All photos shown here were taken by Val C.

Recent Past  – Live animal exports to Europe from Ramsgate port, Kent, England.

As many of you will know, live animal transport has been a major part of my life for decades:

About Us – New Category (As Requested). – World Animals Voice

I am from Kent County; which lies directly to the SE of London and is the nearest English county to mainland Europe – you can see it’s position here and read about much of past history: Kent – Wikipedia

Being the nearest county to Europe; Kent has several ports which operate ship ferry services across the English Channel.  Dover is the one we probably all hear about most, but there is another – Ramsgate; which was quite an important port until recently but is not used much now. This appealed to live exporters, who did not have to comply with the very tight arrival and departure schedules if they operated from Dover – it was kind of more relaxed for them.

For years I was involved with an English group (as the EU Correspondent) dealing specifically with live animal shipments from SE England ports which included Dover and Ramsgate.  I want to share here just for the record / interest; some (now archive; but recent until a year or two ago) photographs taken by our official group photographer Val C, who was a member of the official journalists union; hence the excellent quality of her work.

These pictures deal mainly with a vessel operated by a (trader / exported / haulier) Dutchman named ‘Onderwater’; who owns and operates a vessel named the ‘Joline’. 

This vessel was originally constructed as a Soviet battle tank carrier to be used only on rivers; not across the English Channel with loaded livestock transporters full of live animals.  As a vessel it has a low draft (draft in the American spelling, draught in the British) which is defined in technical terms as the distance between the ships keel and the waterline of the vessel.

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