Ships in the Sound

Lystind is a 101m long, 4,500 tonnes dwt 'sideport' ship - that is, she loads much of her cargo through a 'door' in the side of the ship. A typical cargo loaded this way is paper, in huge rolls, and other cargoes which can be brought aboard by fork-lift trucks. She also carries containers on deck. She's one of the Lys family of ships which is part of the DFDS fleet, details here.

HA Sclenar is a bulk carrier almost 250m long and of 45,000 tonnes dwt. Whereas most of the aggregate from Glensanda superquarry used to be transported by the Yeoman ships, we're seeing more of these US ships, registered in the Bahamas and operated from Mexico. She seems to be carrying most of her cargoes to Norway and Germany. There's more about her here.

Burhoui is a much smaller ship at 58m length and a deadweight of just under 1,000 tonnes. Built in Germany, she operates under the British flag and is owned by Allied Coasters of St Peters Port, Guernsey. There's a good picture of her in heavy weather here. Burhoui seems such a strange name, particularly when, searching on Google, the same ship seems also to be called Burhou I. More about the company which owns her here.

Two ships have been carrying out survey work in the Sound over the last few weeks. The smaller, Triad, is used for hydrographic surveys in water between 5 and 500m depth. Owned by the Swedish company MMT, she's one of a fleet of ships which they operate - more details here. On their site select 'Presentation' and have a look at their search for the 'Ghost Ship'.

The other, much larger ship is the IceBeam. She's been around for some time now, her activities noted on The Diary on 1st November, here. She's owned by the same company as Triad, MMT. The Diary has made some effort to find out exactly what the two ships are doing, to no avail.

The picture here was taken when she was working just off the Ormsaigbeg coast. She had come in from the west but turned in front of us and then headed out again under the cliffs of Sron Bheag.

Lastly, this ship came down the Sound on 22nd October - a pretty mucky day. She didn't appear on the AIS website, and The Diary's telescope couldn't pick out her name. But she's a very smart-looking boat with a fair turn of speed, so The Diary would be very grateful for any information about her.