Doug Wright

Another interesting assortment of newcomers started last week with the arrival of the Italian-built container ship MSC Rafaela. But this week the focus is on four vessels built in China.

It was a scene never to be repeated at the George St wharf, Port Chalmers, 60 ago this Wednesday (Anzac Day, 1952).

The centenary of the loss of the White Star liner Titanic has been commemorated over the last few days and the 24-year-old, 43,537gt cruise ship Balmoral, here on February 19, 2011, has retraced the course of that tragic maiden voyage of which much has been written and portrayed ever since.

Azamara Quest is the second cruise ship to be disabled by an engine room fire in recent weeks. Until taken in tow, Costa Allegra, on a voyage from Madagascar to the Seychelles, drifted with no power at all for three days in an incident at the end of February.

The very successful, bumper cruise ship season, is coming to a close. Pacific Pearl was in yesterday, Volendam is due tomorrow, and next weekend Regatta and Sun Princess are due back again. Then on April 19, the ship that started the season off on October 13, Sea Princess, will bring it to an end.

The visitors to this harbour that are products of China's expanding shipbuilding industry have increased steadily over the past few years.

To date, the suffix Princess has been linked to the names of 13 cruise ships that have made 204 visits to Port Chalmers under the P&O or Princess Cruises banners.

Cruise ships come and go and, in many cases, because of their frequency each year, they do not always attract widespread interest from the general public. But if they are a queen from the Cunard fleet, they always become a major attraction.

Two of the most popular designs now familiar to this harbour are the 2824 TEU container ships built at the Hyundai Mipo yard at Ulsan, and a series of bulk/lumber carriers from Japan's Imabari Shipbuilding group.

Regatta, here for the first time last Saturday, is one of a class of eight sister ships, an ambitious project that ran into financial difficulties before they were all completed and bankrupted their owners, Renaissance Cruises Inc.