Travel times: London to Amsterdam

[Samantha Saunders]

Hi I am doing some research for a book and need to know how long it would take to sail from London to Amsterdam. The time period for this voyage is the 70s and the ship is the Frivolity but if that is getting specific. A general time frame would do. Can anyone help please? Also, if anyone has actually done this particular journey on any ship I would really appreciate some info on procedures (loading, personnel on board, the roster for watches, what you do when you're not on watch, how do you enter port, unloading etc).
Thanking you in advance!

[j.sabourn]

People on here were probably on the ship mentioned ( Everards). Would be a short time at sea, off watch maybe cutting their toe nails, sleeping or getting their shore gear on. Sure you will get various replies to this. Regards John Sabourn

[Doc Vernon]

Well its about 306 NMiles from London to Amsterdam,and taking a speed of say 16knots ,that would equate to about 0.8 Days sailing! At 10Knots it would take 1.3 Days Sailing
Is that nay help!
Cheers

[j.sabourn]

Samantha... The people on this site who did a lot of coasting would be the best people to answer your query. Coasting vessels used to work a lot to the tides and most coastal skippers had various tricks of the trade up their sleeves. I sailed with a couple of them and they could tell you to the nearest minute what their ETA was. I went round Lands end once in a manner which I thought was not viable, but cut about 20 miles off the journey and picked up the tide right on the dot, arriving Belfast at the exact ETA.I doubt very much if there are very many of this breed of seafarers still working, it was a profession in its own right. The passage you want to know about would probably depend on a number of things, ships did not run like British Rail did years ago, but depended on availability of berths, fuel consumption, weather and other factors. The journey would take as long as the master deemed necessary to comply to the welfare of the owners. Regards once more John Sabourn

[Samantha Saunders]

Thank you very much. You've given me a starting place.

[cappy]

Samantha what john ses is correct ......my granda spent all his later life on the collier routes from the north east of the uk to London ....iwas fortunate to sail with him as a boy ....it may not be believed by some but he could take a great sniff off air and tell wee the ship was off....but sadly they have all crossed the bar now the oldest one I know is john sabourne ...he was on noahs ark you know best wishes to you ...cappy

[j.sabourn]

The only place I could sniff was Bombay a couple of hundred miles away, There again it could have been mainly Grant Road. Believe you had a house down there Cappy, did you ever finish paying the mortgage off it. Cheers John sabourn PS could maybe have borrowed one of the girls for Rob and told him it was Salomes granddaughter, Rob doesn't like wrinkles, JS

[alf corbyn]

hi vernon. i don't think you could go from london to amsterdam at 16 knots mate. too many bends in the thames,plus cross channel shipping and also difficult at the amsterdam end.

[robpage]

Harwich to Hook is under 10 Hours

http://www.stenaline.co.uk/ferry/rou...nd/timetables/

[John Arton]

