Seafaring City

It shows my age if I fondly recall what were always regarded as the heydays of shipping in a seafaring centre  — Southampton.
Truth is the port is far busier today and the number of super sized ships passing through the port in any period of time, far exceeds the shipping patterns of 50 years ago when I first moved to the city, although in those days it was not officially designated a city.
Take today, four cruise liners in the port each disembarking passengers on arrival early morning, and embarking an equal number later in the day for the start of a fresh cruise late afternoon. Not to mention the movement of huge container ships.  Arriving at the time I was on the waterfront early afternoon, the CMA CGM Laperhouse , on the left of my Blipfoto, was arriving, and passing the Celebrity Eclipse cruise ship (on the right), preparing to depart. The other passenger liners at different berths also preparing to sail were the Balmoral, the Azura and Britannia.
Consider that the new giants of the cruise industry can carry 3,000 passengers with 1,000 crew and the impact on the port and local economy is immense.
According to statistics from the port there were 422 cruise ship turnarounds at Southampton last year, with each contributing an estimated £2 million to the local economy.  That’s without considering the impact that container ships carrying imports and exports, ships that transport new cars and others with bulk cargoes.
So when I fondly think back to what many seafaring folk still think of as the heyday of shipping, I m sadly out of tune with fact.  True, majestic transatlantic liners like the Queen Mary or Queen Elizabeth, the France, United States or Rotterdam were a sight to behold, and for many the weekly service to and from South Africa by the ships of Union Castle were the lynchpin of the port.

But today’s maritime activity in the port is a different world to that which initially attracted me to the city as a business and industry journalist . . .  oh and if you thought today was busy, another four cruise liners are due in port on Sunday, repeating today’s cycle.