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Dreary drizzley day but went out anyway to look for birds on the Stour estuary on the Essex/Suffolk border. Plenty of birds but the tide was too far out and the birds too distant to photgraph. We continued down river to Harwich Harbour, known locally as "arijarber". On arrival I noticed that the Trinity House vessel Galatea was in an unusual position near the Navy Yard pier instead of it's usual berth on the Trinity House pier. Galatea is one of a fleet of vessels used to sevice navigation buoys and lightships around our coast which are all based at Harwich.
On closer investigation from the adjacent Halfpenny Pier it was apparent that Galatea was involved in a salvage opperation and was lifting something from the harbour floor.
This turned out to be a 20ft freight container on one of the flat trailers used to move them around the dockside and on to the RORO ferries which serve the Baltic ports from this dock. It must have rolled off the loading pontoon and floated some distance away before sinking.Having got the container to the surface the vessel used its side thrusters to manoevre close to the dock pontoon ready to lift it ashore.
The lift began slowly. Then DISASTER!
The mountings on the container sheared due to the weight of water in it and it crashed back into the harbour.
Fotunately the container was now close to the pontoon so a diver was sent down to attach lifting gear and the container was retrieved by a dockside crane.
Quite exciting for a dreary drizzley day.
Regards
On closer investigation from the adjacent Halfpenny Pier it was apparent that Galatea was involved in a salvage opperation and was lifting something from the harbour floor.
This turned out to be a 20ft freight container on one of the flat trailers used to move them around the dockside and on to the RORO ferries which serve the Baltic ports from this dock. It must have rolled off the loading pontoon and floated some distance away before sinking.Having got the container to the surface the vessel used its side thrusters to manoevre close to the dock pontoon ready to lift it ashore.
The lift began slowly. Then DISASTER!
The mountings on the container sheared due to the weight of water in it and it crashed back into the harbour.Fotunately the container was now close to the pontoon so a diver was sent down to attach lifting gear and the container was retrieved by a dockside crane.
Quite exciting for a dreary drizzley day.
Regards
Just goes to show an interest in photography can give you a different perception.
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