Remote Ship Viewing
I've talked about the possibilities for remote ship viewing in the post Watching The Ships Go By. Prior to my trip on 14th March, I'd looked at the webcams operated by 'www.wirralcam.org' and spotted an MSC container ship berthed at the deepwater quay 'Liverpool 1'. A few moments on the excellent ShipAIS site confirmed the ship's identity as 'MSC Santhya'. At the same time, I'd noted the ships which ShipAIS indicated at Cammell Laird's shipyard in Birkenhead - a couple of Royal Fleet Auxiliaries and RMS 'St. Helena'. The RMS 'St. Helena' was the vessel I'd sailed on in 2011 (my posts on this memorable voyage are here).
As I've explained in earlier posts, Liverpool has fascinated me since my first visit as a child, so periodically I'm drawn back. I usually visit the Museum of Liverpool to inspect 'Lion', the first locomotive I ever drove before she was finally 'stuffed and mounted', take a trip on the Mersey Ferry which still delights me, and look for changes on the railways to and around Liverpool.
Getting there
I caught the 09:22 from Wolverhampton to Liverpool Lime Street, armed with the Railcam.UK 'app' on my mobile phone (which is briefly described in my post Watching The Trains Go By) to provide live signalling information. West Midland Trains were operating the service with an 8-car train formed from two 4-car Electric Multiple Units, resulting in only the front four coaches being alongside the platform at certain stations, like Penkridge. Before arriving at these stations, the Guard (using the public address) advised passengers wishing to alight to move forward to the front four coaches and, of course, he selectively opened the doors. After our Stafford stop, we took the Fast Line to Crewe, where we arrived at platform 11. The very smart-looking 'Statesman Rail' set of coaches (all in Pullman-style livery with each coach named after a British mountain) stood in the adjacent platform 12, headed by an unidentified 'vintage main line diesel'. A few moments on the internet showed that this train was the 'SETTLE & CARLISLE LUNCHEON CIRCULAR'.
We left Crewe, routed on the Down Fast, made our scheduled stops at Winsford, Hartford, Acton Bridge, Runcorn and Liverpool South Parkway, and completed our journey, unusually, in platform 10 at Lime Street.
Around Liverpool
As usual, I purchased a 'Saveaway' day ticket and descended to the Merseyrail underground platform at Lime Street, taking the train to the next-but-one stop at James Street. When I emerged at street level, the weather was overcast with a fair breeze coming from the river but I enjoyed the walk to the Museum of Liverpool to check on their railway exhibit 'Lion', the exhibits relating to the long-defunct Liverpool Overhead Railway (which I travelled on as a child) and the new 'Liverpool on Wheels' exhibition.
'Lion'
I then walked to the modern Mersey Ferry building on the Waterfront, which vies in architectural awfulness with the nearby 'dented shoebox' design of the Museum of Liverpool. I obtained a 'boarding pass' to Birkenhead Woodside for the ferry with my 'Saveaway' and boarded 'Royal Iris of the Mersey'. This ferry, built in 1959, was originally 'Mountwood' but was rebuilt in 2001 with Wartsila twin diesel engines and renamed 'Royal Iris of the Mersey' to perpetuate the famous name of another Mersey Ferry named 'Royal Iris' now lying derelict on the Thames. Wikipedia has articles on both Royal Iris of the Mersey and Royal Iris.
The electronic chimes in the famous Liver Building struck noon, but I was disappointed to see that the huge, 25-foot diameter clock face visible from the river displayed the wrong time. There's a Wikipedia article on the Liver Building here.
