July 2022
July 12th was our Branch AGM hosted by our current Chairman John Luxton. The current Chairman, Vice Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer were all elected to stand for another season as were two other existing committee members.
After the interval we were shown images and slides from John Luxton, Peter Evans, Geoff Holmes, Dave Crolley and Jim Charnock. Thank you to you all for a great members evening
June 2022
Our June 2022 meeting was brilliant, it was decided that we would reshow a programme called 50 Years of Merseyside Shipping (1948 to 90) that a few of our members produced in 1990. We realised that many of our current members wouldn’t have seen this presentation before so it was received with great enthusiasm and interest.
The show started by showing shipping in the South Docks and proceeded up thought the Pier Head areas and continuing through the Central Docks up into the Gladstone Dock area. After the interlude we crossed over to the Wirral side of the river to look all around Birkenhead Docks, then the Cammell Laird Shipyard and Tranmere Oil Terminal.
To finish off we then took at look at the Royal Seaforth Dock which had been opened in 1971. A very good evening was had by all and great thanks must go to the members who produced this excellent programme.
May 2022
Our own branch member Adrian Sweeney gave us a most interesting presentation entitled ‘Annoying Greta, a Smokey presentation’. This referred to the Archivist Greta Thunberg who obviously wouldn’t like Smokey funnels emitting lots of black smoke. Adrian showed us lots of these examples from the early 1900’s to present day on the subject of Ferries, Cargo Ships, Coasters Liners, Warships, Paddles Steamers and Tugs, most of the vessels we all recognised . The research in finding all these most fascinating ships must have taken a lot of time and effort so we thank you very much Adrian for your excellent presentation.
April 2022
For our April 2022 meeting we were pleased to welcome once again John Hooley from Macclesfield who gave us another fantastic presentation North towards Scottish Waters continuing Railway Steamers theme. This time he showed all manner of Steamers ranging from the Bristol Channel, South Wales, around the Lake District, over to Ireland and eventually visiting Scottish ports at Stranraer and on the Rive Clyde. As usual with John, he showed us examples of 1960’s steam trains that once visited many of these ports during that era. A really interesting and entertaining evening John, thank you very much and we hope to see you again next year.
March 2022
Our own branch member Simon Smith gave us a brilliant presentation for our March 2022 meeting which was about various visits he had made to Istanbul and the Bosporus between 2002 and 2016. Simon’s colour images and explanations of the area were excellent. He showed us vessels that we all recognised but mainly it was the unusual foreign flagged vessels that were of great interest. His knowledge of the area and knowing the best ferries to go on to get great photos was very useful. A great night Simon, thanks a lot for everything you showed us.
February 2022
For our February 2022 meeting we were very pleased to once again welcome our old friend Iain Quinn from the Coastal Cruising Association who had travelled down from Glasgow to visit us. Iain’s presentation was most interesting as it told us of the life and seagoing career of Captain John E. Cameron who was the first Master of the 1899 built P.S. WAVERLEY. He served with this vessel until she lost at Dunkirk on 29th May 1940. John and most of his crew survived and he went on to become Master of the second P.S. WAVERLEY built in 1946 that we all know of today. The evening was packed with many images of all this period taken mainly on the River Clyde. Iain finished the evening by showing a brilliant never been seen before 1930’s film of shipping on the Clyde which was fascinating. Thank you Iain for coming to see us, it was a great evening.
January 2022
Due to Covid-19 problems at our usual meeting venue we unfortunately had to cancel our January 2022 meeting. We were due to show members a couple of archive British Transport Shipping films which would have been most interesting so these now will be saved and shown at a later date.
December 2021
For our December meeting our own branch member Philip Parker gave us an excellent presentation about Liverpool and Birkenhead docks in the 1960’s era.
Philip showed us mainly his own black and white images that were wonderful. As you might expect Phil showed us examples of Liverpool owned vessels from Canadian Pacific, Cunard, Blue Funnel plus many other most interesting images.
It was a great evening and thank you Phil your presentation of Merseyside Shipping nostalgia, we all enjoyed it very much.
November 2021
For our November 2021 meeting we were very pleased to welcome once again Alan Moorhouse from the Bedford Branch. Alan gave us a most interesting presentation covering problems that cruise ships have had during the Covid -19 lockdown.
He split his talk into several sections, Covid Casualties, new Ships built during Covid, Ships laid-up because of Covid and finally Alan’s encounters looking at Naval Ships during the lockdown.
All this made a fascinating talk that was full of brilliant images and information. Thank you Alan for a great night and we all hope that it won’t be too long before you come and visit us again soon.
October 2021
For our October Meeting we returned to the Seafarers Centre for our usual evening meeting slot.
We started our October 2021 with a Branch AGM to fill in for the two meetings that we had lost because of Covid-19. Items discussed were the Chairman’s and Treasurers reports, Branch subscriptions and Election of Officers, all approved by the members present.
However our main speaker for the evening was David Booth from the Manchester Branch who gave us a most interesting presentation about his life at sea during between 1960 to 1980. David not only showed us slides of rare Cargo vessels and Tankers he served aboard but also the different cargoes that was loaded and discharged in ports ranging from West Africa, Middle and the Far East particularly in Hong Kong.
It was a fascinating evening and thank you David, we hope you will come to talk to us again soon.
September 2021
We are very pleased to say that on 14th September 2021 we were able to restart our meetings again. Due to Covid-19 problems at our usual Seafarers venue we managed to arrange a temporary venue at The Old Christ Church just around the corner.
It was an afternoon event and the speaker was our own branch member Philip Welsh who showed us wonderful black and white images of shipbuilding at the Cammell Laird Shipyard, Birkenhead. The period he discussed was from 1978 to 1965 but unfortunately time beat us before Philip had finished.
Thank you very much Philip for a very professional presentation and hopefully you may be able to talk to us again in the near future.
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