Shipping Lines - The link between shipping, geography and politics

The Danish-owned Detector was noted recently at the South Quay, Montrose.

In the international shipping business what you see is not always what you get. Take for example the recent arrival of what seemed a standard general purpose cargo ship at Montrose port named Fri Karmsund, writes John Aitken.

The name sounded Scandinavian, her owners and managers are listed in the Norwegian coastal town of Kopervik and she was scheduled to load bagged fertiliser for a destination in Iceland. However, when she turned up the give-away was her port of registry which was shown as Limassol and her state flag was that of Cyprus.

Further checks ascertained she had been built in The Netherlands at Waterhuizen by J Pattje and completed in 1999. Of 4935-ton deadweight and 90 metres in length, her previous names had included River Clyde and Blue River. She was sailing under a classic ‘flag of convenience’, one of over 40 such states at a recent count.

She loaded her bagged cargo for a port named Thorlakshofn, one of the few such safe havens on Iceland’s south coast.

Apparently the port is a terminal for a ferry service to Rotterdam and Hirtshals in northern Denmark. Some sources claim the town is named after St Thorlak, a famous bishop in olden times.

Included in the Arrivals List were a pair of Scotline coasters with strong Scottish connections – Scot Explorer (registered in Douglas, Isle of Man) and Scot Carrier port of registry, Inverness. The company is heavily involved in the shipment of forest products between the Baltic etc and the UK although other cargoes are carried on a regular basis.

Around the same time, the Promise, registered at Rotterdam arrived. She had been built by the Peters shipyard at the inland port of Kampen and reportedly owned by the Vertom group, a shipping organisation based in rural Rhoon near Rotterdam.

Along the quay was berthed RMS Neudorf, a German-sounding name but port of registry was Monrovia, capital of the steamy West African republic of Liberia, and one of the earliest flags of convenience with one of the highest tonnage totals on its register.

Built by the Dutch Damen group in their yard at Bergum and 2620-ton deadweight, 82-metres long, she brought her cargo up the coast from Teesport. Checking her details on the Shipspotting website there seemed to be a strong Greek connection which makes ship research all the more interesting.

The story of the ex-Maersk Detector, a support vessel under another name emerged quite recently. Both cargo ships and offshore support vessels and more recently accommodation, work and repair vessels involved in the wind/renewable business, e.g. Brint Enabler. There is one common denominator – few, if any, UK-built vessels appear to be listed.

The latest example to be noted at the South Quay was the red and white painted survey/support ship Detector built in 2006 at a shipyard, Astilleros v Servicios Navales, in Chile.

The initial two-ship order came from the Danish-owned Maersk Supply Service group for work off the east coast of Canada, estimated at a value of $200m. The current port of registry of the Detector is the small town of Struer.