Hello Becky and gentlemen, and many thanks for your kind comments.

Jurgen, Becky and Steve, it is a very interesting thread that you have started. Of course, the answer is very personal, and will comprise of a combination of factors related to each individual's area of interest in shipping, and yes this will often include an element of the age profile. (Please don't ask me what I was doing at 20 years of age hanging around Gladstone Dock). But on the other hand, what surprises me is how much interest there can be in what I would regard as some of the least attractive ships of today. The big container lines, I mean you. Conversely, I see many photos posted from previous decades which attract no comment at all. Much to the disappointment of the contributor I dare say.

The main thing is that in Shipspotting (not to mention other sites of a similar disposition) we have a vehicle to bring our collections to the widest audience and hope that every photo we publish strikes a chord with at least one of its viewers.

Thanks again for your compliments,

Best Wishes, Neil

Hello Jürgen and Steve!You speak from my soul! Thank you both.

Hi Jurgen....I guess you are correct on at least two counts: They ARE on a more human scale & I suspect the majority of aficionados here are of a "certain age".....(I'm 64).
I started my seagoing career in 1970: On ships, although larger than this particular one, were of lines that were pleasing to the eye. (Check out CYCLOPS at Durban)(Also BHAMO; DARU; OWERRI;BELLEROPHON to name but a few.) But I also did some UK Coastal trips on ships like: Corchester, Wadhurst, The latter end of my seagoing days were on Bulkers....Ugly monsters which carried boring cargoes & went to boring loading/unloading ports around the world.
(I guess that is much the case with the BOX-BOATS too.)(Although Jadran's contributions tend to prove the opposite!)

When you look at these smaller, general cargo ships of the bygone days, they are invariably located in ports where you can see the city skyline: This being such an example: Gladstone Dock. (Signed on many ships there in the early years.) So there is also a connection to peoples knowledge of such places.

As to the age thing: Well, the UK is no longer a "seafaring" nation, crews now mostly come from the Philippines etc so there is not the same interest in shipping that there once was in the UK (& I suspect many other European countries.)
When I started at sea, most families had at least one relation that was a seafarer.....not so anymore.

So yes...largely a bit of nostalgia is my reason for visiting Ship Spotting....whilst many of the "modern" ships leave me cold....there are many more little gems, such as this one, to give us old sea-dogs a smile of pleasant, quiet reflection.

Regards, Steve.

I'm going with the age cohort

Hello to all shipspotters:
What is it what possess all these old and small general cargo vessels built in the fifties and sixties that they have such a success on the site? Are they more of a human scale? Not such square shaped 350m monsters loaded with boxes almost up to the bridge front windows.
Or is it that the majority of the shipspotting aficionados are of a certain, advanced age? Like me well over the sixties coming close to 70...
Any answers welcome...
Best regards to all shipspotters, old and young...
Jürgen

Always a pleasure to see photos of these gone by but pleasant ships.Great photo.Thank you very much.

Great photo Neil !!! Thank you very much !

Beautiful Ship !

More please Neil ! Classic photos