On Friday 4th January, 2008 at 1022 hrs the semi-submersible drilling rig (ssdr) ATWOOD HUNTER towed by the Chinese built offshore supply vessel ALDEN J LABORDE and assisted by 4 Tug Malta tugs entered Grand Harbour.





The Deepwater Floater drilling rig was built in USA by Alabama Shipyard in 1981 as DIAMOND M HUNTER for Diamond Drilling trading until 1990 where she was renamed HUNTER until 1995 and then trading with the current name for Atwood Oceanics. Atwood Oceanics, Inc. was headquartered in Houston, Texas. In October 2017, the company was acquired by Ensco plc.

ALDEN J LABORDE was built in China by Yantai Raffles Shipyard Co Ltd at Yantai for Tidewater, USA. She was 85 metres long with 21 metres width and homeported at Port Vila, Vanuatu (VUT) Flag. On 22nd February, 2018 she was spotted laid up at Myrtle Grove, Plaquemines, USA named as ALDEN awaiting her fate to be broken up.




ATWOOD HUNTER was secured at Parlatorio Wharf, Malta Shipyards.




On Tuesday 22nd January, 2008 around 0830 ALDEN J LABORDE towing ATWOOD HUNTER casted off starting her departure from Grand Harbour, Malta assisted by 4 local tugs.








Watermarked Photos are by Capt. Lawrence Dalli otherwise stated. NO PHOTOS can be used or manipulated without our permission. © All rights reserved. Malta Ship Photos & Action Photos – www.maltashipphotos.com

Published – Friday 12th February, 2021.