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| Lagos Palm - Robert G. Lloyd |
The Palm Line was a UK-owned shipping line that was engaged in the West African trade from 1949, primarily servicing the ports along 5,000 miles of coastline from Morocco in the north to Angola in the far south. It ceased trading in 1986.
Navigating the Niger Delta required certain accommodations:
It is notable that all Palm Line ships, with the exception of Kano Palm and Katsina Palm, built before 1970, had to be less than 500 feet long in order to navigate the creeks of Nigeria. Draught is another important feature. The coast of West Africa is extremely flat, and the slow-moving rivers and tidal currents have combined to build up long sand bars a mile or two off the coast. To enter most of the rivers, ships must pass over these bars; 27 feet being the maximum draught to serve all ports. Even so, to enter many rivers, - for example the Escravos River which leads to Sapele - ships cannot carry more than 4,000 tons since the maximum draught to successfully make it over the Escravos Bar is limited to 17 feet (5.2 m), so vessels would often cross over the bar at the entrance to the adjacent Forcados River, then take the connecting creek to the Escravos River.
Here are some maps of the Niger Delta. I'm not real happy with any of them:
Oh well, they're free, I should be happy with what I've got. It's not like I'm going on a voyage to Nigeria any time soon.
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| View of the Niger Delta from space (north/land at top). |
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| Map showing Escravos and Qua Iboe Estuaries |
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| ADMIRALTY Chart - 3321 Entrances to Escravos and Forcados Rivers |
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| The Niger Delta with the Forcados (middle left) |
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| SS Eleanor on the River Mersey circa 1957 - Robert G. Lloyd |
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| Vasna at Bombay - Robert G. Lloyd |
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| SS Tjitjalengka at Amoy Harbor in China - Robert G. Lloyd |
The 16,700 ton British hospital ship Tjitjalengka. Built for the Java-China-Japan-Line in 1939 and owned by a Dutch shipping company, the Tjitjalengka was requisitioned for Admiralty service on 8 July 1942 and was converted in Liverpool, England to accommodate 504 patients. After service in the North Atlantic and Indian Oceans, she was transferred to the British Pacific Fleet. After the Japanese surrender, she carried Allied Prisoners of War (POWs) repatriated from Japan to Australia. On her final voyage, she carried invalids and Naval casualties from Colombo and Durban to Liverpool, England and was then returned to her owners.
Royal Navy Research Archive has a longer history of this ship.
The artist, Robert G. Lloyd has done numerous marine paintings.
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| Tjitjalengka, Indonesia |
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| SS Yih Lee berthed at Dinghai, Zhoushan, China, circa 1929 |
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| Kompozitor Rakhmaninov at the Port Olya in Astrakhan Oblast, Russia |
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| Port Olya Reka Bakhtemir Map is about 50 miles top to bottom |
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| The Battle of Terheide by Jan Abrahamsz Beerstraaten, 1660 |
The Battle of Terheide (also known as the Battle of Scheveningen) was the final, decisive naval engagement of the First Anglo-Dutch War. Fought on August 10, 1653, between the English Commonwealth and the Dutch Republic, the clash successfully broke the crippling English blockade of the Dutch coast, though it cost the Dutch their legendary commander, Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp.
Both sides claimed a victory: the English because of their tactical superiority, the Dutch because the strategic goal of their attack, the lifting of the blockade, had been achieved.
| Belligerents | |
|---|---|
 English Commonwealth |  Dutch Republic |
| Commanders and leaders | |
| George Monck Benjamin Blake | Maarten Tromp † |
| Strength | |
| 130 ships[1] 4,000 guns 17,000 men[2] | 125 ships[1] 3,450 guns 13,000 men[2] |
| Casualties and losses | |
| 950–1,200 killed and wounded 2 ships lost [1][3] | 2,000 killed and wounded 1,000 captured 12-30 ships lost[2][1] |
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| Battle of Delaware Bay |
The Battle of Delaware Bay, or the Battle of Cape May, was a naval engagement fought between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United States during the American Revolutionary War. A British force of three vessels attacked three American privateers that were escorting a fleet of merchantmen. The ensuing combat in Delaware Bay near Cape May ended with the American sloop Hyder Ally capturing the British sloop-of-war HMS General Monk.
Background
Twenty-three-year-old Lieutenant Joshua Barney of the Continental Navy commanded the privateer sloop Hyder Ali during the battles. She was owned by Pennsylvania businessman John Willcocks and was issued a letter of marque. The sloop was armed with 16 six-pounders and had a crew of about 110 men, officers and marines, and was named after Hyder Ali, the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore and a British enemy.
