TABLE BAY UNDERWAY SHIPPING P O Box 809, Cape Town - 8000 SHIP PHOTOGRAPHERSColour photographs and slides for sale of the famous ships past and present. Thousands of items listed.

Just a short bio of myself and how my love for ships began and has remained with me my entire life.

I was born in Cape Town, South Africa and have lived most of my life in this beautiful city with its

famous harbour visited by thousands of ships every year.

I am married to Kim, my second wife,and have three children

who reside in Canada. My love of ships began when I was 9 years old and while ill in bed with measels, my mother bought me a card board cut out model to build of Queen Mary. This got me going and a few months later I got my first camera, a box Brownie on which I took some black/white negatives.

On my 10th birthday my parents gave me a 35mm Minolta and I began taking my first colour slides.

After school, instead of going home and doing my homework, I would cycle to the harbour and spend

the afternoons at the end of A Berth or East Pier photographing all th ships that moved. Friday after-

noons were special, as the northbound mailship would depart at 4pm from A Berth. I would sneak

onboard and collect whatever I could in the form oi postcards, menus, writing paper, etc.

I later acquired a 2nd camera so could now take negatives as well as slides and switched from black/white

negatives to colour negatives in the 1980s as well as adding video from 1992.

Most of my my life I spent in a family manufacturing business with involved extensive travelling, especially to

the Far East, where I would extend my trips and spend many days in bum boats at Singapore and walla-walla

boats at Hong Kong sailing the anchorages to photograph the hundreds of ships anchored off these two

large ports. One of the highlights of my photography was the closure of the Suez Canal and I virtually spent

8 years in Cape Town harbour photographing the many liners and others ships, strangers to this part of the

world, establishing a unique record of what were called "Suez Diverts'.

In 1991, we sold off the manufacturing businesses and I joined the Cape Argus as Shipping and Transport

Reporter and advertising Sales Executive. At the beginning of 2000, I was offered a more lucrative

position at the opposition media group in South Africa which I accepted.

My ship photographic collection is a living collection, as I am continuously photographing ships both locally

and when I travel abroad. I have in excess of 360 000 colour slides and negatives and am slowly attempting them to put them on a data base. I also have an extensive collection of miniture scale models and am continuously

adding books and videos to my library.

I have travelled on many liners and cruise ships from coastal African trips on British, Dutch and Portuguese liners, to modern cruIsing on ships like Norway and QE 2.

I have many favourite liners, but those that called at Cape Town on a regular basis were Arundle Castle with

her beautifully propotioned lines and Dominon Monarch, the

largest motorship to trade to South Africa. One of the greatest broadside views to the two ships was

to see them berthed next to each other at E & F Berths in the Duncan Dock.

For a number of years I supplied publications and shiplovers

with photographs and slides of ships. In April 2000 I launched my internet site Table Bay Underway Shipping

to enable shiplovers easy access to acquire pictures to fill gaps in their collections.

I am happy to hear from anyone who has a similar interest in ships and the maritime world.

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