Back in the good old days before containers, berths in the upper and lower harbour, with two dry docks, were areas that attracted much interest.
Most of the visitors were registered in New Zealand.
The United Kingdom had foreign-owned tonnage sailing under the flags of France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, and sometimes other nations.
In contrast today, we see a very limited number of vessels registered in this country calling here.
Apart from the odd London and Rotterdam-registered cruise ships, most are registered in Bermuda or the Bahamas. Regular calls by the other foreign ships are largely a thing of the past.
Today the flags of Liberia, Panama and Hong Kong are often seen here, the latter mainly on bulk/lumber carriers.
With regards to the container trades, it is interesting to note that of 26 container ships seen here in the last few months, 21 are chartered German-owned ships.
Fourteen of these were registered in Liberia.
This flag, one of the earlier so-called "flags of convenience", first appeared here on June 8, 1951, with the arrival of the 6343gt, 1920-built steamer Greenville.
Since then, this flag has appeared on many vessels- bulkers, woodchip carriers and even cruise ships.
It was one of the new registers and flags that sprung up after World War 2.
Today, there are 185 of these.
They can be seen on the oceans of the world, and 67 have come here.
Some countries, like Denmark and Norway, have separate domestic registers as well as international ones.
There are also land-locked countries, like Switzerland which has had an ocean-going merchant fleet for nearly 70 years and has been represented here since mid-2008 by regular visits from the container ships Maersk Jaun and Maersk Jenaz.
Even Mongolia, the largest land-locked country in the world, has a shipping register.
It was established in February 2003, and based in Singapore.
One flag that has not been seen here very often is that of Thailand.
Newcomer Vijitra Naree, due to sail today after loading logs, is one of only five Thai-flag vessels that have berthed here.
First, in July 1984, was Arun Thai. Thor Wave was a visitor last April. Both berthed at Ravensbourne.
The others were the log ships Boontrika Naree, here in September 2000, and Sirorat Naree, in April 2004.
Incidentally, the suffix Naree is common to vessels operated by Great Circle Shipping Agency Ltd of Bangkok.
Vijitra Naree, owned by Precious Orchids Ltd, joined this fleet in the latter half of 2004.
Before that, the vessel had traded for the Botelho Shipping Corporation of Manila as Tiger Falcon.
A 17,879gt, 28,646dwt vessel, it was built by the Naikai Zosen yard at Setoda.
Construction in 1997 started with keel-laying on April 2, launching on May 26, and delivery on August 28.
Returning to Dunedin last week with a new name and new colours was the 529gt stern trawler Amaltal Apollo.
This smaller unit of the Amaltal Fishing Company fleet resumed fishing operations last October after being tied up for about 70% of its time over the last two years.
Built at Vigo, Spain, by the Enrique Lorenzo yard, it was completed in October 1987, as Ocean Ranger, for Ocean Products Ltd, Nelson.
Under that name the trawler visited Dunedin for the first time on November 21, 1997, and was here on its 10th call on April 3, 2007.
