Helen Stephenson's Midnatsol Pictures from her March 2006 Visit

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Midnatsol, a Norwegian coaster who looks more like a cruise ship, visited London on March 24th-25th 2006, when she was tied up alongside HMS Belfast. My digital SLR, a Pentax *ist DS, was used to record her on the evening when she arrived, and again the following day when she departed.

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As the weather looked like staying dry, I went down by the Tower of London after work and watched Midnatsol coming through Tower Bridge. She arrived backwards, with a tug towing her stern. She didn't need one to steady her bow though.


 

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Midnatsol is an interesting vessel. She's Norwegian and she's part of a fleet that sails up and down the Norwegian fjiords year round. She has berths for 674 passengers (but can carry many more than that as not all passengers stay on for long enough to require a berth), spaces for 50 cars, and also carries cargo. She is fitted with triple bow thrusters and a state-of-the-art pod and can zip in and out of port in as little as 15 minutes, which is just as well, as her 7-day voyage along the Norwegian coast includes stops at about 35 ports.

Looking from where I took my Tower Bridge picture, I would judge that she is one of the wider ships to gain admittance to the Upper Pool, yet her sophisticated manoeuvring equipment meant that she came in backwards with the aid of only one tug, and she didn't have a tug booked for her departure (when she was going forwards) at all.

Here she is berthing by HMS Belfast. The tug Shorne is in both these pictures; and the Harbourmaster's craft is in one.


 

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Stephen likes "real water" in pictures, but I think the water looks a little bit too sparkly in those pictures, and my favourite picture of Midnatsol is this one, taken after she had finished berthing when the evening was a little more advanced.


 

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Midnatsol is a seriously big ship. One of these pictures shows the height of her bow against the height of the stern of HMS Belfast, and there is a considerable difference, which may account for why lighters were being used for shore transfers rather than a gangplank onto HMS Belfast! In fact, the top deck of Midnatsol is level with the tops of the funnels on HMS Belfast.

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Here are three close-up views of Midnatsol.


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On the left is a broader view of Midnatsol and HMS Belfast showing them in their setting in the Upper Pool. The red bridge span visible in the background is part of London Bridge, and the chimney with the blue light on top is part of the Tate Modern, which is housed in a coverted power station, hence the chimney! On the right, I've zoomed in on Midnatsol's forward upper deck structure.


 

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Midnatsol sailed the next day on low tide without tug assistance. The weather wasn't conducive to good pictures, but she was a sight to behold when she turned on her side thrusters and eased away from her berth alongside HMS Belfast.


 

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Then she propelled herself forwards through the comparatively narrow opening of Tower Bridge. Not having seen anything that size depart from the Upper Pool without tug assistance previously to that, I got a distinct feeling of "look, no hands" coupled with a feeling of awe when I watched her appearing between the towers of the bridge.


 

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Then she sailed down away down the Thames and returned to her normal life plying the coast of Norway.


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Last Revised: 28th September, 2006.