Lynn 2

More about King's Lynn again today and as we looked around the docks area, there was a ship being unloaded at the dockside of the Bentinck Dock. The Vasily Shukshin is a cargo vessel, built in 1995. It is 295ft long, 43ft wide and has a dead weight of 3,078 tons.

The ship was off-loading timber from Scandinavia, belonging to the Finnforest Company. The ship had been loaded in the port of Helsinborg in Sweden, from where it departed for King's Lynn on the 26th February, so had done pretty well to get to Lynn by 1st March at a speed of approximately 10 knots (11.5MPH). Vasily Shukshin (the person after whom the ship was named), was a famous, Russian actor, screenwriter and film director).
Information about this and all other ships can be found HERE.
As well as the Docks, King's Lynn has a small fishing fleet, fishing mostly for shellfish.

The silted-up fleet was full of rather rusty and dilapidated boats when we were there, but the ducks and gulls were enjoying paddling through the mud, looking for small crustaceans to eat.

Among the boats still in use, are a number of much older, rotting vessels in various states of decay.

All pointing to the fact that the port and fisher fleet of King's Lynn, have seen better days!