Forth Trojan visits the Royal Docks

The KGV lock gets a fair amount of boats passing through and the majority are locally based in the London area but every now and then a visitor comes from further afield.

Today was one of those days when, on the afternoon tide, Briggs Marine and Environmental Services sent one of their Multicats, the Forth Trojan, on the long journey from Fife in Scotland down to London and she was not alone as she was towing one of their crane barges, the Forth Olympian.

For the final leg of the journey S. Walsh & Sons Ltd provided their tug SWS Breda to act as rear guide to help maneuver the crane barge up the Thames and in to the KGV lock.

The SWS Breda had to work quite hard to make sure the crane barge made it safely in to the lock as there wasn’t that much room to spare due to another boat already being in the lock.

Whilst the crew of the Forth Trojan were waiting they did a bit of plane spotting.

The crane barge will be working on the Thames Tideway Tunnel project at Blackfriars helping to construct the new pier. After a bit of shuffling of other boats in the lock and a slight detour via the KGV dock both Multicat and Barge are now moored in the KGV lock (SWS Breda having been released from duty).

Updated 27th June 2016

Having spent several days in the KGV Lock during which time Livett’s pontoon Dart was brought in to act as jib support and the actual crane jib itself was attached to the crane the crane barge has now moved to its worksite.

The Forth Trojan left with Forth Olympian early Monday morning assisted by S Walsh’s tugs SWS Breda and making it’s operational debut the SWS Suffolk.

A video of the departure from the KGV lock can be seen here:

The trio then headed up the river Thames to Blackfriars to work on the Tideway Tunnel project (more details here).

Please sir, can I have my car back?

The time had come to recover the Ops vehicle that had crashed in to the King George V dock during the incident on 2nd February 2015.

On a cold and blustery Saturday afternoon after flying operations had finished for the day the various recovery assets started to assemble at the scene of the incident.

On the land side there was a small crane and various airfield operations vehicles and in the dock the local workboat ‘RoDMA 1’ moved a diver support pontoon into place.

A diver from GPSM Diveco then went in to the water to attach lifting strops to the vehicle and then it was lifted clear of the water. There was a brief pause whilst the worst of the mud was washed off the vehicle and then it was lifted on to the dockside and then on to a waiting trailer.

There was some damage to the vehicle but it didn’t look too bad considering it had been in the water for 3 weeks.

Drama in the Docks!!

Shortly before 1200 on Monday 2nd February 2015 an incident occurred in the King George V dock in Newham, London.

Reports suggest that a vehicle entered the water and this triggered a significant response from both London City Airport and landside emergency services.

The Met Police Air Support Unit were quickly on scene providing over-watch and search capabilities if they were needed.

In addition three City Airport crash vehicles and the rescue boat were deployed on the airport property and numerous Police, Fire and Ambulance vehicles deployed to the bridge and dockside areas to provide assistance.

Reports suggest that the driver was retrieved from the water with no significant injuries.

Great teamwork and a successful outcome – a few more pictures here.

Royal Docks – international trade hub

That was the aim and outcome when the Royal Docks were first conceived and built – to link London with far off lands to facilitate trade.

Now, 164 years later, the Royal Docks are still supporting international trade with distant lands – although the cargo is now of the self-loading variety (passengers).

London City Airport opened in 1987 and continues to operate as a predominantly business travel airport – approximately 2/3 of passengers travelling for this purpose out of the 3m+ travelers each year.

The 1199 meter long runway is built on the wharf between the King George V and Royal Albert docks and provides the closest experience to landing on an aircraft carrier that most people will ever get – and great fun (if you like that sort of thing!).

Whilst the ships have been replaced by planes and the bulk cargos by passengers the Royal Docks still is a link between London and the wider world and a boost to the economy.

A post about the Royal Docks recently handling some ship-borne cargo can be seen here.

Some more pictures of the airport can be found here.

Taxi to the airport?

I have seen this striking looking boat a few times out on the river at Gallions Reach and it is a handcrafted wooden Venetian water taxi made by Cantiere Motonautico Serenella and being operated on the Thames by Thames Limo.

In the last few weeks it has also made a couple of trips in to the the King George V dock where it has proceeded to head up to the western end adjacent to London City Airport.

I wonder if this is a new service that provides an extremely stylish way to arrive at the airport?

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