We were heading out from the locks in Antwerp the other day when I saw the name Clonmore appear on the AIS screen, I thought to myself, self it sounds Irish, and sure enough when it passed I saw the name and Dublin on the stern. I was of course momentarily filled with a sense of pride, watching a piece of old Erin sail by, it quickly passed, both the ship and the sense of pride, no point in getting too excited over a container feeder.
Update Sunday 13th May 2007
The MV Clonmore may be Irish now but she was Dutch before she had the name BANJAARD and was operated by Rederij Madora III B.V.
I know exactly how you felt.Every now and again we’d be in the departure queue with an Aer Lingus A330 in JFK or Boston.I’m easily pleased it seems because the sight of that paint job on a 330 (a beautiful plane)would cheer me up for days.
Do you see many Irish ships on your travels?
The sight of an Irish ship is a rare event these days, mostly Arklow coasters and the odd container ship as above. If I was near the Irish coast I would probably see more ships and the Naval Service vessels and hear the accents on the VHF, which is always good for a laugh!
The Clonmore looks like she’s carrying a lazy mans load to my landlubber eyes. What if there’s a storm? Being that top heavy surely she would capsize?
I totally agree with the comment regarding Aer Lingus planes in US airports, and of course Airport Duty Free’s are an entirely Irish invention which brings a smile to my face when I’m in the US. I once felt all proud of myself for some reason when I found Kerrygold butter in a Greek supermarket. I felt compelled to purchase it even though I didn’t need it.
Hi John, I am not in the container branch so I don’t know a great deal about the stability of these boyos. But I can give you a few educated guesses, the heavy stuff goes down low, and the light stuff is put on top. Don’t be misled by the uniformity of size of containers, it’s whats in’em that makes the difference. She might roll a great deal in a storm, and even lose a few containers, but capsize risk is low in this type of vessel.
On top of all that (or should I say down below all that) they will place water ballast low also to lower the ships center of gravity, should keep her stable.
I had a nostalgic night in a hotel bar in Oita, Japan drinking bottled Guinness with a Japanese barman, how proud I was to be Irish, of course to all the locals I was just another round eye!
I know this will come as no surprise to you, as you are no longer a landlubber like me, but there are several references to the MV Clonmore in the internet, the ships master even seems to have his own web page. I’m fascinated. Somebody even posted a large number of photos taken from the bridge of the Clonmore on one site; another seem to mention it also, but its in Dutch…which is basically Greek to me.
It makes me wonder if there are “shipspotting” enthusiasts out there, like trainspotters and birdwatchers?
Hi John, the anorak rating for me and ship spotting is quite high. However I usually confine it to my time onboard, as we unsurprisingly enough see a large enough quantity of other vessels. Occupational hazard, I suppose. There are people who go out of their way to engage in ship spotting and even are obsessed with ships and photographing them, just like trains or planes or birds.
You must send me those links you found, and if you have any spare time get out the 7 x 50’s and head down to Foynes!
Tim, for MV Clonmore photos see:
http://g4hxt.net/container_ship.htm
I was mate on this ship for a few years. Only the bottom two tiers get lashed, rest is held by automatic twistlocks.
Coming out of Immingham is always crap, full load of empties
Sisterships are Clonmore and Clonlee
Thanks for the shot.
Thanks for the info Simon, and I agree about Immingham, regardless of cargo type!