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Spirit Of Resolution
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Built in Viana do Castelo, she is powered by one 4785hp MAK diesel, producing a service speed of 15 knots.
She carries 357 TEU, and has two 40 tonne cranes which were well employed at Onehunga - around 500 containers a week were being moved through the port to and from Nelson and Lyttelton aboard "SOR" in 2007.
 She was the first all-container ship operated by Pacifica Shipping, and the first to be chartered by the company - previously they had been owner-operators of their fleet.
She arrived in Onehunga from Indonesia on her delivery voyage in June 1998, and eventually took over the Lyttelton - Nelson - Onehunga service "Spirit Of Progress" had been operating, after initial plans to include Dunedin among her ports of call were scuttled by a lack of support from local producers and manufacturers, as well as the port company!
 Taken by Brent Chambers, www.shipspotting.com
In April 1999, "Spirit Of Resolution" made the first of a few calls at Timaru over time to load a bulk cargo of grain for Onehunga. This meant the sealing of holds was necessary, to allow the grain to be pumped directly into the ship from the wharf silos. On arrival at Onehunga, the cargo was extracted via suction pipe.
Scheduling and loading issues were among a number of matters contributing to the decision to curtail this operation as time progressed.
Once "Spirit Of Enterprise" appeared on the scene, the two container ships worked a figure-of-eight service which went along the lines of Onehunga - Lyttelton - Dunedin - Lyttelton - Tauranga - Auckland - Lyttelton - Nelson - Onehunga.
 Sourced from Ships of NZ Facebook page
That arrangement lasted until the ill-fated vessel left the fleet towards the end of 2003, after which the Onehunga - Lyttelton - Nelson - Onehunga run was the domain of "Spirit Of Resolution", with New Plymouth added to the northbound schedule in October 2008.
As well as a couple of close calls, "Spirit Of Resolution" made the headlines for all the wrong reasons in 2005 and 2010, her collision with Mangere Bridge and the grounding and loss of her rudder at the Manukau Heads well accounted for in the Harbour Incidents section of the site.
Another incident - not of the headline-grabbing variety, thankfully - occurred at Onehunga on 19 October 2003. Immediately after depositing a twenty-foot tank into her hold, the hook and swivel assembly on the No. 1 crane separated from the block, temporarily reducing her handling power.
Within a year, she'd suffered two more incidents at her northernmost port of call, touching bottom and bending her propellers when departing Onehunga on 29 July 2004, then spending a wee bit of time alongside Mangere Bridge on 12 August when attempting to berth in high winds.
 Taken by Brent Chambers, www.shipspotting.com
On 23 February 2006, while approaching the turning basin prior to berthing, a steering failure saw "Spirit Of Resolution" overshoot the channel and run aground on the mud thirty metres north-east of Reef Beacon.
She was refloated with the assistance of "Tika", a helpless onlooker as the incident unfolded while she was standing by to assist with the berthing process.
"Tika" again came to the rescue on 3 February 2011, when a power failure while heading into port through the Wairopa Channel saw "SOR" lose steering and twice run aground on a mudbank off Titirangi's Kauri Point. The trusty tug pulled her clear of the mud and escorted her to Wesley Bay, where the ship anchored for the afternoon before berthing at Onehunga under the incoming tide.
She was sold to Reef Shipping in November 2012, changing her name to "Reef Nauru II" while at Onehunga. She was one of the assets taken over by Matson Shipping in March 2013 when Reef Shipping went into liquidation, and traded around the islands of the North Pacific for six years before being sold to Turkish interests in mid-2019 and renamed "Dalya H".
Information partly sourced from "Spirit Of The Coast - The Story of Pacifica Shipping", by Nick Tolerton
Below photo, how I'll always remember "Spirit Of Resolution" -
fully laden and in full flight rounding Cape Horn.
Supplied by Robbie McDonald via the Pacifica Shipping Facebook page
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