HER FIRST VISIT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20493, 1 March 1941, Page 6

HER FIRST VISIT

FORMER BALTIC SHIP EXPECTED AT GISBORNE COASTWISE EXPORTS REFRIGERATED CARGO A ship formerly controlled by the United Baltic Corporation and trading before the war between Britain, Denmark and Baltic ports was to pay her first visit to Gisborne this afternoon. She is the Baltannic, one of two ships recently acquired to run between intermediate ports and the main export ports with frozen or chilled produce for the purpose of enabling overseas vessels to make a quick turn-round in New Zealand. She went into service only last month, and left Wellington last night on her first Gisborne trip.

The Baltannic is a ship of 1793 tons gross and 243 ft long. Originally the Zaanstroom. she was built in Rotterdam in 1913 to Lloyd’s highest classification. She has two decks and a shelter deck, and her general appearance is clean and neat, the shelter deck giving her the appearance of a passenger vessel. Noteworthy is the Baltannic’s cargo-handling equipment. Instead of the usual derricks and winches, she has small and compact steel cranes than can be operated by one man instead of the two needed for derricks, where a single load is transferred from one derrick to another, each derrick having a separate winch. Berth at Wharf Arrangements were made for the Baltannic to berth in the harbour basin, where she will be over the week-end to load refrigerated cargo for transhipment to overseas vessels. Her cargo will be butter and wool, several thousands of boxes of butter and about 2500 bales of wool having been prepared for loading. This will be the first export shipment of butter to be sent from Gisborne by a coastal trader, but on several occasions during the season wool has been dispatched for overseas in this manner. The other vessel acquired for coastal refrigerated shipments is the Baltraffic, also a former United Baltic Corporation ship. Before the war she, too, was plying in the same trade as the Baltannic, but the German invasion of Scandinavia put an end to this, find before coming to New Zealand they were lying idle in British ports. The Baltraffic is a ship of 3297 tons, and was one of the standard ships turned out during the last war, being launched in 1918 under the name of War Coppice.