A comment via email

Reader Talbot C send me this via the email:

“No matter what a ship looks like, the best view of a ship is that seen in the rear view mirror of the taxi as you’re leaving the ship at the end of a voyage!”

And as a seafarer I definitely do agree, it’s always good to go home after spending time away from family and friends and in some cases comfort & wifi, some of the ships I sailed on were not even worth looking back at, just glad to be away from them!

2013 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 130,000 times in 2013. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 6 days for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Get to the action at:

Pause (Updated, twice)

PAUSE

Hello all,

I’m sorry to disappoint you but due to professional engagements, private matters & a slight lack of inspiration I have decided to take a break from uglyships.com at the moment.

Don’t worry, I will be back, hopefully soon but for the moment this website is on pause.

Update (29-03-2011)

I have made a start restoring all the links to the pictures that have become invalid when http://www.shipspotting.com changed servers, once that is done I’ll slowly start posting again. Be patient…..I’ll be back!

Update (30-03-2011)

Change of plans: I have started posting new posts already…….Enjoy! (Don’t expect a daily post though, it will be a bit irregular for time being.)

Have fun, be good & all the best

SeaBart

ShipSpot

So, guess who’s jumping on the bandwagon and starting their own blog, too. Okay, I’ll give you two guesses…

No, it’s not Bill Murray, though I’m sure that would be interesting.

Instead, it’s me, Fairlane, starting my own blog which features, well, so far, some pretty ugly looking, beat-up ships…wait a second, I’m just ripping somebody off here…

Well, not really, the point of this blog is to take what at first glance may just seem to be a random, unexciting vessel, and uncover what sets it apart. Was that longliner fishing boat once a spy ship? Did a famous author once sail aboard that tugboat? Did that bulker once participate in a major news story?

Tidbits like these, and many more are all what I’m setting out to uncover as I spy a variety of unassuming vessels, so join in on the search for these random facts at ShipSpot.

Ice Maiden I Sisters

Ice Maiden I Sisters

As this week’s flashback relates, we can now “mourn” the end of the Ice Maiden I

Top-somethings I

Top Somethings I

And here is the last one of our Top Something List countdown, the pinnacle of them all: the most hit posts:

Top 10 posts

10 : Rachid Fares Enterprises:  1725 hits. The company was in the news last week when the Danny II sank of Lebanon.

9 : Ramform Sovereign: 1865 hits. A vessel with a weirdly shaped hull

8 : Swimday-special Solar Boat: 1885 hits. A special post for Tugsters Swimday-project

7 : A: 2100 hits. A strange design yacht with a strange name.

6 : Aeria: 2475 hits. My little pet-project.

5 : Min Duo: 1881 hits. A vessel resembling the Colloseum from Rome.

4 : Star Princess: 2875 hits. A cruisevessel with Star Wars sunglasses.

3 : MSC Daniela: 4131 hits. A monster of a containervessel.

2 : Sea Shadow: 4691 hits. No shadow of a doubt: Ugly!

and the ultimate ugly ship according to hits:

1 : USS Independence (LCS-2): 9392 hits.

Have a fabulous evening and a prosperous 2010, see you next year!

Top Somethings II (Updated)

Top Somethings List II

Here is nr 2 in our countdown to 2010 of Top Something Lists.

Today’s subject is not really a list as such, it’s more a list of statistics.

Statistics

Total Number of posts : 631

–  245 * Piet Sinke’s Newsclippings

– 18 * TTO Newsletter

– 408 Ugly ships / paintjobs

SeaBart wrote 385 posts and Fairlane did the rest.

The posts are divided in 11 categories and 116 tags

45 of all these posts have received an update of some sort, some had even multiple updates.

Total hits : 199.588……..will we pass the 200k before the end of the year??

Total hits in 2009 : 195.638 (and rising)

Average hits per day in 2009 : 538

Busiest days : Thursday 22-10-2009, 3286 hits

Total comments : 550

Spam comments : 1401

(all stats as per 29-12-2009, 2130 GMT)

Update (30-12-2009)

Wooohooooo!!! We did it! We past the 200.000 hits!!!

A big Thanks to all visitors and all those who contributed to this site. I never thought this site would be such a success! Cheers!!

Now upto the next 200.000 hits!

Top Somethings III

Top Somethings List III

Here is nr 3 in our countdown to 2010 of Top Something Lists.

Today’s subject is: “Clicked Links”, which posted link/picture on the site attracted the most clicks.

Top 10 Clicked Links

10 :

9 :

8 :

7 :

6 :

5 :

4 :

3 :

2 :

1 :

Top Somethings IV

Top Somethings List IV

Here is nr 4 in our countdown to 2010 of Top Something Lists.

Today’s subject is: Referrers, which website referred the most people to this glorious site.

top 10 Referrers

10 : http://cascobayboaters.com/

9 : http://shipspotting.com

8 : http://f150online.com

7 : http://slate.com

6 :  http://alphainventions.com/

5 : http://gcaptain.com

4 : http://tugster.wordpress.com

3 : http://fcbsweb.com (1) & http://fcbsweb.com (2)

2: http://forum-schiff.de (1) & http://forum-schiff.de (2)

1 : http://landgangen.se (1) & http://landgangen.se (2)

Top somethings V

Top Somethings List V

As every self-respecting media-format is now publishing all kinds of top-somethings lists I felt that we had to keep up the tradition and produce a few of those to reflect the year that has been.

If you don’t like them, please feel free to ignore but otherwise: enjoy!

Starting today with nr 5 we will count down till New Years eve by posting every day another list, in order of interestingness.

We’ll kick off with the “Search Engine Terms” you used which made you find this site.

Top 10 Search Engine Terms

10 : USS Independence

9 : Norwegian Epic

8 : Ulstein X-bow

7 : Uglyships / Ugly Ships

6 : Boat

5 : Colosseum Rome

4 : Star Princess

3 : MSC Daniela

2 : Yacht A

1 : USS Freedom

Aeria – updated, again & possibly last)

Dunno source, via http://www.pistonheads.com

Aeria

IMO : ??

Build : somewhere in East Germany ???

I’m intrigued…..very much intrigued…..during my voyages around the

Posts top something

Posts top something

The end of the year is near, and the time between Christmas and New year is the traditional

Smit Capt.Bob

Dunno Source via http://www.dieselduck.ca

Dunno source via http://www.tugspotters.com

Smit Capt.Bob

IMO : 8020018

Build : 1982 by John Manly Shipyards, Vancouver, BC, Canada, nr ?? as Rivtow Capt.Bob

The first time I saw a picture of this ship I immediately thought it was suitable for

Martha & Justine

Picture from own archives

Martha & Justine

This is not one of my Ugly-ships post, this is just a shameless plug!! Are you still in need of a nice & special present for a friend who is interested in ships / boats / vessels etc etc?? Then keep on reading.