According to this Notice to Mariners, five large fully erected gantry cranes are expected to arrive from China on the deck of the ship Zhen Hua 23 on Mon 2nd Nov.

These will be unloaded directly on to the new quayside
being built opposite New Brighton. Weather permitting!

http://peelports.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/LNTM33-PORT-OF-LIVERPOOL-NO.33-2015-Zhen-Hua-232.pdf

Its parked up in Gran Canaria at the moment -huge ship that carries huge loads ...

Wow - that should be worth a look!

It was parked at the Canary Islands but was spotted
yesterday crossing the Bay of Biscay.

Anyone fancy a guess on best time and spot to see at its closest?

Zhen Hua 23 is now passing Lands End at 10Knts.
if that helps?

She looks top heavy, must have been calm in the bay, a sign of the times, few or little shipbuilding yards, virtually no steelworks, and an almost no Merchant Navy, and we have a Chinese ship delivering Chinese built gantries, made with Chinese steel, this government sure looks after everybody bar their own people and industries, moan over, will be down to see her unload.

Mmm. that calculation is in my 'too hard' box Wally, but thanks

The link states she is coming in on the 3pm high tide. I'm guessing New Brighton by the fort - or upstairs at the Floral with a cuppa! - would be a good place to view her. Arrive early to be on the safe side.

Thanks, dont know much about tides . So I gather the ship comes in the same time as the tide is at its absolute highest , 3pm, but we give it half an hour's leaway because the tide stays in for a while.Got it.

Well, if she is due to actually dock (or moor, or whatever) at 3pm, you might see some interesting manouevring(sp?) if you get there earlier than that. It'd be more fun to see her in motion, I think.

And its for a British dock.

Ship has a draught of 8.4m (27'4") with its current load, basically they fill it full of water putting much of the heavy parts of the ship below the waterline to keep it bottom heavy. When it unloads the cranes it takes on more water and sinks until the deck is level with the dockside then roll the cranes off.

Whatever ballast she has in her, wouldn't instill any confidence in me if she is caught in extreme weather conditions

Well it's been round the cape on this journey and probably many others.

There have been two incidents with these ship both in 2008 ...

Zhenhua 10 broke its moorings and ended up beached with 5 cranes onboard - luckily a salvage company managed to refloat it without it toppling.

Zhenhua 23 with 3 cranes onboard at Felixstowe in 80mph winds broke its moorings and knocked a dockside crane which fell into another. The onboard cranes survived ok.

SOURCE

Perhaps Ill go for a snoop nearer to 1.30 - 2pm and see whats going on .

Big things made from steel. Isn't there a place by the river in Tranmere that can do stuff like that ?

She is now anchored of Point Lynas in Anglesey
and is still showing an estimated time of arrival of
08:00 Monday. That probably means at the Bar.

I'll keep a check on her position on ShipsAIS
as she progresses. Unfortunately the fog might
impede the viewing and possibly the timings.

I guess they are still aiming to move her onto
Liverpool2 between 13:00 and 15:00 but who knows?

I'm curious why shipsAIS hasn't got the historic tracking between Shanghai and the Canaries?

Still at Lynas and taking a pilot.
Due at Bar/Q1 13:30 to enter channel.
Hopefully fog should be clearing by then.

Now heading towards Bar at 8Knts.
Currently north of Great Orme.

Thanks Wally. Useful up to the mo info. Imagine its been quite a bit of planning to abandon final docking unless the fog remains pretty bad.

If you look here, http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/details/ships/shipid:684956/mmsi:477007300/imo:8414738/vessel:ZHEN_HUA_23
you can see her current position.

She has just passed the Bar,
and is expected at Crosby at 14:00

(From Mersey Radio)

Now passed Crosby and heading in to L2

Four tugs in attendance now - visibility still poor.

15min to L2

From AIS it looks as if she is now alongside Liverpool2 but the fog has become more dense in the last half hour so I cannot see her.

Fog worse, cannot see ship but
from AIS there are four tugs pushing
her against the L2 river wall so they
will be in process of mooring her.

How frustrating! A sight like that... and fog. Ah well, that's life...

