Reviewing the Year 2022 in terms of river traffic in London it was certainly noticeable that there were more visiting vessels than had been the case during the Covid affected years but the conclusion of major works on the Tideway Tunnel project also led to a reduction in local tug movements on the river and a number of changes within the fleets of several Thames operators.
The operations at the Tate and Lyle plant continued with regular supplies of raw materials being delivered by ship with one fewer visitor than last year. A full list of the ships can be seen here.
There were a total of 18 Cruise Ship visitors in 2022 that used both the Upper Pool and Greenwich moorings. There were quite a number of “first-timers” as well as returning stalwarts of the London cruise scene but the Hanseatic vessels were a personal favorite.
A “star” visitor during the early part of the year was the Fure Vinga, a Hybrid Tanker vessel supporting an IMO event in London – rare to see that type of vessel this far up the Thames.
A returning visitor after a few year’s absence was the Paddle Steamer Waverley that once again did a number of trips along the Thames and around the estuary.
A total of 13 different Luxury Yachts visited London during 2022 (a few visited more than once bringing the visits total up to 19) with quite a few first time visits from newly launched vessels, some of which were shorter visits to undertake photo shoots.
The year saw a great improvement in the number of sailing ship visitors to the Thames with 13 different vessels visiting including several naval sail training ships and other first-time visitors which was a welcome sight. Sadly no sail-powered cargo deliveries this year.
It was a bumper year for military vessel visits that saw a total to 31 vessels call at London (this includes the 4 sail training ships noted above and 1 vessel that visited twice during the autumn months). The total was boosted by an 8-ship NATO flotilla towards the end of the year (SNMCMG1 being regular visitors to London) and a 5-ship Dutch contingent.
There was a notable absence of visits from the Royal Navy’s Archer Class in-shore patrol vessels which was due to them being involved in other taskings although there was a rare visit from HMS Tracker, one of the up-gunned Faslane force protection vessels, during the year.
The largest British naval vessel to visit during the year was RFA Mounts Bay L3008 which was an imposing sight on the river.
Both the Met Police Marine Division and the London Fire Brigade have been updating their river fleets with both the new LFB Boats delivered and half of the Police’s new fast patrol boats now on the river.
Royal Docks
The number of visitors to the Royal Docks was again high (at least 265 visits in total but many repeat visits from a few vessels) as it is one of the few quiet water locations in London for undertaking equipment loading/unloading and for doing maintenance work.
It also might have been the busiest year for cargo operations (unloading of bulk commodities) since the Royal Docks ceased commercial operations in the 1980s.
No less than 6 general cargo vessels visited the KGV Lock, one of these being to deliver elements of the Silvertown Tunnel project’s Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) and the other 5 delivering bulk cargos of bagged cement powder.
There were notable water based events during the year with a celebration event for the Commonwealth Games Baton Relay / Queen’s Platinum Jubilee that saw a flotilla of people-powered vessels and other support boats transit through the Royal Victoria and Royal Albert Docks – all credit to those that took part but somewhat underwhelming and it failed to deliver the promised 25 boats.
The other event was the Covid delayed conclusion of the 2019-20 Clipper round-the-world yacht race.
The bi-annual Oceanology International event took place at ExCel and once again saw a number of visiting boats, although the number attending was reduced in comparison to previous events and the vessels were also more inshore / river survey vessels. The number of uncrewed vessels was much higher.
Towards the end of 2022 the project to build the new Lifeboat Station for Tower RNLI commenced with the tug Goliath bringing in the base pontoon.
The Royal Docks was also the logistics base and filming location for a Netflix production during December – a report about the boats being used can be seen here.
A few vessel statistics for 2022 (some vessels visited more than once):
- Bulk cargo ships visiting Thames Refinery – 16 deliveries
- Other Cargo ships (mainly doing pick-ups from Charlton + a few aggregate deliveries to Silvertown and the extra 6 to the Royal Docks) – 34
- Naval vessels – 31
- Cruise ships – 18
- Sailing ships – 16
- Luxury Yachts – 19
- Visitors to KGV Lock – 265 (many of these were multiple visitors and I might have missed a few!!)
Hopefully there will be more new and interesting visitors to the Thames in 2023.
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