Apfelsinen Kurs Persergolf: Kühltrampfahrt 1975

Abstract

"This contribution provides an account of several months aboard the POLAR PARAGUAY, a refrigerated vessel of the Hamburg-Südamerikanische Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft, told from the perspective of the Third Navigating Officier. The year is 1975. Under charter by the Salén Reefer Services of Sweden, the ship has just completed two banana transports from Nicaragua to Long Beach. Now she receives the somewhat unusual order to take a cargo of oranges to the Persian Gulf. Three trial deliveries, carried out by the POLAR PARAGUAY and two new ships of Salén's SNOW class, are intended to prove the feasibility of this technically challenging transport: The trip will take six to seven weeks, including what is normally a long wait for permission to dock at the Iranian port of delivery. Throughout this entire period, a temperature of 4.5 ºC has to be guaranteed, despite a constant supply of fresh air. A large number of long-unused sea charts must be updated by hand. As it turns out, many of the charts into which a lot of work has been invested are never needed after all: Due to overcrowding at the originally planned port of discharge Khorramshahr on the Shatt al Arab, Bandar Abbas - located at the entrance to the Persian Gulf - is declared the new port of destination. There 'the ship with fresh oranges' is cleared unexpectedly quickly. Only six days after her arrival, the POLAR PARAGUAY is back at sea. The original plans, based on the assumption of a much longer idle period in Iran, had provided for a subsequent transport of apples from South Africa to Europe. This journey is now replaced by the order to take on bananas in the southern Philippines. For the Gulf of Davao a chart has to be specially drawn - on the basis of the officiers’ own measurements and observations - to supplement the existing chart of the 1880s. Now, in 1975, not only are there official warnings of pirate raids, but due to political unrest on the island of Mindanao, taxi drivers can hardly be persuaded to take on fares after nightfall. All these inconveniences are quickly forgotten, however, thanks to the extremely cordial welcome extended to the crew by the people of Davao. From Japan, where the bananas are discharged, the ship transports a cargo of automobiles to El Salvador and Costa Rica, then taking on bananas in Guayaquil for delivery to Long Beach, where oranges are once again loaded. This time, however, the oranges are destined for Europe and thus apparently of a much more average quality than the wonderful fruits shipped to Iran with the hope of conquering a new market." (author's abstract)