How can I find out when big container ships scheduled to dock at Southampton

[10FingersOnTheFender]

I've not long developed a fascination with container shipping.

I'd like to go to Rotterdam and Hamburg next year.

But in the meantime maybe I could go and see big container ships docking at Southampton. Anyone got any tips? How can I find out as far as possible in advance when certain big ships are due to dock there?

Dustoff for a big company like Maersk you can do pretty much anything - I worked for a kind of internal business improvement department but it's like any other big company - you could be captaining a ship or you could be in HR or IT or any range of office-based adminny jobs.

Allice I remember the cookies! So good! I held onto my last Maersk biscuit tin for ages but I think it got lost in a house move a couple of years ago I was based in Maersk House in London but travelled to Felixstowe & Liverpool sometimes. It was a great office but I think it's being knocked down for yet another luxury commercial development now

What a lovely thread this is.
I live on the coast in Sussex & often see them on the horizon.

I often check to see what is around on this website:

www.shipais.co.uk/index.php

@10FingersOnTheFender - Would you like to ask HQ to move this thread, eventually, to travel or somewhere where it won't vanish after 90 days? So much good info on it.

Aren't pilots extremely well paid because of their specialist knowledge of the waters that they operate in? So actually they might be earning a high annual salary even if they only do 80 days a year? I suppose some of them might have some other PT job just to get them out of the house though

We love having lunch in West Quay Ikea in Southampton and watching all the ships. It’s what DS asks to do if he gets to choose a day out.

Provided we can resist buying 1000 tea lights it’s a cheap day out!

@magimedi I agree it would be nice to keep this thread. I will ask MNHQ to move it but not entirely sure how I do that...do I just report it and put the request in the comment box?

@Thermowoman what an awesome photo! I'd love a print of that framed and hung on my living room wall

I'm a dock head too. I was brought up i a shipbuilding town and I find the docks really romantic in a bleak kind of way.

@TroelsLovesSquinkies I have downloaded the MarineTraffic app since your recommendation...expensive (for an app) but worth it

We had to find a professional photographer to take shots. What a gig travelling to HK to take them. I recommended one that does beautiful huge expanses and strong lines, embracing the grey or the blue. I'd love that if I was a photographer and into that kind of aesthetic.

@PanPanPanPing they would be relatively well paid by normal standards even if they were working FT hours!

*@10FingersOnTheFender *

All you have to do is report your first post & ask for it to be moved in the comments box.

Maybe let it stay in Chat for a bit - but it would be a shame to loose it.

Brie
re Marchwood - follow signs to the yacht club and then there is an unpaved track between it and the channel that goes right down to the water ....

This was in Southampton recently
www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/15648479.PHOTOS__The_world_s_largest__megaship__arrives_in_Southampton___and_it_s_really__really_big/#gallery4

Is it true that containers just fall off into the sea fairly regularly? Or is it rare? I don’t mean entire ships sinking, I just mean the odd container here and there.

I’m genuinely sitting here wondering how I could combine my actual field of work with shipping!

Ask for this for Christmas
www.amazon.co.uk/Moby-Duck-Beachcombers-Oceanographers-Environmentalists-Including/dp/0143120506?tag=mumsnetforum-21

I'd really like this thread moved to somewhere permanent please

Done, Ta1kinPeace!

Oo that looks like a good book

@berwickswan I'll ask for it to be moved in a little while but leave it in chat for the time being. I'll update you all when I've asked for it to be moved.

For those of you who know more about the industry, why do so many ships seem to travel under the Liberian flag??

Liberia : Non unionised Crews and limited ownership reporting (see also Panama)

Would it also give you some protection from pirates??? (Eg of the Liberian govt told the Pirates, unofficially, to steer clear of those flying under the Liberian flag, in exchange for the shipping company paying a fee for the Liberian flag?)
Or am I being totally fanciful and/or naive?

Nope, they are "flags of convenience" - it goes back to the 60's and 70's and is all about tax and employment
(Look up Ari Onassis for the original king of the re flagging)

If you want to get well geeky, start to look up what the numbers on containers mean

@NineFortySixPM what caused your ship to sink??

DisaL, I used to commute across the Lamma Channel in a kaito or sampan.

Sometimes we'd bob under the lee of a container ship. It was terrifying! The endless red wall rising vertically out of the water - not ship-shaped at all. And our tiny cockleshell tipping crazily as we rode the wake.

www.google.co.uk/maps/@22.2281899,114.1362728,2695m/data=!3m1!1e3?dcr=0

@Ta1kinPeace I most certainly will!

(Can't wait to get home and put DS to bed now! Although I have a uni mate staying the night...is it acceptable to ignore her and let her get on with her dinner whilst I look up what the ship numbers mean??)

I'm lucky enough to lie in bed on a foggy morning and hear the ship fog horns talking to each other, I also get to see all the firework displays over the houses when the big round the world trips go off. If you are going to a European port and want to see a stunning sight look up the movements of the Blue Marlin Heavy lift ship - amazing!