Go back to the days of conventional shipping and vessels owned by liner companies operating in the New Zealand trades.
Most of these vessels, unless bought second-hand, spent their entire careers trading under one name before being sold for demolition.
There were cases of some vessels being sold to other interests for further trading.
Some others were sold to speculators, who after renaming them, sold them off for scrap a short time later and probably made a handsome profit.
Then there were those vessels that were occasionally chartered by the lines for varying periods and given new names to bring them into line with the rest of the fleet.
The introduction of container ships on liner routes 40 years ago quickly spread throughout the world.
It also gave non-liner companies the opportunity to build geared or gearless vessels to cater for the charter market. This sector of the shipping industry has since become big business, particularly for German owners.
One only has to look at the local scene to find that 25 of the 31 container ships that have called here this year are German-owned chartered vessels.
Over the years, many of these ships have had a succession of names.
They may have been launched or completed under their owner's chosen name.
But throughout the years may have reverted to this name on occasions in between periods when they have traded under names that identify them with other units of their charterer's fleet.
One example is Dolores, which was reported sold a month ago to undisclosed shipbreakers for $US3.32 million ($NZ5.98 million).
The ship entered service under that name and since 2004 has been trading under that name.
However, among its many changes of name the ship has carried the name Dolores eight times. The 19-knot ship was built at Emden by Thyssen Nordseewerke GmbH and delivered in July 1987.
Registered at Emden to the ownership of Dolores Schiffs GmbH & Co. K. G, it was transferred to the Liberian register in December 2000. Earlier this month, the ship was registered at St Kitts & Nevis for its final voyage.
Over the years it has carried the names ScanDutch Gallia, OOCL Breeze, Sea Breeze, City of Haifa[D1] , Zim Chicago, Kota Sempena, P&O Nedlloyd Nina and CSAV Rio Amazonas.
But locally the ship will be remembered for its 15 visits between October 10, 1994, and May 23, 1998, as Nelson Bay.
During that period, the 20,344gt, 1712 TEU vessel was employed on P&OCL's New Zealand-Australia-Mediterranean service. One of the more colourful and distinctive markings seen here for the first time adorned the funnel of Thor Wave, which visited Ravensbourne last week. The Singapore-built bulk carrier's blue funnel features red and white vertical stripes.
The 187.00m-long, 25,889gt. 39,037dwt vessel was delivered by the Jurong Shipyard Ltd, in June 1998.
As Great Rainbow, it traded under the Panamanian flag until 2004 when it joined the fleet of Thoresen & Co (Bangkok) Ltd.
The Bangkok-registered vessel is only the fourth Thai-flag vessel to call here in the last 25 years.
Others were Arun Thai (phosphate), and for logs, Boontrika Naree and Sirorat Naree.
