Albert Dock News

The prosperity of port cities, throughout history, has been closely tied to the ports’ ability to adapt to economic and technological change. As ships got bigger, ports had to keep up. This has often seen the port proper grow apart from the city whose name it bears because the old harbor could no longer accommodate the needs of modernized shipping.In those European cities located by rivers, port activities have often migrated towards the estuary. The ships headed for the port of Liverpool now berth in docks stretching north of the original Royal Albert dock…

The record for the biggest cruise ship into Lerwick Harbour will be broken on Today (Sunday) when Celebrity Silhouette enters the Shetland port on a 14-nights British Isles Cruise. On her maiden call at Lerwick, Celebrity Cruises’ 122,210 gross tonne vessel will beat the record set by the 115,055 gross tonne Azura on 30 June. Captain Calum Grains, Lerwick Port Authority’s Harbour Master and Deputy Chief Executive, said: “The visit by Celebrity Silhouette will be another highlight of a record-breaking season and in the long involvement of Lerwick and Shetland with the cruise industry. “The sheltered and safe, deep-water anchorages and proven modern landing-stage facilities make the harbour an ideal port-of-call for large cruise ships.

Lerwick Harbour’s record-breaking cruise season will hit the first of several milestones this season on Thursday (30 June) with the arrival of Azura, the largest cruise ship yet to enter the Shetland port. The P&O Cruises vessel will arrive from Akureyri, in north Iceland, en route for Kirkwall, Orkney, with around 3,100 passengers on a 14 nights’ round-trip voyage from Southampton. On her maiden visit, the 115,055 gross tonne Azura will break the port record set by Costa Pacifica, at 114,288 gross tonnes, in June 2011. The 290-metre vessel is scheduled to anchor at around 8am with passengers transferred by tender to Albert Dock where they will be welcomed by the volunteer Meet-and-Greet team.

The last operational British-built wooden hull three-mast top sail schooner, Kathleen & May, as supplied with a new Volvo Penta engine from Liverpool, U.K.-based engine specialist James Troop & Co. James Troop was tasked with supplying a Volvo Penta engine for the historic Kathleen & May, working in collaboration with fellow maritime firm Cammell Laird to fit the D13 450 brake horsepower engine, along with a new generator, on the vessel at its mooring at Liverpool’s Albert Dock.

The largest brig to be built in the U.K. in a century sailed into in a Greenock dry dock yesterday for general maintenance and essential winter repairs. The Stavros S Niarchos has arrived at the Garvel Clyde site, which is owned by Aberdeen-based Dales Marine Services, after a Liverpool to Glasgow youth voyage by the Tall Ships Trust. The sail training vessel, which has an 18th Century-designed brig with 18 sails on two masts and was commissioned in 2000, had a youth voyage on board for the journey and will have adults on the return leg.

A 50-meter pontoon has been made available by Grieg Seafood Hjaltland from their Girlsta operation for this season. Lerwick Port Authority’s vessel Kebister collected the pontoon from Girlsta and Ocean Kinetics were engaged to moor it at Albert Wharf. The authority’s staff are making the pontoon ready with services and it will be available for use by yachts from today. The pontoon is placed to extend out from Albert Wharf, providing berthing on both sides of it and sheltering Albert Dock where the other seasonal yacht pontoons are located. The 28th annual Bergen-Shetland yacht race will bring more than 40 yachts to Lerwick from June 26-29.

Painters from British shipyard and engineering services company Cammell Laird have started work transforming a pilot boat into a camouflage dazzle design to mark the centenary of the First World War, in which the company played a key role. One of the world's leading contemporary artists Carlos Cruz-Diez has been commissioned to design the dazzle pattern for the Edmund Gardner vessel situated in dry dock near Liverpool’s Albert Dock. The design will remain secret until a special ceremony to unveil the newly dazzled vessel in June.

Antwerp is hosting the European edition of the largest breakbulk exhibition in the world for the ninth year in a row. The world’s leading breakbulk players will be meeting in Antwerp Expo from 12 to 14 May, with the main sponsor being the Port of Antwerp. The exhibition gives both global and local breakbulk operators the opportunity to network and catch up with current trends, while also providing a platform to meet the needs of logistics professionals in traditional breakbulk and project cargo. Antwerp for its part is the largest breakbulk port in Europe. Not only is it the European leader for handling project cargo, steel and fruit, it is also the most important port in the world for storing coffee.

Twenty-seven people were treated in hospital after the amphibious tourist craft sank in Liverpool's Albert Dock. "Following the incident involving Quacker 1, we are working closely with our regulatory body, The Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) and Merseyside Police. The craft involved in the incident holds a valid passenger carrying certificate. The craft has now been recovered and following consultation with MCA it has been taken to a place of safe and secure storage in-order-that a full investigation can take place. That will continue tomorrow morning.

Planning consent for the ambitious £210-million redevelopment of Alexandra Dock where the factory will be based was granted in May. Already huge jack-up cranes are now regularly shipping turbine components from a riverside quay off Albert Dock to offshore wind farm sites off the Norfolk coast. Work has also already started on re-equipping a shipyard in Paull, where a new fleet of support vessels for the offshore wind industry will be built, reports the 'Hull Daily Mail'. Mark Jones, Hull City Council's head of economic development and regeneration said: "There is a revival of shipbuilding and marine engineering on the estuary. Alexandra Dock is set to be transformed under Green Port Hull plans.

HOTA (Humberside Offshore Training Association Ltd) and McAusland & Turner Ltd have joined forces to create a bespoke Vessel Familiarization Course utilizing the facilities at HOTA’s Albert Dock site in Hull. Established in 1888, McAusland & Turner is the oldest Marine Surveying and Consulting firm in continuous operation in the Port of Hull. The company set up the three day Vessel Familiarization Course in 1994, with an aim of providing people working within the marine industry the opportunity to visit working vessels trading in today’s world. Throughout the 17-year course history, over 500 national and international delegates have attended training. McAusland & Turner approached HOTA in 2011 to discuss collaboration with the aim of adding realism to possible scenarios.

Neptune Renewable Energy Ltd (NREL) - based in North Ferriby, East Yorkshire, England - announced that, following the successful completion of a series of in-water tests on the multi-million pound full-scale demonstrator of its world-leading Proteus NP1000 tidal stream power generator, it is now seeking a trade partner, which could be a shipyard or heavy engineering concern, who can demonstrate the capability to fabricate and build future production devices. Weighing more than 150 tonnes and 20 m in length with a beam of 14 m…