Netherlands 918 Combat Boat 90 Fast Assault Craft Stern, Dover, Kent, UK

A Dutch Combat Boat 90, pennant number 918, berthed against Crosswall Quay in the Tidal Harbour of Dover Marina:


(Click this Combat Boat 90 Stern text link to see the largest size)

Soon after the shot was taken, two Royal Marines (1) arrived and were taken onboard by a member of the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps (2).

The Dutch boat can carry 18 amphibious troops and has rails fitted on the stern deck to hold a vehicle.

This Dover Harbour photo was taken during a cycle ride (3) at 2.20 pm on Thursday, 3rd of February, 2011, from in front of Dover Lifeboat Station (home to the Dover Lifeboat, RNLB City of London II).

Netherlands CB90 Bow

The caption to the first photo of the vessel, Bow view of Netherlands 918 Combat Boat 90 Fast Assault Craft in Dover Harbour, has a different video and secondary photo to those below.

In 2010, Sweden's Dokstavarvet Shipyard successfully modified 2 Combat Boat 90's to be lifted into davits of LPD's ("landing platform dock") of the Royal Netherlands Navy (4) and the UK's Royal Navy (5).

During trials scheduled to last 6 months, the two boats and a full Swedish boat squadron were embarked on, and deployed from, a Dutch Navy LPD as a fully integrated element of the amphibious forces (6) aboard.

On the 9th of May, 2011, the Royal Navy subsequently announced (7):

Night Panorama of the Ferry Port and Eastern Docks of Dover Harbour, Kent, UK

This night-time and panoramic view of Space City in Dover Harbour was taken on Wednesday, 19th of January, 2011, from the cliff-edge south of Dover Coastguard Station overlooking the Straits of Dover and English Channel beyond:


(Click this Dover Ferry Port and Eastern Docks text link to see the largest size)

The Eastern Docks and Ferry Port (1) occupy the bottom two-thirds of the photo with the actual cross-channel car and freight terminals out-of-shot to the left (as is the Eastern Arm pier that once bounded the Camber).

Various roads, some with light trails, surround the darkened square office block just below the centre of the photo: The Fan, North Exit Road, North Return Road, Dock Exit Road (etc.)

Above and to the right of the office block is the multi-storey car park atop the Booking Hall (Arrivals Hall, Reception Hall).

Official websites of companies operating cross-channel ferries are at P&O Ferries, Seafrance (under administration as of November 16th, 2011), and DFDS Seaways (Norfolk Line, Norfolkline). Photos of their ships appear, or will appear, under the P&O Ferries, Seafrance, and DFDS Seaways category labels (see all ferry images).

White Cliffs of Dover
Lightoller and 8 East Cliff

Above the Booking Hall, the Jubilee Way A2 Bypass sweeps down from a low-point in the White Cliffs of Dover (dimly visible down the right-hand edge) called Broadlees Bottom and turns back on itself over the Ferry Port before 'touching down' at a roundabout near the docks entrance where it is joined by the A20 dual-carraigeway.

The A20 runs parallel to the seafront after entering the town from behind Shakespeare Cliff and meets the roundabout below Athol Terrace after passing the houses of East Cliff (Marine Parade).

Charles Lightoller lived at 8 East Cliff after joining the Royal Navy's Dover Patrol (2) in 1916. He was the second mate and senior surviving officer of the 1912 RMS Titanic iceberg disaster.

In Lightoller's time during World War I, the Eastern Docks was "H.M. Dockyard, East Cliff" (3) and used for the dismantling of ships. In 1920 the Stanlee Shipbreaking & Salvage Co. Ltd. took over as commercial ship breakers and the following year they broke-up the battleship, HMS St Vincent, a veteran of the Battle of Jutland:

Lord Warden House at Daybreak, Admiralty Pier, Western Docks, Dover, Kent, UK

A zoomed view from 600 yards of the former Lord Warden Hotel, a Grade II Dover Listed Building, situated at the landward end of the Admiralty Pier in the Western Docks of Dover Harbour:


(Click this Lord Warden House text link to see the largest size)

Notes on the architect and architecture begin at HISTORY and MATERIALS, respectively.

Western Docks at Night

Lord Warden House appears in the Western Docks at Night photo (left).

The three-arched structure behind Lord Warden House began life as Dover Town Rail Station (alt. Dover Town Railway Station, Dover Town Train Station). It then became Dover Marine Rail Station and finally, Dover Western Docks Rail Station.

