December 2013: Our December Meeting started with an act of remembrance for our Secretary of many years, Bob Collins, who sadly passed away early in December. We then continued with an illustrated talk by David Walker on his trips to the Netherlands earlier this year. Ships in Felixstowe, Amsterdam, and the Rotterdam area were featured including some excellent views of the maiden voyage arrivals of the Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller in the Maasmond and the Majestic Maersk at Felixstowe. A most interesting and enjoyable talk to round off our year, thank you David. In late December, members of the branch had the opportunity to visit the Paper Moon while alongside at Teignmouth. The captain of the vessel, Andrzey Sitko graciously hosted the group for coffee, before being presented with a photograph of the ship to mark her many calls at the port this year (she has been the most frequent ship to call at Teignmouth in 2013). Many thanks to Captain Sitko for hosting the group, and to Hugh Rodway for organising it.
November 2013: In November, Roger Musselwhite presented his annual "update", a recap of the local shipping scene over the last twelve months. Roger showed the range of shipping currently using the deep-sea pilot station at Brixham, as well as vessels at anchor in Tor Bay and a variety of warships at Plymouth for FOST. Trips further afield to Southampton gave us a chance to see some of the larger container ships currently in service, as well as a plethora of vehicle carriers, tankers and passenger vessels. The talk was, as usual, greatly enjoyed by the assembled audience, and we hope that next year's talk covers an equally successful and interesting year's shipspotting.
October 2013: At our October meeting Ken Cload presented an illustrated talk on his annual trip to the Netherlands. From his main vantage point at Hook of Holland, he showed a range of different vessels of all sizes, from the standard feeders which are common in the Europoort and Rotterdam areas to more unusual designs. In addition, Ken went on day trips to Amsterdam, as well as to Antwerp and the Ghent canal. As usual, the talk was illustrated by superb photography. We look forward to seeing next year's trip!
Summer 2013: This summer has seen a range of interesting presentations. For our June meeting Andrew Hogg made a welcome return following his visit last year. He spoke about tankers, his main interest in shipping, giving a highly entertaining and informative talk about vessels of all shapes and sizes in locations all around the world. Beginning with 3-island tankers, he moved on to illustrate smaller tankers and then VLCCs before finishing with slides taken on two trips to Norway in the 1970s and 1980s showing ULCCs laid up in the fjords. In July, John Eaton showed his annual "Baywatch" talk, illustrating the ships that board and land channel pilots at Brixham along with an illustrated talk on inland waterways barges in the Netherlands and Belgium. August was our annual members evening, with talks and videos on subjects such as Scottish trawlers, coasters in Poole and vessels on the Bristol channel. September was a first for the branch, with a talk from a guest speaker on a transit through the Panama Canal on the Queen Victoria. This was followed by a short presentation by David Worth on a recent trip to Den Helder. Many thanks to our speakers over the summer for such interesting talks.