Shipping Lines: The new year was ushered in with the usual quayside horn cacophony

Hi Phil,

Well, that's Friday again - you can see all the long faces! Activity building up with the Seagreen Wind Farm up here . Image to come from Seonaid as usual. I have an (unmarried) cousin gone into care in Perth so immediate family involved with him making time tighter than usual.

All the best for now at Leven,

John

ENDING THE YEAR ON A BRIGHT NOTE

As already mentioned in a recent Shipping Lines the past year ended on a high with a brief call on 30th December from the cargo ship BBC Scandinavia. The “multi-purpose heavy lifter”, classified with the Det Norske Veritas (DNV), was built in 2007 and given as 7,500-ton deadweight. With a maximum speed of 15.5 knots, she is almost 50 per cent faster than the standard old-style tramp steamer of bygone days! Two port side pedestal deck cranes have a lifting capacity of 250 tons each with her general technical specification allowing her to trade to ports as far apart as the Great Lakes and Australia, for example.

The vessel’s operators, BBC Chartering, are owned by the Briese Schiffahrt Group, an international shipping conglomerate headquartered at Leer, Germany. With over 150 vessels in their fleet, the group are one of the largest multi-purpose, heavy lift and project cargo companies worldwide, thus the berthing of their ships here confirms Montrose has the capability of handling a wide range of modern deep sea cargo vessels owned by major international operators.

The current year’s presence of shipping in the port began with the now traditional cacophony of sound from a range of ships’ horns, sounding out across the town and surrounding countryside, depending on the weather conditions prevailing at the time. This past Hogmanay, the still night air allowed the maritime fanfare to be heard over quite a distance distinctly emanating from sources at the South Esk quaysides.

Among the ships in port over the first days of the year were the 87-metre Eems Sprinter (which arrived prior to midnight on 31st December as did the Wilson Odra): among the first arrivals of 2022 were 2001-built, Cyprus-flag Madicken and the 6,000-ton deadweight Maltese-flag, mini bulk carrier Korali; Warber, a Dutch-flag short sea trader homeported at Lemmer; Victress arriving in from Port Ellen, Islay and departing for the same port and the 1989-built, 3.200-ton Rig, built in a Portuguese shipyard and on her fifth name change. Also berthed on the North Quay was the 1,836-ton deadweight Wilson Waal with used oilfield tubulars from Norway. After all those vessels had cleared, the Clara.K from the Iberian Peninsula came alongside also on the North Quay, followed by the 3,609-ton, 89-metres long Elsborg, also Dutch-owned.

Offshore-related ships included Panama-registered Sartor and the 2021-completed Sayan Prince, built in Tersan Shipyard in Turkey. Designed by Moss Maritime, Norway she is registered at Valletta, Malta and is said to be intended for work in Norwegian and Russian waters - an interesting international background indeed. Painted a contrasting dark blue and white, the 84-metre vessel has a comprehensive range of subsea equipment with a capability to work down to a depth of 3,000 metres. She has also a fully-equipped hanger to house a sophisticated ROV. With a measured tonnage of approximately 5,000-tons deadweight she arrived from Tananger, a major marine support base near Stavanger.

In addition, a brief call was noted from the Siem Pearl, registered at Kristiansand, Norway. A regular coming and going was recorded also from the anchor handlers of Atlantic Towing, Maersk and Viking Offshore.

Like a giant nautical “Will o’ the Wisp”, the massive shape of the Horizon Arctic, port of registry St. John’s, Newfoundland briefly appears in port then often just as quickly departs out to sea again. Formerly Bourbon Arctic, she arrived from Canada in November and flies the Maple Leaf flag from her masthead, taking over as a Canadian presence in the port from the Atlantic Towing “fleet mates” Kestrel and Merlin which were re-flagged to Bridgetown, Barbados some time ago.

Caption: Horizon Arctic - has accommodation for 60 personnel.