1.
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was established as a sovereign state on 1 January 1801 by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. The growing desire for an Irish Republic led to the Irish War of Independence, Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom, and the state was consequently renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Britain financed the European coalition that defeated France in 1815 in the Napoleonic Wars, the British Empire thereby became the foremost world power for the next century. The Crimean War with Russia and the Boer wars were relatively small operations in a largely peaceful century, rapid industrialisation that began in the decades prior to the states formation continued up until the mid-19th century. A devastating famine, exacerbated by government inaction in the century, led to demographic collapse in much of Ireland. It was an era of economic modernization and growth of industry, trade and finance. Outward migration was heavy to the colonies and to the United States. Britain also built up a large British Empire in Africa and Asia, India, by far the most important possession, saw a short-lived revolt in 1857. In foreign policy Britain favoured free trade, which enabled its financiers and merchants to operate successfully in many otherwise independent countries, as in South America. Britain formed no permanent military alliances until the early 20th century, when it began to cooperate with Japan, France and Russia, and moved closer to the United States. A brief period of limited independence for Ireland came to an end following the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the British governments fear of an independent Ireland siding against them with the French resulted in the decision to unite the two countries. This was brought about by legislation in the parliaments of both kingdoms and came into effect on 1 January 1801, however, King George III was bitterly opposed to any such Emancipation and succeeded in defeating his governments attempts to introduce it. When the Treaty of Amiens ended the war, Britain agreed to return most of the territories it had seized, in May 1803, war was declared again. In 1806, Napoleon issued the series of Berlin Decrees, which brought into effect the Continental System and this policy aimed to eliminate the threat from the British by closing French-controlled territory to foreign trade. Frances population and agricultural capacity far outstripped that of the British Isles, Napoleon expected that cutting Britain off from the European mainland would end its economic hegemony. The Spanish uprising in 1808 at last permitted Britain to gain a foothold on the Continent, after Napoleons surrender and exile to the island of Elba, peace appeared to have returned. The Allies united and the armies of Wellington and Blucher defeated Napoleon once, simultaneous with the Napoleonic Wars, trade disputes, arming hostile Indians and British impressment of American sailors led to the War of 1812 with the United States. The war was little noticed in Britain, which could devote few resources to the conflict until the fall of Napoleon in 1814, American frigates inflicted a series of defeats on the Royal Navy, which was short on manpower due to the conflict in Europe
2.
IMO number
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The International Maritime Organization number is a unique reference for ships and for registered ship owners and management companies. IMO numbers were introduced under the SOLAS Convention to improve safety and security. For ships, the IMO number remains linked to the hull for its lifetime, regardless of a change in name, flag, or owner. The ship number consists of the three letters IMO followed by a unique number assigned to sea-going merchant ships under the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea. In 1987 the IMO adopted Resolution A, in the SOLAS Convention cargo ships means ships which are not passenger ships. Passenger ships should carry the marking on a horizontal surface visible from the air. When introduced, the IMO adopted the existing unique ship numbers applied to ships listed by Lloyds Register since 1963, IMO ship identification numbers are assigned by IHS Fairplay. For new vessels the IMO number is assigned to a hull during construction, the IMO ship identification number is made of the three letters IMO followed by the seven-digit number. This consists of a six-digit sequential unique number followed by a check digit, the integrity of an IMO number can be verified using its check digit. This is done by multiplying each of the first six digits by a factor of 2 to 7 corresponding to their position from right to left, the rightmost digit of this sum is the check digit. For example, for IMO9074729, + + + + + =139, in May 2005, IMO adopted a new SOLAS regulation XI-1/3-1 on the mandatory company and registered owner identification number scheme, with entry into force on 1 January 2009. Like the IMO ship number, the identification number is a seven-digit number with the prefix IMO
3.
