Skogafoss EX: Ice Bird (Container Vessel, Built 2007)

[Trevor Harris]

Bridge of the Skogafoss by Trevor Casey, on Flickr

I saw this vessel on May 4th, and never being so close to a vessel let alone a Container Vessel I thought she was very large and imposing. Doing some research now, she became the Skogafoss in 2011. It's just a picture of her bridge but I'm going to add a photo of her below.

[Thomas Hypher]

A Minnow (small) compared to QE2  And then QE2 is small alongside and compared to QM2. Reminds me of the food chain for some reason 

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

I love walking round port areas and watching all the very different vessels there. We did this even from on board QE2 .

Container ports are fascinating, with containers being moved off ships and onto ships, all in accordance with some mysterious programme to which we don't have access. I was recently tracking a container on an ocean voyage, and it was so interesting to see that it was first loaded onto a smaller vessel, like this one, for the initial leg of its voyage, which  took it to a major port, then onto an ocean going ship to the next major port, and back onto a smaller vessel, with two breaks in those major ports in between, while waiting for a suitable connection.

All this then also has to be synchronised with land transport, be it by lorry or train, and if the voyage is international, also with the relevant Customs authorities. No wonder Logistics is a field of study in its own right!

[Andy Holloway]

This size of container vessel are usually referred to as 'feeder ships', as they do 'what it says on the tin', feed the containers into and out of the big container ports for the 'monsters' to move across the oceans.
I'm sure the American transport company owner who 'invented' the container never, in a million years, envisaged what a fundamental change it would have on world shipping.

Many years ago, when i was on Vistafjord, we had a young Danish 1st Officer who joined us direct from Mersk where he had previously been working on their feeder ship fleet in central America. He would often recall the differences in the two lifestyles, from a merchant ship with 14 crew who all spoke, [and] only, Spanish, which he did not! But he did very quickly learn to speak a version of Spanish and certainly enough to make his instructions known. He was Ch Officer on there and was responsible for loading and  unloading the containers, as well as standing watches when at sea, from this you'll note that he was 'slightly' busy!!!
He would tell us, over dinner, how meals were taken alone and in a small windowless room. Being such a small crew they had no chef but ate pre-cooked meals that you selected from a fridge and heated up in a microwave, then ate by yourself.  The only other person you saw, apart from days in port, was the officer who you either took over your watch from or handed over to!!!
He then came from this to a cruise ship with 25 Scandinavian Stewardess, plus female waiters and bar staff! He thought he'd died and gone to heaven!!! He certainly made up for lost time!!
A very nice and professional seaman who went on to achieve a very high prestige command within the private yacht world.

We had a saying on QE2 that, because of her draught she often had to berth in containers ports, especially when on World Cruises, "We would see less container ports if we worked for Evergreen"!
Anybody do a WC on QE2 and was on for the calls into Singapore? Now that is some container port!!!

[Thomas Hypher]

Aren't they also called "Reefers"? If so what is the origin of this name? We've seen plenty on QE2 and QM2 over the years, particularly in Rotterdam and Hamburg but also Southampton of course.

[Clydebuilt1971]

Greenock Ocean Terminal is a feeder container port so we see vessels like this all the time. Sometimes slightly larger too.

This reminds me of one particular vessel - mv Cervantes which I mentioned on this thread.

Tourists Travelling on Cargo Ships

She was renamed Elevation in 2012 and is under Lebanese ownership - not sure of her current status.

Gav

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

I always thought it was Maersk who invented containers -- but on checking, they themselves refer to American businessman Malcom McLean :

https://www.maersk.com/explore/trade-and-transport

Reefers are refrigerated containers for transporting deep frozen goods and I suppose any other items that need freezing (or chilling?).

And yes, I was referring to Singapore, where we sat comfortably on the aft deck of QE2, slurping a drink and watching the container world being busy. A great memory which we often looked back on afterwards!

I have seen other container ports since then (on ground level too!), but this was the first time we got really interested.

[Andy Holloway]

A Reefer - apart from the 'illicit meaning'  - is 'salty' slang for a ship specifically built to carry chilled or frozen goods. Whereas a 'Reefer container' is as already said. Go to many of the fruit producing countries around the world and you'll see many 'reefers' in their ports. They are usually smallish - by container ship standards - and carry one specific cargo, often fruit but it could be meat etc also. Often they are painted white or a similar light colour to reflect the heat and make maintaining a steady inside temp easier.
They also usually only do set routes, A to B, with no stops in between. ie Chile to UK with apples, peaches etc etc.
Container ships are referred to at sea as 'box  boats' for obvious reasons, they carry lots of 'boxes'!

 

[Thomas Hypher]

Reefers are refrigerated containers for transporting deep frozen goods and I suppose any other items that need freezing (or chilling?).

Thank you for the explanation Isabelle 

There is a small cargo ship (not strictly a feeder I think) that operates regularly from Southampton to either Jersey or Guernsey (can't remember which). I seem to recall she's registered in Ireland and she docks opposite the current Ocean Terminal, but where the dockside starts going at right angles to Ocean Terminal. This can make things a tight squeeze or seem to be a tight squeeze on ships such as QM2. Some of my poor quality photos and videos of her from 2011 are below:

QM2 Northern Europe, August 2011 by Thomas Hypher, on Flickr

QM2 Northern Europe, August 2011 by Thomas Hypher, on Flickr

And here's a link to the video!

https://www.flickr.com/gp/thomashypher/6644uG

[Thomas Hypher]

A Reefer - apart from the 'illicit meaning'  - is 'salty' slang for a ship specifically built to carry chilled or frozen goods. Whereas a 'Reefer container' is as already said. Go to many of the fruit producing countries around the world and you'll see many 'reefers' in their ports. They are usually smallish - by container ship standards - and carry one specific cargo, often fruit but it could be meat etc also. Often they are painted white or a similar light colour to reflect the heat and make maintaining a steady inside temp easier.
They also usually only do set routes, A to B, with no stops in between. ie Chile to UK with apples, peaches etc etc.
Container ships are referred to at sea as 'box  boats' for obvious reasons, they carry lots of 'boxes'!

I presume "Reefers" are the modern "Banana Boats" then, often were painted white themselves for example.

[Andy Holloway]

I presume "Reefers" are the modern "Banana Boats" then, often were painted white themselves for example.

Technically yes, but far more modern and state of the art in relation to refrigeration and temp control, but mostly still single cargo.

[Trevor Harris]

I was surprised to learn of her fairly recent construction!

https://www.balticshipping.com/vessel/imo/9375252

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:364517/mmsi:305411000/imo:9375252/vessel:SKOGAFOSS

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

Seems that her home port is St. John's. You might get to see her from time to time in your part of the world...

The Marinetraffic web site in your response above also shows all the various names she has already had! Presumably these change every time she is sold on...