Thursday 6 November

City Archives [Stadsarchief] Rotterdam recently unearthed this collection of photographs of internees at HMS Timbertown, Groningen, during the First World War. You can search for each of the internees and it should come out with a photograph. One note of caution: when searching for anyone with a surname commencing with Mac or Mc, you need to spell this as Mc., including the trailing period and followed by a space. Unfortunately, the Stadsarchief omitted the letter N from the word internment...

It's pretty wet and windy here this morning. Force 7 from the south-southeast. MV Loch Seaforth rounded Cape Wrath at 7.20 this morning, and is currently headed south-southwest past Stoer Head at 19 knots. She'll reach her destination, Greenock, by this time tomorrow morning. The ship passed Stornoway at a distance of about 6 miles, making its closest approach to Lewis near Milaid lighthouse, east of Lemreway.

I'll just repeat and expand my comment to one of my FB contacts about the performance of MV Loch Seaforth in a force 7, when the MV Isle of Lewis is sitting in port. One of the considerations in sailing a passenger ferry is not just whether it's safe for the ship, but also whether it's comfortable if not safe for the passengers. Earlier this week, the MV Isle of Lewis was cancelled, although the sun was out and it wasn't that windy. The northeasterly wind that day created very rough seas in the Minch, and you wouldn't want to be there. At present, MV Loch Seaforth is NOT carrying passengers, although I don't know how her new crockery is faring...