Pusan - charter in for Hapag-Loyd

The container ship Pusan arrived this morning for Hapag-Lloyd. The ship has been chartered in from one of the oldest and best known of German shipping companies, F. Laiesz of Hamburg.

The company was founded in 1824 and its famed clipper ships, known as the Flying P Line (all ships' names began with the letter P) were known around the world. In fact it was Laiesz's Pamir which was the last commercial clipper to round Cape Horn in sail in 1949. (It was lost in 1957 with 86 lives).

Laiesz specialised in refrigerated ships for many years, but now has a fleet of predominantly container ships, but also has bulkers, autocarriers, tankers and research ships. See their fine web site at: http://www.laeisz.de/en/home.html

The company now generally charters its ships out to other lines, and therefore does not have the high profile it once had. Pusan is typical of these. Built in 1997 by Hyundai Ulsan, it is rated for 4,688 TEU and is 53,324 gross tons. It was built as Pusan Senator (on charter to the now defunct Senator Line of Italy) then ran from 2007 to 2011 as MSC Kenya for the Mediterranean Shipping Company. It became Pusan in 2011.

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