Hamburg Port welcomes two Chinese ships

The Port of Hamburg has received two very different types of Chinese vessel last month, one mammoth and the other ancient.

This comes as the 10,000-TEUs Cosco Indian Ocean docked for the first time at the HHLA Container Terminal Tollerort on her maiden voyage.

This 111,414-tons mega ship, owned by Cosco Container Lines, is the third of four identical ships built for Cosco at Hyundai's Ulsan shipyard in South Korea and has a draught of 14.5 metres.

Just 3,000 metres away from the Tollerort container terminal, a model of an ancient Chinese treasure ship has been on display at Hamburg's International Maritime Museum since mid-November 2008.

The metre-long model dates from the time of the Chinese explorer Zheng He (1371-1435), and was presented to the museum's founder, Peter Tamm, by Fujian province for permanent exhibition. Treasure ships were among the largest wooden ships ever built.

The junk's bow is ornamented with a dragon's head, and the sides of the ship are painted with eyes to ward off evil spirits. It was designed to demonstrate the power of the Ming emperor Zhu Di.

Container giants like the Cosco Indian Ocean are the modern equivalents of those ancient treasure ships - owing their appeal not so much to their lavish features as to the value of the goods that they carry between Asia and Hamburg.

Source: Shipping Gazette News (20 Dec 2008)