Ship in the Firth

We so rarely see ships in the Moray Firth that, even if she is at extreme range for my camera, I feel obliged to photograph her and find out a little about her.

This is the Bonacieux, described as a small, multipurpose heavy lift vessel built in 2010, currently sailing under the flag of Gibraltar. When photographed on Thursday, she was proceeding from Wick to Rotterdam.

She's seen rather better in a picture courtesy markprummel

That she's described as a 'heavy lift' ship suggests that she is capable of carrying heavy loads, such as sections of wind turbine. I remember the first 'heavy lift' ships appearing in Mombasa, in the days when the term meant that the ship had her own derricks for lifting such loads. The Harrison Line, in which my Haylett grandfather Ernest served as a captain and for whom my father's company acted as agents in East Africa, specialised in heavy lift. This is the Tactician.

I remember elegant ships such as her coming in to Mombasa and offloading....

.....the great Garratt 59 Class locomotives built in England for East African Railways & Harbours.

My family sometimes had the good fortune to be invited to be the captain's guests during the offloading. The whole ship listed alarmingly as the locomotive was swung out over the wharf.