This week's visit by Maersk Jaun, another of the series of 2824 TEU vessels built by the Hyundai Mipo Dockyard at Ulsan, is of special interest.
The 28,592gt vessel will be the third Swiss flag ship to call here, and its visit coincides with the anniversary of the arrival of the first, Lavaux, on July 22, 1966. The next visitor, Silvaplana, berthed on May 26, 1968.
Both ships discharged cargo from London at Dunedin.
Like Maersk Jaun, they were registered at Basle and were also units of the fleet of the Suisse-Atlantique Societe de Navigation Maritime S.A.
However, there had been a link in 1965 with Suisse-Atlantique when Cruzeiro do Sul arrived with cargo from London.
The ship was owned by a subsidiary and had flown the Liberian flag since new.
But while berthed at New Plymouth seven days later, the ship was renamed Castasegna and transferred to the Swiss flag.
The earlier ships of similar size were built by Yugoslavia's state-owned shipyards.
Silvaplana (6316gt) was completed in 1955, by the "3 Maj" yard at Rijeka, and Lavaux (6451gt) by the same builders in 1959.
Cruzeiro do Sul (6136gt) was handed over in 1958.
This week's maiden caller takes its name from a small mountain village in the Canton Fribourg and a mountain pass that leads to the Canton Bern.
The ship is one of six container ships and five bulk carriers operated by Suisse-Atlantique and registered to Oceana Shipping A.G.
Since 1941, the company has operated 60 ocean-going ships under the Swiss flag.
Laid down as Jaun on February 16, 2005, the ship was floated out of the building dock on April 26, as Maersk Jaun.
It was delivered in 2005, for time charter to Maersk.
One of three sister ships ordered by the Swiss company, it was followed by Maersk Jenaz, coming here later, and St-Cergue, the seventh unit of the fleet to have carried this name.
This name has special significance in the history of Suisse-Atlantique as it was the name given to the first unit of the fleet.
It was a 4260gt steamer completed at West Hartlepool by Wm.
Gray and Company in March, 1937, as Felldene.
On July 10, 1941, the ship was entered in the Swiss Register as St-Cergue with the Official Number 005.
General Guisan, the second ship in the fleet, was ordered from the same builders and delivered in 1948.
A motor ship of 5143 gt, it was powered by a seven-cylinder diesel supplied from the Winterthur (Switzerland) works of Sulzer Bros Ltd, the firm that was established there by brothers Johann Jakob and Salomon Sulzer in 1834.
They commenced by manufacturing cast iron fire-fighting and other pumps, as well as machinery for the textile industry.
In 1859, they turned to building steam engines and steam boats.
After co-operation from Dr Rudolf Diesel in 1898, they developed their own very successful design of marine diesel engine.
Production at Winterthur, which also covered other industrial fields, ceased in 1990 after restructuring of the company in 1988 under the title Sulzer A.G.
Hundreds of vessels have been powered by Sulzer diesels either built at Winterthur, or for more than 80 years under licence by shipbuilders.
The 4100 TEU single-screw container ships introduced to this trade in 2002 and designed for a speed of 25 knots, are powered by nine-cylinder, 69,930 bhp Sulzer units.
And vessels of the same design as Maersk Jaun have seven-cylinder, 34,350 bhp Sulzer's that give a speed of 23 knots. The three smaller ships here in the 1960s were powered by seven- or eight-cylinder Sulzer engines.
Output ranged between 4900 bhp and 7200bhp and service speeds from 13.25 to 15.5 knots.
