This morning in the East China Sea, I was looking at OOCL's Seoul. She reminded me ships once had such splendid - even flamboyant - names. In the clipper heyday, there were Crest of the Wave, Spirit of the Age and Lord of the Isles.
Increasingly corporate uniformity has become the norm. Palliser Bay, on which I also circumnavigated, was first allocated the dreary moniker ACT 7, one of a fleet owned by Associated Container Transportation. Thus ACT 7, a designation only a desk-bound, shoreside manager could love. Eventually, she came into the hands of P&O with a history of naming ships for bays. ACT 7 (no doubt gratefully) became the more appealing Palliser Bay, after a New Zealand bay explored by Captain Cook.
Long since scrapped, she had, for a container ship, modestly attractive lines. I took this picture - on film - in Napier, New Zealand.
Hapag-Lloyd's ships are often called the Something Express. So, Vienna Express.
As do most lines, ZIM also names ships after destinations and Los Angeles is a very important destination.
The Hyundai Technopia (which my spellchecker refuses to recognize). I’m reusing the shot because the name’s so weird.
Amber doesn't appear to be a French word. However, her sister is Coral and both amber and coral are used for semi-precious jewellery. Captain 'Boni' alternates between the vessels, which are duplicates.
To give CMA CGM credit, the company has some interesting names:
Composers: Berlioz, Bizet, Chopin, Debussy, Mozart, Puccini, Strauss, Verdi, Vivaldi, Wagner
Dance: Samba
Explorers: Amerigo Vespucci, Christophe Colomb, Magellan
Operas: Carmen, Figaro, La Trivet, Nabisco, Rigoletto
Painters: Matisse
Prominent people: Eiffel, Everest
Star signs: Gemini, Leo, Libra
Writers, dramatists & poets: Balzac, Baudelaire, Hugo, Maupassant, Molière, Racine, Voltaire
I've been keeping an eye out for names I like. Three cheers for EUKOR, which has the Morning Camilla, a car carrier, admittedly one of the less attractive types of vessel.
MOL has the refreshing Seabreeze.
And this tanker sports a very reassuring name.
Two news items today: an Italian vessel with twenty-three crew has been hijacked in the Indian Ocean and oil from a stranded container ship is washing up on the New Zealand coast.