Tugboat
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A tug is a boat or ship that maneuvers vessels by pushing or towing them. Tugboats are powerful for their size and strongly built, and some are ocean-going, some tugboats serve as icebreakers or salvage boats. Early tugboats had steam engines, but today most have diesel engines, many tugboats have firefighting monitors, allowing them to assist in firefighting, especially in harbors. Seagoing tugs fall into four categories, The standard seagoing tug with model bow that tows its payload on a hawser. The notch tug which can be secured in a notch at the stern of a specially designed barge and this configuration is dangerous to use with a barge which is in ballast or in a head- or following sea. Therefore, notch tugs are usually built with a towing winch and these units stay combined under virtually any sea conditions and the tugs usually have poor sea-keeping designs for navigation without their barges attached. Vessels in this category are considered to be ships rather than tugboats. These vessels must show navigation lights compliant with those required of ships rather than required of tugboats. Articulated tug and barge units also utilize mechanical means to connect to their barges, the tug slips into a notch in the stern and is attached by a hinged connection. ATBs generally utilize Intercon and Bludworth connecting systems, aTBs are generally staffed as a large tugboat, with between seven and nine crew members. The typical American ATB operating on the east coast customarily displays navigational lights of a towing vessel pushing ahead, compared to seagoing tugboats, harbour tugboats are generally smaller and their width-to-length ratio is often higher, due to the need for a lower draught. In smaller harbours these are also termed lunch bucket boats, because they are only manned when needed and only at a minimum. The number of tugboats in a harbour varies with the harbour infrastructure, things to take into consideration includes ships with/without bow thrusters and forces like wind, current and waves and types of ship. River tugs are also referred to as towboats or pushboats and their hull designs would make open ocean operation dangerous. River tugs usually do not have any significant hawser or winch and their hulls feature a flat front or bow to line up with the rectangular stern of the barge, often with large pushing knees. Tugboat engines typically produce 500 to 2,500 kW, for safety, tugboats engines often feature two of each critical part for redundancy. A tugboats power is stated by its engines horsepower and its overall bollard pull. The largest commercial harbour tugboats in the 2000s-2010s, used for towing container ships or similar, had around 60-65 tons of bollard pull, Tugboats are highly maneuverable, and various propulsion systems have been developed to increase maneuverability and increase safety
4.
Ship's tender
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Smaller boats may also have tenders, usually called dinghies. For a variety of reasons, it is not always advisable to try to tie a ship up at a dock, the weather or the sea might be rough, the time might be short, or the ship too large to fit. In such cases tenders provide the link from ship to shore, on cruise ships, lifeboat tenders do double duty, serving as tenders in day-to-day activities, but fully equipped to act as lifeboats in an emergency. They are generally carried on davits just above the deck, and may at first glance appear to be regular lifeboats. Current lifeboat tender designs favor catamaran models, since they are likely to roll in the calm to moderate conditions in which tenders are usually used. They typically carry up to 100 to 150 passengers and two to three crew members, before these ships were mass-produced, the main way to board a larger ship was to board a passenger tender. Passenger tenders remained based at their ports of registry, and when a ship came through the area and these vessels were larger, had a greater passenger capacity, and a broader sense of individuality in their respective companies than the more modern tenders seen today. Because of their size, lifeboats and life preservers were commonplace on board these ships. Their hull classification symbols in the US Navy were, respectively, AS and AD, Naval tenders fell out of use during the late 20th century, as the speed and range of warships increased. By the end of the 20th century, all of the tenders in the U. S. Navy had been inactivated except for two submarine tenders. As a result of the settlement of lawsuits over the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet, Emory S. Land-class submarine tenders USS Emory S. Land and USS Frank Cable are now manned and operated by a hybrid crew, the Captain and a couple hundred technicians are regular Navy, while the operation of the ship itself is performed by Merchant Marines. Prior to the turn-over, both ships had more than 1000 sailors, under the traditional Navy classification, both ships should be reclassified as AR, however since now operated by the MSC it is doubtful such a reassignment will occur. Land is forward deployed in the Indian Ocean at Diego Garcia while Frank Cable is forward-deployed in the Pacific at Polaris Point, Apra Harbor, such forward deployments are to provide service and support at the very great distances of the Western Pacific. Two tenders, SS Nomadic and SS Traffic, were built for the White Star Line by Harland and Wolff to serve the liners RMS Olympic, Nomadic survives as a museum ship, and is the last remaining vessel built for the White Star Line in existence. Armed tender, British supply or transport ships that were outfitted and commissioned for use in the Naval Service. Buoy tender, used to maintain navigational aids, destroyer tender, a large ship used to support a flotilla of destroyers or other small warships. Dive tender, a ship or boat used to support the actions of divers, also known as a diving support vessel
5.
