Where Have All the Con-Ros Gone -Part 1

The handsome new Con-Ros operated by The National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia will be joined later this year by new Con-Ros for the Atlantic Container Line (sorry, no so handsome) but they are the only lines calling Halifax that still operate these unique craft. At one time there were at least six Con-Ro lines serving Halifax, but most of them have foresaken that market niche altogether.

Sekiyo Seibaku KK
Among the pioneers in the ConRo business was the Japanese Sekiyo Seibaku K.K.
 

Blue Kobe appears to be a fairly conventional cargo ship, carrying some containers, a common sight in the 1977 before container ships took over cargo work.

 The next year, when the ship had changed its name to Kaduna, it was back again at pier 23, showing off not one but two stern ramps -one on each quarter.

A small amount of garage space was apparently provided at deck level, and there was access directly to the main deck.

Kaduna ex Blue Kobe was built in 1976 by Kanda ZKK, Kure, and had two 60 tone and three 20 ton derricks. Interestingly Lloyd's Register makes no mention of its stern ramps. In 1982 it was renamed Seki Rolette and was the victim of a famous collision 33 miles off Bremerhaven. It was struck by the container ship Choyang Moscow and sank in the main channel with the loss of five crew. The raising of the wreck and the resultant changes to German traffic routing schemes and vessel traffic management make interesting reading if you can bear the indifferent translation from the German provided by the internet. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seki_Rolette

The next generation for Sekiyo was Seki Rokako.Built in 1979 it was a multi-purpose ship.

In addition to its 645 TEU (305 on deck) capacity, it could work general cargo in four hatches with two 30 tonne and two 25 tonne cranes. It had an 81 tonne capacity stern ramp, and 1634 lane meters of RoRo capacity. Even that wasn't enough sometimes -see the cars sitting on top of containers in the upper photo. It only lasted five years with Sekiyo, but after renamings as 84: Eastern Unicorn, 90: Tarkwa , it found its niche in 1995 with Seaboard Shipping of Florida as Seaboard Star in Caribbean Con-Ro service.It was then rated for 103 trailers and had 6 passenger berths for drivers. It was broken up in Alang in 2012.

National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (NSCSA) (Bahri)

Among the earliest adapters of the Con-Ro concept, the Saudi Arabian company continues to combine containers and Roll On-Roll Off on the same ship. Their first ships were really jumped up ferries such as the Seaspeed ships, which carried RoRo below decks and in the open on the top car deck sharing space with stacked  containers..

Seaspeed Arabia , built 1977 by Kawasaki, Sakaide, for Greek owners was renamed Saudi Riyadh in 1981. (NSCSA was formed in 1979)

It was sold to the US government in 1993, renamed Cape Rise for the National Defense Reserve fleet and has been in Ready Reserve status at Portsmouth VA since 2001.

In 1983 NSCSA took delivery of four big Con-Ros built by Kockums AB in Malmo, Sweden. Scandinavian companies were in the forefront of the Con-Ro business in the 1980s with Brostroms, ACL, Wilhelmsen and Hoegh all ordering these ships. In 1984 alone 11 new Con-Ros of over 2,000 TEU were delivered. MacGregor-Navire, also a Scandinavian company, was the developer of the stern ramp and container cell guides. Unfortunately the shipping industry in Sweden particularly was in freefall and Kockums and other Swedish yards were taken over by the government and many built their last ships between 1984 and 1989. 

Saudi Diriyah, and four sisters, built in 1983 in Sweden served their entire careers with NSCSA.

It was renamed Diriyah for the delivery trip to the breakers in Alang in 2013.

The ships were rated for 2310 TEU including 50 reefer, all carried on deck, and 534 cars. The 400 tonne capacity stern ramp allowed them to carry heavy machinery in the full length car deck. When the ships were  retired in 2013, they all went directly to the scrappers in Alang.

NSCSA supplemented these ships for a time with two former Polish Ocean ships (more about them in a later post.)

Bahri Jazan sailing from Halifax January 8 is #4 in the series of six new Con-Ros, delivered in 2013. NSCSA rebranded itself Bahri at the same time, and the hull colour changed from green to blue.

Built by Hyundai Mipo, they carry only 364 TEU, all on deck forward, and they have two 240 tonne cranes for general oversized and heavy lift cargo. They have enhanced RoRo space of 24,000 m3. Due to the predominance of RoRo space, they are also now termed as Ro-Cons, rather than Con-Ros.

How about a bit of irony? A huge shipyard crane, built in the early 1970s dominated the skyline of Malmo, Sweden and signified the city as a shipbuilding hub. After turning out the Saudi ships and many others, the yard was converted for submarine construction only. The crane was sold - for $1 (US) - to none other than Hyundai, Ulsan. When the crane left Malmo, many citizens wept to see it go since it signified the end of a major employer. The Koreans have named the crane - Tears of Malmo.

For more on the crane see: https://www.google.ca/#q=kockums+crane


to be continued............

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Polish quartet take last bows at the scrap yards

A quartet of ships that called in Halifax over a decade have now all gone to the breakers.