Today, it is the Cruise Terminal 1 (CT1) building, the first of three on the Admiralty Pier, and provides a reception area for passengers from the cruise ships that visit Dover throughout the summer season.

This pre-sunrise photo was taken from the Victorian and World War II coastal artillery position known as St Martin's Battery (located on top of the Western Heights cliffs) at 5.40 am on the 25th of August, 2010.

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Lord Warden House Listed Building

The following is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under the terms of the Click-Use Licence (PSI licence number C2010002016):

Night Panorama of the Western Docks in Dover Harbour, St Martin's Battery, Kent, UK

This panorama view of the Western Docks of Dover Harbour was taken from the Victorian and Second World War coastal artillery gun emplacements of St Martin's Battery, Western Heights, at 5.25 am on Tuesday, 24th of August, 2010:


(Click this Western Docks of Dover Harbour text link to see the largest size)

At top-left, the Western Entrance from the English Channel (Straits of Dover) to the harbour is formed by the Southern Breakwater on the left and the Admiralty Pier on the right.

The cruise ship berthed at Cruise Terminal 1 (CT1) on the Admiralty Pier (right of top-centre) is the MS Saga Ruby.

MS Saga Ruby at CT1

The passenger ship has just completed the "Treasures of the Anglo-Celtic Isles" cruise that called at various ports in England, Scotland, Wales, Nothern Ireland, and Eire (Ireland).

The cruise began at Dover on August the 11th and had the following itinerary: Dover, Edinburgh, Kirkwall, Portree, Greenock (Glasgow), Belfast, Holyhead (Wales), Dublin, Cork, Falmouth, Guernsey (Channel Islands), Dover.

A close-up of the MS Saga Ruby was taken a little later from the Prince of Wales Pier. Click on the thumbnail or MS Saga Ruby Cruise Ship and Neptune Catamaran in the Western Docks.

See all ships belonging to Saga Cruises photos.

Elsewhere in the main photo:

Netherlands 918 Combat Boat 90 Fast Assault Craft Bow, Dover Harbour, Kent, UK

A Dutch Combat Boat 90, pennant number 918, berthed against Crosswall Quay in the Tidal Harbour of Dover Marina:


(Click this Combat Boat 90 Bow text link to see the largest size)

Soon after the shot was taken, two Royal Marines (1) arrived and were taken onboard by a member of the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps (2).

The Dutch boat can carry 18 amphibious troops and has rails fitted on the stern deck to hold a vehicle.

This Dover Harbour photo was taken during a cycle ride (3) at 2.18 pm on Thursday, 3rd of February, 2011, from in front of Dover Lifeboat Station (home to the Dover Lifeboat, RNLB City of London II).

Netherlands CB90 Stern

The caption to the second photo of the vessel, Stern view of Netherlands Combat Boat 90 Assault Craft in Dover Harbour, has a different video and secondary photo to those below.

In 2010, Sweden's Dokstavarvet Shipyard successfully modified 2 Combat Boat 90's to be lifted into davits of LPD's ("landing platform dock") of the Royal Netherlands Navy (4) and the UK's Royal Navy (5).

During trials scheduled to last 6 months, the two boats and a full Swedish boat squadron were embarked on, and deployed from, a Dutch Navy LPD as a fully integrated element of the amphibious forces (6) aboard.

On the 9th of May, 2011, the Royal Navy subsequently announced (7):

Night View of the Unique St Edmund's Chapel, Priory Road, Dover, Kent, UK

A view of St Edmund's Chapel taken on Saturday, January 8th, 2011, from above the chapel forecourt on Priory Road:


(Click this text link to see the largest size)

This 13th century building, some 28 feet by 14 feet, may not be the world's smallest church but it is the only one dedicated by one English saint, St. Richard of Chicester, to another English saint, St. Edmund of Abingdon (Edmund Rich, or Eadmund of Canterbury, consecrated as Archbishop of Canterbury on 2 April 1234).

The chapel was consecrated by St. Richard of Chicester on March 30th 1253, dissolved in 1544, and was subsequently put to various uses "including a victualling store for the Navy, a store room, and a (blacksmith's) forge".

St. Edmund's Chapel was restored during 1967-1968 and Saturday morning Eucharists are held there.

The pathway on the right is "St Edmund's Walk" which connects Priory Road to the shopping precinct in Biggin Street.

