As replacements for the 2824TEU, chartered Cap vessels, Hamburg-Sud has transferred four of its own larger 3630TEU Bahia-class ships to its Trident service this year.
Bahia Grande introduced these 41,483gt vessels which have 844 reefer plugs to the port on January 16. This vessel has since been joined by Bahia Castillo, Bahia Negra and single-word name, class-leader Bahia, which was delivered on February 9, 2007. All six were built by the Daewoo yard at Okpo.
Yesterday, Bahia was back on its fourth visit. Its second visit on June 26 was of special significance, for on that same day 40 years earlier the line's first cellular container ship, the 19,146gt Columbus New Zealand, berthed at Port Chalmers on its maiden voyage to introduce container shipping services to the port.
And Bahia's latest visit almost coincides with the date of the founding of the company. Following a meeting by a group of Hamburg merchants it was established on November 4, 1871 under the title of the Hamburg-Sudamerikanische Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft, (the Hamburg South America Line), and now more commonly known as Hamburg-Sud.
Leading on from the success of the Hamburg-Brasil Steam Ship Company Line that started operations in 1869, Hamburg interests were encouraged to form the new and larger Hamburg-Sud company.
And the first three units of the fleet, Rio, Santos and Brasilien, had originally served the Hamburg-Brasil company.
However, the first ship completed for Hamburg-Sud was its first Bahia. A 1983gt steamer, it had been bought on the stocks while under construction at the J. Laing shipyard at Sunderland.
Delivered on May 6, 1872, this 10-knot steamer, on its maiden voyage, was the first of the company's ships to call at Buenos Aires. Sold out of the fleet in 1885, it lasted until 1916 when it was broken up at Genoa.
The four Bahia-class ships are now the largest units of the fleet calling here on a regular basis.
But an even larger company-owned vessel, the 47,877gt, 4600TEU Cap Jervis built last year, was here in May and July.
The largest ships in the fleet now are the six 85,676gt Santa Clara-class ships delivered from Daewoo between October, 2010, and last September.
In contrast to the pioneer vessel Columbus New Zealand whose capacity of 1187TEU included 454 insulated boxes, these ships are the biggest refrigerated container ships in the world for their nominal capacity of 7100TEU including 1600 reefer plugs.
The company now has a further eight of this class and four smaller 3800TEU on order for delivery up to next year.
And last March the company ordered six 9600TEU ships, with an option on a further four, for completion in 2013-14 and for deployment in the South American services.
Calling for the first time yesterday, Radiance of the Seas is the largest of Royal Caribbean International's cruise ships to call here. At 90,090gt, it is the port's sixth largest visitor and the fourth-longest on the overall length of 293.20m. Berths are provided for 2502 passengers.
Completed on March 9, 2001, the Nassau-registered ship was the first of four sister ships ordered from the Jos. L. Meyer yard at Papenburg. It was also notable in being the first RCI vessel to be powered by gas turbines.
The vessel is fitted with two turbo-electric gas turbines and one turbo-electric steam turbine. Total power output of 78,173hp gives a speed of 24 knots.
