Most ship spotters in the 1950s and 1960s would have had one or more editions of this little book. For me, this edition would have accompanied me - in 1962 and into the mid-1960s - when I cycled to Tilbury Landing Stage to see the ships leaving the Port of London on a high tide to begin their latest adventure on the seven seas. In my mid-teens I was a lucky lad and, through contacts in the World Ship Society, I obtained a blue PLA Pass that allowed me access to the docks on weekends and Bank Holidays (i.e. when no loading and unloading work was taking place on those ships remaining in the docks). Unknown to many, unknown certainly to this teenager, this was to be a last hurrah for some of the most beautiful steamships and motor vessels ever made - a last hurrah for shipbuilders, shipowners and those merchant seafarers who took these cargo liners and their red ensigns to sea, for the UK shipbuilding industry was on its last legs, losing out to competition in the Far East in particular, and containerisation from the 1960s onwards would change the face of sea trade and, not least, the Port of London would lose out to Rotterdam, the 1966 Seamen's strike not helping at all (although it was like a fleet review for ship spotters, merchant ships two and three abreast, stuck in the docks). For me, a last hurrah too because, at the age of just 16, I joined the Royal Navy in 1967 ...

Looking in this book, at these fleet lists now, in 2022 - famous shipping lines and lovely ship names - is a trip down memory lane. What we have lost - the British Merchant Navy and Red Duster ubiquitous around the world, the shipbuilding and the pride but also the beauty, too. The Beauty of Ships. Those cargo liners, let alone the bigger liners, were things of beauty. In this book, pictures of mv Townsville Star (1957), mv Clan Menzies (1958), ss Argyllshire (1956), RMS Andania (1960), ss City of Ottawa (1950), ss City of Philadelphia (1949), mv Essex (1954), ss Pacific Northwest (1954), ss Cotopaxi (1954) and mv Port Launceston (1957) are all examples of very handsome ships, pleasing lines, a tribute to all involved that led to these fine vessels doing good work for our country and the world, providing employment and travel and gracing the seven seas. And the names, lovely sensible names too, something that today's shipowners seem not to care about - advertising and marketing is all that matters now, function of course, but not beauty and function.

Oh happy days! How sad the passing of these ships is, what a feast for the eyes their passing by at sea, or in a river, once was. ( )