In port for the first time last week, MSC Tasmania is one of four sister ships that have appeared here on the Europe-Capricorn service since last December.
The other three are MSC's America, Basel and Palermo.
All are 34,231gt vessels having a container capacity of 2680TEU and were designed to operate at a service speed of 19.7 knots.
These four ships were part of an order for six vessels placed by Deutsche Seereederei Rostock GmbH.
This company's history goes back to the days of East Germany and two companies, VEB German Seereederei and VEB Deutfract.
They were merged in 1974 as VEB Deutfract/Seereederi Rostock and abbreviated to DSR. After the reunification of Germany, the company was privatised and rebranded Deutsche Reedeereri Rostock GmbH in July 1990.
Orders for the six container ships were divided equally between the yards of Bremer Vulkan at Vegesack, Howaldtswerke-Deutsche at Kiel and Thyssen Nordseewerke at Emden.
All were delivered between February 1992 and August 1993. The ships began with the prefix DSR in their names and all saw service with the German-based Senator Lines.
This company, which later came under the control of South Korea's Hanjin Line, went out of business earlier this year. MSC Tasmania , the last of the sextet to be built, was laid down at Kiel on January 1, 1992.
Launched on May 19, 1993, the ship was completed that month as the Rostock-registered DSR Asia. In 1996, the ship began a two-year stint as Choyang Elite before becoming Japan Senator in 1998.
It was sold to Mediterranean Shipping for service under the flag of Panama, late in 2004.
Of the four sisters that have called here, MSC's America and Tasmania are company-owned units.
The other two visitors are on charter from the F.
Laeisz interests. The two members of the class that went into service in 1992 as DSR Europe and DSR Pacific are now trading under the Liberian flag as Patmos II and Cific.
Both also traded for the Senator Line from 1997 to 2006. Since the New Zealand-flag lpg carrier Tarihiko was phased out of coastal service in January 1999, all subsequent shipments of lpg have been brought to Dunedin by foreign-flag vessels.
To date, 19 of these vessels have discharged 240 consignments here.
A further addition to this list will be made this week when Gas Shuriken berths for the first time.
This vessel is a sister ship to Gas Defiance, which so far has made only one call here, on December 10 last year.
Both are 4309gt Japanese-built ships registered in the Marshall Islands and managed by the Stealth Maritime Company SA, of Athens.
Owned by Financial Power Inc, Gas Shuriken was completed on October 30, 2008, three months after Gas Defiance entered service.
Their builders were the Kanrei Shipbuilding Company, located at Naruto.
