Displaying items by tag: UK Treasury

17th February 2020

New UK Treasury Minister Announces Ten-Week Consultation to Rapidly Establish 10 Free-Ports

Tanker Thun London departing the Milford Haven Waterway in Wales (a proposed UK Free-Port). The 20,499 cargo capacity newbuild launched last year is from a series of chemical tankers ordered by a Swedish lake based shipping group, which are regular callers to Dublin Port where the new vessel is berthed today.

Ports in the UK, once designated as freeports, will have no domestic taxes levied on any goods within them, according to a Multimodal news update.

Taxes will only be levied when a product leaves the freeport, and enters the rest of the UK.

This has the effect of encouraging international business to come to the UK to process or store goods with little to no red tape, bringing jobs and investment in the mainly coastal communities that have been neglected during the UK’s membership of the EU. Ten are set to be designated by the end of the year.

OrderOrder has more to report on the story and on the industry leaders which have already started lobbying for freeport status.

Afloat adds among the freeports proposed is an Atlantic freeport in Wales located on the Milford Haven Waterway. Where (pictured above) is tanker, Thun London (18,650 deadweight) one of five new chemical product tankers for a Swedish lake based shipping group.

Thun London, Afloat also adds yesterday completed a passage from the Welsh waterway (incl. Pembroke Dock) to Dublin Port where the new vessel remains berthed today.

Published in Ports & Shipping

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About Conor O'Brien, Irish Circumnavigator

In 1923-25, Conor O'Brien became the first amateur skipper to circle the world south of the Great Capes. O'Brien's boat Saoirse was reputedly the first small boat (42-foot, 13 metres long) to sail around the world since Joshua Slocum completed his voyage in the 'Spray' during 1895 to 1898. It is a journey that O' Brien documented in his book Across Three Oceans. O'Brien's voyage began and ended at the Port of Foynes, County Limerick, Ireland, where he lived.

Saoirse, under O'Brien's command and with three crew, was the first yacht to circumnavigate the world by way of the three great capes: Cape Horn, Cape of Good Hope and Cape Leeuwin; and was the first boat flying the Irish tri-colour to enter many of the world's ports and harbours. He ran down his easting in the Roaring Forties and Furious Fifties between the years 1923 to 1925.

Up until O'Brien's circumnavigation, this route was the preserve of square-rigged grain ships taking part in the grain race from Australia to England via Cape Horn (also known as the clipper route).

At a Glance - Conor O'Brien's Circumnavigation

In June 1923, Limerick man Conor O’Brien set off on his yacht, the Saoirse — named after the then newly created Irish Free State — on the two-year voyage from Dun Laoghaire Harbour that was to make him the first Irish amateur to sail around the world.

June 1923 - Saoirse’s arrival in Madeira after her maiden passage out from Dublin Bay

2nd December 1924 - Saoirse crossed the longitude of Cape Horn

June 20th 1925 - O’Brien’s return to Dun Laoghaire Harbour