The Hartlepool Able shipyard also known as the Hartlepool “Ghost Ships”. Was the last stop on the “Ahoy thar” road trip at the beginning of 07. Getting on the ships was as frustrating as it was rewarding. We spent almost three hours trying to get on the hulking giants, even resorting to taking a motorboat around the dock to see if there was anyway up on the sea side.

After a long look we were almost going to give up when we found a set of stairs, the same type you’d seen to allowed passengers onto private jets. We pulled them over towards the boat, but still we had a large gap to cross before we were anywhere near the ships. With a bit of work we built a small platform for the stairs to sit on, perched precariously over the inescapable water below. We tied the steps in and up we went. Game on!

We knew we didn’t have enough time to see them all as they were just too big, so we skipped over the cargo ships and headed down into larger of the two frigates. We headed around the ship viewing the laundry area, living quarters, bridge, kitchens and mess hall and even finding the sick back with fold out beds.

We spent a few hours in here before moving on to the next ship. A converted ferry called the Tuxedo Royal. It had been used as a floating nightclub and looked like it had just closed down inside! The staircases and themed bars were quality and fun to photograph. We headed through the ship towards the front and headed up into the bridge.

After a bit more looking around we headed back over to our exit as it was early morning and we didn’t know when work would begin on the site again. When we reached the bottom of the ladder the effect of the tides was very apparent. Since we had tied the stairs to the ship when the tide got lower the ship got lower and thus the stairs were crushed under its weight!