With chartered South Korean-built first-time visitors Sky Apollo (in port yesterday) and MSC Brasilia (due next weekend), a total of 38 vessels will have appeared here in the Mediterranean Shipping Company services since the company made its debut here in March 2006.
These owned or chartered vessels ranging in size from 9966 to 51,608 gross tons also include a large component of interesting vintage tonnage.
Eight were built in the 1970s, 12 in the next decade, 16 in the 1990s and two in the past eight years. Largest and youngest of this week's newcomers is the 35,598gt, 3074TEU MSC Brasilia.
The Panama-flag ship is owned by the Hedgestone Shipping Company, part of Tsakos Shipping and Trading S. A., of Athens. Designed for a service speed of 23.5 knots, the vessel was completed by the Daewoon shipyard at Okpo, in September 1986.
It entered service under the Liberian flag as Hanjin Kobe with the Hanjin Shipping Company, of Seoul. The ship retained this name when it was chartered back following its sale 11 years later to the Tsakos interests who transferred it to the Greek flag.
In 2002, the name was shortened to Kobe and later that year it became MSC Brasilia when chartered by the Mediterranean Shipping Company. Sky Apollo and Sky Jupiter, both registered at Hong Kong, are units of the fleet operated by the Tianjin Central Shipping Management Company of Tianjin.
Both were reported last month as being chartered by MSC for 12 months at US$5000 per day. Yesterday's visitor, owned by the Apollo Shipping Company Ltd, was bought by the Tianjin concern in March 2007.
It is a 19-knot, 33,405gt, 2525TEU vessel that was delivered in November 1983, from the Hyundai yard at Ulsan. But for most of its history it brings back memories of the days when this port received visits from Dutch liner companies.
The ship entered service as the Rotterdam-registered Nedlloyd Clement owned by Nedlloyd Linjen B.
V.
When this company started playing around with the names of ships in 1986, the prefix Nedlloyd was dropped, only to be reinstated two years later. Later, when P&O and Nedlloyd joined forces, ownership passed to P&O Nedlloyd B.
V. and following the takeover of these interests by Maersk, it continued trading as such until 2007. On March 9, 1957, Royal Interocean Lines inaugurated a service to Southeast Asia with the arrival at Dunedin of the two-year-old, 2844gt Van Neck.
Later, another service to Southeast Africa attracted other RIL ships to this harbour. Over the years, larger vessels appeared on both services, the most common being those with "Straat" names.
Among them was the 8862gt Straat Clement.
The ship had been completed at Flensburg by the Flensburger yard in December 21, 1959, and on June 6, 1971, arrived at Yokohama to be lengthened from 138m to 158m by Nippon Kokan's Asano Dockyard. Straat Clement made its first visit on May 11, 1972, and its 15th and last on February 18, 1978.
During the period, the ship underwent two annual surveys in dry dock at Port Chalmers, in September 1972, and again 12 months later. In 1977, there was a major reorganisation of Dutch liner shipping when companies calling here like RIL, the Nederland Line and Royal Rotterdam Lloyd, plus others, became the Nedlloyd group. Although Nedlloyd names had appeared a few years earlier, they were adopted by the vessels of the larger group.
And with this reshuffle the old familiar markings also disappeared from the scene. On June 11, 1978, Straat Clement came again, renamed Nedlloyd Clement.
It made two more calls here, on September 30,1978, and January 2, 1979 (the year it was sold to Sofrana Lines, serving as Capitaine Cook until broken up in 1986).
