About

I set this blog up to keep all of the info about ShipWatcher in one place.

I love ships.  They’ve been part of my life since my earliest memory as a Ten Pound Pom when our family migrated from the UK aboard Ellinis in 1965.  My father also had early childhood memories migrating aboard Tegelberg from India to Scotland in the late 1940’s.  Ships have been a part of my family as far back as we can trace.  In 1841, Thomas Ennis joined the army and sailed aboard ship Columbus from England to Madras, India.

When you think about it, human lives have been tied up wth ships for millennia.

Ancestors of today’s European diaspora travelled the oceans in sailing ships to the Americas, Australia, Asia and Africa.  Thirteenth century Maori crossed the Pacific ocean in wooden ships to colonize present-day New Zealand.  In the eighth century, vikings conquered the seas from Greenland to Constantinople in primitive wooden vessels.  Earlier Roman ships plied the Mediterranean sea, and before that Greek legends speak of a thousand ships being launched in the Trojan wars.

The sea is in our blood.  It is no wonder that it fascinates us, and growing numbers of us seek to spend more and more of our fun time at sea, in huge ships, cities at sea, that our ancestors could not even have dreamed of.

So if you have discovered that you love ships, and want to follow them around the world, even if you can’t go on a cruise right at this moment, then ShipWatcher is for you. Think of it as taking a “virtual cruise” from your desk for a few minutes.

As you probably guessed, I’m a software designer. I’ve been developing software since the mid 1980’s. I specialize in software for the finance industry, and am really lucky to be working with some amazing people at Expert1.

I don’t know how I managed to be so lucky, but I’m married to Liz, the most amazing woman in the world.

Some of my interests (apart from ships): Mountain Biking, Music, Postcards, Geocaching, Science Fiction, Good Whisky, Wine, Politics, Photography