Random Ship Spotting - Part 3

The third in a series of articles looking at ships we have seen either at home or whilst on holiday.

The Shamrock Enterprise was photographed in Glasson Dock, near Lancaster in the UK in May 1985. She was a general cargo ship, built in 1982 and launched on the 13th March of that year in the Netherlands. In 1985 she was sold to Lazard Leasing Service Ltd. and leased to Shamrock Shipping Company. She was to sail subsequently under the names Silverthorn in 1990, Fir in 2002 and finally Temptation upon being sold to a Colombian company. Whilst carrying over 1400 tons of cargo in heavy seas in the Caribbean, she sank on 20 December 2015, eighty miles from San Andres Island. Her crew were rescued.

The TSS (Turbine Steam Ship) Manxman, photographed in Preston Docks in 1986 acting as a floating nightclub after a career of almost 30 years with the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company. Built at the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead in 1955, she was the final of six sister ships built for the company. Her last sailing between the Isle of Man and Birkenhead was in September 1982. She appeared as a location in the Barbra Streisand film Yentl during this period. She was sold as a planned centrepiece for a new leisure complex at Preston Dock, sailing there under her own steam on 3 October with passengers paying 1955 prices for beer at 10 pence per pint.

When the Preston Docks area was redeveloped in 1991 she was towed back to Liverpool where she spent another period as floating nightclub. In 1993 she moved to Hull where she remained whilst a company was formed with the intention of preserving her. Unfortunately a fire destroyed much of her internal woodwork and the preservation campaign fell through. She was moved to Sunderland to be dismantled and was scrapped in 2012.

Buffalo was one of three ships based on the same design, the others being Bison (see below) and Puma. She was built in Hamburg in 1975 for Pandoro Ltd. She was a Roll On-Roll Off ferry and a regular visitor to Fleetwood, seen here in 1986. In 1998 she became the European Leader, as Pandoro was rebranded as P&O Irish Sea. In 2004 Stena Line bought the Irish Sea route and she was renamed again as Stena Leader. Stena closed the route from Fleetwood in 2010 and the ferry was sold to Anrustrans being renamed as Anna Marine. She was scrapped in Turkey in 2014.

Bison seen at Fleetwood a little later, in May 1987. She was also built in Hamburg in 1975 but in order to cope with an increase in traffic between Fleetwood and Larne she was lengthened in 1980 in Tyneside where she was cut in two and an extra 15-metre length added. In 1989 she was chartered to B&I and returned in 1993 whereon she had to have extensions added to her side to comply with Safety Of Life At Sea (SOLAS) regulations. This made her less seaworthy and to compensate she had an extra vehicle deck added to the stern to add weight. In 1998 with the rebranding of Pandoro she became the European Pioneer and with her transfer to Stena she became Stena Pioneer. Sold to a Russian company in 2011 and renamed ANT 1. She was scrapped alongside her two sister ships in Turkey in 2014.

Motor Trawler Resolute sailing into Fleetwood, decorated as part of Fleetwood Lifeboat Day celebrations in June 1988. Built in 1970 in Aberdeen, she was renamed Boy Anthony III in 1979 and sold to a new owner in Maryport the following year. In 1985 she returned to Fleetwood as the Janmar under new ownership again and once more became the Resolute in 1987. In 2006, whilst docked in North Shields, she suffered serious fire damage to her crew accomodation and was scrapped two years later.

Ships and Boats Index

Old Photos Jumble

Here's a bit of a mixture for you! Over the past few days there's loads of old photos gone through the scanner and many of them were one-offs or have specially interesting stories to them.

The first one was taken in 1986 I think. Blackpool Zoo orang utan Azimat had a baby daughter called Victoria. Vicky is now the grand old mother of the orang utans at Blackpool and has a glorious smile for visitors - she was trained to show her teeth as she had dental problems when young!

From the same year, here is the old Manxman. As the name suggests she was the ferry to the Isle of Man and as such was featured in one of George Formby's most famous films. It was No Limit made in 1933 and featuring the Isle of Man TT races. George played George Shuttleworth who crashed his bike but was given the chance to ride for a team and won not only the race but the girl - Florence Desmond who apparently couldn't stand him... or perhaps the way his missus stood by with a look of wrath and a tape measure every time they had to film a screen kiss!

The Manxman is shown in Preston Docks where for several years she served time as a nightclub. Wonder whether the ghost of George used to sing "Riding In The TT Races" in the main bar...?

I could almost have left this one uncaptioned and asked you to tell me what it was!

It is in fact the view down the toilet of Skipton Castle. As you can see, they preferred a long drop! The bar across guards against anyone trying to climb up the toilet to break into the castle during a seige. Not a nice job, but the tactic worked well and was a tried and tested way of sneaking into castles! Phew... what's that smell?!?

And lastly, this is Axbridge near Cheddar in Somerset. A few of us had gone down to Blagdon for a computer system course and we stayed at one of two pub/hotels in the village.

The date was 4 July 1990. Ring any bells? We sat in the bar watching England being knocked out of the FIFA World Cup in the semi final. Gazza cried and my mate Pete and I took our pints and sat in a deserted but very warm square until I decided to get the camera and take some photos.

Talking of ringing bells, our hotel was right next door to the church and the clock tower kept striking every quarter hour until two o'clock in the morning then started again at six!!!