aldeburgh seaside ship spotter - AIS

Ever looked out to sea when on a seaside holiday and wondered where those ships were going?

Find out more and see if they are long distance tankers, cargo ships, ferries from over the English Channel or local fishing boats.

Click on the ship icons to see more about the ship, you can even see its current speed, direction and its destination.

If it is close enough to Aldeburgh bay, it describes where to look on the horizon to see the ship from the beach.

To the south of Aldeburgh beach you can sometimes see a number of cargo ships at anchor overnight that have either unloaded or will be loading at Felixstowe docks.

To the north of Aldeburgh looking up the beach in the far distance just off Southwold is an area that is used for anchorage for the tankers.

If there are no ships in the screen use the zoom-out button on the left of the map to see a wider area.

Notation

Ship in direction of travel

Ship at anchor

Lighthouse

Aldeburgh bay has seen many wrecks over the years and is a notorious navigation hazard due to the shifting sandbanks at Sizewell Bank, Aldeburgh Napes and Aldeburgh Ridge / Onion

Shipping channels move around and become more dangerous on harbour approaches.

Thirty three known ship wrecks are in the area, some were mined or sunk by enemy submarines in WWII. These include three Royal Navy vessels, HMS Tervani, HMS Dane and HMS Hirose.

Unusually here are two lighthouses in the area (Orford and Southwold) to assist mariners. Orfordness is the site of 1627 wrecks

Orford lighthouse is predicted it could fall into the sea within five years due to coastal erosion. It is over 200 years old and has survived raids by privateers, storms, machine-gun fire and flying-bombs, but maybe not much longer.

Live data from Aldeburgh bay, updated every 2 minutes

Click here to refresh aldeburgh seaside ships

If a number is seen instead of the ship's name (its MMSI registration number) it means it is not currently being broadcast.

Real-time ship's AIS signals are used to create the map information and are sampled from an aerial on Pelican cottage in the center of Aldeburgh high street. It captures shipping in the bay for a 40-50 mile radius, sometimes 90 miles at night.

Data is provided for informational reasons only and is not related by any means to the safety of navigation. All rights reserved and copyright Pelican Cottage (c) 2010/2011. No part may be copied, reproduced or retransmitted in any material and form or by any other means, without the prior written permission of the owners of Pelican Cottage.