Samatha
I have done that run a number of times so it would go something like this.
Lets assume your ship is 7000 ton cargo ship.
Crew make up could be
Captain, Chief Officer, 2nd and 3rd Officers
Boatswain and 5 A.B.'s
Chief Engineer, 2nd Engineer, 3rd and 4th Engineers
3 Engine room hands
Cook and 1 steward.
As the ship works 24 hours a day 365 days of the year the working day is divided into a watch system of 4 hours on 8 hours off.
The Chief and 2nd and 3rd Officers when at sea will follow this routine whilst in port the Chief Officer will be available at all times so the 2nd and 3rd Officers will work 6 on 6 hours off.
The Same applies in the Engine Room with the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Engineers working 4 hours on 8 hours off both at sea and in port.
The Deck and engine room ratings follow the same watch keeping schedules.
(And before any of the other lads on here jump and say that's too many or too few, this is a fictional ship).
So lets say the voyage is from Tilbury to Amsterdam which is a distance of 190 sea miles and our average speed for the whole voyage is going to be 10 knots (makes an easy calculation).
Departing Tilbury we would have a Pilot on board who will guide us down the river to the Pilot Station off Margate (North East Spit Pilot).
On the bridge would be the Master, Officer of the Watch, Helmsman/look out and the Pilot.
Once clear of the berth/locks at Tilbury the vessel will most likely be steered by the auto-pilot. The Pilot will be giving advice to the Master on the courses to steer and either the Master, Duty Officer or perhaps even the Pilot will be setting the course on the Auto Pilot. The helmsman (an A.B.) will be on standby should the need to revert to hand steering be necessary and if not required to steer will be performing lookout duties reporting any ship movements etc. to the Master and Pilot.
The Duty Officer will be plotting the ships position on the chart (possibly an electronic one) at regular intervals. All the time the Master will be monitoring the Pilots actions and the courses he is steering to ensure that the ship is being navigated correctly. Although the Pilot has vast local navigational knowledge he is at NO TIME in charge of the ship. That is the Masters responsibility.
The passage from Tilbury to the Pilot station will take around 4 hours dependent upon the tides and the bridge manning will remain the same throughout.
During this period the Pilot will be receiving messages from and reporting into the Vessel Traffic Services covering the River Thames and its approaches.
In the Engine room the Chief Engineer will be on duty with a watch keeping Engineer and an engine room rating, checking that all the machinery (main propulsion plant, electrical generators etc.) are all running smoothly and that the fuel for these is being fed correctly to them.
Once the Pilot has left the ship at the Pilot Station the Master will turn the bridge over to the duty officer but will remain available at all times at short notice to assist or take over the bridge if necessary. The master will use this part of the passage to send any sailing messages he is required to, prepare the paperwork for the next port and to send messages to the next port, booking pilots etc.
This part of the passage will be governed by following the recommended tracks and separation zones and due to the high volume of sea traffic in the area it could and most likely will be, that the Master remains on the bridge overseeing the duty officer and ready to step in at an instant notice and take charge of the bridge and navigation of his ship. The duty officer on the bridge will be plotting the ships position at regular intervals, ensuring that the ship does not come too close to other ships or dangers with the A.B. on duty acting as lookout informing the duty officer of any other ships or dangers in the vicinity.
After dropping the pilot the master would have rung full away on passage on the engine room telegraph (the instrument used to control the speed of the engine and thus the ships speed). This would tell the engineers in the engine room that there will be no speeding up or slowing down of the engine until arrival at the next port (unless an emergency situation with another vessel requires that our ship slows or stops) and the engine room watch will then just consist of the duty engineer and an engine room rating, both carrying out routine tasks to ensure that all the machinery is operating correctly.
The boatswain and other A.B.'s will be cleaning the ships hold and preparing them for the next cargo and the cook will be preparing and cooking meals for all the ships crew.
The passage from sea to Amsterdam is via the North Sea Canal which starts at Ijmuiden on the Dutch coast.
Around 2 hours before the ship arrives at the pilot station for Ijmuiden, the ships starts making preparations for arrival. End of sea passage is rung, The Master will take command on the bridge, the Chief Engineers will take over the Engine Room, the deck ratings will start preparing the mooring lines and cargo hatches for berthing etc.
Once the pilot has been embarked off Ijmuiden the pilotage begins and the work load described or the departure from Tilbury is repeated until the ship safely berths in Amsterdam some 6 hours later (depending on traffic conditions and how quickly it gets through the sea locks at Ijmuiden.
Although the total distance from Tilbury to Amsterdam is only 190 sea miles and our average speed of 10 knots tells us it should take 19 hours, this is rarely the case as at the Dutch end we have to pass through a set of locks which we may have to wait our turn to enter and both pilotages can have us slowing down to walking pace whilst passing certain operations such as dredging, passing sensitive berths, cross river ferries etc. so our total time for this passage is most likely to be around 24 hours.
This is just a brief (believe me) of what goes on and does not take into account such things as un-manned engine rooms, modern electronic navigation aids, maintenance tasks required to be carried out on a daily basis, paperwork over and above the arrival and departure paperwork required by customs/port authorities etc.
Even such a short passage could fill a small novel should we try to document all happenings/tasks etc.
rgds
JA