The Liver Building, Liverpool, in 2017
After waiting for a few tardy passengers to join the ferry, the hydraulic gangway was raised and the mooring ropes released a few minutes late. The Mersey has a very wide tidal range and strong currents so good seamanship is needed by the ferry 'skipper'. With the tide coming in, the ferry had moored with the bow towards the sea. When the tide is going out, they moor bow upstream. Presumably, more positive rudder effect is obtained in this way. Certainly, the water between the hull and the pier pushed the bow out and, with black smoke from the hard-working engine, we powered towards the sea whilst the familiar recorded commentary outlined the various landmarks on the Liverpool side. We seemed to turn 'cross river' earlier than I remember - perhaps as well, since I normally prefer to travel on the open upper fore deck and the the wind was quite strong and only a few hardy souls were with me out of the 111 who had boarded. It also started to rain, but I continued to brave it out. Visibility was poor, so only the outlines of the huge Chinese-built container cranes at the deepwater quay called 'Liverpool 1' could be seen, with a moored container ship marked 'MSC' which I knew to be 'MSC Santhya', as described in 'Remote Ship Viewing' above. In the days after my trip, I checked the internet to note that 'MSC Santhya' left Liverpool two days after I saw her, bound for Antwerp.
View from Mersey Ferry in the rain, showing Liverpool 1 Quay with MSC 'Santhya' and container cranes (Return to Liverpool, 14-Mar-2020)
I watched our approach to Seacombe before noticing that chemical tanker 'Amethyst' had slipped past, on her way to the Irish Sea.
Unibaltic chemical tanker 'Amethyst' bound for Fawley heads towards the Irish Sea (Return to Liverpool, 14-Mar-2020)
We approached the Landing Stage at Seacombe from upstream, using power to move against the current and very delicately coming closer, slowly turning to port until the hull near the bow gently squeezed against the massive tractor tyres chained to the face of the landing stage, producing a squeal of protest as the tyres distorted. The crewman near the bow tossed a thin 'messenger line' to the shoreman, who picked up the end and hauled first the messenger line then, attached to it, a loop of the heavy mooring line which was slipped across a suitable bollard on the landing stage. The crewman on the ferry then tightened the loop of mooring line and made it fast, so that the ferry was pivoting on the mooring line. The 'skipper' then brought the stern towards the landing stage until a crewman at the stern was able to toss a similar line ashore so that the stern could be secured. The heavy, sliding gate in the gunwhale near the stern was slid open as the shoreman rotated the gangway to line-up with the aperture. The shoreman then used his bodyweight to tip the counterbalanced gangway from the 'upright' to the 'landing' position (there's no hydraulics at Seacombe or Woodside) and, within seconds, passengers were leaving the ferry, before 'joining' passengers were allowed onto the ferry. More exertions by the shoreman raised the gangway, the crewman at the stern closed the sliding door and retrieved the stern line. The shoreman moved along the landing stage to release the mooring line at the bow and, with a surge of power, the ferry moved away from the landing stage and executed a 180 degree turn to starboard until we were heading upriver, largely carried by the incoming tide.
'Royal Iris' passed the two berths at Twelve Quays, both unoccupied, but I noticed that, since my last visit a year earlier, the upriver berth had acquired a new, higher-level vehicle loading ramp served by a new access lane. Back home, a bit of research showed that this was to serve a new class of ferry, called 'E-Flex', introduced in 2020 by Swedish-operator Stena Line on the Belfast service. 'Stena Edda', built in China, is 215m long, 28m beam with a gross tonnage around 42,400. Capacity is 1,000 passengers, 120 cars and around 210 freight vehicles. More information can be found here, on the excellent site for ferry enthusiasts 'NI Ferry'.
The method of arriving at Birkenhead Woodside Landing Stage was similar to that adopted at Seacombe. We made a 180 degree starboard turn so that we faced the incoming tidal current and used power to creep towards the landing stage, finally mooring as described for Seacombe. Seeing a crowd of passengers waiting by the port side bow gate, I initially joined them, temporarily forgetting that unloading would be via the port side stern gate. We all had a brief scramble through the saloon following the realisation that passengers were already disembarking at the stern!
