iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

It was breathtaking to sail the Kyles of Bute on the PS Waverley, green hills surrounding the ship as we sailed around the Isle.

PS Waverley's paddles and steam engine are fully visible for passengers, a true sight of the past, preserved in original working order, now almost 80 years on.

150

PS Waverley first sailed in 1947, replacing an 1899 ship of the same name that was sunk by bombing at Dunkirk in 1940. HMS Waverley saved 400 soldiers before the loss of a further 350 on a return run. Both ships featured the iconic scarlet, white and black funnels, familiar to all Scots today.

PS Waverley's twin scarlet funnels, painted red for the first 75% of their height, white for the next 10 % and then black for the remaining 15% at the top.

PS Waverley approaching Dunoon pier on the Firth of Clyde, starboard view of paddle steamer with Argyle hills as a backdrop

PS Waverley approaching Dunoon pier, starboard view of ship. The sun is shining on the Waverley's scarlet funnels. The water is calm and the green hills of Argyle are visible as a backdrop. The weather is cloudy but not dull.

151

PS Waverley approaching Dunoon pier on the Firth of Clyde, head-on view of bow with Argyle hills as a backdrop

PS Waverley view of the bow, sailing towards Dunoon pier on the Firth of Clyde with the hills of Argyle and Bute in the background. The water is unusually calm, with just the ripples from the Waverley's paddles showing

Brian Mackie @brianmackie.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Privileged to spend a day on the PS Waverley, the world's last sea-going paddle steamer. Here the Waverley approaches the pier at Tighnabruaich (Tee-na-bru-ich) in the Kyles of Bute, Firth of Clyde, Scotland. More video and pictures follow.

1103

Window shows the ship painted in pre-war Cunard colours before the RMS Queen Mary was repainted and became the 'Grey Ghost' during wartime troop-carrying years.

020

Wow! Real experience of a recurring event back in the 1940s. Amazing how some ships even got home. Congrats on managing that one!

120

A WW1-era Town class Destroyer? Likely even worse! They were hardy folk back then, not even 100 years ago.

Proper weather! I was glad we had at least some, would have felt just wrong if it had been a completely smooth crossing.

Brian Mackie @brianmackie.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Arrived safely in Southampton on Queen Mary 2. From the journey, here is a Mid-Atlantic video, featuring fog and ten foot waves. Very glad not to have to deal with weather such as this, and much worse, on a WW2 Corvette! #navalhistory #maritimehistory

251

Weather quite a bit worse today, with the Queen Mary 2 about 40 hours (800 nautical miles) from Southampton.

Atlantic Ocean on a very blustery day, seas swelling up to 10-15 feet with plenty of white water surrounding RMS Queen Mary 2

Brian Mackie @brianmackie.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

For sure, Dave! Feeling very privileged, but the voyage at least gives an idea of how vast the Atlantic really is. Sailing over at 8 knots in a slow convoy must have been unbelievably nerve-wracking.

View from the stern of the Queen Mary 2 on a grey and windy day in mid-Atlantic. #navalhistory

View from stern of Queen Mary 2 - a 25-foot channel of disturbed water shows the size of the propellers required to move the ship forward at about 20 knots. Grey blustery ocean surrounds

250

Views from deck 7 of the Queen Mary 2, of the main deck walkway and of the expanse of ocean far expanding far beyond the horizon....

Queen Mary 2 deck 7 walkway, with wooden caulked boards, a white railing and lifeboats suspended above. The lifeboats have "Queen Mary 2 - Hamilton" painted on the bow. To the left is a wall of windows, with decks built up to 13, so 6 decks higher than the main walkway

View across the Atlantic ocean on a blustery day. Waves only a few feet high. Queen Mary 2 Lifeboats and deck 7 walkway to the left of the picture.

View for'ard in the Mid-Atlantic ocean from the Queen Mary 2 bow, with spare propeller blades stored on deck, just in case...

Queen Mary 2 bow, with white railing and open deck, ploughs into the grey Mid-Atlantic ocean at just over 20 knots...

Propeller blades stored on forward deck - each about 8 feet tall and wide, stored on deck with railings around. Known as the "commodore's cufflinks" these are practical in case of emergency, and something of a naval artistic statement at the same time.

150

Queen Mary 2 pictures for now as videos too large to upload. Views here from deck 13, in the centre of the Atlantic Ocean...

Looking back from deck 13 bow - red funnel on right, endless grey Atlantic ocean on left, with a walkway and white railing between

View from Deck 13 forward - looking above a covered lookout balcony to a grey sea beyond.

150

Currently on a Transatlantic voyage on the Queen Mary 2, crossing what before 1943 would have been the "black pit..." ...where allied convoys were beyond the range of air cover, and were therefore highly vulnerable to U-boat attack. Live 2026 footage follows...

A computerized map of ships on the north Atlantic. Many ships are indicated near the north American and British / European coats. The Queen Mary 2 stands out alone
in the centre of the north Atlantic.

A map of air coverage prior to 1943, where a large section of the north Atlantic could not be reached by air coverage. This large area of sea was known as the black pit, and was where U-boats sunk hundreds of merchant ships during WW2.

192

Brian Mackie @brianmackie.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Thanks Michelle! Still a lot of untold stories out there, I believe. Hoping to tell many more! Would be interested to learn more re your work re WW2 Scotland.

