April 2024 John Hooley travelled from Macclesfield to give us his Western Isles to the land of MacBraynes presentation. It was a wonderful evening when John showed us many quite rare images of very old MacBraynes vessels starting with shots of the very unusual 1880 Linnet at Crinan. Many shots of Paddle Steamers followed and all these came with an …
Merseyside Branch March 2024
March 2024 Our March 2024 meeting was an exceptional meeting. For the first half we welcomed once again Keith Hick from Southport who gave us a wonderful presentation entitled The Dockers Umbrella featuring the much loved Liverpool Overhead Railway. Keith showed us many images of its life from 1893 to 1956. The Overhead was unique and was modelled on a …
Isle of Wight – February 2024
February 2024 Our 22 February Meeting was held at our new venue, Arreton Village Hall in Arreton. The Branch’s Annual Photographic Competition was postponed from January was held and judged by Ian Pratt LRPS. The winner of the Phil Fricker cup [for the second year in succession] was Andrew Collins with his photo of a starboard quarter of the PS …
Bedford Branch February 2024
February 2024 Many thanks to Alan Pepper for stepping in at short notice when the intended February presentation was not available. Alan’s presentation was a draft of a show intended for a non-ship enthusiast audience, in this case a local church. It aims to remind the audience that merchant ships still exist and the important role they play. Container ships, …
Merseyside Branch February 2024
February 2024 For our February 2024 meeting we once again welcomed our old friend Iain Quinn from The Coastal Cruising Association of Glasgow. Our members enjoyed Iain’s presentation that centred mainly on Clyde Steamers with some vessels from The Isle of Man Steam Packet Co. that also visited ports on the Clyde. As expected from Iain these included slides of famous …
Isle of Wight January – Branch Report
January 2024 The Branch was looking forward to the Annual Photographic Competition on 25 January last. Sadly, the Judge became indisposed. The Branch Chairman brought along a DVD on the Branch’s laptop called ‘The Battle of Jutland’ presented by Dan Snow. This proved an interesting alternative to the scheduled programme. The Photographic competition was postponed until the February meeting. Branch …
Bedford Branch January 2024
January 2024 The branch started 2024 off by showing 2 DVD’s about the Port of London. The first DVD was based on period News Reals. First images being taken in 1919 of the concrete constructed coaster ARMISTICE also completed in 1919, seen at East India Docks. The DVD took us through the history of the port showing the changing methods …
November 2023 – Port Natal (South Africa) Branch
November 2023 At our November Branch meeting member TREVOR JONES presented his annual slide show, entitled “Highlights of Durban Shipping 2022:” (yes, being the previous year’s review, and enjoyed by all present). November also yielded the first ship visits for the Branch since post-Covid times. Two cruise ships were visited, viz. Nicko Cruises VASCO DA GAMA and the still new …
Merseyside Branch – December 2023
December 2023 Our December 2023 meeting was a superb evening given by our own Branch Chairman John Luxton. He showed us some nostalgic British Transport DVD Films from the 1950’s era. Firstly we watched the activities of the Atlantic Steam Nav. Co. trading out of Tilbury Felixstowe and Preston featuring ferries such as the Empire Cedric, Bardic Ferry and Ionic …
Haven Ports Branch AGM 2023
November 2023 The branch held its AGM on 9th November at the Seafarers centre, Felixstowe Dock.Apologies were given by Graham Dines and David Hazell, with eight members attending the AGM.Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer gave their reports, with the branch still being very solventfinancially. With their being no nominations the current officers agreed to serve for another year, and werevoted into …