Eight years ago, 10 container ships were built in South Korea for a round-the-world service from the United Kingdom and Europe, out to Australia and New Zealand, via the Suez Canal, then home by way of the Panama Canal and three US east coast ports.
Seven of these 4112teu ships, the Santa R, Albatross class, were built at Koje for Reederei Claus-Peter Offen, of Hamburg, by Samsung Heavy Industries.
All were chartered to what was then P&O Nedlloyd for eight years.
The other three with Contship names were built at Okpo by Daewoo Heavy Industries for the Contship Containerline.
All 10 ships visited Port Chalmers on their maiden voyages over an 11-month period from February 2002.
But where are they now, for seven have vacated the local scene since December 2006.
The latest to go has just been phased into Hamburg-Sud's Kaohsuing-Chiwan-Hong Kong-Melbourne-Sydney-Brisbane service as Cap Roberta, a slight variation of its build name Santa Roberta.
As the fourth of the Offen ships, it was handed over as P&O Nedlloyd Pegasus in August 2002.
But after three voyages under that name it was renamed Sydney Express in March 2003, a move at keeping the Hapag-Lloyd presence in the trade.
With the Maersk takeover of P&O Nedlloyd in 2005, the ship was renamed Maersk Dominica in 2006.
All told, the ship made 53 calls here under its three names, the final as recently as July 2.
Hamburg-Sud has been operating its sister ship Cap Ricarda (build name Santa Ricarda) since April.
The third of the class to enter service, in May 2002, it made 17 visits as P&O Nedlloyd Botany then as Maersk Dunafare another 44 up to the time of its final visit on January 21.
The RTW service was replaced by a weekly hub link through Tanjung Pelepas early in 2007.
This resulted in the class leader P&O Nedlloyd Remuera delivered in January 2002, and P&O Nedlloyd Encounter a month later, leaving the New Zealand trade.
The former, which made 21 calls under that name, appeared here for the last time on its eighth visit as Maersk Denia on May 2, 2007.
A short time later, it was chartered by Hapag-Lloyd as Southampton Express and since last September has been trading under its Offen build name Santa Rafaela.
Likewise, the second unit of the class has been carrying the name Santa Rebecca since March.
Its 20 calls as P&O NL Encounter was followed by one as Maersk Dacartur.
But did the office boy get the name wrong for on its next visit, the first of five, Dacartur had been changed to Decatur.
The ship made its last call in February 2007.
First of the slightly larger 46,009gt Contship vessels Contship Aurora entered service in September 2002.
Sister ships Contship's Australis and Borealis both followed three months later.
When their owners were taken over in 2005 by CP Ships, the letters CP replaced the Contship prefix in their names.
In turn, CP Ships was acquired by Hapag-Lloyd in 2006.
All three were subsequently added to the Maersk schedule and were given names with the Maersk prefix.
Aurora was given the suffix Dexter, Australis ( Dale) and Borealis (Dayton).
Between them and under their different names these ships made a total of 73 local calls with Maersk Dexter ending their association on August 31, 2007.
Later that year, when Hapag-Lloyd transferred them from British to German registry, Dexter was renamed Liverpool Express, Dale became Dublin Express and Dayton, Glasgow Express.
As a replacement for Maersk Dominica, Maersk Danville made its first visit last week.
It is one of four 24-knot sister ships built by the Hyundai Samho shipyard at Samho for the German-based Oltmann interests.
The vessel entered service in July 2005, as P&O Nedlloyd Cardigan.
Sister ship Maersk Duncan made five calls here in 2006-07.
Compared to the 281m-long vessels built in 2002, this quartet has an overall length of 254.04m and are smaller at 41,359gt.
Total container capacity is slightly higher at 4132teu.
