On the waterfront: A ship by any other name

Well in the case of MSC Brianna, due on its first visit this week, its former and current names bring back memories of earlier visitors to this harbour.

The ship was bought by the Mediterranean Shipping Company in 1994. They placed it under the ownership of the Maripax Holdings Corporation and the flag of Panama.

With an overall length of 244.00m, it is a 40,177gt, 43,288dwt vessel having a container capacity of 3268teu and a speed of 21 knots. The vessel was built and engined by the Hyundai complex at Ulsan.

As Neptune Jade the ship entered service in March 1986, as the second of a pair built for Neptune Orient Lines Ltd (NOL) of Singapore. Sister ship Neptune Garnet now trades as MSC Natalia.

Founded in 1968, NOL bought its first ship, a second-hand one, in 1969. Other similar acquisitions followed in 1970, including one that became their first Neptune Jade.

This smaller 3175gt motor ship arrived at Dunedin from Singapore on December 23, 1975, to load cargo. It was the first NOL vessel to call here. Since then only three other units of the fleet have been seen here, in 1979-80. They were Neptune's Cyprine, Ruby and Turquoise. all Freedom-type vessels.

Neptune Jade was constructed by the New South Wales Government shipyard at Newcastle. Built to the order of BurnsPhilp & Company, Sydney, it was launched as Moresby on March 6, 1965.

The first ship to be built for the company in Australia since 1955, it entered service on their New Guinea run following delivery in July, 1965. After making its final voyage in this trade in May 1970, it was taken over by NOL who operated it until it was sold 1976.

New owners renamed it Aasalamah under the Liberian flag. Four years later it became Apollon on the Greek register, and in 1982 Apollon Delios under the Cypriot flag. On December 10, 1982, when on a voyage from Cagliari to South Africa it sank after developing leaks.

MSC Brianna inherits a name of a vessel that was part of the fleet from 1994 until it arrived at Alang for demolition on December 1, 1997. However, the ship will be remembered here as the first Sydney Express to visit Port Chalmers.

It was a 27,407gt, 1589teu, turbine steamer completed at Hamburg in September 1970 by the Blohm & Voss yard. The ship was originally employed in Hapag-Lloyd's Europe-Australia service, one that was later extended to New Zealand.

Seen here for the first time on October 4, 1979, the ship made its 15th and final visit on May 10, 1990. On returning to Europe it was renamed Canada Express for service in the North Atlantic trade until 1994.

As a matter of interest, MSC Chitra has been sold to Alang shipbreakers for US$ 6.9 million. The 1980-built vessel, seen here in 2007-08, was severely damaged when outward-bound from Mumbai on August 7, 2010, when the bulk carrier Khalija III collided with it.

Newcomer TPC Gisborne, currently loading logs at Port Chalmers, is the third of the class of 23,494gt built by the Samjin yard at Weihai to have called here in recent months. The ship, the second to be built, was completed last April.

TPC Lyttelton, the third of the class, introduced this design locally when it loaded logs at Port Chalmers last September. And last month class leader TPC Samjin loaded scrap at Dunedin.

 

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