Revolutionary ships for their time, they were built for the French Polish Shipping Company, but operated by Polish Ocean Lines (POL).

Built expressly for the transatlantic trade, they were combination container RoRo ships, with a capacity of 1417 TEU, including 150 reefers, and a speed of 20 knots. Their fine lines and 29,000 bhp allowed the four ships to maintain a weekly service.
For ships measuring 30,000 tons and 200m (656 ft) in length their capacity was relatively small, especially when it is understood that 317 of those TEUs related to the capacity of the car decks.
With engines and accommodation amidships, the forward part of the ship consisted of five cellular holds for containers with a capacity of 438 TEU. The after part of the ship was the RoRo area, served by a huge skewed ramp. The deck hatches forward carried containers and the deck aft had frames for containers with a capacity of 662 TEU on deck.
As part of the joint venture, the ships were built in France, but fitted with Polish (Cegielski) engines.
The ships began calling in Halifax in 1981 with the French Polish line lasting until 1993 by which time some of the ships had been sold and the line bought space on ACL. ACL/ Hapag-Lloyd at that time was directing much of its cargo to Montreal, but with the change, it came back to Halifax.
All four ships were initially sold to the Oldendorff company and chartered back for a short time, but two were resold to the National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (NSCSA) and began to call in Halifax again for a time.
The other two were had diverging careers and only one ever came back to Halifax.

Tadeusz Kosciuszko

1.

First ship was named Tadeusz Kosciuszko after a man who was a colonel in the revolutionary forces of the American states and a friend of Thomas Jefferson. He later returned to Poland and commanded the Polish National army. The ship was built Chantier naval le Ciotat and launched September 30, 1980 and completed in May 1981. It made its first call in Halifax June 12, 1981 and on November 10 of the same year it was the first container ship to use the Fairview Cove container terminal operated by Ceres.

2.

In 1992 it became Gebe Oldendorff and continued to call on Halifax until the service ceased.

 3. As rebuilt, the ship had a new wheelhouse added above the bridge. This allowed containers to be stacked four high on the forward deck.

5. The ramp was removed and the stern reconfigured and hatches were built over the former car decks.
In 1993 it was converted to a fully cellular container ship. The stern ramp was removed and the car decks removed and converted to cellular container space. This increased its container capacity to 2002 TEU including 324 reefer plugs. Gross tonnage increased from 30,080 to 31,207 Renamed Neptune Lazuli, it called in Halifax in 1993. It was then worked on charter for Hapag-Lloyd, Choyang, Maersk and P&O Nedlloyd. It had no less than eight subsequent names before it was broken up in Jiangyin China in April 2006.

Kazimierz Pulaski

1.

2.

Kazimierz Pulaski was the second ship, named for “the father of American cavalry”, also a revolutionary general who at one time saved the life of George Washington. It was launched April 10, 1981 and completed in July 1981 by Chantier Atlantique in St-Nazaire. In 1992 it was sold and renamed Hinrich Oldendorff. It became Pyrmont Bridge in 1993, Australia Star in 1996 and P&O Nedlloyd Taranaki in 1999. It sailed from Brisbane in December 2005 and arrived in Xingang China February 26, 2006 for breaking up.

Wladislaw Sikorski

1.

Wladislaw Sikorski was launched April 14, 1981 and completed in October 1981 by La Ciotat. It was named for a Polish military officer from World War I who went on the become Prime Minister of Poland in exile during World War II. The ship was sold in 1993 to become Hugo Oldendorff, and in 1995 Saudi Makkah.

2.

It continued to call in Halifax until 2001 when it became the Italian Jolly Argento. It later flew the flag of the Comoros Islands. It arrived in Alang India on February 26, 2012 and was beached March 10 for scrapping.

Stefan Starzynski

1.

Stefan Starzynski was named for a World War I soldier, writer and politician who went on to become President of Warsaw. He maintained the position under German occupation in World War II. He was imprisoned and probably died in a concentration camp. The ship was launched by Atlantique August 30, 191 and completed in December 1981. The ship’s first call in Halifax was not until March 6, 1982. In 1993 it became Gerdt Oldendorff, and in 1995 Saudi Riyadh, and called in Halifax under both those names.

2.

On February 27, 1999 it arrived in Halifax with chaos in its car decks. During a storm on the way from New Yoprk to Halifax, many rolls of newsprint broke loose crushing several cars, a school bus a combine harvester and several tons of canned corn.Much of the resulting gurry had to be removed by wheel loaders, but some of the paper was salavaged and restowed. The ship had previously been in a collision February 4 off Virgain Beach with USS Arthur W. Radford, resulting in several dents and scrapes.

3. Scrapes up forward and a dent well aft-souvenirs of a brush with the USN.

4. Several of the Mercury Grand Marquis cars wrecked in a storm crossing the Gulf of Maine.

It was sold in 2001 to become the Italian Jolly Oro. In early 2012 it was renamed Oro, under the Comoros flag, for the trip to the breakers. It arrived in Chittagong, Bangladesh February 26, and was beached March 10. Sharing the same scrapping date as its sister ship.

These were significant ships for the time, and survived well beyond expectations, lasting thirty years in two cases.