September 2008 Vol 28 No. 3 Published by South Port NZ Ltd

SOUTH PORT’S PEOPLE – Ruslan mitlash, Pilot

The Bluff Portsider is compiled by South Port N.Z. LtdP.O. Box 1, Bluff; TFN (03) 212-8159; Fax (03) 212-8685;

Email reception@southport.co.nz; Website www.southport.co.nzMr M. O’Connor, Chief Executive; Edited by Capt. D. A. Edge;

Production by Craigs Design & Print, Invercargill

FRONT COVERFront cover 20 June 2008, the “Alltrans” outbound for the last time.

South Port C.E.O. Mark O’Connor presents Ruslan with his pilots licence

The front cover view of the after end of the “Alltrans” was the last we saw of her as she sailed from Bluff for the final time on 20th June. It was twenty five years and two weeks since she had first arrived as “TNT Alltrans” on 6th June 1983. In between she visited Bluff 346 times and discharged over 10,600,000 tonnes of alumina to the Tiwai Point Aluminium Smelter, an average of 30,636 tonnes a trip. Her main loading port was Gladstone but occasionally she arrived in Bluff from either Bunbury in Western Australia or Gove in the Northern Territories.

Completed by the Hitachi Zosen Shipyard at Innoshima in 1983 as the “TNT Alltrans” she was designed specifically to serve the Tiwai Point Aluminium Smelter in Bluff and, to a lesser extent, that in Bell Bay. Of 35,218 deadweight tonnes her four holds have a capacity of 42,933 cubic metres discharging via bottom doors to a conveyor system leading to the discharge boom from the prominent tower amidships. When built she was one of the most sophisticated bulk carriers afloat. Rumour has it that she will be converted to carry cement. Haere Ra, “Alltrans”.

COVER STORY:- The end of the “ALLTRANS”

The newest member of South Port’s maritime staff, Ruslan Mitlash, recently passed the examination for his ‘Class C’ Pilot’s Licence allowing him to handle vessels up to 120 metres long with a draught not exceeding 8 metres.

Ruslan attended the Odessa State Maritime Academy and graduated in 1996 with an Officer of the Watch Certificate of Competency and a Degree with Honours in Nautical Science. He returned to the same academy in 2000 to pass his Chief Mates Certificate of Competency.

After serving at sea in various ranks up to Chief Officer Ruslan first came ashore in New Zealand in 2005, working as a shipping agent and surveyor in Whangarei. In 2006 he passed his Master Foreign-Going Certificate at the New Zealand Maritime College in Auckland.

Having been successful in his application to South Port Ruslan, wife Olga and their two children shifted to Bluff last year. As is standard procedure at South Port, Ruslan initially trained as a tugmaster before moving on to pilot training. He is now an integral part of the maritime team in Bluff.

When asked his origins Ruslan replies, “In a previous life I was Ukrainian but now I am a Kiwi”, while Alisa and Daniel are definitely ‘Kiwi Kids’.

“Alltrans” inbound to Tiwai for the last time while in the background another dedicated smelter vessel, “Rakiura Maru, heads for Japan

Left: The longest ship to have berthed in Bluff is the 233 metre “MSC Jeanne”.

THE LONG SHIPSThese long ships have nothing to

do with Vikings or the pillaging of villages.

Several of the the ships operating the Med i te r ranean Sh ipp ing Company’s Capricorn Service exceed the 225 metres of the ‘Panamax’ bulk carriers which were previously the longest ships to enter Bluff. The “MSC Chitra” and “MSC Clorinda” both exceed 230 metres but the longest of them all is the “MSC Jeanne” with an overall length of 233 metres.

SOUTH PORT’S RECORD YEAR

Records are made to be broken, or so the saying goes, and cargo records were broken across the Bluff wharfs this year. For the twelve months ended 30 June 2008 a record of 2.25 million tonnes of cargo was worked surpassing the previous record by 90,000 tonnes. Contributing to a stronger than expected result were recent increases in fertiliser imports, exports of forest products and container activity added by both the Asian routes of Tasman Orient and the recently introduced Capricorn Service of MSC.

As a result of this increased activity South Port has also reported an improved profit for the year of $2.51 million giving share-holders something more to smile about.

CONTAINER FORKSIncreasing container throughput

over South Port wharfs has required enhanced container handling capacity at South Port container terminal. An upgrade of the company’s container handling equipment was therefore made through the addition of another heavy capacity fork lift capable of stacking containers five high. Perhaps regrettably it arrived by road rather than sea but it is now busy handling import and export containers that are very definitely travelling by sea.

Left: Containers, fertiliser and forest products all contributed to South Port’s record year and all are featured here. While the South Port crane works containers aboard “MSC Jeanne” the “Gulf Globe” discharges fertiliser and the “Stellar Jupiter” loads woodchips. The small vessel is the “Ross Mar”.