John I. Thornycroft & Company
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Thornycroft & Company Limited, usually known simply as Thornycroft was a British shipbuilding firm founded by John Isaac Thornycroft in Chiswick in 1866. It moved to Woolston, Southampton, in 1908, merging in 1966 with Vosper & Company to form one organisation called Vosper Thornycroft, from 2002 to 2010 the company acquired several international and US based defence and services companies, and changed name to the VT Group. John Isaac Thornycroft had shown shipbuilding ability when aged 16 he began building a steam launch in 1859. The vessel was named Nautilus and in 1862 it proved to be the first steam launch with enough speed to follow the contenders in the University race. The ensuing publicity prompted his father, the sculptor Thomas Thornycroft, to purchase a strip of land along the Thames at Chiswick in 1864, in its first 10 years the yard had a very modest production, mostly building steam launches and steam yachts. The breakthrough came in 1873, when the built the small steel torpedo craft Rap for the Navy of Norway. Torpedoes and torpedo boats were seen as weapons of the future, as Banbury put it, No high-pressure salesmanship was needed to sell torpedo-boats in the nineteenth century, on the contrary, the customers queued up. The original boats had locomotive-type boilers but, like its competitors, the size of the vessels grew steadily, exceeding 100 tons with the Ariete, delivered to Spain in 1887 and 200 tons in the Daring-class torpedo-boat destroyers of the Royal Navy. The largest vessel built at Chiswick was the Alarm-class torpedo gunboat Speedy of 810 tons, in 1904 the Oscar Mordaunt yard at Woolston was acquired, and production gradually moved there. At its peak, the yard at Chiswick employed 1.700 men, the production of destroyers at the yard caught the imagination of the writer H. G. Thornycroft and Co. Ltd in 1901, with Beardmore as chairman, william Beardmores interest in the company proved rather short-lived and he resigned as chairman in 1907. The management team of the new company consisted of John Thornycrofts son, John Edward Thornycroft as manager, the first ship built by Thornycrofts for the Royal Navy at the Woolston Yard was the Tribal-class destroyer HMS Tartar. Up to the start of World War I, the yard built 37 destroyers for the Royal Navy, during the war, the yard made 26 destroyers,3 submarines and a large number of smaller craft for the Royal Navy. The construction of smaller boats did not move to Woolston, the construction on Platts Eyot included yachts and - during the two world wars - a large number of small vessels for the Royal Navy. The yachts included the Enola, Estrellita, Aberdonia, and Moonyeen, the pre-war motor yacht Prunella may also have been built at Hampton. These four have survived and are now recorded on National Historic Ships National Register, in the inter-war years there was still some construction for the Royal Navy at Woolston, but the yard also built civilian ships, like the ferry SS Robert Coryndon for Uganda in 1930. She apparently still survives, but as a wreck on the shore of Lake Albert. When World War II broke out, production was stepped up again, production was delayed by several bombings, probably influenced by the yards proximity to the Spitfire-building Supermarine factory, also situated in Woolston
6.
Red Funnel
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High-speed foot passenger catamarans, known as Red Jets, run between Southampton and Cowes, while vehicle ferries run between Southampton and East Cowes. Red Funnels main competitor is Wightlink whose services operate from Portsmouth to Fishbourne and Ryde, the other major Solent ferry company, Hovertravel, operates between Southsea and Ryde. Both provide a frequent service to the Isle of Wight, but neither normally serve Southampton, Cowes or East Cowes. The origins of Red Funnel date back to 1820, when the Isle of Wight Royal Mail Steam Packet Company was established by Cowes interests to operate the first steamer service from there to Southampton. In 1826, the Isle of Wight Steam Packet Company was formed in Southampton and they subsequently acquired the assets of the Improved Steamboat Company in 1865. The shortened name Red Funnel was adopted after 1935 when all the ships had a black-topped red funnel. The longer name remains the formal name. The company originally operated a steamer ferry service between Cowes, Isle of Wight and Southampton. In 1931 it introduced its first diesel ferry, the MV Medina, Ferries have steadily increased in size to the current Scottish-built Raptor class operated between East Cowes and Town Quay in Southampton. Between 1969 and the 1990, the also ran Italian-built hydrofoils between Town Quay and Cowes. This route is now served by high-speed, passenger-only catamarans, in 1867 Red Funnel instituted a service crossing the River Medina between Cowes and East Cowes. This service was operated by a series of small launches over the years, the service ceased on the outbreak of war in 1939 when the vessels involved were requisitioned by the Admiralty. In 1868 the company took over the Cowes Floating Bridge Company, in 1885 the company bought the New Southampton Steam Towing Company and operated tugs and tenders under the subsidiary Red Funnel Towage. In 2002 Red Funnel Towage was sold to the Adelaide Steamship Company, in 1946 Red Funnel acquired a controlling interest in Cosens & Co Ltd, a rival pleasure steamer operator based in Weymouth. This enabled the company to coordinate their excursions and also gave Red Funnel access to the Cosens marine engineering. Excursions came to end in 1966 but the side continued until sold off in 1990 to a management buy-out. In 2001 the company was sold to JP Morgan Partners Inc. by Associated British Ports Holdings, in 2004 the company was sold again in a management buy-out backed by the Bank of Scotland for £60 million. On 12 April 2007, the owners of Red Funnel announced that they were considering selling Red Funnel, in June of the same year, the company was sold to the Prudentials infrastructure specialist, Infracapital, in a deal valuing the business at more than £200m
7.
