Newbuild MV Arklow Resolve departed the Dutch north-east port of Eemshaven for the Wadden Sea on the southern North Sea for shipbuilder sea trials this morning, writes Jehan Ashmore.

This is Arklow Shipping Ltd.'s latest newbuild, which represents the fifth of seven Eco-Traders of the 6,800 dwt series completed so far. It was built by the Royal Bodewes shipyard in Hoogezand, near Groningen. Likewise with the rest of the class, the newbuild is Irish-flagged and registered in the homeport of the Co. Wicklow based shipowner.

After launching in late January and the completion of construction, Arklow Resolve was recently towed from the inland shipyard to Delfzijl. From there, the newbuild under its own power, made the short passage to Emshaven, the port on the Ems estuary opposite Germany.

At a speed of 11.4 knots, Arklow Resolve was heading further into the Wadden Sea, which is the largest unbroken system of intertidal sand and mud flats in the world.

The 105m length overall (LOA) dry-cargo ship was also in the vicinity of Borkum, an island and a municipality in the Leer District in Lower Saxony, north-western Germany. Borkum is the largest and westernmost of the East Frisian Islands in the North Sea and is due north of the Dutch province of Groningen.

During the sea-trails, Arklow Resolve was in waters where a ro-ro passenger ferry had also departed from Emshaven to connect Borkum, this involved the Westfalen, which was inbound to the island, taking 50 minutes. While another ferry, Münsterland was outbound with a return crossing but to Emden on the German side of the Ems Estuary, which takes 2 hours 10 minutes.

Westfalen and Münsterland are operated by AG EMS ferries whose names sound similar to those of the former Irish-state owned B+I Line, which saw their Munster built by Werft Nobiskrug GmbH, Rendsburg, Germany, in 1968 and the larger Innishfallen built by the same shipyard in 1969.

Also that year, a sister of Innisfallen, the Irish built Leinster was launched from Verolme Cork Dockyard (V.C.D.). Collectively, the modern-designed drive-through (stern-bow) ro-ro ferry trio during the 1970's transformed their Irish Sea routes and on the Celtic Sea with the Cork-Swansea connection. The link to the Welsh port, however in 1980 was switched to Pembroke Dock. 

As for Arklow Shipping, they have been a partner in ferry operations, albeit domestically, in Munster, when they were original partners of Cross River Ferries running the short-cut link in the centre of Cork Harbour. ASL's partner in the joint venture was Cobh based Marine Transport Services (owned by DSG) when the ferry shuttle-service started in 1993, as Afloat highlighted their 30th anniversary last year.

The shipowner’s stake, however, was bought out by DSG in 2007, and they remain the current owners running twin vehicle ferries, serving between Glenbrook (Passage West Pier) and Carrigaloe (Rushbrooke Pier) on Great Island, Cobh. 

#RareQuayCall - A rare sight of a commercial ship took place this week along Dublin Port’s inner Liffey quays with the arrival of an Arklow Shipping cargoship, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The Arklow Resolve of almost 5000dwat had sailed from Belfast to Dublin last Saturday to initially dock downriver in Alexandra Basin west. This is where cargo operations took place, however on Monday she shifted berths much closer to the city-centre.

Afloat had monitored the rather unusual quay allocation of the 2,999 gross tonnage cargoship to that of Sir John Rogerson’s Quay.

At this south quay and its north bank counterpart of the North Wall, this area is the older former working port that in recent decades has been utterly transformed. The area dubbed the ‘Docklands’ quarter is where warehouses have been demolished. This to cater for finance houses and apartments that occupy commanding waterfront sites such as the new Central Bank of Ireland headquarters. 

The district stretchs from the IFSC and lines the Liffey downriver to the Tom Clarke (East-Link) Lift- Bridge. The bridge was raised to allow Arklow Resolve to head upriver to the city-centre quay, though the structure's span does restrict vessel size. 

The last routine cargo based operation from these Liffey quays took place in the form of the Guinness stout tankers, The Lady Patricia and Miranda Guinness until this trade ceased in 1992.

The practice of pumping the famous ‘black stuff’ on board was replaced by road tankers taking the ferry to the UK, from where the stout ships previously used to ply to Runcorn on the Manchester Ship Canal. Before that the tanker vessels navigated even further inland to Salford, a suburb of the English north-west city.

Arklow Resolve’s rare location in the Dublin Port required a special visit to this stretch of the Liffey quay at berth 8. On arrival, crew were observed on the former Irish flagged vessel attending to maintenance duties on the cargo deck.

The 89m overall long cargoship has hatch-covers again painted the same customary ‘Arklow’ green colour of the hull that makes up the livery of their mixed Irish and Dutch flags ships. As such these ships tend to stand out more in port or when underway.

The 2004 Dutch built cargoship is registered in Rotterdam, where some of her ‘R’ class sisters are managed by the Irish shipowners Dutch division Arklow Shipping Nederland B.V. When launched the cargoship had her Co. Wicklow owners homeport of Arklow as the port of registry.

Of the 50 plus fleet, Arklow Resolve belongs to the oldest ‘R’class cargoships which were built by Barkmeijer Stroobos. An elder sister Arklow Rose dating to 2002 as reported by Afloat in September 2016, had been sold to UK owners, Charles M. Willie & Co (Shipping) Ltd of Cardiff, Wales. The single box hold cargoship renamed Celtic Venture has options for up to 9 position separations.

The sight of the distinctive ‘Arklow’ green hull on this current ship occasion recalled memories of boarding an older fleetmate no longer in service, that been the Inishark. The boarding took place in the early 1990’s when this cargoship also berthed on Rogerson's Quay and to the nearby Hammond Lane scrap metal site. The merchants premises are now located downriver in Ringsend.

As for the ship, Inishark was then operated by another Arklow Shipping division Coastal Shipping, however she originally began her Arklow career named Darell. Again the Dutch connections continue as this 1981 built vessel had been built too in the Netherlands albeit at a different yard for ASL. She had a post 1998 gross tonnage of 2,009.

In recent years ASL have splashed out on a spending spree by ordering several new cargoships designs from yards in the Netherlands. This rapid newbuilding programme will invariably see older generation cargships replaced, notably more of the ‘R’ class disposed from the fleet.