Ulster's Ships and Quaysides

A Photographic Record
By Ian Wilson, Robert Anderson

This collection of images records a connection with ships and the sea and a lifestyle which has largely disappeared. These evocative images from museums and private collections, some appearing in print for the first time, catalogue our ever changing maritime heritage from the late 1940's to date.

As an island nation we are still dependent on the sea, ships, seamen and our ports for the majority of the provinces trade and commerce with Britain, Europe and the rest of the world.

From the late 1940's the changes to this local maritime scene have been staggering. Even the casual observer will have noticed larger, faster ships and generally further away from public view, access to ports more restricted, containerisation and freight trailers becoming the norm and the decline of smaller ports that are no longer host to commercial shipping. Ports and infrastructure have evolved while moving ever seaward. Gone are the days when men and boys could walk down a quayside to look at the ships, watch cargo being unloaded and banter with the dockers. The world has become a very different place in a very short space of time.