Liverpool Echo - Elson's River Mersey

Queen of the sea comes to Merseyside

2009-10-21T16:36:22Z

THE arrival in the Mersey of Cunard Line's flagship Queen Mary 2 came with all the expected superlatives - the biggest, tallest, longest and widest.
But the one which is most important is that this is the biggest fish in the metaphorical maritime pond for Liverpool to land.
And we've done it.

]]> If Liverpool was ever to be taken seriously as a cruise liner port, then there is no other seal of approval than the endorsement of Cunard Line, which revels in its reputation as having the world's most famous passenger liners.
That this was a Liverpool company at its formation in 1838 and sent forth the first scheduled passenger and mail steamship, RMS Britannia, in 1840 to North America matters a bit, but not a great deal.
Because although Cunard's current owners, the mighty Carnival Corporation of Miami, flam up this heritage to the utmost, ultimately it's the operational facilities which matter.
Like having a cruise terminal which can handle such an ocean mammoth. No landing stage, no QM2.
But she's been and gone (a bit late as I understand some night-time revellers were delayed in getting back to the ship) and the visit has been declared a big success.
Having proved she can come once, then it opens the door to return again and again.
This was QM2's first round Britain cruise, which despite being in October was a sell -out for the 2,620 berths. If it works commercially then the ship will be back again.
Already QM2's smaller consort Queen Victoria (a mere 90,000 tons compared to QM2's 148,500) is booked to call in at Liverpool on her 2010 round Britain cruise.
So where Cunard go, others will follow - not that we've done badly so far with Princess Cruises, Holland America Line and very classy small ships like M/V Deutschland.
This is the way forward for Liverpool, a city built on sea trade which can do it again, with no need to suffer competition from other big northern cities. Nobody else has a waterfront like us which these big ships can sail straight into.
All we've got to do to reach the real money in the cruise business is sort out the Cruise Terminal so it can handle turnarounds - the starting and ending of cruises. Simple. Well, maybe not.

Queen of the sea comes to Merseyside

2009-10-21T16:36:22Z

Landing Stage takes off for 2010

2009-09-29T10:31:30Z

IN spite of the fact that the row over whether Liverpool Cruise Liner Terminal can be used for turnarounds (ie ships starting and ending voyages there), its success with visiting vessels is racing ahead.
The zenith will be achieved on Tuesday October 20, when Cunard Line's flagship, the gigantic transatlantic liner Queen Mary 2 moors at the landing stage currently estimated at around 12.30pm, deparing at midnight.
Angie Redhead, the terminal's go-ahead manager has been doing the rounds of the cruise liner companies and drumming up business for the city with great effect.
"I'm already optimistic for 2012 as we're taking reservations early," she told me.

"Also I'm delighted we're getting Crown Princess back as we need 2,000 berth sized ships to boost the impact of cruise visitors on the city."
Princess Cruises megaliner Crown Princess was deployed on four round Britain cruises in 2009, replacing the fractionally smaller Grand Princess (the biggest passenger ship ever to visit Liverpoon on her maiden arrival in 2008.
Crown Princess' itinerary again has been a big success and she is scheduled to return with a further four round Britain cruises in 2010, calling at Liverpool
Angie is also delighted that Crown Princess' passengers gave Liverpool a 89% passenger satisfaction rating.
"This far exceeded our expectations. One of the big pluses for passengers was being able to walk straight into the city centre, which is very rare," she said.
"About 90% of passengers mention how clean the city is, they also rate the friendliness of the locals and the beauty of the old architecture.
"Liverpool is a complete surprise to most of the North Americans and Europeans. They expect a grey, industrial Lowry-like city and they're gobsmacked.
"The Americans particularly love its wondeful combination of old and new architecture."
Having established great woking rlationships Princess Cruises and Holland America Line, Mediterranean Shipping Co of Italy is now intersted after dicussing Liverpool with HAL bosses.
"What's terrific is that Princess Cruises and HAL are doing marketing on our behalf to other lines as they're so happy with coming here," said Angie.
"We are a city centre base, but we've delivered the operation. It's a Swan Lake syndrome, gliding along on the surface while paddling like mad below!"
One of the best tools to sell Liverpool in the US has been the simplest - an aerial photo of city with Crown Princess shows the location and the ability to handle a big ship.
"I've told Princess Cruises they're are our first prime custormer and we will always be very grateful to them.
"Everytime a ship comes in to the cruise terminal it's a good news story - but this not credited to the council, so we should be celebrating this good news story as something we've done very well."

