Veteran ships of the world

More on the former PEC 833, HMS Kilham, Sognefjord, Orion, now Orient Explorer and the attempt to bring her back to Norway:
https://knutdale.wixsite.com/ms-sognefjord?fbclid=IwAR1OWXAa_g2bjV7CDKnltGFn-MpibqM7-5nvPXsjA3lL2rEKH9lvm2dYibI

Two of the enthusiasts that try to save her will be travelling to Kota Kinabalu, East Malaysia for an inspection and evaluation of the feasibility of restoring her soon:

I spotted her at Langkawi in 2004:

Still with the logo from her time as a ferry on the bow:

And the name Sognefjord visible aft:

I visited her at the anchorage outside KK in 2010 and 11, while she was still in relatively good condition for her age:

In 2019 she dragged anchor and run aground;
image

She was refloated in 2021 and is now moored in KK awaiting her faith:

The first PEC being launched in Chicago 1943:


This one became HMS Kilbirnie and MS Haugesund.

As HMS Kilham:

Converted to ferry in 1950:

One that didn’t survive 80 years:


Name: M/V Cali
IMO No.: 5057917
Nationality: Cypriot
Type: cargo ship
Propulsion: motor vessel (diesel)
Date built: 1951
Builder: Uddevallavarvet A/B, Uddevalla
Engine by: Nordberg Manufacturing Co., Milwaukee (WI)
Tonnage: 1895 grt
Dimensions: 85.6 x 12.5 x 5.4 m
Material: steel
Engine: 1 diesel engine
Power: 1700 b.h.p.
Speed: 13 knots
Ran aground/wrecked on Hamriyah breakwater on the 28th June 1979 when on route from Kuwait for Suez with a cargo of vehicles & a general cargo.
Date lost: 28/06/1979
Read more at wrecksite: https://wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?183050

Veteran boat rather than ship this time:



Photos : Roel Ovinge Fotografie © https://www.roelovinge.nl

A modern Dutch Rescue boat:


Als de lancering niet verantwoord is, zal de KNRM van station Paal 8 met de moderne reddingboot ‘FRANS HOGEWIND’ een demonstratie geven
Photo: Flying Focus Aerial Photography www.flyingfocus.nl ©

Sister ship of the African Queen?:


Ms AMAZON QUEEN as seen near Icoaraci, Brazil
Photo: Jan Willem Goudriaan (c)

A team has arrived in Kota Kinabalu to assess the condition of Orient Explorer (ex Sognefjord) with a view to purchase and rehabilitate her to a condition equivale to her last voyage as M/S Sognefjord in 1982.
Here is a video about that voyage:

Text and commentary in Norwegian only, but “pictures say more than a thousand words”.

She has now reached Tenerife:


The partly rebuilt private yacht NELSON MANDELA entered the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain, on Wednesday, March 15, 2023. She is the former German pilot cutter GOTTHILF HAGEN that was around fifty years on location in the Weser estuary for the supply of pilots to the incoming and outgoing ships for the ports of Bremerhaven, Bremen, Brake and allother Weserports. The GOTTHILF HAGEN had accomodation for 40 pilots in cabins and was rebuilt 2001 to serve as a mother ship for the new SWATH pilot tenders that distributed and collected pilots to and from incoming and outgoing ships. Several years later in the North Sea the SWATH system took over completely and also the living platforms for the pilots were now SWATH units. All conventional pilot cutters were then withdrawn, laid up and later sold. There were in all five of them, all sisterships, three in the Elbe estuary, two in the approaches to the Weserports and one in the outer river Ems. The GOTTHILF HAGEN was after a short period of layup sold in 2011 by the German government for 145000 Euro to the Netherlands with the aim of converting her to a private yacht. Judging from the sound from the exhaust pipes of the NELSON MANDELA during the lengthy berthing procedure in Tenerife the former diesel-electric propulsion of this twin-screw-vessel - which was completely noiseless - apparently was replaced by a pure diesel propulsion. She flies the US flag with no shown homeport on the stern of the vessel. According to AIS she came from Lisbon, Portugal, where she left on March 9. The NELSON MANDELA was built in 1959 at the shipyard Jos. L. Meyer of Papenburg unter the hull number S 496.

On the same day she entered port only a few hundred meters away of the NELSON MANDELAanother vessel of the Meyer Werft in Papenburg took berth in Santa Cruz de Tenerife:


The cruise vessel AIDANOVA was built in Papenburg in 2018 under the hull number S 696. She is employed by Costa Crociere, Genoy, Italy/Aida Cruises, Rostock, Germany on cruise trips around the Canary Islands with regular calls at Las Palmas and Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
A seldom encounter of two ships of the same yard that represent entirely different eras of shipping within a time period of sixty years.
Text and photos: Jan Mordhorst

Maybe not old enough to be a veteran, but old looking:


This is one of those images that sticks in your mind for ages. Thoughts of peacefully drifting along, about as far from the hectic madness of today’s world as one can get. It was shot by Eric Camiel some years ago while on assignment for National Geographic.

Another picture from same source:


And to think at one time such sights were a common every day occurrence at any big port and many smaller ones.

Source: Historic Vessel Vega