Queen Mary 2 In River Mersey

Today the magnificent cruise liner the Queen Mary 2 docked in the River Mersey. I captured a few photos of the huge liner, positioning myself down on Egremont Promenade in Seacombe, Wirral. Despite the windy, cold and grey day there were many onlookers and photographers enjoying the rare view.

The QM2 is one the largest cruise liners ever built and I gather when she was constructed in 2004 she was at that time the largest liner in the world. You can read more about this magnificent liner at the official website – note these facts about her too.

Great to see such a fantastic vessel in the River Mersey!

Who Owns The River Mersey?

It may on the face of it seem to be a strange question but who owns the River Mersey?

A short while ago I found myself on the Crown Estate website and I learnt that The Crown Estate owns and manages extensive marine assets throughout the UK, including 55% of the foreshore and all the seabed out to the 12 nautical miles limit. So that naturally got me thinking about who owned the Mersey!

I contacted the site and a few days later received a reply:

Generally speaking The Crown Estate owns the foreshore and bed on the south west (Birkenhead) side of the tidal sections of the River Mersey, to the centre point of the river.  Much of the north east (Liverpool) side of the tidal section of the river is owned by the Duchy of Lancaster.  There are a few exceptions to the above and one or two sales of foreshore, or admitted claims from within these areas.

The Duchy of Lancaster detail what part of the coastline is owned by them on this page, which details:

Part of the ancient inheritance of the Duchy was ownership of all foreshores in the County Palatine. Extensive interests were sold during the nineteenth century, such as the Mersey Docks and Blackpool promenade. The Duchy remains the major owner of foreshore between the centre point of the River Mersey and Barrow-in-Furness. The area extends over 50,000 hectares. Historically, foreshores have not been a great provider of revenue. The coastlines, river beds and estuaries now have greater potential value in association with energy, conservation, transport and leisure uses.

So now you know who owns the River Mersey!

Mersey Palm Oil Plant Go-ahead

Expect to see more tankers in the River Mersey carrying palm oil in the future as the Port of Liverpool will house a new palm oil plant.

London based New Britain Palm Oils has got the go-ahead to build the plant on a six-acre site near Regent Road, Bootle. Initially, 28 jobs will be created, with perhaps more to follow. New Britain will ship the oil from its plantations in Papua, New Guinea, to the Port of Liverpool, from where it will be transported to the new facility.

Palm Oil is used in thousands of everyday food and non-food products including:

• bread
• biscuits
• margarine
• cosmetic products

U-Boat Surfaces At Woodchurch Ferry

An historic German U-Boat (submarine) is now the centre-piece of a new exhibition at Woodside Ferry Terminal on The Wirral side of the River Mersey.

The U-Boat, number U-534 is only one of four remaining in the world and is now available for viewing at an exhibition at Woodside. A specially built viewing platform along with inserted glass panels and interior illumination allow for a thorough viewing of the vessel. Also on display is one of three T11 Zaukonig advanced homing torpedoes that were found inside the U-Boat.

Also included in the exhibition is an enigma coding machine which was used by the German military to encrypt their wartime messages.

Norfolkline Mersey Schedule Unaffected

Ferry operator Norfolkline is to reduce services across its operations in moves to reduce costs due to the ongoing recession. The company is making  and is withdrawing services from Heysham in Lancashire as well as the North Sea. The operators Merseyside sailings will not be affected and daily sailings from Twelve Quays to Belfast and Dublin will continue as usual. The company revealed last year that plans to invest millions on the routes from Birkenhead had been hit by the downturn, including the recession in Ireland and a huge backdated rates bill.

This week Norfolkline’s owner Maersk said drastic moves were necessary. Ferry division managing director Kell Robdrup said:

Discussions on the impact on staff are ongoing, but unfortunately it looks like it will be impossible to avoid redundancies in connection with this tonnage reshuffle.

The reduction of tonnage on the North Sea and Irish Sea is in line with our current initiatives to optimise our operations and adapting to the market. Through rationalisation of our resources, Norfolkline will remain competitive in the face of a difficult market situation.

source

Bauhinia In Mersey

I was lucky enough to be on a Mersey ferry just as the Bauhinia was being guided out of the River Mersey. As I mentioned the other day she’s the biggest ship seen in the Mersey and she was in the river at the same time as HMS Ark Royal.

Although the ship looks big in the photo, only seeing for real do you appreciate just how big the ship actually is. How much steel went into constructing the ship and moreso how much did it all cost?

Biggest Ship In Mersey Due Today

The BBC reports that the biggest ever ship to enter the Port of Liverpool is due to berth later today.

The Bauhinia, which weighs 158,000 gross tonnes, will berth in Tranmere Oil Terminal at 1500 GMT, carrying a cargo of crude oil from West Africa. The vessel is 8,000 tonnes heavier than previous record holder, the Nisa, which berthed into the River Mersey in 1988. Apparently the ship is not fully loaded because that would make it’s draught too deep for sailing up the Mersey.

Birds On Runcorn Widnes Bridge

The main traffic carrying bridge over the River Mersey is the instantly recognisable Runcorn – Widnes bridge. The bridge is actually called the Silver Jubilee bridge and it was opened in 1961 and widened in 1975-77. The bridge is a grade II listed building.

Anyways, I’ll publish more information about the bridge at a later date …the point of this post is to mention the birds. At this time of the year the bridge can resemble a scene from Hitchock’s The Birds due to the huge numbers of birds that descend upon the bridge. Starlings can be seen at dusk in thousands flying around the bridge and around the mouth of the Mersey. It’s a striking sight provided by Mother Nature and you can enjoy more of it !

On 25th January from 3.30pm there’s a Birds and Bridge talk and walk tour from Pickerings Pasture Nature Reserve. Places are limited so you’d be advised to book – call Rob on (0151) 425 4706 and mention that you read about it her at RiverMersey.org.uk

Flat Camera Batteries Spoil Mersey Visit

I was in Liverpool yesterday to meet up for a coffee with some friends, followed by a spot of shopping (groan).

Before I headed for home on the Wirral Line, I walked down James Street to the Pier Head with the planned intention of taking some photos of the Mersey and the Pier Head. Unfortunately for me, the batteries on my camera were flat and I was unable to take a single photo!

There’s a lot of construction work still going on of course, including:

• the Mann Island development
• the new ferry terminal
• the new Museum of Liverpool 

Wine By Canal

In October 2007, Tesco became the first major retailer to start transporting wine by canal – the Manchester Ship Canal to be exact.

Barges are used to ferry bulk containers (holding 24,000 litres) of wine between Liverpool and Manchester along the Ship Canal that starts at Eastham, Wirral, where locks are used to seal off the tidal estuary of the River Mersey. Using the canal enables Tesco to take 50 lorries off the road every week, saving almost 700,000 road miles each year and cuts carbon emissions by 80%.

In Victorian times, wine from Europe would arrive at Liverpool in wooden barrels and be transported along Britain’s canal network. Today, the wine arriving by sea at Liverpool comes from Australia, California, Chile and Argentina.

The wine is transported along the 40 mile canal three times a week from Eastham to a bottling plant near Manchester.

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