CMA CGM President

 Ships of CMA CGM, a French company, often carry the names of United States presidents, thanks to CMA CGM's acquisition of American President Lines LLC (APL) in 2016 as part of its purchase of Neptune Orient Lines (NOL). In turn NOL had acquired APL in 1997

APL itself was formed in 1938 when the US government took over management of the Dollar Shipping Company which was in financial distress. Dollar Line as it was known was named for the Scottish born Canadian lumber baron and shipowner Robert Dollar who founded his transpacific shipping company in 1900. Dollar began to name his US built and US flagged  ships after US presidents in 1924. The tradition has continued now for over 100 years.

Today, March 23, the fourth president of the United States, James Madison (1751-1836), was recognized with the arrival of the CMA CGM J. Madison on the Ocean Alliance Columbus JAX service. The ship left Colombo February 25 and sailed non-stop to Halifax via the Cape of Good Hope. 

Built in 2018 by Hyundai Heavy Industries in Usan the 141,950gt, 147,966 dwt ship has a nominal capacity of 14,414 or 14,402 TEU depending on sources. The ship's gross tonnage has changed from 140,872 when it was here in 2021, possibly due to the retroftting of an exhaust gas scrubber system. (Gross tonnage represents volume of enclosed space within a ship, not weight.)

The ship made its way in using the western, deep water channel, and had the tug Atlantic Oak secured well forward and the Atlantic Ash (visible) and Atlantic Maple (not visible) splayed out to port and starboard astern as tethered escorts.

 

The ship is due to sail again late tomorrow afternoon, destined for New York. The Columbus JAX (CJX) route calls at 18 ports from Los Angels/ Oakland via Asia to the North American East Coast, using 23 ships to maintain a 161 day rotation. For security reasons the ships' route from Colombo to Halifax is not published. Ocean Alliance's schedule shows the CJX ships using the Suez Canal, but I believe they are still using the Cape route due to continuing hostilities in the Red Sea and Yemen. 

The Ocean Alliance is made up of CMA CGM, Evergreen, OOCL and COSCO.

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