HMS Victory’s team of conservators, shipwrights and riggers have started taking down her remaining masts as part of The Big Repair – the ten-year, £42m project to conserve Nelson’s flagship for future generations. As Stuart Sheldon, Lead Rigger at the National Museum of the Royal Navy, puts...
The London Museum Docklands is a ‘must-see’ museum that tells the history of the River Thames and the growth of London’s huge port system from the first Roman settlements to the modern-day regeneration of the Canary Wharf area. It is housed, appropriately, right at the heart of...
Almost one year ago, Brittany Ferries introduced their new flagship ‘Guillaume de Normandie‘, intended to replace the old ‘Normandie‘ on their Portsmouth – Caen/Ouistreham* route. Like her sister ship, Saint-Malo (SM), which began operating Portsmouth – St Malo two months earlier, the Guillaume de Normandie (GdN) is...
This is some interesting engineering. Have you wondered, as you watch your Amazon parcel “just 5 stops away”, what our world would look like if we suddenly lost GPS? It’s not just you, and a squillion delivery drivers. It would effect all transport systems (apart maybe for...
REGENT Craft, the developer and manufacturer of all-electric Seaglider vessels, and DHL Express have signed a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore the use of electric Seaglider vessels for short haul, coastal, and island logistics, at this week’s Dubai Airshow. The Seaglider Ground Effect Vessel (GEV),...
Yesterday, the French shipping company Neoline held a naming ceremony in its registration port of Nantes for its first sail-powered Roll-on Roll-off (RoRo) cargo ship. As I write, Neoliner Origin, is heading down the Loire estuary* passing the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard at St. Nazaire where she...
Tomorrow (27 May) in Liverpool, the shipping and cruise line Cunard opens its new ‘Sea of Glamour’ photography exhibition, celebrating the line’s 185 year history. Curated by British photographer and filmmaker Mary McCartney, the exhibition features 185 incredible images – sourced from the Cunard archives, and a...
The Wisconsin Maritime Museum’s USS Cobia is now available for overnight Bed & Breakfast bookings through airbnb. The US Navy submarine, which played a key role in the Pacific during World War II and has been has been a museum ship in Wisconsin since 1970, can take...
The Type 21 frigate and veteran of the Falklands War, PNS Tariq (ex-HMS Ambuscade) is expected to return to her birthplace on the Clyde sometime next year, to become a ship museum. HMS Ambuscade was built by Yarrow Shipbuilders on the Clyde 1n 1973 and served with...
The Dunkirk Maritime and Port Museum (Musée Maritime & Portuaire de Dunkerque) tells the history of France’s third largest port, its workers, its ships, and its seamen. “Wait! What? Third largest?” That may come as a surprise to some, because to most people, especially anglophiles, Dunkerque or...
Twenty five sailors, out of the forty who are setting off in the Vendée Globe 2024 solo round-the-world non-stop yacht race on 10th November, will take scientific equipment provided by UNESCO and its scientific partners on board their IMOCA yachts to deploy during the race. This innovative...
The Indian Government has approved plans for a huge National Maritime Heritage Complex (NMHC) at Lothal in Gujarat, an inland archaeological port site from the Harappan era (aka the Indus Valley Civilisation), now 30 miles from the sea. It is being billed as the biggest maritime heritage...
A new display of ‘Jolly Roger’ flags flown by Royal Navy submarines is launched today (27/03/2024) at The Royal Navy Submarine Museum, Gosport. It will expand the museum’s previous collection of Jolly Rogers by including the earliest known surviving example and the museum’s newest acquisition, a Jolly...
Under project name Sea Zero, Hurtigruten Norway has unveiled plans for its first zero-emission ship, but we’re not going to be cruising around the fjords on it any time soon. The cruise ferry company, together with a consortium of 12 maritime partners and the research institute SINTEF,...
This is a niche blog about technically-minded travel. It reflects my own interests in the mechanical, technical, historical, engineering, transport and military world.
COPYRIGHT © MECHTRAVELLER 2016-2026, including all images unless indicated otherwise.