We went down to have a look. When she first appeared in the far far distance, the thick fog was coming and going around her and all you could spot was like vague glimpses of what could have been a huge spooky skeleton ghost tall ship with many masts and cross rigging . As she got nearer and stayed in view, by the time she reached level with Perch Rock the mist seemed to clear a little, albeit only for 10-15 mins or so, and with bins, you could get a decent view of the lined up cranes and tugs
Flipping freezing there , so didnt hang around to watch any further manoevering - wasnt worth it with the mist thickening again. Certainly a sight you dont see every day, and the vessel definitely looks like it defies the laws of balance .

Hopefully by tomorrow afternoon the
fog will have cleared and will reveal
the cranes for all to see.

Still murky this morning but most of the fog has cleared.
Zhen Hua 23 at Liverpool2 waiting to unload cranes 09:00.

Would appear she will be here for at least a week. The cranes can only be unloaded at high tide and of course weather permitting. Looking at the weekend weather and Mon Tues next week, gales forecast. Hope it all goes well.

Good pics. Glad I didnt hang around yesterday waiting for them to unload a crane!

Oh heck. Hoping the same doesn't happen here as it did when she was in Felixstowe......due to mooring ropes breaking in strong winds !!

http://www.shipais.co.uk/

Thought this may help to keep up with ships coming in

Granny - ouch! Hope nobody was hurt in Felixstowe. What a mess. Lansyp, the shipais website is fascinating - reminds folk how much waterborne business still goes on around our islands. I used it to track the three Queens when they visited.

The northernmost crane has moved towards
the quay and may be off the ship. Difficult
to be sure from New Brighton.

Still looks like five in a row.

SOURCE

better view from this cam
http://www.wirralcam.org/dome.shtml
Looks as if the leftmost crane has moved closer to the others.

The falling tide has revealed the edge of the quay and
the northernmost crane is definitely on the quay.(see Photo)

Im sure its all organized really, but when you look through to the quayside, its looks a right shambles of 'stuff'.

The thing which makes it look a shambles is the use of the long focus lens, which makes distant things look much closer together than is the case. The distance from the ship with the cranes to the stern of the Ever Grand is 500 metres.

The sun came out late afternoon
giving a clearer view of the
base of the crane on the quay.
It is on its own bogies and just
in front of the bogies they have stacked
several of the bridge/ramps used
to transfer the crane to the quay..

You get a great view from the port sunlight river park ,they look massive compared to the buildings in Liverpool

I was in New Brighton with the dog this afternoon,those cranes are big compared to the ones in Seaforth docks

Looking through binoculars tonight
it looks as if the second northernmost
crane has just been transferred to the
quay.

Taken this afternoon.
Two cranes on left are on
the quayside while the three
on right are still on the ship..

Thanks for the continuing updates Wally. To backtrack a little... in the earlier Wirralcam shot from the Wallasey shore, is that the "Egg" buoy in shot? Green con. job? Can't make out the lettering on it.

From my position which is close to SS Peter & Pauls
Dome webcam, the green conical buoy most likely to be
in shot looking at the Liverpool2 cranes is the "Brazil"
buoy close to the Fort. The next buoy south is a yellow/
black cardinal buoy "Tower" opposite the Tower grounds.
Next further south opposite Egremont is the green conical
"Egg" buoy.

Many thanks Wally.

Great Photo on this website:

http://www.placenorthwest.co.uk/news/liverpool-2-mega-cranes-arrive-from-china/

and here

http://peelports.com/news/ship-to-shore-cranes-arrive-in-mersey-for-liverpool2-container-development

When you see it end on you realize even more what a feat of balance the whole thing is . Amazing.

The third (middle) crane is now being unloaded.

Third crane now on quayside.
Two to still be unloaded.

View tonight.

Third (middle) crane now rolled along
quay alongside the first two. Two cranes
still on ship.

All three cranes on quay have been moved further north.
Two cranes remain on ship.

The fourth crane was unloaded this morning.

Had a look yesterday. no way were they unloading then with the swell and wind.

Fourth crane now moved north to join three already
on quayside. Red aircraft warning lights are out.

Fifth crane on right is still on ship...

Ship has moved north on berth today.
Fifth crane remains on ship.

