Harpagon, Mill Hill, Rudby, and three units of the Larrinaga fleet, were all 1943-44 built Liberty ships that called here. All were tramps operated under the British flag by interests that may now qualify them to join the growing ranks of "half-forgotten" shipowners.
Of the American war-built Victory ships I mentioned last week, only two were seen here in commercial service.
Standard designs offered by shipbuilders have now become very much a part of the global shipping scene.
It is not very often that we have overseas-owned vessels calling here that share a name with a township in this area.
This month there has already been an interesting line-up of Japanese-built, handysize bulk/lumber carriers calling to discharge phosphate at Ravensbourne, or to load logs at Port Chalmers.
This week I go back again to May 1950, when the 1910-built Pakeha was lying at Briton Ferry to be scrapped.
One hundred years ago, Yard No 409 was approaching its launching date at the Belfast shipyard of Harland & Wolff Ltd.
This week I take another look at some of the vessels built at the Doxford yard at Sunderland.
Doxford is a name little heard these days.
The stylised blue PB logo on the yellow funnels of the vessels operated by Pacific Basin Shipping of Hong Kong, has become a familiar sight in this harbour for more than a decade.
The double-hulled, Hong Kong-flagged tanker CSC Amethyst represented one of China's largest shipping conglomerates here for the first time when it berthed at Dunedin last week.
Since its inception in 1997, the China Shipping (Group) Company, with headquarters at Shanghai, has been under the direct administration of the State Council of the People's Republic of China.
Another successful cruise-ship season will end next Monday, when Crystal Symphony makes a return visit.
Memories of the Furness Withy group, once a major British shipping empire whose interests included shipbuilding, will be re-kindled when the bulk carrier Furness Hartlepool visits Ravensbourne this week.
Names no longer hold any special significance for most of the vessels that call here.
In port for the first time today is chartered container ship Maersk Jackson.
Of all the modern cruise ships built in the past few years that have called here, Arcadia in port recently impressed me.
Here on its first visit last Saturday, the cruise ship Arcadia carries a name that has been associated with four P&O passenger ships over a period of 122 years.
February will prove to be an interesting month, with six newcomers calling from last week until later in the month.
Jewels in the crown aptly sums up the arrival of two Carnival group cruise ships at Port Chalmers last Friday.
Back in the good old days before containers, berths in the upper and lower harbour, with two dry docks, were areas that attracted much interest.
