Visits by two Imabari-built bulk/lumber carriers are of special interest. Third-time visitor TPC Auckland, on a direct voyage from Christmas Island, brought the first shipment of phosphate from there for some time.
Venta was scheduled to berth at the Leith wharf yesterday to load logs, but its arrival has been delayed due to bad weather and it was sheltering in the lee of Stewart Island yesterday.
It will be the first Lithuanian-owned and registered vessel to visit this harbour.
Australian-administered Christmas Island, in the Indian Ocean, has featured in the news in more recent times as a refugee and immigration detention centre.
But in the past, shipments of its phosphate were shipped here before it faded from the scene.
Britain annexed the island after low-grade phosphate was discovered there on June 6, 1888, and in 1897 the Christmas Island Phosphate Company was formed.
The first major shipment left the island in 1900. Much later, mining was carried out under an agreement with the British Phosphate Commissioners.
Operations were later taken over by the Australian government-owned Phosphate Mining Company of Christmas Island.
For economic reasons, it closed the mine in 1987.
Three years later, the mine re-opened as the Christmas Island Phosphate Company (later re-styled Phosphate Resources Ltd), after being bought by a consortium of former mine workers.
Cheju-registered TPC Auckland is a 16,722gt, 28,451dwt 13.5-knot, five-hatch vessel that joined the Trans Pacific Carriers fleet in 2004. The vessel entered service in September 1991 as Ocean Great, then in succession traded under the names Golden Bell, Captain Corelli and Avon.
The ship's visit last Saturday must have been among the briefest to Ravensbourne, for it occupied the berth for only about 10 hours.
On its first call here, on August 8, 2005, it berthed at Dunedin to discharge cement from overseas.
It returned last year on October 5 for logs, but was in and out of Port Chalmers on the same day.
The re-hulled Venta is owned by the Lithuanian Shipping Company (Lisco) and operated by AB Lietuvos Juru Laivininkyste, both of Klaipeda, the vessel's port of registry.
Before Lithuania gained independence in 1991, the company had been under the control of the Soviet Union.
Although Lisco operates on a small scale in the deep-sea market, it is mainly associated with ro/ro passenger and cargo services in the Baltic region. Venta, acquired in May, 2008, is of the same basic design as Birch 4, a visitor to Ravensbourne early last month.
The newcomer is a 15,899gt, 24.202dwt four-hatch vessel built to operate at 15.1 knots.
It was delivered on July 9, 1995, as the Panama-flag Stellar Glory.
In 2002 it was transferred to Hong Kong as Pacific Frontier, then from 2002-08 the vessel was trading as the Cypriot-flagged Dual Confidence.
Another vessel making its first visit to the harbour tomorrow, Ken Mei, will load logs at Port Chalmers for Inchon.
Registered at Panama, it is owned by Delica Shipping S. A., a subsidiary of the Inui Steamship Company of Tokyo.
Vessels sporting Inui colours have had a long association with the port, especially with the log trade.
Most of them have been new ships whose names have included the prefix Ken or Kiwi.
It is unusual, then, to find that the 17.979gt, 29,734dwt Ken Mei is a second-hand vessel. Acquired in September 2007, it had entered service on September 3, 2003, as Global Hawk, owned by Golden Hawk Shipping S. A. of Panama.
The ship was built at Takamatsu by the Shikoku Dockyard Company, which built earlier Inui visitors Kiwi Queen and Kiwi Star in 1984.
