Assuming you’ve already taken a look at the first part of this cruise down the Solent on Steamship Shieldhall then you’ll already know that this isn’t going to be the sort of post that contains a lot of information about the vessel herself. And, if you recall the end of that first post then you’ll also know that you’re not going to be getting anything particularly new or different in this post than that one, especially given that we were simply returning back along the Solent and towards Southampton in almost exactly the same manner we’d left earlier in the day. The same sights. The same cruise ships to spot. Just facing a different direction and with the sun a bit further around on its path across the sky. But, there is some video, so that might be nice for you. Unless you don’t like screaming whistle sounds and the wind.
So, brace yourself. This is mostly going to be photos containing even less information than accompanies the outward part of this Solent cruise. As I mentioned in that write-up, if you want facts and figures about the ship then there are plenty of better, more-detailed sources on the web, and you can always hit the Steamship Shieldhall website itself, especially since you’re going to be interested in booking a short trip on this historic vessel for yourself. Yes, you are.
The story so far…
We had boarded Shieldhall in Southampton and had sailed down the Solent passing a number of cruise ships berthed at the city’s docks.
And now the thrilling conclusion…
We headed back.
The first thing we saw was that Sky Princess had departed Southampton and was on her way out to sea. An announcement was made that Shieldhall would start sounding her steam whistle with the intention that Sky Princess would signal back, potentially using her Love Boat theme horn. Well, the intention was nice, the steam whistle was broadly terrifying, and Sky Princess roundly ignored us. Now, as it happened, I knew who was captaining Sky Princess since we’d cruised on Sky Princess a few times by this point, so I tweeted to Heikki Laakkonen, expressing my disappointment. He tweeted back almost immediately telling me that I should have told the captain of Shieldhall to speed up and get closer. Okay, so not great that this Princess Cruises ship didn’t sound her horn, but top marks to the captain replying quickly and explaining why. How can you not like that?
A little further along the stretch of water towards Southampton we spotted the P&O Cruises ship Ventura heading out. This time we were a lot closer and this time there was a proper back-and-forth battle of the ship’s horns and whistles that you can hear in the video below. Apologies for the wind noise, but this was shot on my phone and I didn’t think to attach the external microphone with wind baffle. You’ll also get a good look at what it’s like to cruise past a medium-sized cruise ship from the water.
Both P&O’s Iona (and our views on Iona are well-known) and Norwegian’s Prima (pretty, but pricy!) were both still alongside as we brought our cruise on Steamship Shieldhall to a close.
After disembarking I found myself attracted to shots of razor wire and concrete. This doubtlessly confused some of the other steamship passengers, although if any of them had seen how many pints I’d had on board they might have concluded – wrongly – that I was simply drunk. I mean, I was tipsy, sure, but I do love the industrial look, and when it comes to ports, Southampton’s got its fair share of grit and grime and rust.
A couple of final points about the post-cruise period, one of which might be of actual use. I know! Helpful information in this post!? Surely not! Well, if you look on a map at the area where people park and you have to walk down to where Shieldhall is berthed in Southampton, you might spot a small bridge crossing over the train tracks and joining with Milbrook Point Road. And you might think to yourself “Well, this is handy, because after we get off the steamship we can head that way (since we’re not driving) and get to a pub in fairly short order, rather than traipsing all through the port area once again.” If you do think this to yourself then congratulations or my deepest sympathy for thinking in the same way as us. However, you can’t do this as we discovered. The bridge is (or at least, was) fenced off. You may want to factor that into your reckoning if you wisely choose to leave the car behind so you can spend some money at the bar on board.
The second point is related to the first, in that having discovered we couldn’t take the route we’d planned, we did the only remaining thing (well, other than call for a taxi, but we couldn’t be bothered) and started walking. We got as far as the roundabout between Western Avenue and West Bay Road before a car pulled up and one of the volunteers from the ship, recognising us as having been aboard, then gave us a lift to the dock gates. What a bloody star!
So that’s the cruise on Shieldhall to see the cruise ships in Southampton covered. Would we do it again? Hell, yes! In fact, almost certainly, and quite likely fairly frequently. If you get good weather then it’s great on deck, lovely views to be had, and just plain interesting. Even if you stay inside, you’ve got the engine room to see and food and drinks to be enjoyed. We had a great time on Shieldhall.