Back in the 80’s when I was with Tasman Express Line they had two vessels on the trans Tasmantrade lane ; Canterbury Express and Auckland Express - you can be assured that the south island vessel rarely left Lyttelton empty – the local export community really got behind "their" vessel".

Commercial/merchant shipping lines (particularly those entering a new trade and wanting to make a splash) are never shy about tapping into national psyche and often name their vessel after an animal or region peculiar to the trade lane they are plying e.g : Contship container lines ships on the Europe/NZ trade such as "Contship Auckland" and "Contship Rome". Likewise ANZ Direct Line have a native bird from NZ, Australian & U.S on their fleet sailing between these three countries ; Direct Kea, Direct Eagle and Direct Kookaburra to mention but a few.. A recent example of pandering to parochialism was when Maersk first entered the NZ market in 1998 ; their vessels were christened " Maersk Tekapo" and "Maersk Taupo" . However once Maersk had carved out a good market share these ships were soon replaced by a newer , larger fleet that no longer contain any reference to this part of the world. Maybe they should rethink this as I’m sure the "Maersk Blackadder" would do wonders for their South Island liftings!.

Of equal importance is to include the nomeclature of the shipping line as you would have noticed in the above examples – it has become more prevalent as shipping lines realise this is an opportunity to keep their name in front of their clients. I can foresee the potential for these ships to earn extra revenue by becoming floating billboards for multi-national companies such as Coca-Cola and Vodaphone to advertise their wares and I’m surprised that we haven’t seen this in practise yet. Think about it; most container terminals are situated in large commercial hubs and the vessels that call there are highly visible during their time in port. Can you picture a Big-Mac or a Sony Playstation on the side of a ship as makes it’s way down the Rangitoto channel in Auckland or the Hudson River in New York?. Anyway, I am getting side tracked so back to the main subject matter….

There is somewhat more of a tradition when it comes to christening Navy ships – these guys mean serious business and if the size of a battle cruiser doesn’t scare you then it’s name probably will.

Unlike the commercial freight carriers which can change names half a dozen times in their life depending on what new service they are moved to, the Navy ships tend to keep their title for life as the changing of name was thought to bring bad luck . And being the Navy, there is a system in place whereby the name of the ship reveals it’s class and function , that is if you know what to look for.

Example of naming conventions from the British and U.S navies :

The Royal Navy

Letter classes :

• Capital ships (Battleships, Aircraft carriers ) always bore "inspirational " names :
• HMS Valaint, Colussus, Illustrious, Thunderer, Iron Duke …
• Names starting with the letter’B’ are destroyers : HMS Beagle, Brazen, Bulldog
• ‘D’ class are cruisers : HMS Dauntless, Dragon, Diomede…
• ‘U ’ class are submarines : HMS Unbeaten, Undaunted, Unity….
• Generic classes : Each ship is named after a specific example of the class name e.g :
• Weapon class destroyers : HMS Battleaxe, Crossbow , Musket, Tomahawk etc..
• Tribal class destroyers : HMS Gurkha , Iroquois , Maori , Zulu etc
• Cathedral class destroyers : HMS York , Exeter

United States Navy

• Battlecruisers after territories : USS Alaska, Guam, Puerto Rico….
• Attack Submarines after cities : USS Dallas, Boston , Los Angeles….
• Nuclear powered cruisers after states : USS California , Virginia….
• Aircraft carriers after admirals & politicians : USS Nimitz , Kennedy , Reagan…
• Cruisers after battles : USS Gettysburg , Ticonderoga….

I’m all in favour of recognising our national heroes and perhaps rather than give a title or an "order or merit" certificate I reckon we should instead celebrate their achievements by putting their name on a ship (or aircraft !) . The likes of Edmund Hillary and Peter Blake are two that spring to mind and are certainly a lot more interesting than the bland names that the corporates come up with.

The HMNZ Revenge being launched today at Auckland. This vessel has been commissioned to sail directly to Dublin to discharge a cargo of cowshit at the IRB headquarters and then call at Sydney on the way home to collect the Rugby World Cup !!

Bye for now

Previous Diaries

Hub and Spoke Shipping. read more ....

Why Ships don't go faster. read more ....

The history of Containerisation. read more ....

Forget the Gold Coast - try Port Chalmers instead. read more ....