Biggest ship back - again!

2009-07-21T16:13:24Z

It's surprising isn't it how quickly something which once seemed an impossible dream can become commonplace.

On Thursday at 5am on the early tide, Liverpool Cruise Liner Terminal welcomes back megaliner Crown Princess on her second of four round Britain cruises from Southampton, which are so popular with North Americans - and, surprisingly, quite a few Brits, too.

Looking like a floating city, Crown Princess passes Crosby beach as she departs Liverpool on June 29 on her first visit, in this striking picture by Colin Lane

]]> Those wishing to see her depart will have to wait to 8.30pm, but if she is moored facing upriver towards the Liver Buildings it is quite a spectacle.

Crown Princess shimmers above the Crosby shore in another striking Colin Lane image

With all the technical aids of bow and stern thrusters (ie lateral propellers in addition to her two main large props), spectators will see this vast ship spin round on her axes as if on an invisible turntable, so rapid is the movement.

Let's hope the weather is kind as it's the best Merseyside free show there is!

Biggest cruise liner visits Mersey

2009-06-30T12:28:15Z

THE maiden arrival of the megaliner Crown Princess is physical proof that Liverpool is nearly there as a major port of call on the international cruise map.

Last year was the the break-through when Crown Princess's slightly smaller sister ship Grand Princess (herself a behemoth) inaugurated four round Britain cruises which called at Liverpool.

]]> The fact that Crown Princess has been drafted in reflects the growing belief in what Liverpool can offer.

However, you wonder how many of the 3,200 passengers on Crown Princess actually will walk around Liverpool and spend money here?

The North West Development Agency gave its £19m on the understanding that Liverpool Cruise Liner Landing Stage would benefit as much of NW England as possible, so we can't complain if cruise passengers are bussed off to the Lakes or Chester.

But other tours go to North Wales and the Potteries, or am I being a bit picky here? Yet the problem remains that the real bugbear in Liverpool is that we still can't use the cruise liner stage for turn-arounds (ie starting and ending cruises).

Now that would certainly benefit the city with extra cash being pumped into the economy.

RMS Mauretania 70th anniversary

2009-06-22T14:56:49Z

AFTER remembering the tragic anniversary of the Birkenhead submarine HMS Thetis, we can also turn our attention to a very different occasion.

Cunard Line's brand new RMS Mauretania gathers speed in the Crosby channel as she passes New Brighton on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York on June 17, 1936

Last week was also the 70 anniversary of the maiden voyage on June 17, 1939 of RMS Mauretania, and another product of Cammell Laird. Mauretania was one of Britain's most successful ocean liners and blessed with the good fortune in peace and which eluded Thetis.

]]> Mauretania, inevitably nicknamed Maury on Merseyside, took her name in tribute to Cunard's great ocean greyhound, the four-funnelled Mauretania of 1906 (sister of another famously ill-fated ship, Lusitania).

RMS Mauretania's maiden arrival in New York from Liverpool, on June 23, 1939, in leading maritime artist Stephen Card's painting, Courtesy of Ken Vard, and featured in From Tramp to Queen, the memoirs of Capt John Treasure Jones

The second Mauretania was not as grandiose as her namesake, but was the biggest ship built in England before the war (Clydebank, Scotland and Belfast, Ireland built bigger ones).

A wonderful picture of Mauretania entering Gladstone Dock, Bootle, to have her rudder fitted after completion by Cammell Laird, Birkenhead, in March, 1939

However, as very much a scaled down version of the forthcoming superliner Queen Elizabeth (I), Maury was a classically handsome 20th century Cunard liner, with art deco style interiors. She was a very good seaboat (better than QEI reckoned her crew) and obviously a happy ship. A sprinkling of Liverpool crew memories can be seen on the Liverpool Daily Post website in my feature for June 16, 2009.

Mauretania's most famous Liverpool ex-crew member, former Deputy PM John Prescott admires the CL builder's model at Merseyside Maritime Museum. Her similarity to the superliner Queen Elizabeth I is very apparent here.