001

Please add me - researching WW2 Clyde history. Thanks!

000

Reposted by Brian Mackie

Ready Aye Ready - Royal Canadian Navy #RCN @ready-aye-ready.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Newsreel: Repat Fleet Adds Aircraft Carrier. In HMCS Puncher, repatriated soldiers gather on board; elevators lower men into the ship; view of the bunk areas; the aircraft carrier moves down the Clyde River, past the John Brown shipyards. (1945) #RCN #RoyalCanadianNavy #Canada (LAC Canada)

082

Reposted by Brian Mackie

NOELREPORTS @noelreports.com · 17/04/2026

Ukrainian Yak-52 crew engaging Russian Shahed drones in an aerial interception role, with pilots from the 11th Army Aviation Brigade taking part in counter-drone operations. #Ukraine

1647768

Brian Mackie @brianmackie.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Fab song, saw Propaganda live back in 1985. In the show (I still remember this!) they played Jewel immediately before playing Duel. Jewel is the anti-Duel, two parts of a whole.

020

Brian Mackie @brianmackie.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Thanks Dave, have really appreciated your help and comments! Will continue to look out for your posts and reposts.

The story of the SS Henry Bacon is the subject of a book and a tale on its own, but is actually part of a much larger story with the Soroya rescue. Hopefully when Matt Drennan publishes his book, the Soroya story will become better known.

This is Fred Arthur Mascall, 1908-1942, Leading Seaman on HMS Encounter.

A picture of a sailor seated in a studio. He is wearing a white unform with a blue naval shoulder piece. He has short brown hair with a side parting. On his right is a pommel hat with the words "Royal Sovereign", the ship he was then sailing on, in the tropics. His name was Fred Arthur Mascall, he died on HMS Encounter in 1942.

My wife's great uncle Fred Arthur Mascall was one of the 8 crew who died. His brother-in-law Frank Druce was also aboard and was taken prisoner. He survived the war but in poor health, dying at the age of only 47, in 1955.

Brian Mackie @brianmackie.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

An RN rating carries a young girl along a cluttered dock in Greenock, Scotland, March 1, 1945. This famous image, and the story behind it, epitomise naval purpose: protect the high seas, safeguard civilians. This is the story of the Sørøya Island rescue. #maritimehistory #navalhistory 🧵 1/29

An RN rating, wearing a Navy hats and boots, carries a young girl, aged about 10, along a cluttered dock in Greenock, Scotland, March 1, 1945. They are walking past oil drums, tractors and moored ships. The girl is smiling. The rating has the look of someone who has completed a hugely worthwhile task.

1288

I believe the QE was a troop ship already by 1942 - carried 5,600 Anzacs from Sydney to Suez in April 1941 - but the ship's carrying capacity needed expanding. So at Esquimalt they added 5-level bunks and other "enhancements" to enable carriage of many more troops (up to 15,000, as per post).

Bunk beds lining a corridor on the RMS Queen Mary. The beds are framed in metal with a canvas 'mattress', and stored by being folded up along the edge of the corridor to make space. Every square inch of available space is used, horizontally and vertically. In this view, 4 beds are visible stacked atop each other, with a storage rack just below the ceiling for kit bags.

040

Brian Mackie @brianmackie.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

Bought the print version 20 years ago and still refer to it - easily the best reference and comprehensive resource for parish records and maps.

060

Reposted by Brian Mackie

Illia Ponomarenko @ioponomarenko.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

No words left to say.

50823236

Reposted by Brian Mackie

Illia Ponomarenko @ioponomarenko.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

Epic. A Ukrainian Air Force F-16 takes out a Russian-Iranian Shahed-136 at a close distance. The witnesses are extremely happy and supportive 😀

411006184

It really was - and one of several just in the Halifax area - add to this HMCS Sackville, the Marine Museum of the Atlantic and the Naval Museum of Halifax. And the Crow's Nest in St John's a short flight away!

The Shearwater Aviation Museum is located across the water from Halifax, Nova Scotia, and next to 12 Wing Shearwater, the centre of naval aviation in Canada and home of the RCAF’s maritime helicopter community. Visit if you can - my thanks to @rogerlitwiller.bsky.social for the suggestion! 11/End

The road-side sign for the entrance of 12 Wing Shearwater – a fighter jet wing mounted so it is vertical to the ground. The signs says “Welcome to 12 12 Wing Shearwater” in English and French, and then has the words “WINGS FOR THE FLEET” in capitals. At either end of the wing are the badges of 12 Wing (a seagull flying over water within a gilded round frame topped by a crown) and of the Royal Canadian Air Force (a roundel with a thick dark blue outer rim bordering a white centre with a red maple leaf).

2120

Inside the cockpit of the Sea King – a maze of dials, switches and screens. The Sea King had a crew of 4 - 2 pilots, 1 navigator, 1 airborne electronic sensor operator, with capacity for 3 passengers. 10/11

The cockpit of the Sea King helicopter – two seats for the pilots, with seemingly hundreds of dials and measures ranged between, in front and above them. The windscreen is clear in front of them and the left and right halves of the roof in front of them are also transparent.

The Sea King’s navigation and sensor operator panels, with two seats for the crew. A large number of dials and switches are visible, as well as a computer screen, keyboard and radar monitor.

170