Passer By – Tug VB HISPANIA towing RFA DILIGENCE for scrap – 02.04.2024

The Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) Forward Repair Ship RFA DILIGENCE A 132 towed by the 2011 built Spanish anchor handling tug (aht) VB HISPANIA passed by Malta today Tuesday 2nd April, 2024. Built in Landskrona, Sweden, as the offshore support vessel STENA INSPECTOR, she was chartered by the British government during the critical months of […]

Research/Survey Vessel – BERGEN SURVEYOR

One of the converted fishing vessels that used to be around was the 1972 built BERGEN SURVEYOR. Above and timeline image is back to April, 2011 while leaving Aberdeen, Scotland. She was built in 1972 in Lowestoft (United Kingdom) by Brooke Marine as the fishing trawler SUB SURVEYOR I with red hull trading until 1982.  […]

RoRo Vessels – Linea Messina ship JOLLY INDACO

One of the Soviet Union (USSR) built vessels that used to call at Malta was the 1989 built ro/ro vessel JOLLY INDACO owned by Linea Messina, Italy. She was built at Severnaya Verf Shipbuilding Yard at Saint Petersburg as yard number 843 as the Project 16071 ro/ro ship for Baltic Sea Shipping, USSR as S.KIROV […]

Broken Up – Soviet Passenger Ship MIKHAIL SUSLOV – 2013

One of  the seven Dmitri Shostakovich class ferries  of project B-492/B-493 originally built by Stocznia Szczecinska im Adolfa Warskiego Warskiego in Szczecin, Poland and used by the Soviet shipping companies was the yard no B492/04 MIKHAIL SUSLOV originally launched as VASILIY SOLOVYEV SEDOY. Leaving Grand Harbour, Malta back to 8th January, 1985. She was in service by the Soviet […]

Military Nostalgia – Tank Landing Ship HMS REGGIO L 3511 at Malta

HMS REGGIO L 3511 was a a tank landing ship (LST) Mk 3, of which 80 were built by Canada and the UK. She was built as LST 3511 by Davie Shipbuilding and Repairing Co. Ltd. at Lauzon, Quebec, Canada and was launched in November 1944, commissioning in mid-September 1945 and thus missed the Second […]

Containers – Hapag Lloyd scraps 3 more ships – June 2023

With a fleet of 241 modern container ships and a total transport capacity of 1.7 million TEU, Hapag-Lloyd is one of the world’s leading liner shipping companies. Hapag-Lloyd has sold three elderly ships for demolition, sticking to a plan outlined in last month’s earnings call. Singapore’s Wirana Shipping Corp, which acquires old vessels for recycling, […]

Broken Up – Russian Icebreaker KIGORIAK – April 2022

The 1979 Canadian built Icebreaker KIGORIAK was spotted beached at Alang, India to be broken Up. She was built by Saint John Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company for Canadian Marine Drilling (Canmar) in 1979 as the CANMAR KIGORIAK. She was the first commercial icebreaking vessel developed to support offshore oil exploration in the Beaufort Sea. […]

Passenger Ships – PALOMA I

One of the Polish built ships originally bound for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was the 1980 built ferry DMITRIY SHOSTAKOVICH from a Class of 7 as Project B492/B493 by Stocznia Szczecinska im Adolfa Warskiego Warskiego in Szczecin, Poland. She was the lead of her class which she was named for the Soviet era Russian composer […]