Fortunately, the rain had stopped, so I set off cheerfully on the walk past the remains of Birkenhead Woodside railway station on my left and the modern, windswept bus terminus on my right towards Hamilton Square underground station. My temptation is always to 'go to the seaside' at New Brighton but I decided, instead, on a shorter journey just two stops to Green Lane, to clarify the station construction. The railway is below ground level with a tunnel to the north leading towards Birkenhead Central and a short tunnel to the south, leading towards Rock Ferry. The station is set in a rectangular excavation which we'd now call a 'station box' but the retaining walls forming the 'box' are not concrete but beautifully-executed stonework. A series of plate girders span the station and the spaces between these girders are partially infilled by brick arcading but only above the southbound track, giving the station a rather 'lopsided' appearance. I presume this was to support features associated with the long-gone LNWR/GWR Joint Line from Chester to Birkenhead Woodside which ran slightly to one side of Green Lane above ground level. The track leading north, towards Birkenhead Central, is more exposed to the weather so a practical, but ugly, modern canopy has been erected on that platform only.
Green Lane station, Merseyrail, showing footbridge and tunnel towards Birkenhead Central.
Green Lane station, Merseyrail, showing stonework, overhead plate girders, partially infilled by brick arcading, and short tunnel at south end towards Rock Ferry.
I didn't spend long at Green Lane because I'd decided to return to Woodside Ferry Landing Stage in time to catch the next ferry back to Liverpool. Leaving Woodside for Pierhead offers reasonable views of the vessels in the dry docks and wet basins at the Cammell Laird shipyard on the Birkenhead side.
I took the next train back to Hamilton Square, travelled back to the surface in one of the huge electric lifts and walked back to Woodside Landing Stage. As I neared the Ferry Terminal, I noticed a tug 'hovering' nearby and wondered if it was about to begin a 'towage job' . I was curious because tugs I'd seen at Liverpool were normally black-hulled with cream superstructure, but this one was red-hulled with white superstructure. Once on the landing stage, I saw that a Chemical/Oil Tanker had emerged from the docks on the Liverpool side and the waiting tug moved quickly to assist in the manoeuvring. After my visit, a little detective work revealed that the red-hulled tug was the 'Donau'. The off-centre name on the stern gave the clue that she had previously been the 'Smit Donau' and that led to the realisation that the the red and white livery is that of the Boluda Towage Group. Their interesting 'Heritage' page here charts the various amalgamations back to the Alexandra Towing Company formed in 1887, with a picture of a steam tug of the pattern I remember from childhood. Alexandra Towing had been acquired by Adstream and became part of Smit in 2010. Smit joined with Kotug in 2016 and, as recently as August 2019, Kotug Smit Towage became part of Boluda Towage Europe.
Having emerged from Liverpool Docks, Chemical/Oil Tanker 'Habip Bayrack' is assisted by a tug before setting off for Rotterdam (Return to Liverpool, 14-Mar-2020)
'Royal Iris of the Mersey' approached from Seacombe, making a 180 degree starboard turn and using power against the current to move towards the landing stage.
After executing a rapid 180 degree to starboard. 'Royal Iris' powers towards Woodside Landing Stage against the tide (Return to Liverpool, 14-Mar-2020)
The familiar routine saw the ferry dock, the gangway lowered, passengers disembark, joining passengers (including the writer) board and in minutes the ferry was on its way, turning to starboard again to head briefly up-river and our closest approach to the Cammell Laird shipyard.
Cammell Laird shipyard
The picture below gives an idea of the present extent of this famous shipyard.
Aerial view of dry docks and wet basin at Birkenhead (Photo: Cammell Laird Ltd)
Two of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary 'Tide' class tankers, 'Tidesurge' A138 and 'Tiderace' A137, were in the wet basin, together with floating crane 'Lara 1' (which I'd previously seen in Canada Branch Dock No. 3 in Liverpool socks. There's a little about 'Lara 1' in the post here).
