Thursday, December 14, 2017 - 11:24 by ce-press
This year has been a record-breaking year for Portland Port’s cruise business, with the port receiving its greatest number of cruise ships and passengers to date.
The arrival and departure of every cruiseship is important to the port and helps form some of the lasting impression that passengers have of Dorset and its surrounding area. For departures, the port organises musical entertainment on the quayside along with canon fire from the Nothe Fort Artillery Volunteers.
For some calls this year there has been a quayside display of vehicles and volunteers from the newly-opened Castletown D-Day Centre. It is an authentic recreation of Portland’s busy wartime dockyard and shows the important role that Portland played in the allied invasion of northern France. The centre features wartime artefacts and vehicles, some of which visitors can interact with.
In recognition of the volunteer’s time and quayside display of vehicles throughout the cruise season, Portland Port’s general manager commercial Ian McQuade (R) presented a cheque from Portland Port to the Castletown D-Day Centre for £500 (€568) to the museum’s curator, Stephen George (C) and Derek Luckhurst (L), the entrepreneur behind the Castletown Regeneration Initiative on December 7 (see picture).
