Shipping LInes - It was triple Dutch at the docks, where Delfzijl was in the detail

THREE SHIPS CAME SAILING IN – ALL WITH THE SAME PORT OF REGISTRY

As darkness fell I pulled the curtains shutting out what had been a raw, overcast winter’s afternoon. The following day dawned much brighter and by late morning the sun shone brightly over the fertile farmlands around Montrose Basin. Calm conditions had produced still reflections in the sheltered waters within the harbour with several ships, commercial and offshore-related, tied up on both sides of the South Esk. Interestingly the cargo ships were both Dutch-owned and registered at the same port in the north of The Netherlands – Delfzijl.

The larger of the two, Clara.K had arrived from Ribadeo in Spain while the other, Elsborg had, according to the AIS system, appeared from Halmstad in Sweden. The latter’s recent ports of call had been Fredericia (Denmark), Brunsbuttel (Kiel Canal) and Hamburg. Initially named Zeeland, she had been completed in 2010, 3,609-tons deadweight and 89 metres in length being around the average dimensions for such vessels currently trading to Montrose and similar in design to other callers in recent times including Jade, Hydra, Cito, Alana Evita, Hekla and Eastern Vanquish, etc.

Meanwhile out at sea, powering across the bay and closing to the Annat Buoy, could be seen an anchor handler. From that distance she looked as if she was one of the numerous units of the Maersk fleet, (possibly Maersk Lifter) now seen Montrose on a regular basis.

However, what was expected as the big event of the day did not materialise due to the late arrival of the general purpose cargo ship Eemslift Nadine, also registered at the Dutch port of Delfzijl, her original name being Abis Dusavik, possibly named after the long-established marine support base close to Stavanger, Norway.

Of a somewhat unique design with all her accommodation located up forward over her bow plus two deck cranes and her funnel placed at the port side of the stern. This gives a clear cargo hold to facilitate the loading of large pieces of freight such as wind turbine blades etc.

Monday morning dawned calm and clear with a tinge of red in the sky which soon lightened as the sun rose. Berthed on the South Quay almost in the shadow of the grain store silos, was the less-than-a-year-old IRM (inspection, repair and maintenance) ship Sayan Prince completed by a Turkish shipyard in 2021.

Meanwhile, ahead of her on berths 3 and 4 and towering above the quayside at high tide could be seen the aforementioned Dutch-flag Eemslift Nadine, operated by the Amasus Group which currently has 80 ships under its commercial management mainly in the coastal and short sea sectors but is also engaged in the river/sea trades.

Since 1981, Amasus has concentrated on the smaller ship market which is below the size of numerous new ships under construction thus taking into account the large number of ports they can service. Many of the new vessels that have been added to the Amasus fleet since 2008, plus their present order book, are under the 5,000-ton deadweight mark, reflecting this policy.

Delivered by her builders Shipkits BV at Harlingen in 2014, she is classed by Bureau Veritas as a general cargo and containership. With a deadweight tonnage of 4,400 and slightly less than 112 metres in length and draft of six metres, allows her to enter a large number of smaller locations. Her two deck cranes have a combined lift of 300 tonnes.

Fitted with bow thrusters, stern thrusters, a variable pitch propeller plus a semi-balanced rudder gives her great manoeuvrability at a service speed of 15 knots. She was reported to have loaded general cargo including subsea oilfield equipment and sailed for Jurong Marine Base in Singapore.

Caption: A variety of cranes in evidence at Montrose port.