Hyder Ali? You mean the king of southern India? Yes, that Hyder Ali:
Hyder Ali was an innovator in the military use of rockets, which were used against positions and territories held by the East India Company during the Anglo-Mysore Wars. Although rocket technology originated in China and had made its way to India and Europe by the 13th century, development of accurate cannons had sidelined rockets as a military technology in Europe. Rocket technology was already in use when Hyder's father served (he commanded a company of 50 rocketmen), but it was Hyder who improved them and significantly expanded their use in the military. Technological innovations included the use of high-quality iron casing (better than was then available in Europe) for the combustion chamber, enabling the use of higher-powered explosive charges. . . . Rockets developed by Hyder and Tipu led to a renaissance of interest in the technology in Britain, where William Congreve, supplied with rocket cases from Mysore, developed what became known as Congreve rockets in the early 19th century.
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| Battle of Pollilur 1780 - Charles H. Hubbell |
In Hyder's time the Mysorean army had a rocket corps of as many as 1,200 men, which Tipu increased to 5,000. At the 1780 Battle of Pollilur, during the second war, Colonel William Baillie's ammunition stores are thought to have been detonated by a hit from one of Hyder's rockets, contributing to the British defeat.
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| Avenging the Hood - Ron Cole |
The Fairey Swordfish is a retired biplane torpedo bomber, designed by the Fairey Aviation Company. Originating in the early 1930s, the Swordfish, nicknamed "Stringbag", was principally operated by the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy. It was also used by the Royal Air Force (RAF), as well as several overseas operators, including the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and the Royal Netherlands Navy. It was initially operated primarily as a fleet attack aircraft. During its later years, the Swordfish was increasingly used for anti-submarine and training duties. The type was in frontline service throughout the Second World War.Despite being obsolescent, the Swordfish achieved some spectacular successes during the war, including sinking one battleship and damaging two others belonging to the Regia Marina (the Italian navy) during the Battle of Taranto, and the famous attack on the German battleship Bismarck, which contributed to her eventually being sunk. Swordfish sank a greater tonnage of Axis shipping than any other Allied aircraft during the war. The Swordfish remained in front-line service until V-E Day, having outlasted some of the aircraft intended to replace it.
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| Former Royal Yacht Britannia, Leith, 2009 |
Her Majesty's Yacht Britannia is the former royal yacht of the British monarchy. She was in their service from 1954 to 1997. She was the 83rd such vessel since King Charles II acceded to the throne in 1660, and is the second royal yacht to bear the name, the first being the racing cutter built for the Prince of Wales in 1893. During her 43-year career, the yacht travelled more than one million nautical miles around the world to more than 600 ports in 135 countries. Now retired from royal service, Britannia is permanently berthed at Ocean Terminal, Leith in Edinburgh, Scotland, where it is a visitor attraction with over 300,000 visits each year.
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| RMS Queen Elizabeth Engine Room |
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| The Queen Elizabeth in Hong Kong harbor after the fire |
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| Far Side 1987 |
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| Strait of Hormuz |
Based on reports as of April 2026, Iranian forces around the Strait of Hormuz have not been fully destroyed despite significant damage from U.S. and Israeli strikes because of the asymmetrical, dispersed, and unconventional nature of Iran's maritime capabilities, which are designed specifically to withstand such an onslaught.While U.S. and Israeli airstrikes have destroyed key Iranian missile launchers, ships, and infrastructure, several factors prevent complete neutralization:
- Asymmetric "Mosquito Fleet": Iran's primary threat comes from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy, which relies on a massive, dispersed network of fast attack boats, drones, and uncrewed vessels. These small assets are hard to target compared to large, conventional naval vessels.
- Geographical Advantages & Hiding Spots: Iran uses its rugged coastline, small islands, and underground naval facilities to hide launchers, making them hard to completely wipe out.
- Mobile and Low-Cost Drones: Many of Iran's disruptive weapons, such as sea drones and missiles, are launched from mobile platforms on land, making them difficult for intelligence to track and destroy in their entirety.
- Persistent Naval Mines: Iran has deployed acoustic mines that are challenging to detect. Clearing these would require an extensive and slow-moving mine clearance operation, even while IRGC forces are hunted.
- The "Human Shield" of Shipping: The Strait is extremely narrow, with shipping lanes running close to Iran's coast. Full-scale destruction of all Iranian capabilities risks civilian collateral damage or catastrophic, immediate oil market shocks.
- "Destroyed" vs. "Deterred": While US officials aimed to destroy the Iranian navy to remove the threat, the IRGC continues to operate in a guerrilla-like fashion.
As of mid-April 2026, despite a US naval blockade, Iran still maintains a "strict control" posture over the waterway, using the threat of its remaining capabilities to disrupt traffic.
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