Reference to the start of the six-day Egypt-Israeli war in the "Today in History" column of last Friday's ODT, brings back memories of two refrigerated motor cargo liners that used to call here.
They were among the 15 ships, 14 in the Great Bitter Lake and one at Lake Timsah, that as a result of the conflict were trapped in the Suez Canal for eight years from June 5, 1967.
The two local visitors were the Blue Star Line's Scottish Star and the Port Line's Port Invercargill.
Both were still in their prime when they became victims of the war.
A twin-screw vessel, the 10,174gt Scottish Star was launched on May 15, 1950, and delivered in December 1950 from the Fairfield yard at Glasgow.
Its first visit to Port Chalmers on March 11, 1953, was followed by another seven, including two to Dunedin.
The ship arrived here for the last time when it berthed in the lower harbour on December 12, 1965, to load cargo for Liverpool. The 10,483gt, single-screw Port Invercargill was completed at Belfast by Harland & Wolff in March 26, 1958.
The ship had made history when it was launched on November 22, 1957, by a radio-telephone link from Sydney.
In the course of its maiden voyage, the ship berthed at Dunedin on May 22, 1958.
Not as well known locally as other units of the fleet, it only made six visits, including one to Port Chalmers.
The ship made its final visit to Dunedin on November 14, 1966.
Both ships were homeward-bound from Australia to England when they were forced to anchor in the waterway.
They were later abandoned to their underwriters with ownership of Scottish Star passing in 1970 to Scottish Star Ltd, London, and Port Invercargill in 1969 to the Invercargill Shipping Company Ltd, both of London.
Finally released on May 30, 1975, the two ships were towed to Port Said the same day.
With their cargoes intact, they were subsequently sold to the Gourdomichalis Maritime interests of Piraeus and were towed to that port.
The two ships were then registered under the Greek flag to the ownership of the Deferton Corporation.
Scottish Star was renamed Kavo Yerakas and Port Invercargill Kavo Kolones.
The former Blue Star vessel did not return to service after being laid up at Piraeus on September 6, 1975.
It left there, under tow, on June 25, 1979, and arrived at a Spanish port for demolition before July 15.
A month later, time had also run out for the former Port Invercargill.
After repairs, the ship had resumed trading, but on August 22 arrived at Kaohsiung to be broken up by the Sheyh Sheng Huat Steel & Iron Works. Among the other 12 ships trapped in the Great Bitter Lake, the only other British ships were Agapenor and Melampus of Alfred Holt's Blue Funnel Line.
The vessel detained in Lake Timsah was the US-owned T2 tanker Observer.
Another vessel in port for the first time, Gourniati is loading logs for Inchon.
Owned by Gourniati Shipping Inc and registered at Valletta, it is yet another product of the Imabari Shipbuilding Company.
Built in 1996, it was laid down on March 12, launched on April 15, and delivered on May 30.
The 14-knot, 28,387dwt vessel entered service as the Panama-flag Sunny Star, transferred to the Korean flag in 2006 as Global Young, and passed to the present owner in 2007.
