A crane ship is a ship with a crane on it

If a job needs doing on land, it's going to need doing at sea. So if you need a crane, get a ship and stick one on it. Here's the crane ship MV Woodstock, shot from the top of the South Sutor.

When I was a kid my dad had a timber wharf in London, in the days when London actually had trade instead of riverside apartments. The ships I saw were just cargo carriers with no variety. The eccentricity was all landside, with great big steam cranes on railway tracks heaving timber from ships' holds to make into railway sleepers or telegraph poles.

Since moving to Scotland 22 years ago we've learned about the ships you see around the offshore energy industry. So many different sorts, and whatever the cargo there's something esoteric to carry it (see my 2nd May blip).

The Woodstock was travelling from Invergordon to, er, Invergordon. Somewhere, it must have lifted something.