Grangemouth
June 24, 2021
HM 133. Described as Scotland's largest container and reefer terminal (reefers are of course refrigerated containers!) - Grangemouth is simply vast and so is the job of Harbour Master!
The 280 sq miles of harbour are overseen by an amazing Harbour Master, Ashley Nicholson MBE, who won her award for "Contributions to Women in Maritime" and another award for managing the marine operations during the building of the Queensferry bridge crossing. She is also the President of the UK Harbour Masters Association - we had a lot to talk about!
Ashley told me how she loves the variety of her considerable job - the port handles 9 million tonnes of cargo and about a third of all Scotland's total GDP passes through here. Her team oversee hundreds of ship movements in the restricted and often fog bound Firth of Forth, as well dredging the shipping lanes every 6 weeks. Some of her more bizarre tasks have been dealing with a case of bubonic plague on a ship and docking a ship which had on board a container that was literally on fire....as it sailed past the oil refinery. I am not sure anything would faze Ashley!
This port is difficult to both describe and photograph - it is enormous. Alongside commercial quays, oil jetties and containers cranes is a Petrochemical refinery, established in 1906, and now owned by INEOS. The first oil jetties were built in 1930 but now much of the oil is piped in from the west coast of Scotland - Loch Long. In 1966 it was the first fully containerised deep water port in Britain. Today, amazingly, every single one of the quarter of a million containers landed here has already touched the ground in Rotterdam. Like so many ports, it all started with ship building and Grangemouth is famous for building the world's first ever sea going steam ship - the Charlotte Dundas (photo 9).
Thank you Ashley (who is also HM for outer Rosyth, Burntisland, Kirkcaldy & Methil) for showing me around this huge port and for all your support in my challenge!
The 280 sq miles of harbour are overseen by an amazing Harbour Master, Ashley Nicholson MBE, who won her award for "Contributions to Women in Maritime" and another award for managing the marine operations during the building of the Queensferry bridge crossing. She is also the President of the UK Harbour Masters Association - we had a lot to talk about!
Ashley told me how she loves the variety of her considerable job - the port handles 9 million tonnes of cargo and about a third of all Scotland's total GDP passes through here. Her team oversee hundreds of ship movements in the restricted and often fog bound Firth of Forth, as well dredging the shipping lanes every 6 weeks. Some of her more bizarre tasks have been dealing with a case of bubonic plague on a ship and docking a ship which had on board a container that was literally on fire....as it sailed past the oil refinery. I am not sure anything would faze Ashley!
This port is difficult to both describe and photograph - it is enormous. Alongside commercial quays, oil jetties and containers cranes is a Petrochemical refinery, established in 1906, and now owned by INEOS. The first oil jetties were built in 1930 but now much of the oil is piped in from the west coast of Scotland - Loch Long. In 1966 it was the first fully containerised deep water port in Britain. Today, amazingly, every single one of the quarter of a million containers landed here has already touched the ground in Rotterdam. Like so many ports, it all started with ship building and Grangemouth is famous for building the world's first ever sea going steam ship - the Charlotte Dundas (photo 9).
Thank you Ashley (who is also HM for outer Rosyth, Burntisland, Kirkcaldy & Methil) for showing me around this huge port and for all your support in my challenge!