Tankers - and names

Two more product tankera re in port today. The first arrived last night and anchored in Bedford Basin. Cenito is clearly emblazoned as a Super Ice class ship, and if that were not enough its full width bridge and penguin logo would certainly give a good hint that it is intended for icy locations.

Owned by LGR di Navigazione of Naples, and flying the Italian flag, the 29,313 grt, 53,115 dwt tanker was built in 2009 by Guangzhou International in Guangzhou, China.The substantial additional investment required to build an ice class tanker, means that it must see regular winter service in the Baltic, on the St.Lawrence River or perhaps even the northeast passage.The ship was last here for nearly a week in May, see http://shipfax.blogspot.ca/2014/05/unusual-tankers-in-basin.html


The second arrived last night too, but went directly to number four dock at Imperial Oil.

My recent comments about inappropriate ship naming have really been exemplified with this one. FPMC 21 is a typical product tanker, and is owned by the Formosa Plastic Marine Corp of  Taipei, Taiwan. Its name typifies the corporate approach to ships that we are seeing more and more. To its owner, it is merely another tool or machine and does not warrant the dignity of a proper name. It will be thrown away when it is used up and no one will shed a tear, because a bigger and better one will take its place. In 20 years or so there will be a FPMC 21b or FPMC 41 sailing these seas.

A standard handysize tanker of 29,734 grt, 50,995 dwt, FPMC 21 was built in 2009 by STX Shipbuilding Co of Jinhae, South Korea. It flies the Liberian flag.

It's too bad that an ancient tradition of treating ships as something special and even wonderful, and giving them a name of significance is fading fast.


FPMC has achieved new heights of wierdness with its ship naming - have a look at their website, particularly the fleet list:   http://www.fpmc.com.tw/

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