New names on container scene

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.