Picture of the Day
Here is the PX 121 VOS Paradise seen only the other day at Norscott in Lerwick. As you can see it is a pretty bleak environment, and if you are approaching it from the North the channel is marked by a segmented light. This requires you to remember what to do if you drift of the right course, because you would not have time to look at the chart. And as you pop unto the actually harbour you look down on the corner of the quayside from the bridge wing. This is not for the failnthearted. We have featured the VOS Paradise before. It is one of ten identical ships I think.
Thumbing thourhg my old stuff I found this:
The new British shipowner, Star Offshore ordered 13 vessels in 1974, the first one of which, the Star Taurus, was delivered in April 1975. The Taurus was built in Bolsones by Verft of Molde, Norway and was 59 metres long, powered by two Nohab engines developing the standard 7040 bhp giving a bollard pull of 90 tons. The Star Taurus and its sister ship the Star Aquarius got their first charter in the same year. They were hired to assist the Navy in the Cod War, but immediately proved unequal to the task and were replaced by the United Towing tugs, Statesman and Lloydsman.
This is the old standby ship Putford Shore now no more, having been taken to the breakers in Denmark at the end of 2918. It was typical of the old supply ships pressed into service by the Piper Alpha disaster which more or less spelt the death of the old fishing craft which had done the job previously. If you look closely at it, it has its funnels down on the main deck, a typical GOM craft built in 1967. I just happed to be looking at it, having used the photo in the book I am writing and the photos from the breakers are a compliment to its engineers. The machinery gleams.