A trip down memory lane

[Kapitan]

I recently as i mentioned in another thread have been doing some what of a tidy up, i came across some of my old pictures taken with a non digital camera, these would have been taken between 2002 and 2006 so they are old and some what dated but they are a good trip down memory lane.

First up is my name sake Blair castle which is located in Scotland, it is unique as it has the only private army in the UK and is formed of one company of foot soldiers the Atholl Highlanders, its commanding officer current is a resident in South Africa and is currently the 12th Duke of Atholl, the Castle itself is a grade 1 listed building and is open to the public this would have been around 2002.

DSCN2750 by B S, on Flickr

During the summer of 2002 i visited Portsmouth back then we still had the Type 42 Destroyers and also HMS Endurance, not to mention 3 aircraft carriers, as you can see i went on the little harbor tour and my my what nice pictures some have turned out to be.

DSCN2745 by B S, on Flickr


Back in 2002 I managed to rescue this picture of HMS Newcastle it was about to be thrown in a skip its been in my closet ever since

DSCN2751 by B S, on Flickr

The next set of Pictures are of a visit to a Greek Island and a couple of pictures of us under way on the ship M.V Dart 10 (come to that later)
I had previously spent some time on the Island during some leave so managed to have a wander around this would have been around 2005.

DSCN2749 by B S, on Flickr

This set of pictures i cannot recall if it was Lebanon or Syria but certainly this was in 2005

DSCN2748 by B S, on Flickr

In 2006 we sailed to Turkey and came through the Bosporus i flew home from here as it was a crew change but we got to see the sights while waiting we left the ship at around 0700 and our flight wasn't until much later so we killed some time seeing the blue mosque the al sofia and other places.

DSCN2746 by B S, on Flickr

So we also had a layover in Egypt in early 2004 on our way back from the Persian Gulf we managed to get to see the pyramids and Sphinx we did stay over night and also took in the Sonnet Lumiere which was a very good show however i don't recommend going into the pyramid its rather a disappointment all i saw was a air con unit, however dinner was rather nice we even got a belly dancer and some random arab with his pots dancing away.
DSCN2747 by B S, on Flickr


Some of the Port of Alexandria in Egypt and also there is one shot in there where we are waiting for a south bound convoy on the Suez Canal again this is taken in 2004 but much later on around October time if i recall.

DSCN2742 by B S, on Flickr

Pictures of some of the ships I have worked on M.V Dart 10 M.V Dart 8, M.V Dart 3 M.V Dart 4 and the M.T Turdid Knutsen all the Dart line ships are Stern access only Roll on Roll off Freighters while the M.T Turdid Knutsen is a 22,000 oil and chemical tanker, i mainly spent all my time with Dart Line.

Some of the pictures are of us in lay over in England you can see my cabin which for a deck rating was spacious but bare in mind there was only 21 of us on board and each man had his own cabin none of this sharing.
The chart is while we was in the Mediterranean sea i cant recall which way we were going i do think this was the run to Turkey but im not sure.

If you look at some of the others you can see what looks like two towers with a platform on top that is Sealand or fort knock john it is its own country on this run we were heading to Kirkenes Norway on the North cape, also visible are the maunsell sea forts in the River Thames.

The picture of our bow at sea we are in the Arabian sea our ship was capable of 21 knots at full speed although we cruised at 18 knots normally Dart 8 and 10 was 26,000tons 178m long and 26.5m wide while Dart 3 and 4 were 121m long 21m wide and displaced 10,000tons.

DSCN2743 by B S, on Flickr

This was my last ever MCA ENG 1 medical certificate which covered me for one year only, also my company pass card which had to be cut when the shipping line was taken over, and also a picture of myself and my sister.
DSCN2753 by B S, on Flickr