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Regulars:
waterfront - News of the sinking of a historic tug in Scotland, boxboats debut at Southampton,Seven Viking is ship of the year and the port of Aberdeen reports record cargo figures.
Ferry - UK Competition Commission blocks Eurotunnel's acQUisition of MyFerryLink, English Channel veteran goes for scrap, and Wightlink suffer legal battles. Russell Plummer
Cruise - Hapag-Lloyd's new Europa 2 makes her first call at Southampton, details of P&O's largest passenger ship and Viking Ocean Cruises reveals the name of its new ship. WBfiam Mayes
Naval - Reports on the Type 42s bowing out of service, new US Military Sealift Command ships, problems for Spain's navy and Australia's navy looks to its future submarine requirement. Gary Davies
Cargo - More container operators are ready to join the 18.000TEU club, Antwerp prepares for the Triple-E, VLCC's carry valuable cargo and Hartlepool welcomes bulk carriers.
Newbuild - New ships featured include the deepwater construction ship Seven Borealis, new con-ros for Saudi, further advances in LNG make carriers greener, and STX Finland gets the green light for TUI ships. Jim Shaw
News feature - Brief history of Georg Buchner, the former Belgian passenger-cargo liner which foundered in the Baltic Sea off Danzig while under tow to a breaker's yard in Lithuania in May. Peter Newall
Ships pictorial - A selection of ships pictured around the world.
Chartroom:
Ships mail - A selection of letters from readers.
Ports of call - Cruise ship calls around the UK In August. Edwin Wilmshurst
Mystery ship - Can you cast any light on this month's mystery ship?
Ships library - Reviews and details of new maritime books.
Features:
Maritime Mosaic - Some outstanding colour aerial photographs from the 1960s and 1970s showing classic cargo ships. Chris Howell
Diamond Princess - Profile of the cruise ship Diamond Princess, the first Princess Cruises ship to be completed in Japan. Campbell McCutcheon
Ferries in Focus - A selection of photographs of ferries currently operating on the longer routes around the coasts of Britain and Ireland.
Classic tankers - Photo feature looking at oil carriers which can claim to be classics of their time, from a 1919 Doxford-built vessel to a 1950s Shell tanker. Roy Fenton
View from the Bridge - Roger Corfield, Captain of the Harwich-Hook of Holland superferry Stena Britannica, talks about his ship and career, Nicholas Leach
NAVAL SPECIAL:
Britain's future navy - An exclus.ve feature looking at the Royal Navy, which has suffered some painful cuts in recent years. It now faces a critical period ahead, with the arrival of very significant new vessels, but with major challenges still to overcome Nick Childs
What to do with a redundant U-boat? - A look at the history of former German submarine U-534 in Birkenhead, which has an unusual history and a bright future. John Hannavy
Razors for the last Ark - ^arewell to one of the Royai navy's most famous aircraft carriers, Ark Royal, which left Portsmouth for the last time in May Gary Davies
Baltic Heroes - "ecoilecten of the Royal Navy's daring attack on Russian warships in 1919. Paul Brown
COVER: HMS Ark Royal, pictured in her heyday, has now gone to breakers in Turkey; sec pages 34 and 35 for full details.
The demise of Ark Royal amid the backdrop of the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review has caused outrage in military and naval circles.But can the cost of maintaining these ships be justified in the current economic climate? Although two new carriers are being built in Scotland, by the time they enter service what role will they play? And if Britain believes aircraft carriers are needed, why doesna€ t, for example, Germany? It seems there are too many questions about the navy's future, and not enough answers.
Meanwhile, a petition has been launched to bring the former HMS Edinburgh, recently decommissioned, back to her namesake city to be a floating museum berthed next to the Royal Yacht Britannia at Leith.So maybe the best hope for many of the Navya€ s redundant ships is that they become museum pieces and relics of a bygone era of naval warfare.
