In recent weeks a number of older container ships are reported as having been sold for demolition.
Of local interest are Alianca Urca, Leblon, Hill and Rose II, two pairs of sister ships that visited Port Chalmers earlier in their careers.
Alianca Urca and Leblon, both 24,270gt, have served the Hamburg-Sud group for their entire careers.
While these 18-knot vessels were built at Bremerhaven by A.G. Weser Seebeckwerft, their 6-cylinder, 13,786 bhp Sulzer diesels were supplied by the Tamashima works of Sumitomo Heavy Industries.
Built for the parent company's South American service, Alianca Urca was delivered on November 24, 1981, as Monte Rosa; and Leblon on September 29, 1982, as Monte Cervantes. During 1993 the latter vessel was renamed Columbus California.
Under this name the ship made five calls here between February 2, 1997 and July 1, 2000.
Later that year it was renamed Leblon when transferred to Empresa de Navagacao S.A., the Brazilian liner company acquired by Hamburg-Sud in 1998.
In 1996 Monte Rosa became the second Columbus Canterbury in the fleet.
As such the vessel appeared here for the first time on October 31,1998.
And on its ninth and last visit on October 24, 2002, the Columbus Line service to the east coast of North America came to an end.
The ship was then transferred to the Alianca fleet and like Leblon adopted Rio de Janeiro as its new port of registry.
Hill and Rose II are 14,385gt sisters once associated with the New Zealand Orient Line (rebranded Tasman Orient Line in 1999) container service through Port Chalmers.
Inaugurated on December 21, 1993, by the chartered 9354gt Bimatura Dua, the first Indondesian flag ship to call here, this link only lasted until December, 2000.
Second visitor in this service was Hill, then trading as NZOL Challenger.
The ship made 28 calls under this name from December 30, 1993, to August 11, 1999, then two more as Tasman Challenger on April 14, and June 10, 2000. Likewise, Rose II turned up for the first time as NZOL Crusader on January 30, 1994.
Its 30th call on May 12, 1999, was followed by a further four between September 12, 1999, and May 10, 2000, as Tasman Crusader. The two ships go to the breakers with Rose II having 11 and its sister 10 name changes since they were built.
Both were built and engined by the Helsingor shipyard in Denmark where Rose II was completed in October, 1968, and Hill three months later.
The former was built as Dorte Skou and it sister as Ditte Skou, and they were members of a class of seven attractive-looking 18.5-knot, 6600gt general cargo ships built from 1968-74 for Ove Skou of Copenhagen.
Three other members of the class, Diana, Dinna and Dorit Skou visited Dunedin to load wool for China in the early 1980s. But the pair that were involved with the local container scene were altered considerably in 1982 by Nippon Kokan's Asano Dockyard at Yokohama.
Their stern sections were fitted to a new longer, wider and deeper forward cargo section that also gave them a container capacity of 628TEU.
Their length overall was increased from 156.37m to 165.87m, and the moulded breadth from 19.80m to 23.70m.
Deadweight capacity also shot up from 14,225 tonnes to just over 21,000 tonnes.
