I am always interested in unusual looking ships and a friend of mine, who like me, is also a fan of Madeira as a holiday destination sent me a photograph of French ship Monge taken at Funchal in early July.
She looks highly unusual and on following it up, I discovered she is, indeed, a very specialised vessel – 'A Missile Range Instrumentation Ship'. Launched in October 1990, she was commissioned into the French Navy in November 1992.
Her main role is said to be to track and test SLBMS (Ballistic Missiles) during their test programmes. She is also used to track anything in the air or space as an intelligence collection vessel. She is painted white instead of the usual gray to minimise the deformation of the shell under the heat of the sun – as very precise settings are necessary for her onboard radars and other highly technical equipment carried.
It is thought that FS Monge A601 is one of the few, if not the only ship of her type in the world. She does, indeed, look like something out of science fiction!
Shortly after noon on July 14, the new polar research ship Sir David Attenborough was launched at the Birkenhead shipyard
Barrow has won the prestigious Port of the Year Award at this year’s 10th annual UK Ports Conference in London.
Associated British Ports (ABP) has launched a new air quality strategy setting out its proposals to improve the air quality
More than 100 firefighters were sent to deal with a fire on the self-unloading iron ore carrier Iron Chieftain, 50,587dwt,
The International Maritime Industries giant shipyard complex at Ras Al Khair, on the Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia, will come
In mid-June, the US Coast Guard carried out a special survey to see if a fully-laden tanker sunk by a
The BC Ferries’ Spirit of British Columbia returned to service on June 6 after a major mid-life upgrade which included
The Maersk Group, of Denmark, has ventured into seabed mining.
Four new giant gantry cranes arrived at APM Terminals at Elizabeth, New York, at the end of April as part
The first liquefied natural gas import terminal in New South Wales, Australia, is to be built at Port Kembla by
The first of the magenta-coloured container ships of the Ocean Network Express (ONE) entered service in May.
China is to ban overseas ships being broken up at its demolition yards from the start of next year.
The plan by the world’s largest cruise ship operator, the Carnival Group, of Miami, to build an Au$158mn cruise terminal
British News The first four of Britain’s next generation F-35 Lightning supersonic fighter jets touched down in the United Kingdom
Russian News
Russia’s only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, will be refitted to prolong the warship’s operational life.
British News Ahead of the American led missile strikes against suspected chemical weapon manufacturing plants in Syria in early April,
Japanese News It has been a particularly busy period for the Japanese with a number of new vessels being accepted
US News In a significant move in March, the nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson made an historic port
Condor Ferries has faced some speculation in recent months as its owner, Macquarie European Investment Fund 2, winds down and
The delivery of Irish Ferries’ new €144 million cruise ferry W.B. Yeats from German shipbuilder Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft (FSG) has been
Stena Line has confirmed that the first of its new RoPax ferries currently under construction in China is planned to
As Irish Ferries ramps up its Dublin to Cherbourg service with the arrival of the new purpose-built WB Yeats, Brittany
The Hamnavoe, Hrossey and Hjaltland had previously been chartered by Transport Scotland from Royal Bank of Scotland and operated by
The organisers of the charter barges working from Ipswich are worried by plans to build a road bridge across the
Two German schooners based at Hamburg are regularly making voyages under sail with general cargoes across the Atlantic.
Thanks to Orkney Image Library for this view of the RFA Pearleaf.
A collection of fine images of coastal tankers delivering fuel to the Southern Scottish town of Kirkcudbright took my eye.
The Anna (see the print edition for details), like all Dutch craft, has a band around the outside of her
I was delighted to hear that in the Queen’s Honours List, published at the beginning of June 2018, the Merseyside
UK P&I Club, a leading provider of P&I insurance and other services to the international shipping community, has launched its
In May 2018, the future of Australia’s live sheep export trade was again under the spotlight when appalling new footage
In May 2018, P&O Ferries announced that it plans to lift capacity on its Zeebrugge-Teesport route by almost 25 per
Over many years Knud E. Hansen has been one of the world’s leaders in terms of ship design, with a
Behind the construction of every great yacht there is a story and in the building of Meira, it is one
A keel-laying ceremony was held on June 20 2017 for Hanseatic Nature, the first of two expedition cruise ships being
Loved and hated in equal measure by those who exhibit at the Cannes Yachting Festival, as it is correctly known,
The season begins with Southampton, now celebrating its 50th year which, following the demise of the London Boat Show becomes
Nicole Langosch has been named captain aboard the AIDAsol, becoming the first female captain in the AIDA Cruises fleet, according
