A poet on a long world tour
Route planning and optimal load-space utilisation are amongst the elementary factors for global shipping operations. Their importance was illustrated recently by the “Parandowski”, a multipurpose freighter operated by the Sino-Polish shipping line Chipolbrok.
The Polish writer, essayist and literary translator Jan Parandowski went on a grand two-year trip to Greece, France and Italy from 1924 to 1926. So one of the Eastern European country’s grandest men of letters, born in 1895, visited more of the world than many of his contemporaries.
The shipping line Chipolbrok’s maritime freighter the Parandowski, which is named after the writer, is an even more intrepid global voyager than its namesake was. The 200 m vessel completed a world tour this spring that illustrates how intelligently the line optimises its ships’ routes and vessel utilisation.
Set sail from the northern range
The Parandowski was first loaded with breakbulk consignments to set sail from Antwerp, with its next stop in Hamburg. In the Hanseatic city breakbulk project cargo was loaded on board. It included heavy construction parts for an Indian automobile industry steel sheet-processing plant. Power plant equipment and an extremely sensitive 150 m reactor were also destined for India; the individual consignments weighed between 80 and 136 t. Stowage in Hamburg proved particularly demanding, with a heavy cable drum and an entire bottle-filling plant completing the Parandowski’s load.
The freighter docked in Hamburg for a total of just under five days before it then sailed for Ferrol on the high tide. The free space left on the freighter’s deck was filled by 24 blades for a wind power station in the northern Spanish port; each of the vanes weighed 22 t.
Through the Suez Canal to Asia
The ship next called at Izmir. In Turkey its four cranes lifted a number of 640 t components destined for a cement factory on board. Then it sailed out of Europe and through the Suez Canal under the command of captain Damian Zaremba. Once it reached the Red Sea it set its course for the port of Aqaba. The wind-power rotor blades were subsequently discharged in Jordan’s only maritime gateway.
The Parandowski’s next stop was in India, where it unloaded the parts for the automobile industry that it had taken on board in Hamburg. The Parandowski’s further stations in the Far East included calls in Singapore, the Philippines, China as well as South Korea. Once all its jobs were completed there it set out on another route that eventually brought the freighter back to Europe via North America.