Two of the four 'Tide' class Royal Fleet Auxiliary tankers in Cammell Laird's wet basin, left 'Tidesurge' A138, right 'Tiderace' A137, with (Return to Liverpool, 14-Mar-2020)
The following picture is rather cluttered (but there are similar views in the album here taken from other angles as the ferry made its crossing to Pierhead). On the left is the grey-painted bulk of RFA 'Tiderace' with the raised jib of floating crane 'Lara 1' just to the right. In front are the twin red-painted funnels of a Caledonian McBrayne Ro-Ro ferry which from its configuration appears to be the Polish-built MV 'Finlaggan', formerly operating the service to Islay (but the AIS return claims to be the 'Hebrides'). Next is the distinctive, yellow funnel of RMS St. Helena. After decommissioning from its role as the lifeline to the island of St. Helena, the ship (less its 'RMS' prefix which denoted a Royal Mail Ship) served for a time as a Vessel Based Armoury (VBA) supporting anti-piracy activity in the Gulf of Oman before being sold and appearing in London for the launch of 'Extreme E', a new 'electric SUV' concept for motor racing. The Extreme E website has links to their Facebook and Twitter pages, but I didn't find confirmation that the work at Cammell Laird is in support of the proposed use of 'St. Helena' as a 'mobile race headquarters'. There's a Wikipedia article on the ship here. Dominating the scene is the massive superstructure of the new polar research vessel 'Sir David Attenborough' still being fitted-out. Wikipedia have an article here about this ship.
Cammell-Laird shipyard, L-R: RFA 'Tiderace', MV 'Finlaggan', RMS 'St. Helena', RRS 'Sir David Attenborough' (Return to Liverpool, 14-Mar-2020)
A little further upstream, at Tranmere Oil Terminal, the shuttle tanker 'Karen Knutsen' was berthed. Following my previous visit to Liverpool in March 2019 (see report here), I'd found out a little about Knutsen NYK Offshore Tankers. There were three tugs were 'nudged' against the tanker's port side, so I assumed she was about to sail, empty, to collect another consignment of offshore oil. Incidentally, all three tugs were still in the 'old' livery of the former Smit fleet - black hull and cream superstructure. I discovered that the ship's destination was the Jubilee Offshore Field in Ghana. There's a map of this field here.
Shuttle Tanker 'Karen Knutsen' at Tranmere Oil Terminal with 3 tugs in attendance to assist her departure for the Jubilee Offshore Oilfield in Ghana (Return to Liverpool, 14-Mar-2020)
The ferry crossed towards the Liverpool shore and sailed downstream towards Pierhead landing stage as Chemical/Oil Tanker 'Amur Star' overtook us heading downstream from Stanlow at the start of its next journey to Antwerp.
Chemical/Oil Tanker 'Amur Star' heads downstream from Stanlow at the start of its next journey to Antwerp (Return to Liverpool, 14-Mar-2020)
Happy with what I'd seen, I walked to James Street Merseyrail Station and descended to the platform. Two stops took me to Lime Street Station, where I took the next service back to Wolverhampton after a short, but enjoyable, trip.
Related Posts on this Website
There's a 'Label' to find everything I've written relating to Merseyside (there are over 40 posts at the time of writing). Your can display all these posts, in reverse date-of-posting order, by selecting Label 'Merseyside' (or click here).
The following post describes my most recent prior visit:-
New Brighton by Rail.
My pictures
Where necessary, clicking on an image above will display an 'uncropped' view or, alternately, pictures may be selected, viewed or downloaded, in various sizes, from the albums below:-
In making my (often quite poor) pictures available on the internet, I have divided them into various albums each covering a roughly-defined geographical area. Within each album, photographs are normally arranged by date taken. Thus, by searching through the appropriate album, you can find changes through time. So, this trip to Liverpool added pictures to a number of albums as I moved through various areas.
The journey:
West Midland Railways (Wolverhampton).
Stafford Area rail.
Crewe Area rail.
Liverpool area rail.
Merseyrail.
The destination:
Museum of Liverpool.
Liverpool.
The Wirral (pictures from previous visits).