Ocean liner
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An ocean liner is a ship designed to transport people from one seaport to another along regular long-distance maritime routes according to a schedule. Liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes, cargo vessels running to a schedule are sometimes called liners. The category does not include ferries or other vessels engaged in trading, nor dedicated cruise ships where the voyage itself. Nor does it include tramp steamers, even those equipped to handle limited numbers of passengers, some shipping companies refer to themselves as lines and their container ships, which often operate over set routes according to established schedules, as liners. Ocean liners are usually built with a high freeboard to withstand rough seas. Additionally, they are designed with thicker hull plating than is found on cruise ships. Once the dominant form of travel between continents, ocean liners were rendered obsolete by the emergence of long-distance aircraft after World War II. Advances in automobile and railway also played a role. As of 2015, RMS Queen Mary 2 was the ship still in service as an ocean liner. Ocean liners were the mode of intercontinental travel for over a century. In addition to passengers, liners carried mail and cargo, ships contracted to carry British Royal Mail used the designation RMS. Liners were also the way to move gold and other high-value cargoes. The busiest route for liners was on the North Atlantic with ships travelling between Europe and North America and it was on this route that the fastest, largest and most advanced liners travelled. Shipping lines are companies engaged in shipping passengers and cargo, often on established routes and schedules, regular scheduled voyages on a set route are called line voyages and vessels trading on these routes to a timetable are called liners. The alternative to liner trade is tramping whereby vessels are notified on a basis as to the availability of a cargo to be transported. The term ocean liner has come to be used interchangeably with passenger liner, beginning at the advent of the Jet Age, where transoceanic ship service declined, a gradual transition from passenger ships as mean of transportation to nowadays cruise ships started. In order for ocean liners to remain profitable, cruise lines have modified some of them to operate on routes, such as the Queen Elizabeth 2. The Italian Lines SS Michelangelo and SS Raffaello, the last ocean liners to be primarily for crossing the North Atlantic
8.
Solent
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The Solent is the strait that separates the Isle of Wight from the mainland of England. The Solent is a shipping lane for passenger, freight. It is an important recreational area for sports, particularly yachting, hosting the Cowes Week sailing event annually. Spithead, an area off Gilkicker Point near Gosport, is known as the place where the Royal Navy is traditionally reviewed by the monarch of the day, the area is of great ecological and landscape importance, particularly because of the coastal and estuarine habitats along its edge. Much of its coastline is designated as a Special Area of Conservation and it is bordered by and forms a part of the character of a number of nationally important protected landscapes including the New Forest National Park, and the Isle of Wight AONB. The word first appears in the Saxon record as Solentan, a pre-Celtic and supposedly Semitoidic root meaning free standing rock has also been suggested as a possible description of the cliffs marking western approach of the strait. This Semitic origin may be a relic of the Phoenician traders who sailed to Britain from the Mediterranean as part of the ancient tin trade, another suggestion is that the name may reflect the number of Northern Gannets along the coast. Originally a river valley, the Solent has gradually widened and deepened over many thousands of years, the River Frome was the source of the River Solent, with three other rivers — the Rivers Avon, Itchen and Test — being tributaries of it. Seismic sounding has shown that, when the sea level was lower, since the retreat of the most recent glaciation the South East of England, like the Netherlands, has been steadily slowly sinking through historic time due to forebulge sinking. A new theory – that the Solent was originally a lagoon – was reported in the Southern Daily Echo by Garry Momber from the Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology. The Isle of Wight was formerly contiguous with the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset — the Needles on Wight, inland behind the Chalk were less resistant sands, clays and gravels. This great estuary ran through a valley and is now referred to as the Solent River. When glaciers covering more northern latitudes melted at the end of the last ice age, firstly, a great amount of flood water ran into the Solent River and its tributaries, carving the estuary deeper. Over thousands of years, the land sank in the south to submerge many valleys creating todays characteristic rias, such as Southampton Water and Poole Harbour and this is thought to have happened about 7,500 years ago. The process of change is still continuing, with the soft cliffs on some parts of the Solent, such as Fort Victoria, constantly eroding, whilst other parts. The Solent is a shallow stretch of tidal water. It has an unusual double tide that is favourable and hazardous to maritime activities with its strong tidal movements and quickly changing sea states. Coupled with the above, the Solent is renowned for its volume of vessel usage
Southampton, UK (1930-1964)