was dry-docked in Greenock in 1966, Alastair Innes was fortunate enough to travel on her fourth last westbound voyage from Southampton to New York in August 1968, when he was just 12 years old.

QUEEN ELIZABETH

MARKS 15 YEARS OF CUNARD SERVICE

MARITIME MOSAIC

CRUISE SHIPS IN POOLE

book of the month

SHIPS LIBRARY

IS LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS THE FUTURE FOR SHIPPING?

Although they are essentially floating incendiary bombs, liquefied

Ferries to Zeebrugge

The feature on the Port of Zeebrugge (SM,

A busy ferry crossroads in Sydney harbour

Peter Watson, of Busselton, Western Australia, sent a

Île de France at war

What a glorious photo of the liner Île

MYSTERY SHIP

JANUARY’S MYSTERY On 4 April 1957 Sir

NELSON AND RODNEY

Conrad Waters reviews the eventful careers of HMS Rodney and HMS Nelson, built in the 1920s, which became two the Royal Navy’s most powerful battleships.