Blue Star Line Ships Blue Star's M.V. "Australia Star"4  
  M.V. "P&O Nedlloyd Taranaki"  
       
  Built: Chantiers de L'Atlantique (Penhoet-Loire), Saint Nazaire, France  
  O.N.: 902731   IMO No. 7900041  
Dimensions: 199.7 x 31.7 x 9.5 metres
  Tonnage: As built:       Gross: 30,080   Net: 14,368   DWT: 22,620  
    After 1998: Gross: 29,259   Net: 8,778     DWT: 22,615  
  Propulsion: 10-cyl. 2 S.C.S.A. Sulzer 10RND90 type oil engine of 28,977 bhp manufactured under license by Zaklady Przemyslu Metalowego “H. Cegielski” S.A., Poznan, Poland  
  Type: Container ship with stern ramp  TEU Cap: 1,417 (436 below deck/662 on deck/317 RoRo deck - 150 reefer plugs)  
  Keel laid: 27.8.1980  
  Launched: 10.4.1981  (Yard No.27), for Francusko-Poliskie Towarzstwo Zeglugowe Sp.z.o.o. (Polish Ocean Lines, managers), Gdynia, Poland as Kazimierz Pulaski  
  Completed: 30.7.1981 and Bare-Boat chartered to Polska Ocean Line.  
  Sold: 30.10.1992  to Kingston Maritime Corp., (Egon Oldendorff GmbH & Co. KG, managers), Monrovia, Liberia and renamed Hinrich Oldendorff  
  Chartered: 1.1993 to Bridge Line Ltd.  
  Renamed: 18.2.1993 as Pyrmont Bridge  
  Sold: 1.1996  to Blue Star Line Ltd. (Blue Star Ship Management Ltd., managers), Monrovia, Liberia and renamed Australia Star 4  
  Transferred: 4.1998 to Blue Star Marine Ltd. (Blue Star Ship Management Ltd., managers), Hong Kong.  
  1999: P&O Nedlloyd Containers Ltd., appointed managers.  
  Renamed: 7.6.1999 as P&O Nedlloyd Taranaki  
  Transferred: Transferred to P&O Nedlloyd Ltd. (P&O Nedlloyd B.V., managers), London  
  Arrived: 24/02/2006 at Jiangyin Ship-breakers yard near Shanghai for demolition  
     
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  Australia Star 4  
     
 

Originally built for Polish Ocean Lines, the vessel has not been without it's moments. In 1985 she took part in the search for the downed Air India Boeing 747 which had crashed south-west of Ireland killing 345. Some debris was retrieved from the Atlantic.

 
 

Later in 1985 during a voyage from Baltimore to Bremerhaven, she hit a submerged rock of Bergen Point, New Jersey, and was holed underwater. A gash 20 feet long and 27 inches wide was caused by the grounding, as a result she spilt over 80,000 gallons of bunkering fuel into the Kill van Kull. The Kill van Kull connects Upper New York Bay with Newark Bay, between Bayonne, N.J., and Staten Island, N.Y. It is the main route for ships docking at the busy harbours of Port Elizabeth and Port Newark. The slick stretched from Howland Hook to Constable Hook.

 
 

After completing repairs in Bremerhaven she resumed commercial trading having been transferred to Polska Oceanska Line in October 1985.

 
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  P&O Nedlloyd Taranaki at Wellington -  17th April 2004 ~ Photograph © Peter Stacey  
     
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  P&O Nedlloyd Taranaki at Wellington -  17th April 2004 ~ Photograph © Peter Stacey  
   
   
  PONL Taranaki at Jiangyin Ship-breakers yard near Shanghai ~ 24/02/06  
  Photograph © Frank Fox  
     
  See:  Australia Star 1 ,   Australia Star 2  & Australia Star 3  PONL Nina  
     
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  Updated: 18-02-2008