Two additional names to the list of container ships that have called here are MSC Martina, in port last week, and Maersk Bratan, due next weekend.
The former is a 37,398gt vessel that has just been added to its owner's Capricorn hub service through Singapore.
It was the first of four 3424teu, 22.5-knot sisters ordered by Leonhardt & Blumberg of Hamburg for operation by one-ship companies under the German flag. They were built at Koje by the Samsung Heavy Industries Company Ltd.
In keeping with these owners' policy of using the prefix Hansa in naming vessels, the ship was launched as Hansa America on June 4, 1993. However, it was completed on August 19, 1993, as Maersk Hong Kong.
In 1997, the ship was given its current name when chartered by Mediterranean Shipping, which also chartered its three sister ships at the same time.
All four were bought by MSC four-to-five years later for service under the flag of Panama.
Sister ships carry the names MSCs Monica, Rossella and Sophie.
In 1998, the name Maersk Hong Kong passed to a smaller 21,199gt, 1648teus, vessel completed at Gdynia in September 1997, as Nadir. This vessel made 19 local calls from July 15, 1999, to May 11, 2007.
Sister ships Maersk Wellington and Orion between them made 25 calls from August 1999, to July 2007.
With regards to Leonhardt & Blumberg, the only container ship I recall coming here, and in their colours, was the ill-fated Bremen-registered Hansa Clipper. The 18,037gt, 1786teu vessel made two visits in 1994, the first on January 8, and the second on April 2.
Like other units of the fleet, it had been built for the express purpose of chartering out to other operators.
Built in 1990 by the Bremen-Vulkan yard at Vegesack, it commenced its brief career as Ville de Provence until renamed CGM Provence. It then carried the name Hansa Clipper from 1993-94, then had a brief spell as CMBT Africa before reverting to Hansa Clipper from 1995-96.
Renamed Contship Argentina during the course of that year, it was sold in 1997 to Navigation Shipping Ltd and registered at Douglas (Isle of Man) as DG Harmony.
All went well until it was on a south-bound voyage from Newport News to Brazil in November 1998.
Among the loaded containers below deck in the third hold were a number transporting pellets of calhypo (calcium-hypochlorite).
On November 9, 1998, at a point off the northeast coast of Brazil, an explosion and fire ripped through the hold carrying the pellets.
Although the crew battled the blaze, their efforts were to no avail and the vessel was abandoned. The fire burned for three weeks and resulted in the constructive total loss of the ship which was later taken in tow to a breaker's yard.
Maersk Bratan is one of nine B-named sister ships that have entered service in the last two years. All are registered at Singapore and are owned by AP Moller Singapore Pte Ltd.
The newcomer was built by Hanjin Heavy Industries, whose two yards at Pusan and Ulsan have concentrated mainly on the construction of container ships over the last 20 years.
Laid down on April 14, 2009, and delivered on August 24, 2009, Maersk Bratan is a 223m-long, 35,835gt, 43,114dwt, 3078teu vessel designed to operate at a service speed of 22 knots.
