Ships in the Sound

Last time The Diary reported on the passing trade in the Sound, one of the smartest ships was the Arklow Ranger. This picture, taken on February 11th, shows a sister ship, the Arklow Falcon, in the same colours. It's good to see a shipping line - in this case, Arklow Shipping - which still believes in presenting its ships smartly in matching house colours. Even better, this is a small, independent company based in Ireland - and it paints its ships shamrock green. Lovely!

The Wilson Brest is one of the Wilson Eurocarriers fleet. Again, Wilsons seem to take some pride in the presentation of their boats, but The Diary was disappointed to discover that, far from being a Scottish line as the name would suggest, Wilsons is Norwegian and, from the size of the fleet it manages, a very successful operation.

This is an old friend coming up the Sound, the Yeoman Bank fully laden with aggregate from Glensanda. Owned by Foster Yeoman, part of Aggregate Industries, the company was British but is now Swiss and part of a huge aggregate conglomerate. The Bank looks smart, but other Yeoman boats appear in different colours, which seems a pity.

This is the Emuna, owned by Emuna Shipping, and, in contrast to Arklow and Wilsons, the only ship in their fleet. Emuna is a modern, multi-purpose container vessel and a good example of how a poor choice of colour for the hull makes the ship appear somewhat grubby.

All the pictures in this month's Ships in the Sound have one thing in common - almost flat calm and, in most cases, a thin mist across the water, the result of a long period of high pressure across western Scotland.

The Oban-registered trawler Margareta II, painted a cheerful green, made a leisurely passage up the Sound on Saturday with what looked like a pontoon on a very short tow. The Diary wondered whether this was the pontoon used recently at Nether Lochaber while the work was done on the slipway there.

Lastly, this brightly painted ship travelled south down the Sound on Saturday. Although her name is visible both on her bow and low on her stern, our telescope couldn't distinguish it, nor is it immediately obvious what sort of vessel this is. We are sorely missing the local AIS cover which stopped working some months ago. Can anyone identify this ship?