Makes quite an attractive picture at night, doesnt it.

It would make an excellent jig saw puzzle.
.
Send it to Ravensburger , Walley .
https://www.ravensburger.com/uk/puzzles/adult-puzzles/photographic-gallery/index.html

Be hellishly difficult I should think. Ok if you thrive on frustration!

Too fuzzy for commercial use.

The bracing legs of the fifth crane which
are welded to the ship for the voyage are
currently being cut free. Could move on this
next tide (HW 16:20)

Still on ship - postponed until tomorrow.

Crane still on ship Friday night.
Wind supposed to drop Sat. evening.

Thanks for keeping us updated Wally1 ..

http://www.wirralcam.org/dome3.shtml

I forgot about the cameras they have at the Forte Perch Rock until this morning for anyone interested,

The Dome of home gives a better view.

http://www.wirralcam.org/dome1/

I think the fifth crane is now on the
quay. I will confirm later when quay
edge is exposed as ship drops with tide.

Current view - fifth crane is on right.

I was there this afternoon & the crane was still on the ship then

The fifth crane is now on the quayside.
The edge of the quay is visible now that
the tide has dropped. The fifth crane is
at the right of the group..

Today, all cranes on the quay..

Thanks for the continuing updates Wally. Interesting stuff and much appreciated.

Ditto. The delivery ship will look a whole lot different when it sails back up the estuary. Wonder if its getting a return load of anything to delivery somewhere.

I guess it will be bombing back to China pretty fast, there are a lot of these cranes getting delivered all over the world because of the Chinese subsidies in steel (the main reason our steel industries have been shutting down).

its time people realized that EU controls subsidies and unlike the French this country plays by the rules and asks permission for the granting of any subsidies

Red aircraft warning lights now
switched on on southernmost crane.
Northernmost crane's have been on
for a while...

It's good that you find this so interesting Wally.

Zhen Hua 23 left today for home via the Suez Canal. All cranes now on the new quay with a new skyline for Liverpool 2.

Zhen Hua 23 leaving and the new view of Liverpool2.

The Zhen Hua 25 arrived at Liverpool 2 quayside
Sunday PM carrying further six smaller cranes.

These cranes will be rail mounted and will operate
behind the first group already ashore on the quayside.

The quayside cranes will unload containers from
ships and the new smaller cranes will handle the
containers ashore.

Great pics. I hope the quality of the cranes is up to standard. I buy a few things from china off ebay and quality not great.
Looking at the size of them they probably move as fast as a liverpool docker!.
Whole logistical concept of container shipping amazes me.keeping tabs on where they all are.

Great picture Wally.
Thanks for sharing.

Good pics thanks Wally.


I agree with you fish, I passed the container base going out of Liverpool along the A565 a few weeks ago and was staggered how many there were, and thought exactly the same as you . Wonder how many containers get sent to the wrong destinations? Surely their system cant be 100%- its not the Liverpool way!

Who likes this ? Are they the same ones as part of the skyline ?

Didn't know there was a Liverpool 2

when I was going to the pictures in New Brighton couple of months ago,they were practising unloading a ship.I got told they are controlled by computers.

If you ever caught the the TV series 'The Wire' there was a number ofepisodes centred around the docks and mishandling cargo containers - showed rudiments of a control system too.

Chinese container shipping group just gone tits up and there are loads of container ships tootling round with nowhere to go. Running out of food for crews so something will have to happen soon. Port authorities won't let them in because there is no guarantee of payment for facilities. What a way to run a battleship.

Can"t beat Wirral for sunsets.

That was sunrise, taken from New Brighton.. You can see the fort

Simply beautiful

The ship Zhen Hua 8 is currently passing Holyhead
bound for Liverpool. She is believed to be carrying
more of the smaller handling cranes for Liverpool2.

Though smaller than the five quayside cranes already
in place, these new cranes are still very big and are
carried as deck cargo and rolled ashore from the ship
berthed in the Mersey.

ETA is currently 08:00 but this may be at the Bar.

Zhen Hua 8 shown arriving and berthed at Liverpool2.

Three cranes unloaded so far...

All six cranes have now been unloaded
from the Zhen Hua 8.