Ship-Photo

Terneuzen (and a brief visit to Antwerp), August 2005

I had not previously visited Terneuzen, NL but had heard (and seen on the internet) a lot about it and how excellent it was for photographing ships which pass very close to the town. So, after a good deal of research - which included poring over past TSS Logs as well as browsing other ship photo websites and emailing various people for information - I decided to visit the town and see for myself just how good it was. So, I set off on 23rd August for my overnight trip. After sixteen hours and two coaches, two ferries (FastCat Shanklin from Ryde to Portsmouth and the P&O freighter European Seaway from Dover to Calais), two trains and a bus I finally arrived in Terneuzen at 1030 am on 24th August.

After depositing my bag at the hotel I set off for the breakwater, just across the road. My initial thought was "This place had better be good!", especially as for an hour or so the only evidence of any vessels was the usual small barges to be found in these waters. However, within a short time a steady stream of ships, large and small, soon dispelled these thoughts and this pattern was to continue until I left. There are plenty of ships and during lulls, the nearby Paviljoen Westkant is a nice spot for a coffee, beer or a meal - above the bar there is a computer monitor linked to "Ship Plotter" showing the location of ships. For birders, there are plenty of wading birds and gulls to be seen, too.

I spent several days in Terneuzen, with reasonably good weather, barring a brief but vicious thunderstorm on Thursday which caused me to hastily retreat to the Westkant - I missed a couple of ships, MSC Monica and Atlantic Companion, but those breakwaters are exposed and running the risk of being hit by lightning for the sake of photos is not a good idea. I returned to Antwerp for a Flandria dock cruise which at €11.50 was good value for money despite the crowds and the fact it was a dull, dark afternoon.

All in all an excellent few days and Terneuzen is highly recommended for those who like their ships close and who like to get close quarters photos. It really is a superb place for ship "spotting" and, especially, photography and I plan to return at some point.

Thank you very much to those of you who sent me information on Terneuzen and how to get there, principally Chris Brooks, Maik Ebel, Tugspotters, George Robinson, the (now defunct?) Shipping Information Service, Les Moore, Paul Mason and the membership of Shipspotting.com.

Some of the photos I took are shown below, including a couple from Antwerp. I have more (somewhere!) which will get posted once I have found them, put them on the computer and processed them. A few of the JPEGs are not great, repeated saves over the years have done them no favours. These will be replaced once I have reprocessed the original files.