(14-02-2015, 05:44 PM)warrior Wrote: It's a constant problem especially when you live here and rely on them regularly.

I along with hundreds of others got stuck in the UK for an extra 3 days at Christmas when the rudder fell off or whatever it was that put the Ben out of service during the busy Christmas & New Year period.

They are saying that the Ben is getting towards replacement time soon, which seems odd when it's only about 17 years old, and the boats it replaced had seen service in WW2 and didn't seem to be hit by anything like the same amount of technical problems we get with the Ben.

These mechanical problems  add to  the litany of disasters that is the IOMSPC.  The book " Is this any way to Run A Shipping  Line?"

which dates from, I think the mid seventies, details myriad instances of management incompetence, poor ship handling , etc.,  from the days the Line was begun, it seems things are still the same.

On the old Ben, I was sad to see it go, but I have to say it seemed to be held together by the multiple layers of paint that had been applied over the years, this would have been, I think 1985, and the poor old thing had really seen better days.  A quaint old lady, RIP