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As time is passing the UT 755s, once the most prolific of the offshore supply vessels working out of European ports, are migrating to other parts of the world, and even being scrapped. This is the UT 755 LN Island Pride working head to wind at the Elgin Platform in the North Sea in 2008. It has by now been replaced by another ship of the same name, and was sold to a company operating in the Caspian Sea, so made the transit through the Russian waterways to get there.
Photo taken by Victor Gibson in 2008 and posted here on 14th May 2018.
I am currently reading the investigation reports on the loss of the El Faro, so rough weather is uppermost in my mind. They are a distressing read. So here is one of the BP Jigsaw ships plodding among on a choppy day in the North Sea. It looks like the wind is blowing at about 40 knots. It happens quite a bit in that stretch of water. I remember that one winter back in the 70s a small cement carrier was stuck in Lerwick for six weeks due to adverse weather. The ships themselves are also of interest. I have written much about them elsewhere.
So what have we got here? This is the BJ Blue Marlin, which appears to be an ECO ship if the funnel marking are to be believed, but it chartered to Baker Hughes who use it for "well stimulation", the purpose of all the stuff on the deck. For those who might not know what well stimulation is, the ship will back up to a platform and be connected by a hose to a well and then pump a lot of noxious liquids at high pressure down the hole.