Right: The new 40 tonne capacity fork-lift arrives.

A significant event in the recent history of the port occurred in Bluff on the morning of 24 May when the “MSC Hobart” arrived to inaugurate the Mediterranean Shipping Company’s Capricorn Service. Inbound from Sydney, Bluff was her first New Zealand port of call and the Capricorn Service revives a tradition dating back to the days of trans-Tasman passenger liners when Bluff was the first and last New Zealand port to ensure the fastest possible Tasman transit time for both passengers and mail.

Following in the wake of the “MSC Hobart” were the Hobart” were the Hobart” “MSC Frisia”, “MSC Jeanne”, “MSC Chitra”, “MSC Rugby” and “MSC Clorinda”. Calls are weekly and link Bluff directly with Brisbane, Singapore, Djakarta, Fremantle, Melbourne and Sydney. With trans-shipment the Capricorn Service links Bluff with the global net-work of ports visited by container ships of the Mediterranean Shipping Company. As the Mediterranean Shipping Company is the second biggest container shipping company in the world this net-work is, quite literally, world-wide and expanding with the company as it grows towards the number one position.

A comparatively new company the

BLUFF FOCUSon

CAPRICORNThe “MSC Hobart”, seen inbound, inaugurated the Capricorn Service

MSC containers await loading aboard the “MSC Jeanne”.

“MSC Clorinda” inbound passing Stirling Point.

Capricorn began with the ‘open hatch’ container ship “MSC Edith” landing empty containers ready for Southland exports to the world.

BLUFF FOCUSon

CAPRICORN

history of the Mediterranean Shipping Company, commonly known as MSC, is one of outstanding achievement. Italian shipmaster Gianluigi Aponte gave up seafaring for shipowning in 1970 when he purchased a small, elderly cargo ship, which he renamed “Patricia”, and began tramp-ship operations around the Mediterranean. Container ships were displacing conventional cargo ships on the world’s trade routes at the time and the little company didn’t stay that way for long as cargo liners unwanted by others joined the fleet. In 1972 liner services began to the Middle-East and Africa, then to Europe in 1977, to North America in 1985 and Australia four years later. South America joined the net-work in 1994, the Silk Service to the Far East began in 1996 and in 1999 the routes extended across the Pacific - MSC was truly global.

As others had discarded cargo liners for container ships so too did MSC, with the conventional ships being replaced through the 1980’s and the first newly built container ships joining the fleet in the 1990’s.

The ‘MSC’ prefix was adopted in 1990 and today there are few major ports in the world where MSC is not a familiar sight.

‘open hatch’ container ship “MSC Edith” landing empty containers ready for Southland exports

Virtually ‘full and down’, the “MSC Frisia” sailing from Bluff.

Waiting for her pilot; “MSC Chitra” at Bluff Pilot Station.

The South Port cranes working the “MSC Rugby”.

THE CASE FOR COASTWISE CARGO Part twoIn the previous ‘PortSider’ the first part of the Case for Coastwise Cargo appeared –

here are further contributions.

The ‘new’ caustic soda tank arrives attended by the tug “Levanter”.a

Coastal tug and barge operations have been working the New Zealand coast for many years, generally shipping bulk cargoes. An exception was this bulk liquid tank seen arriving in Bluff in charge of the tug “Levanter”. Again South Port’s mobile crane was used to discharge this awkward cargo which will be used to store caustic soda.

Recently the landing barge “Brandywine” returned to Bluff to transport a transformer from Tiwai Smelter to Bluff. In this case road transport wasn’t an option as, at 70 tonnes, the load was too much for the bridges en route. Not too much for South Port’s mobile crane, however, and the reverse operation was successfully completed a few days later when the transformer was loaded for shipment.

First we have New Zealand’s newest coastal cargo ship, the “Anatoki”. Owned in Nelson by Coastal Bulk Cargo Limited she will, as her owner’s name suggests, take bulk cargoes off the roads and back to sea. In Bluff she loaded fertiliser for northern destinations, fertiliser which would otherwise have been hauled by road, and has since returned for more.

Inbound for her first visit the “Anatoki” loaded fertiliser.

South Port’s mobile crane made light work of the 70 tonne transformer.

The swallow, crane and Bird of Paradise departing Bluff for Port Moresby.

A SWALLOW AND A CRANE

A swallow, a crane and a bird of paradise in fact, as when the “Sea Swallow” arrived in Bluff recently to load a crane she brought the flag of Papua New Guinea, featuring the bird of paradise, to Bluff for the first time. Operated by Bismark Maritime the “Sea Swallow” is a twin screw landing craft of a type very familiar in PNG waters where a concrete ramp may be the only facility at some ports. The crane in question was South Port’s secondary mobile crane, now rendered redundant. Dismantled and loaded aboard the “Sea Swallow” it is now bound for the warmer waters of Papua New Guinea.

