Seafarer's Delight

For the seafarer, indeed anyone with a yearning for Southampton’s port heritage, this sight is one of the joys.
Pick the right spot in the city centre, and you can catch a glimpse of the world’s biggest cruise liners while they are in port.
Today the Celebrity Eclipse at the port’s 101 cruise terminal seemed almost at the end of the street from the West Quay shopping Mall.  From other vantage points you would have been able to see the cruise ships Aurora, Queen Mary 2, and Royal Princess which were all in port, and sailed late afternoon or early evening.
There are other ships of course, but none quite hold the splendour, or capture the imagination as much as the elegant cruise ships.  Earlier in the day you would have been able to see the Tall Ship Tenacious and there were both container ships and car carriers on the move.
Time was when the majestic liners like the Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, the France, United States and Rotterdam ruled the North Atlantic. Today the passenger liners are in a different league, indeed serve a different purpose, catering for holidaymakers rather than transatlantic travellers.

Yet for the seafarer, newer and much bigger ships, still hold a magical appeal.