When the German heavy cruiser Admiral Graf Spee came to her end in December 1939, one of the main factors that led to her demise could be blamed on part of her shipboard equipment. The British knew all about their enemy’s woeful blundering, and with their own superior design ensured that it wasn’t going to happen to them. Indeed, that weakness in…
I’m pleased to say that we’ve been in contact with retired seafarer, author and painter, John Richardson and that we’ll be doing an interview with John in the next couple of weeks. Before leaving his last ship, the SAS Kimberley, and after retiring from theservice in 1990, John has painted many of the South African Navywarships and numerous sailing vessels…
An excerpt from ‘Victims of Atlantis’ by John Richardson Monday 11 November 1940 was Armistice Day; a day of remembrance when the warring sides of WW1 ceased hostilities and came to peace. On board Atlantis a service was being held at 0800 in honour of those men and women who’d lost their lives in the conflict. However, while the service was in…
Careless – not a word I’d use to describe the professionalism of the Liberty ship crew Richard L Montgomery as she sailed from Philadelphia to the Thames estuary en route to Cherbourg, France. Ultimately the ship was lost, but not before sailing with 6 thousand tonnes of ammunition and keeping close convoy formation amidst an ever-present U-boat threat. She sailed into Loch Ewe, Scotland, thereafter joining a tanker convoy to…
A small gathering took place at the Merchant Navy Memorial, in Liverpool’s Pier Head for an Act of Remembrance. Due to current COVID-19 restrictions only a small party was able to attend. The service was led by the Rector of Liverpool Parish Church, Rev Crispin Pailing, also in attendance was Rev Fergus Butler-Gallie, Capt Feltham (MN), 2 standard bearers and…
Footage from the ceremony on Sunday at St Nics in Liverpool.
Outside of the Liverpool/Manchester conurbation few people have heard of Peel Holdings.It owns the Manchester Ship Canal; it built the Trafford Centre and MediaCityUK – now host to multiple television companies – and in Liverpool, is one of the country’s largest port operators. It also has financial interests in diverse activities such as airports (including Liverpool John Lennon), land, transport, retail, hospitality,…
Well, they probably don’t – at least not in the popular sense. Go ask any scouser their opinion of the Beatles and there’ll be a mixed bag of responses ranging from the indifferent (granted, they were ok! ) to the downright hostile (whatever did they do for us? or, they got too big for their boots didn’t they?). And so on.But…
Introduction:A day which is probably more in people’s minds due to resumption of the Premier League football season rather than the commemoration of Britain’s worst maritime tragedy – a disaster which took the lives of an estimated 3000 to 5800 sailors, soldiers, airmen and civilians. Yes, it was a long time ago – but to keep football supporters still interested perhaps there are parallels between the 1939-40…
‘I often enjoy my work’ – or so a sex-worker’s statement read on a flyer from the red-light Museum of Prostitution, although the respondent didn’t say whether she enjoyed her work all the time, or with all her clients – we can only imagine on this one. Located on Achteburgwal Street, bang in the middle of the red-light, the museum, a good starting-point makes no…
It starts with the bar. Nope, not the type of bar you may be thinking of – that is to say a neon emporium serving ice- cold Budweiser – but instead an off-shore geographical feature of deposited sand and rock forming a ‘bar’, or obstacle to the mighty Columbia River, its westward current of six or seven knots flowing into prevailing winds from the Pacific Ocean. …
The morning was fine and dry with enough blue sky to make a sailor a pair of pants, as the saying goes.And in front of St George’s Hall, the pipe band of the Liverpool Scottish were playing Green Hills of Tyrol – that lament of a Scottish soldier in the Crimean War. Anyway, it was a full hour ahead of the firing of the…