On Thursday 2nd September, 2021 the world’s largest civilian hospital ship – GLOBAL MERCY entered Grand Harbour, Malta at 0709 hrs assisted by 1 tug berthing port side alongside Boiler Wharf.
She arrived on Tuesday 31st August after 2200 hrs and was spotted drifting outside territorial waters around 43 nautical miles
After several years of construction at the Tianjin Xingang shipyard in China, the ship left on Thursday 15th July during her delivery voyage arriving at Singapore Anchorage on Saturday 7th August and reaching the Suez Anchorage for transiting Suez Canal on Friday 27th where she started the following day at night.
The GLOBAL MERCY project began in 2013 with Stena RoRo taking responsibility for design, contracting and execution. The ship is the result of a global collaborative project with the participation of a number of subcontractors from around the world. Swedish Stena RoRo is leading the project and Finnish Deltamarin is conducting work with design. A French shipbroker, Barry Rogliano Salles, (BRS Group), assisted in preparing the contract with the ship being built at the Tianjin Xingang shipyard in northern China. The vessel, which is classed with Lloyd’s Register, UK and operate along the coast of Africa.
With 174 meters loa and a beam of 28.6 meters, she holds 37,586 GRT and summer deadweight of 4,500 tons. With 4 x Wartsila 32 engines she has a cruising speed of 12 knots. The new vessel is the first ship built from design to implementation by Mercy Ships as all its previous ships were adapted from other purposes. She will join the current Mercy Ship AFRICA MERCY which was the former Danish ferry DRONNING INGRID built in 1980and purchased in Quarter 1 of the year 2000 as INGRID in service to sub-Saharan and Central Africa.
She had 60 crew and homeported at Valletta (MLT Flag) in an effort to maintain the 40year tradition of ships belonging to this organisation always forming part of the Maltese Shipping Registry. The Chairman and CEO of Transport Malta, Joseph Bugeja, also revealed: ‘Malta and the Authority exempt this ship from all registration taxes, including the expenses of the certificates for the crew, because it is our pleasure as a country to contribute to this good cause. In fact all services including Agency, Mooring Party, Pilotage & Tug Dues were exempted including her berth provided & owned by Transport Malta.
She casted off her berth with Duty Harbour Pilot Capt. Marco Portelli assisted by the tug ST ELMO with Capt. David Borg at her helm at 1550 hrs on her way to leave the harbour.
Her next port of call was Antwerp, Belgium.
Pilot was disembarked outside harbour.
She was handled at Malta by Seven Seas Shipping & Maritime Services Ltd – http://www.sevenseasshipping.org
Watermarked Photos are by Capt. Lawrence Dalli otherwise stated. Do not use these images without my permission. © All rights reserved. Malta Ship Photos & Action Photos – www.maltashipphotos.com
Published – Friday 3rd September ,2021