THE BIG CHIPPERWhen she arrived in Bluff recently

to load a consignment of eucalyptus woodchips the “Flora Pioneer” became the biggest woodchip carrier to have visited the port. It was a fairly close run thing as at 38,895 gross tons she is little larger than the previous record holder and her dimensions of 200 by 32 metres are fairly standard for the larger type of woodchip carriers which have become regular visitors to Bluff in recent years. Her layout is also typical with three cranes serving six hatches and a conveyor discharging through doors on either bow.

FEEDING THE FISHESThe ‘vessel’ in the accompanying

photograph looks like the sort of thing you expect to see animals traipsing aboard two by two. Noah had nothing to do with this one, however, which is Sanford’s feed storage barge which serves the salmon farms located in Big Glory Bay, Stewart Island. In Bluff for a multi-million dollar refit she is pictured near the end of her sojourn here. A few days later the “San Hauraki”, which is seen berthed ahead of her, towed her back to more familiar waters.

Waiting for the animals?

Towering over number 8 berth, the “Flora Pioneer” loading woodchips.

Among the ‘first time callers’ the Capricorn Service of the Mediterranean Shipping Company has brought to Bluff is the “MSC Rugby”. Although, as our photograph shows, the vessel is in MSC colours she is chartered in from the Tsakos Group, which knows her better as “Irene’s Myth”. The two companies share remarkably similar early histories.

Both were founded in 1970, both were founded by former shipmasters, both began ship-owning by purchasing elderly cargo ships of around 2,500 tons and both built up their fleets through the judicious purchase of second-hand cargo ships made redundant by the container revolution of the 1970’s and the growth of bulk carriers.

In the case of Tsakos Group the founder was Captain Panagiotis N. Tsakos, who hails from the village of Kardamyla on the Aegean island of Chios, an island steeped in maritime tradition, and the ship was the “Irene’s Star”. For one raised in such surroundings a career at sea was, as Captain Tsakos himself put it, ‘not much a matter of choice but more a matter of destiny’. In 1970 his destiny lead him to found Tsakos Shipping and Trading in Piraeus and to purchase the “Irene’s Star”.

Also being made redundant at this time were the ‘handy-sized’ oil tankers of the 1950’s, rendered uneconomic both by the increase in tanker size and the oil crisis of the early 1970’s. Tsakos purchased his first oil tanker, which he renamed “Irene’s Fortune”, in 1972. By that time the company already managed eleven ships and the following year the Piraeus headquarters moved

TSAKOS GROUP

The first Tsakos ship to visit Bluff was “Irene’s Blessing”.

As “MSC Rugby”, “Irene’s Myth” operates on the Capricorn Service.

into more suitable premises. For the rest of the decade the company continued its growth through the purchase of second-hand ships - a few former cargo liners, some general cargo ships, several oil tankers and a number of bulk carriers. During this period the company also purchased a shipyard in Montevideo, Uruguay, which became Tsakos Industrias Navales S.A., initiated forestry and farming activities in Uruguay and established Tsakos Shipping (London) Limited to ensure a presence in the world’s most important shipping centre for insurance and chartering.

By 1981 Tsakos Shipping & Trading controlled over thirty vessels and the year was notable for the delivery of the “Irene’s Diamond” from her Romanian builders, a multi-purpose cargo vessel and the first

new-building for the company. The delivery of newly built ships did not signal any decrease in activity on the sale and purchase market by the company, however, and growth continued to be mainly through that source. Many of the ships joining the fleet were bulk carriers along with multi-purpose cargo ships designed for either general cargo or containers rather than the general or bulk cargoes of earlier ships. In December 1991 the first Tsakos ship to visit Bluff, the bulk carrier “Irene’s Blessing”, arrived. At that time the Tsakos fleet was largely employed in dry-bulk trading but the company has since expanded dramatically into the tanker market and today has one of the largest, and youngest, fleets in the world operating as Tsakos Energy Navigation (TEN). Many of the tankers are ice-strengthened allowing them to work new oil fields in high latitudes and the tanker fleet consists of sixty-three ships of over seven million deadweight tonnes. The dry-cargo fleet now sits in the tanker shadow but is still substantial and brings the total fleet up to ninety ships totaling over nine million tonnes deadweight.

While MSC moved into containers Tsakos tended towards bulk cargoes but by the mid-1990’s many of the ‘first generation’ container ships built for the Europe to Far East trade were being superseded by bigger and faster vessels. In 1996 the first Tsakos-owned cellular container ship, “Irene’s Symphony”, joined the fleet. The following year the former “Japan Alliance” was purchased and became “Irene’s Myth”, now better known as “MSC Rugby” in the port of Bluff.