The Marine Pilot Vessel Castor (MLV Castor).
The Castor was delivered in 1950 by the Gebroeders Pot shipyard in Bolnes, Ridderkerk municipality.
The Royal Navy gave her the pennant A810 and the Pilotage gave her the name Castor, named after the star used in astronomical navigation at sea.
A pilot boat was used as a sort of base at sea for the pilots. The crew ensured that the vessel was operational 24 hours a day, so that the pilots could be taken to and from the ships to be piloted. Pilot boarding on the North Sea, weather or no weather, was carried out with the much smaller Loodsjollen. These were launched with the board-lift cranes. The pilot climbed aboard an ocean-going vessel with the aid of a rope ladder.
The Castor functioned as a hotel ship at sea; a maximum of 24 pilots could rest, eat and sleep on board.
The Castor was in service from Delfzijl from 1950 to 1980. The ship was at sea for 2 weeks in the vicinity of the Wester-Eems buoy, and then relieved by the sister ship Pollux.
Because of the Cold War the ship was also equipped with armaments.
In 2006 the ship was saved from scrapping and became a museum ship.
This photo was taken on August 28, 2022 near the Second Maasvlakte.
I am Jaap van den Berg and photography has become a great passion of mine since 2010. Since then I travel all over the world to take pictures of military aircrafts. But besides aircraft I also love to photograph other subjects like landscapes, architecture, flowers, animals, .. Read more…