While another vessel introduced to the Mediterranean Shipping Company's Europe-Capricorn service made its inaugural visit to Port Chalmers last week, two earlier visitors on this run have been sold for demolition.
Panama-flag newcomer MSC Nederland, owned by Messina Shipping Ltd, joined the fleet in 2003.
With a capacity of 3005TEU, the 37,071gt, 47,120dw, 237.00m-long vessel was designed to operate at a service speed of 21 knots.
Propulsion machinery is a 7-cylinder, 29,501hp B&W diesel.
The ship was built and engined by the Vegesack yard of Bremer Vulkan.
Launched in June 1992, it entered service five months later, as the Liberian-flag Vladivostok Senator.
This name was changed to Vladivostok Mariner the year before the present name was adopted.
The two ships sold recently to Indian shipbreakers are the company-owned MSC Jessica and the chartered MSC Antwerp, vessels that were both lengthened during their careers.
Of the two, the former had the most interesting history, as well as a very important link with New Zealand and Dunedin.
One of only a handful of container ships built in the United Kingdom for British owners involved in the New Zealand trade, it was ordered by the Shaw, Savill & Albion Company from Swan Hunter Shipbuilders, Walker shipyard at Newcastle-on-Tyne.
The vessel's launching on February 15, 1980, had special significance.
It was appropriately named Dunedin, to commemorate the departure of the sailing ship Dunedin from Port Chalmers on February 15, 1882, with the country's first export cargo of frozen meat for London.
The 18,140gt, 768TEU, purpose-built Dunedin was delivered on July 11, 1980.
The ship originally ran in conjunction with the Bank Line's Willowbank on an Australia-New Zealand-Caribbean and US Gulf ports service.
As it happened, Dunedin was the last Shaw, Savill ship to be built for the New Zealand trade. The company was part of the Furness Withy group, but by the time the new ship was ready for service, the group had passed into Chinese ownership after being taken over by the C. Y. Tung group.
In turn, Dunedin was sold in January 1986, to Hamburg-Sud.
The ship was then sent to the Flender Werft AG shipyard at Lubeck, where it was lengthened by 26.04m to 202.17m.
Renamed Monte Pascoal the ship re-entered service on April 10, 1986, as a 23,291gt vessel, having a container capacity of 1234TEU and berths for eight passengers in six cabins.
The vessel was then assigned to the Hamburg-South America service.
Then, between 1990 and 2001, it carried the name Columbus Olivos on three occasions, twice reverted to Monte Pascoal and from 1997-98 was trading as Alianca Hamburgo.
During the last period of service from 1998 as the Nassau-registered Columbus Olivos, and under the control of MC Shipping Inc, the vessel made four local calls between April and December 1998, while employed on charter on the Columbus Line's east cast North America service.
Renamed MSC Jessica when sold to Mediterranean Shipping in 2001, for further service under the flag of Panama, the ship made three return visits to Port Chalmers from July to November 2006.
The ship's colourful globe-trotting career came to an end recently, when it was beached at Alang on June 6.
Although many would have liked to see it here under the name Dunedin, the ship eventually did turn up, be it in much altered form and ownership.