Looking back on 2021 the ongoing impact of Covid-19 continued to affect the number of vessels visiting the Thames and London although things did pick up during the second part of the year. Locally based vessels still made up the majority of movements on the river but cargo and inland freight operations did bring in some visitors.
The operations at the Tate and Lyle plant continued and regular supplies of raw materials continued albeit with slightly fewer ships visiting than in previous years. A full list of visitors can be seen here.
There was just one Cruise Ship visitor during 2021 but it was a maiden call for Crystal Endeavour so definitely welcome.
Another “star” visitor paying it’s first visit to London and the Thames was the research vessel RRS Sir David Attenborough which spent a few days at Greenwich before making it’s inaugural journey South to Antarctica.
The situation with regards to Luxury Yachts was a little better in 2021. The early part of the year saw a number of smaller “expedition” yachts visit London but as restrictions eased a number of large Superyachts made an appearance culminating in the rare situation of having four of these vessels on the Thames at the same time at the beginning of December.
Whilst there were only a few sailing ship visitors to the Thames during 2021 there were a few sail-powered cargo deliveries including a visit in to the Royal Docks by wind-powered Thames Sailing Barge BLUE MERMAID.
In respect of visiting military vessels things started slowly with four Royal Navy Archer-Class patrol vessels visiting over a period of days in late March – these are regular visitors on training voyages as described in this article.
As the year progressed a number of other vessels came to the Thames and this included further visits from RN Patrol Vessels, including HMS SEVERN in a new “Western Approaches” style disruptive pattern camouflage on it’s way to it’s recommissioning ceremony.
There were also visits from foreign warships for the DSEI event at London ExCel and a port call by NATO’s SNMCMG1 that spent a few days in the KGV Lock.
The conclusion of phase 1 of the CADP project for London City Airport in 2020 and the ongoing Covid restrictions did have an impact on the number of visitors to the Royal Docks although the biennial DSEi defence show did bring a small number of visiting warships to the Docks as did a visit from NATO’s SNMCG1.
December also brought some interesting visitors to the KGV Lock & Dock with the rare visit of a cargo ship with MV RUNNER brining in parts of a Tunnel Boring Machine followed by a joint Border Force / Met Police water rescue training exercise.
A few vessel statistics for 2021 (some vessels visited more than once):
- Bulk cargo ships visiting Thames Refinery – 17 deliveries
- Other Cargo ships (mainly doing pick-ups from Charlton + a few Tideway project related) – 31
- Naval vessels – 23 (5 connected with DSEi)
- Cruise ships – 1
- Sailing ships – 4 (2 sail cargo trips).
- Luxury Yachts – 12
- Visitors to KGV Lock – 175 (many of these were multiple visitors and i might have missed a few!!)
A couple of other events of note that took place in the Docks area were the first Docklands Formula-E race and MUDSKIPPER, a walking-boat sculpture.
Hopefully 2022 will bring a range of new and interesting visitors to the Thames.
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