Your Bio

Welcome. This album covers pictures of ships sailing close to British, French, Belgian and Dutch ports. Ship photos from further afield are also added from time to time. If you are using Internet Explorer,Firefox or Opera, it will help if you press F11 in order to maximize the visible screen area. However the best result are being obtained by using Google Chrome. If you would like a link to your maritime site added to the links section then please use the available tool.Feel free to comment or ask questions on any of the photographs. Hope they are of interest. Thanks for viewing ! M.Elias

The Silver Site Maritme Web Award was granted on 22nd January 2010.
All images are copyright protected and are not to be used without permission.

Featured Galleries

New  Pilot  Tender  (Ostend  5 Febr. 2010 ) : The Ravelingen was built at "Chantiers Navals Bernard Sa" in France. She is just one of a series of new ships that VLOOT is building. The Ravelingen will have Ostend (BE) as home port. She is of the ORC class self-righting pilot tender. She's 18.55m long and 6.00m wide. The two crew can take a maximum of 8 pilots onboard. With her two 500KW engines she can take them to their destination at 28 Kn (Cruising speed). She has a maximum noise level of 75 Db. 

"ORC" class High Speed Crafts are designed around the new and patented "Beak" hull design. 

Here are some of the caracteristics:

1) Exeptionnal comfort in head seas with very low slamming and vertical acceleration,
2) Unknown speed in head seas - higher than 20.00 kn in 4 to 5 m. height waves resulting from 45 kn wind,
3) Excelent course keeping without any tendency to broaching at high speed in highfollowing waves, whatever their angle with the ship,
4) High accuracy and manoeuvrability along running ships whatever their speed,
5) High stability at high heel angles,
6) Low trim and resistance in pre-planning range,
7) Low sensitiveness to loading.
(info written by  A. Gerard)

New Pilot Tender (Ostend 5 Febr. 2010 )

The Ravelingen was built at "Chantiers Navals Bernard Sa" in France. S ...

Updated: Feb 08, 2010 3:52am PST

A  constant  battle  against  the  elements ( Ostend  02-FEB-2010) : To protect the city of Ostend from flooding during heavy weather and storms, the beaches are being heightened and fortified. The first picture captures the Atlantic waiting close to the beach for high tide. On the second photo she can be seen unloading sand.

A constant battle against the elements ( Ostend 02-FEB-2010)

To protect the city of Ostend from flooding during heavy weather and s ...

Updated: Feb 02, 2010 8:59am PST

A  cold  January  day  at  Terneuzen ( 26-JAN-2010 ) : Despite a temperature of minus 4° degrees Celsius and a strong easterly wind making it feel even colder, I decided to brave the elements and arranged a trip to Terneuzen.On arrival it was still a little bit misty but the sun was on my side.

 Upstream bound for the port of Antwerp I spotted following vessels: 

Coming from Camden (USA) "Chipolbrok Sun"   (grt 24167/loa 199.00/width 26.00) , from Rotterdam  "Andrea"   (grt 2409/loa 80.00/widht 13.00) ,  from Braefoot Bay (UK)  "Morritz Schulte"   (grt 8234/loa 128.00/width 18.00), )  from Pietarsaari (Finland)   "Nordland"   (grt 5052/loa 120.00/width 15.00) 

Downstream coming from the port of Antwerp :

Bound for Bremerhaven   "MSC Scotland"  (grt 37071/loa 237.00/width 32.00) heading for Barrow in Furnes (UK)  "Steersman"   (grt 4847/loa 98/width 18.00).

A cold January day at Terneuzen ( 26-JAN-2010 )

Despite a temperature of minus 4° degrees Celsius and a strong easterl ...

Updated: Feb 08, 2010 3:10am PST

Recent  pictures  taken  at  Ostend. : 
The ships found in this gallery will remain in this gallery for a certain period. 
Afterwards these pictures will be redirected accoring to the ship's classification galleries.

Recent pictures taken at Ostend.

The ships found in this gallery will remain in this gallery for a ce ...

Updated: Jan 13, 2010 5:10am PST