German general cargo ship Fiskela off to the breakers
6th December 2016
The 11,243dwt German general cargo ship Fiskela was recently taken to Gadani Beach for breaking. She was one of five vessels laid down as bulk carriers at the Dong Hae Shipbuilding Co in Ulsan in 1982.
All five were later converted to general cargo ships with a container capacity of 594TEU. Three vessels were built for Bernard Schulte as Elisabeth Schulte, Esther Schulte and Marianne Schulte and were operated by the Hanseatic Shipping Company. The remaining two were delivered to Aug Bolten as Andromanche and Andromeda Star.
Such cargo ships built for German companies were once a common sight, but they are now becoming scarce. Andromeda Star operated as the X-Press Resolve for a year before reverting to Andromeda Star.
In 2000 she was sold to Greek owners as African Trader before becoming the Agios Leontios for other Greek operators for a short time before taking her final name of Fiskela. Liberian registered owners acquired her in May 2016 and she was transferred to the Palau flag operating in the Persian Gulf.
She has now been sold to Pakistani shipbreakers arriving off Gadani Beach on 20 September 2016, where she was beached four days later. Roy Cressey
