This Week in the Harbour: September 27th-October 3rd

Hello folks! I hope you all had a great weekend so far. This week was pretty quiet in the harbour, but we saw a few come through. The first one was…

Chokyu Maru No. 21

The Chokyu Maru No. 21, October 2014

Nationality: Japanese
Length: 52.6m
Beam: 9.2m
Weight: 499 tonnes
Draught: 4.5m
Speed: 10.9 knots
Year: 1994

Twice or so a year, you can find a Japanese fishing boat in the harbour. This week was the Chokyu Maru No. 21. One of a fleet of fishing vessels of the same name, the Chokyu Maru No. 21 arrived on Wednesday and left this morning. She is currently located just off of St. John’s.

“Maru”, which means circle or round, is often attached to Japanese vessels (think of the Ryou-Un Maru, the fishing vessel that washed away during the tsunami of 2011). There are a few theories behind this, including “maru” being a circle surrounding a castle (like a moat) or the idea of a ship leaving and returning back to port, making a circle. This was applied to non-warships over the last few centuries.

Maersk Clipper

The Maersk Clipper, October 2014

Nationality: Canadian
Length: 84.4m
Beam: 22.6m
Weight: 5,500 tonnes
Draught: 6.8m
Speed: 10.4 knots
Year: 2014

The Maersk Clipper arrived in St. John’s on September 26th, fresh from the Chilean port in which she had been built. On the 28th if you were downtown you may have smelled something burning. One of the containers on board the Clipper, holding cardboard and empty drums being brought ashore, caught fire. The fire was put out pretty quickly, and the ship didn’t sustain any damage. She is the latest addition to the North Atlantic fleet, and like the Atlantic Kestrel last year, will be making St. John’s her new home port.

That, unfortunately, is all we have for this week. It was exceptionally quiet. Hopefully next week I will have more to report.

Have a great week everyone!

Images this week are my own.