July 2024 Tuesday 9th July 2024 brought our Branch AGM hosted by our current Chairman John Luxton. The current Chairman, Vice Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer were all elected to stand for another season as was existing committee member Stan McFerran. Geoff Holmes has had to retire this year from the committee and we thank him for his past service After the …
Haven Ports June 2024
June 2024 We met for the second time at our new venue of Felixstowe Museum, our allocated room is cosy and informal. Derek Sands presented a show based on a dock cruise of Antwerp from May 2006. This was appreciated by a small audience. Our next meeting will be in August and will be an informal gathering at “The Shipwreck”, Shotley …
Merseyside Branch June 2024
June 2024 Our own Branch Chairman John Luxton gave us an excellent presentation for our June 2024 meeting. It was another of John’s Maritime Infrastructures talks, this time it was entitled Ports of Cornwall Part 1. He began by talking about Looe which has been featured on the television lately doubling up as Shipton Abbott in the Beyond Paradise programme. …
Bedford Branch May 2024
May 2024 Michael Galley gave an insight into the world of international shipbreaking at his presentation for the May meeting. Staring with an overview of the history world shipbreaking then concentration on the main sites currently breaking up ships. In India and Pakistan ships are run ashore on gently sloping sand tidal beaches at high tide so that they can …
Merseyside Branch May 2024
May 2024 It is with great regret we have to announce the passing of branch member Christy MacHale aged 75. Christy was a great friend to us all, a man of very many talents; our condolences go to his wife Sam and all his family. Our May 2024 meeting was a great night when David Hearn from Wallasey came to …
Haven Ports April 2024
April 2024 The branch is operating on basically a bi-Monthly program for 2024. Our February meeting was via Zoom due to the usual worries about unreliable weather.Steve Thomas showed images from Gibraltar taken in 2023. He presented a well researched showwhich prompted comments and discussion for most images. We were joined by branch memberTony Millat from Mersea who cannot get …
Bedford Branch April 2024
April 2024 The April meeting evening was devoted to members DVD’s. We started with the Snowbow DVD Ships to Manchester. This port was once the nation’s fourth biggest port and in its heyday would have been full of ships. This was made possible by the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal which was completed in 1894 to enable ships from …
Merseyside Branch April 2024
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 …
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, …