Two Priory Road houses in front of the chapel were hit by shell-fire in 1943 during the Second World War (World War II) and demolished. One of the buildings used to be "Bicknell's" (H. R. Bicknell), a newsagent and tobacconist.

A plaque in the forecourt of St Edmund's Chapel states:

Charles Lightoller of the Titanic and the Spanish Prince blockship of Dover Harbour, Kent, UK

The Georgian 8 East Cliff, also known as Elizabeth House and a Grade II Dover Listed Building, is the left-hand four-storey house of the block with "1834" on the parapet:


(Click this Georgian 8 East Cliff Listed Building text link to see the largest size)

In 1899, Charles "Lights" Lightoller went to Liverpool and thought he had signed on as third mate to the Knight Bachelor only to find himself "shanghaied" into serving in the far less desirable Knight Companion instead (1):

I still had malarial fever in my veins, and well I knew it on the train journey down and across London. I arrived at Tilbury Dock feeling like the complete West African dishcloth. All I wanted was to get my head down, and forget I was alive. I had, in my subconscious mind, all the comforts that one associates with the Royal Mail. A nice airy cabin, a bunk with clean white sheets, a boy to attend you, and practically every wish anticipated. Doctor, stewards and all the rest of it.

Arriving at Tilbury Dock, I asked a porter wearily where the Knight boat was lying. He replied, "Oh, just near by, sir. Over the bridge," and suggested he should put my baggage on a truck and run it over. "Right," said I, my one anxiety being to get to my cabin, and try to forget this damnable fever. We trudged along, I simply following the porter, conscious of little but a terrific temperature.

Suddenly the porter stopped. "Well," I said, "why have you stopped?" "Here is your ship, sir." I looked up. What a horror! About the dirtiest thing I'd ever clapped eyes on. Her rusty iron sides streaked with the horrible overflow from the cattle she had evidently been carrying. Smelling like nothing on earth. "But this isn't the Knight Bachelor, surely?" I exclaimed. "Oh, no sir, the Knight Bachelor sailed last week; this is the Knight Companion." Had I had the strength she would certainly have been no companion of mine. However, I was just about at the end of my tether, and thought, "Come, let's get on board, and between some blankets."

...I have often grinned over the way I got shanghaied into that wretched ship.

F235 HMS Monmouth, 70th Anniversary of Dunkirk, Admiralty Pier, Dover Harbour, Kent, UK

The Royal Navy Type 23 Duke-class frigate, HMS Monmouth (F235) berthed at the Admiralty Pier's CT1 (Cruise Terminal 1) in the Western Docks of Dover Harbour:


(Click this Royal Navy frigate, HMS Monmouth text link to see the largest size)

The photo was taken on a cycle ride (1) at 7.17 pm on Wednesday, 26th of May, 2010, from a point between the Porthole Shelters (to the right) and the Lighthouse and Harbour View Cafe (to the left) on the Prince of Wales Pier.

HMS Monmouth is shown en route to Ramsgate on the eve of taking part in a re-enactment of the World War II Dunkerque/Dunkirk evacuation. A BBC News article for the 26th said (2):

A fleet of 'Little Ships' that took part in the Dunkirk evacuations has gathered in Ramsgate ahead of the 70th anniversary of the event.

Up to 60 small vessels that assisted in Operation Dynamo (3), which started on 26 May 1940, will re-enact their journey.

A fleet of fishing boats and pleasure craft assisted naval vessels in the evacuation of about 300,000 Allied troops from the French coast.

Ramsgate's Royal Harbour Marina was the reception centre for returning troops.

On the 27th of May, the UK Daily Telegraph newspaper wrote (4):

Second World War veterans will make an emotional journey across the English Channel to Dunkirk today to mark the 70th anniversary of the celebrated evacuation.

The former troops, accompanied by their families, will attend a ceremony at the French port to commemorate the historic rescue mission.

They will set sail from Dover following a departure ceremony attended by the Lord Lieutenant of Kent's office, senior military, government officials, police and others.

The Parachute Regimental Band will perform on the dockside, together with a 200-voice choir from the Royal Choral Society, who will also accompany the veterans on the journey to Dunkirk.

Fifty of the original "little ships" involved in the evacuation - many of which were private fishing or pleasure boats drafted in to help - will also set sail for Dunkirk.

They began leaving Ramsgate in Kent this morning and will be escorted by HMS Monmouth.

Video - "Dunkirk veterans mark 70th anniversary", a British Television report from ITN News: