Marine and waterway services

The River Thames which flows for 205 miles from Head Bridge in the Cotswolds to where it joins the North Sea at Shoeburyness. The Thames Estuary is the estuary in which the River Thames meets the waters of the North Sea. The estuary is one of the largest of 170 such inlets on the coast of Great Britain. It constitutes a major shipping route, with thousands of movements each year including large oil tankers, container ships, bulk carriers and roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) ferries entering the estuary for the Port of London and the Medway Ports of Sheerness, Chatham and Thamesport.