Ships of the Year

fleet news
Editor: Pär-Henrik Sjöström ~ Phone: +358 2 242 62 50 ~ E-mail: par-henrik@shipgaz.com
Coaster Tonja to the breakers
The Swedish-owned coaster Tonja, flying
the flag of St Kitts and Nevis, has sailed its
last miles. Not long ago the owner delivered
the ship alongside the breaker’s yard
in Grenå with the short message: Now it is
yours! That ended 51 years of steady sailing
in Nordic waters.
A growing attention from Port State
Control in combination with the underwriters’
similar attention to older vessels
has made the every day life much harder
for vessels like Tonja, which for the last
couple of years has been working in the
agriculture trade between Sweden, Denmark
and Poland. Tonja was in a spot of
trouble with a three days detention in the
beginning of September at Kolding, which
led to the decision to scrap the vessel. The
coaster has been operated by a Russian/
Baltic crew in combination with the owner’s
other vessel San Remo.
Tonja was delivered from Brødrene
Lothe Flytedokken i Haugesund in 1957
as its fourth newbuilding for Norwegian
account under the name Tonja. The vessel
continued as Tonja until 1969 when it
became the Felstein I. From 1970 to 1976
it sailed as the Samstein. After 19 years
of Norwegian coastal trade it was sold
On December 3 the brand new dry cargo
vessel Emi Proud visited Tallinn on her
maiden voyage. The vessel was delivered by
Onega Shipbuilding Yard in Petrozavodsk,
Russia on November 26 to the Estonian
company Eestinova OÜ. As a foreign vessel
without permission for trading on the Russian
river systems the Emi Proud was towed
from Petrozavodsk at Lake Onega via the
River Svir, Lake Ladoga and River Neva to
St Petersburg. The bridges of St Petersburg
were passed during night time before entering
the Baltic Sea. The first cargo of grain
was taken in Tallinn for Sevilla in Spain.
Emi Proud is the shipyard’s newbuilding
number 201 and is the first of four vessels
to the same owner. The next vessel Emi
Leader will be handed over in May 2009.
This series of 4,570 DWT multipurpose
dry cargo vessels has been designed by
to Alvar Olsson’s Speed Shipping and
became Salona, but registered under Honduras
flag. Ten years later it was sold to
Svenssons OP and got its original name
Tonja back still flying Honduras flag. In
June 2007 it was transferred to St Kitts
and Nevis with Basseterre as homeport.
Tonja was originally built as a half shel-
Emi Proud first in a series of four
BENT MIkkElSEN
MADlI VITISMANN
Tonja high and dry ... Sic Transit Gloria Mundi.
Marine Engineering Bureau in Odessa for
European traffic. Fleet operator Nikolai
Sharonov at Eestinova says that the ideas
and requirements of Eestinova have been
turned into a project in Odessa and that
the shipyard likely will build a further six
ships for Orimi Shipping, belonging to the
same group as the shipyard.
The Emi Proud is not a river-sea type
terdecker, but was later rebuilt to a singledecker.
Even during her very last voyage
she was powered by the original Danishbuilt
Vølund diesel engine type DMT 630,
developing some 659 bhp. A rare engine,
and probably the last of its kind in commercial
trade.
bent mikkelsen
cargo vessel and will mainly be employed as
a tramp carrying dry bulk cargo. She is also
optimized for carrying coal and coke from
Kaliningrad to Western European ports. If
loading containers the capacity is 140 TEUs.
The main dimensions of the Maltaflagged
vessel are 89.99 metres in length,
14 metres in breadth and 5.81 metres in
draft. The 1,950 kW main engine provides
a service speed of 11.5 knots. The ship is
built to Germanischer Lloyd´s class and is
ice strengthened to ice classs 1B.
Captain Ivan Gumennik is pleased with
the performance of the vessel and its high
level of automation and comfortable cabins
and messrooms. The crew consists of
ten persons from Russia and Ukraine. The
captain is from Tallinn, where also the
managing owner Eestinova OÜ is based.
madli viitismann
SCANDINAVIAN SHIPPING GAZETTE • DECEMBER 19, 2008 77