Ocean Giant

 In a port that often sees some large ships it is interesting when a ship with "Giant" in its name arrives. If anyone was expecting something in excess of 150,000 gross tons or 15,000 TEUs, they might have decided it was a sort of joke when the USA flag Ocean Giant arrived from Salerno, Italy this morning (June 24). The ship tied up at Pier 27 for a few hours, and a shore crane appeared to be working the forward hold. It then sailed for Jacksonville, FL. It has containers on deck, but they may not be carrying much cargo.

 Another former member of the failed German company Beluga Shipping, it was built as the Beluga Possession by China Changxi Shipping Group, Qingshan Shipyard. It is a 15,549 gt, 17,590 dwt vessel. Not only is it an ice class ship with moveable tween decks, it is also reinforced for heavy loads and has three cranes. Two 400 tonne SWL cranes are mounted on the port side and one 120 tonne SWL crane is mounted on the starboard side. Its container capacity is rated at 1,009 TEU or 1,023 TEU depending on the source. (Deadweight tonnage is also in the range of 16,868 tonnes to 18,780 tonnes).

When Beluga Shipping failed several of the ships were taken over by Hansa Heavy Lift, and this one was renamed HHL Antwerp in 2012. HHL was also wound up at which point the ship was acquired by US Ocean LLC and renamed Ocean Giant, also in 2012.

Beluga was a forward thinking company and was a leader in the heavy lift / project cargo field. Its former ships have proven to be very useful to a number of owners, including the Canadian company Transport Desgagnés.

 As a US flag ship, the Ocean Giant does receive priority for US government cargoes. However it was not built in the US and therefore does not qualify under the Jones Act for the domestic coastal trade.

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