After her maiden voyage from Liverpool and her postwar maiden voyage on April 28, 1948, her appearances in the Mersey were sporadic, being very much kept in reserve for Queen Mary and QEI in Southampton and cruising from New York in winter. She usually came to Gladstone Dock, Bootle, for annual overhaul.

After the war, CL gave Mauretania a £1m refit to return her back to transatlantic luxury liner status. Here she is on her second maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York backing away from Princes Landing Stage on April 28, 1947. The bigger tug giving her a push is the famous Flying Breeze

Having survived the war, with some scary, hairy escapes from being sunk, and done great business in the postwar ocean travel boom (her New York - Cuba booze cruises, courtesy of the American Liquour Association, were obviously a never to be forgotten experience!) she was prematurely retired in the big switch to the jet airliner.

Maury nearly came to grief in placid, peaceful Mersey waters on her second maiden voyage, on April 28, 1948, as she turned off Princes Landing Stage and had a near miss with the Blue Funnel freighter Memnon, coming out of Alfred Dock, Birkenhead. Both ships were trying to avoid the wartime wreck of Ullapool. As seen in this fascinating photo, courtesy of John Shepherd, of Mariners' Park, New Brighton, the air is black with smoke as engines race (and doubtless blue with language from both bridges!)

Although exceptionally well built and engineered (her turbines were apparently superlative and in spite of minimal maintenance she never broke down in the war), by the 1960s the public's travel expectations had moved on and in her postwar years she was outclassed by newer, albeit flashier, ships with better individual passenger facilities (ie en suite cabins).

John Prescott searches the Mauretania CL model for the porthole of his accommodation, during the 1950s, in the bow (which he found). Mrs Pauline Prescott is behind

Her original three class passenger configuration necessitating more smaller public rooms were not ideal for one class cruising. In 1962, Cunard painted her in Caronia green to cash in on her quasi-sister's cruising fame and she gamely gave it a go, especially under the command of Capt John Treasure Jones, who regarded her as his favourite ship.

Cunard pensioned her off to TH Ward's scrapyard at Inverkeithing in 1965, a full four years before her Board of Trade certification expired and before many people expected. Capt Treasure Jones sailed her to the breakers and, apparently, as last man off could not bear to look back at his beloved ship for the final time as he left the dock.

Queen of the sea makes her Liverpool debut

2009-06-15T15:03:39Z

IT'S very good news to hear that after much rumblings to the contrary, Fred Olsen Cruse Lines will not be pulling out of Liverpool at the end of this summer season.

Fred Olsen's Black Prince returns to Liverpool past Crosby's Iron Men

FOCL's dependable old Liverpool mini-liner Black Prince finally comes to the end of the sea-lane, so to speak, as the company regards upgrading the 400-berth ship to meet the new tigher SOLAS (safety of life at sea) regulations too prohibitive

]]> To widespread delight, FOCL is deploying its much bigger 839-berth Boudicca to undertake six ex-Liverpool cruises in 2010.

Black Prince, which has been operating out of Liverpool for nearly a decade usually performs about 10 cruises, but as Boudicca is more than twice her size, the actual number of berths available from Liverpool will rise accordingly.

Fred Olsen's handsome Boudicca due to become Liverpool's summer cruise ship in 2010

Hopefully, if passengers take to Boudicca, who knows, her operational season in Liverpool could be extended. Boudicca is the former Royal Viking Sky, built for the ultra-deluxe Royal Viking Line's long distance cruising programme. She is a very spacious ship and clearly her handsome looks were heavily influenced by the QE2.

However, other factors impinge on Fred Olsen staying with a Liverpool base. Not least the running sore of Liverpool Cruise Liner so-called Terminal.

Fred Olsen would love to operate from this Pier Head Cruise Terminal, which as many know, is not a terminal at all, but merely a concrete pontoon at which visiting cruise liners can tie-up.

But cruise liners starting and ending their voyages in Liverpool have to use the dire Langton Dock Cruise Terminal, complete with its neighbouring huge piles of scrap and awful smells.

Black Prince sits amid the delights of luvverly Langton Dock Cruise Terminal

Not only is this a complete turn-off for passengers (if the authorities had tried to think of a better way of deterring potential customers they couldn't have done better), but it poses big problems for the shipping lines.

The entrance to Langton Dock through Langton Lock is not easy, even for a smaller ship like Black Prince, so obviously it is much harder with the 28,300 tonne Boudicca.

