Sydney has been a popular source for naming all kinds of vessels. I recall 12 visitors to this harbour in the last 65 years, having multiple names linking them to the port city. But by way of a change, a container ship on charter to Mediterranean Shipping, and named Sydney, is scheduled to call here next Friday.
And in comparison with most container ships now calling here coming out of South Korean yards, Sydney was built in Japan by the Koyo Dockyard Company at Mihara and was completed on May 20, 2003.
Designed to operate at 22.5 knots, this newcomer is a 34,610gt, 234.62m-long vessel with a capacity of 2762teu, including 300 reefers. It is registered at Singapore to the ownership of Singa Star Pte Ltd.
Until a few weeks ago, the ship had been on charter to the Orient Overseas Container Line of Hong Kong since new. Some of the earlier employment was in the Australia, North and East Asia trade as the aptly named OOCL Sydney. Now with its shortened name, it has been assigned to MSC's Capricorn-Europe hub service.
Turn back the clock and one thinks of ships such as the 11,219gt Sydney Star, completed at Belfast in March 1936. A regular post-war visitor, it showed off the Blue Star Lines colours at Port Chalmers until October 1966.
The name passed to a 24,907gt container ship which made 30 visits over the period from February 1992, to February 2002. Renamed in late 1991, it was formerly ACT 5 delivered by Bremer-Vulkan in February 1972. And under this name it had already made 21 calls here from July 1977.
Ellerman Lines were represented here by two vessels named City of Sydney. One, a 7003gt steam handed over by Workman Clark, Belfast, in May 1930, visited Dunedin on four occasions from December 1948, to July 1956.
The 10,551gt motor ship that continued the name came from the Barclay, Curle yard in Glasgow in October 1960. Local visits numbered 13 from November 1961, to May 1970, and it was one of the last three Ellerman ships to be employed on the MANZ Line route.
One of the lesser known Port Line vessels was the 10,166gt, Swan Hunter-built Port Sydney that entered service in March 1955. Its only visits, both to Dunedin, were in January 1968, and June 1970. Sold to Greek interests in 1972, and later converted to a cruise ship, it came back as Switzerland in January 1998. The veteran is still in service today, flying the flag of Madeira as Princess Daphne.
Sydney Maru, a 4790gt steamer built in 1949, made three visits to Dunedin in Osaka Shosen Kisen (OSK Line) colours from October 1953, to April 1959.
And from December 1950, to April 1959, four calls to Dunedin were made by the 10,703gt, British flag, 1944-built T2 tanker Stanvac Sydney.
P&O Nedlloyd Sydney was the first of five 31,333gt container ships built in Germany in 1998 for the Mediterranean service. However, because of their size and the imbalance of trade on that route, all were withdrawn in mid-1999. P&O Nedlloyd Sydney's six local calls took place from June 1998, to April, 1999.
But the most common Sydney-named ships to come our way are four container carriers named Sydney Express. Hapag-Lloyd's 27,407gt, 1970-built turbine steamer made 15 visits from October 1979, to May 1990.
And the second carrying the markings, the 45,803gt, 4100teu vessel mentioned last week, also made 15 visits, from April 2003, to December 2005. The smaller 23.540gt vessel, built in 1994, made four visits on its Suez loop service between June 2007, and August 2008.
On October 19, 1996, the Tasman Express Line extended its service to Port Chalmers. It was started by the new 5552gt, Isle of Man-registered Sydney Express. But the link also ended with this vessel's 60th visit on December 24, 1999.