FOCL has obviously made a calculation based on the effort it has spent building up its Merseyside and northern England/southern Scotland market and decided to stick with Liverpool.

Doubtless, this is in the hope that the deadlock over using the Liverpool Cruise Terminal at the Pier Head will be broken. After all, just as Langton Dock has been branded one of the worst cruise terminals in Britain, conversely the Pier Head location is one of the best.

Let's hope that this situation is resolved before Fred Olsen's finally lose patience. After all Queen Mary 2 is loading 100 passengers in Liverpool during her maiden visit on October 20, so a precedent is being set.

German Navy hospital ship visits Liverpool

2009-06-03T12:51:29Z

In my Liverpool Echo Shipping Lines column this week I describe the forthcoming arrival in Liverpool on Thursday of the German Navy supply and hospital ship Frankfurt Am Main - arriving coincidentally as the D-Day commemorations take place . . .

Click here to read the column

The 70th anniversary of Birkenhead submarine HMS Thetis

2009-06-03T12:51:29Z

THE 70th anniversary of one of the most infamous Royal Navy peacetime disasters fell last Monday, 1 June, 2009, in which 99 men died in horrific circumstances.

This was the sinking of HMS Thetis, built at Birkenhead by Cammell Laird, which met her fate while on trials in Liverpool Bay, during 1939. Only four men escaped from the stricken vessel.

]]> This agonising story has been retold many times. In essence, on a test dive one of the torpedo tube test cocks jammed due to enamel paint. This was compounded by other errors so water entered instead of being expelled from the tube, causing the bow to plunge 140ft down onto the seabed.

HMS Thetis is launched at Cammell Laird shipyard into the Mersey June 29, 1938

Although Thetis' stern stuck out of the water and the tug Grebe Cock fastened a rope around it, avoidable delays caused some 20 hours to elapse before evacuation took place.

Relatives gather at Cammell Laird's gateway as news of Thetis' fate spreads across Birkenhead

During this time the submarine's crew, who included RN personnel, Laird's contractors (including caterers) suffocated to death through carbon monoxide poisoning due to the pressure and overcrowding.

Derick Arnold, son of Thetis survivor Walter Arnold, with the submarine's original bell, in 1999

Thetis was salvaged, beached, repaired and recommissioned as HMS Thunderbolt serving in the Atlantic and Mediterranean until lost with all hands on 14 March 1943.

The ship's clock recovered from HMS Thetis at the Merseyside Maritime Museum

So Thetis has the very dubious honour of being one of the few Naval vessels which were lost twice with their crew during their service history.

Onboard superliner Rotterdam

2009-05-27T15:26:17Z

WHAT a privilege it was to board the Holland America Line flagship on her first visit to Liverpool, after crossing the Atlantic from New York, albeit via Boston, Halifax, St Pierre (Labrador) and Belfast.

With the help of my great friend John Shepherd, editor of the Liverpool Nautical Research Bulletin magazine, we ascertained this was the first transatlantic arrival from New York for 43 years.

]]> John should know as he was purser onboard RMS Sylvania, the Cunard liner which closed (or as the company preferred "suspended") its historic service in November 1966, which began in 1840.

Although John wasn't sure at first if he was on the voyage, ever-impressively organised he found his discharge book and confirmed that he was working on Sylvania at that time.

Rotterdam's visit involved several coincidental links, not least that the 60,000grt five star superliner is only the fourth HAL passenger ship to visit Liverpool (unless the famous Nieuw Amsterdam came while trooping in wartime - anyone know?), but HAL is now a sister company to Cunard, both owned by the giant Carnival Cruise Corporation.

Also, Susan Wood, who is Rotterdam's cruise director began her career on SS Fairwind, which was the former Sylvania, after she was sold by Cunard.

Susan had a friend, Madeleine, on Fairwind who worked in the ship's shop. She went on to marry a businessman.

His name was Mickey Arison - who founded and still runs Carnival Cruise Corporation, now the world's biggest cruise company. What's more Mr Arison had to mortgage a family property to buy his first ship, none other than the redundant Liverpool liner Empress of Canada.

And the Empress had made the very last transatlantic sailing into Liverpool, from Canada, in 1971 - 38 years before Rotterdam arrived from Halifax.