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Westport
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Built in Hamburg by J.J. Sietas Schiffswerft, yard 749, she is powered by two 1800hp MAK diesels, producing a service speed of 13.5 knots.
She has one 3 tonne crane, and typically carries 2300 tonnes of Ultracem (general purpose cement) and 800 tonnes of Rapidcem or Duracem (special purpose cements) per trip north from Westport.
 Arriving at Onehunga on her maiden voyage, 27 March 1976
Taken by Dave Gallie, www.shipspotting.com
Her delivery voyage commenced in Hamburg on 1 February 1976, and took in the Panama Canal and Pitcairn Island, before arriving at Lyttelton on 10 March. After docking, she sailed for Westport on 18 March, thence for Onehunga four days later.
From the time of her arrival to the time of Milburn's centenary twelve years later, she carried over 1.7 million tonnes of cement. During this period, NZ Cement Holdings sold her to Westport Nominees Ltd and leased her back from same, an arrangement which concluded in 1998 when Holcim acquired Milburn NZ.
 Southward-bound, as viewed from the Manukau Heads Lighthouse
This period included a spell in 1993 when, due to the downturn in the NZ economy at the time, she headed across the Tasman on charter to the Australian Cement Company, for whom she carried cement from Tasmania across Bass Strait to the mainland.
There was also a famous visit to Nelson on which Captain Gilbert Inkster, himself a former Harbour Master at that port, decided to have a bit of fun, and turned the ship around outside The Cut before bringing her in backwards! Not something you could picture her doing while scything through the Wairopa Channel, one would suggest!
 Sourced from Ships of NZ Facebook page
In January 2002, her Milburn colours were cast aside, to be replaced by a plain white funnel. The Holcim logos on her funnel and superstructure were added in November that year. Thankfully, the idea to change her name to "Holcim Westport I" was smashed out of the ball park!
Later that year, of course, she suffered a mechanical failure, about which more can be read in the Harbour Incidents section of the website. The outcome left her looking far from ship-shape, as emphasised by the below photo:
 Taken by Duncan Montgomery, NZ Coastal Shipping Forum
And here's the never-before-seen damage inflicted upon the bridge, which is still showing its battle scars some fourteen years later! You can gain an appreciation of the scale of the impact by how far the white supporting blocks jut out from the rest of the concrete.
 That incident has been the obvious lowlight of her four decades carrying millions of tonnes of cement around New Zealand's coast, another being the loss of her rudder off the Kaikoura coast en route from Napier to Lyttelton in November 1984.
No assistance was required, however, "Westport" making it to Lyttelton using her bow thruster. She was in port until January 1985, when she set sail for her home port sporting a brand new rudder sent out from J.J. Sietas, her builders in Hamburg.
Later that year, on 5 September, the fully laden ship broke her mooring lines and carried away the bollards on Westport Wharf as the flooded Buller River swept her downstream. It was only a combination of her anchors and her engines being brought up to speed that brought a halt to her progress - thankfully there was no damage, other than that to the wharf.
 "Westport" took on Christmas holiday attraction status at Onehunga on Boxing Day 2003 as she endured a close call. When departing for her home port, a snapped towline allowed the prevailing winds to take charge of proceedings, and "La Grande Dame" tried out a new berth - alongside the Bridge - for size for a couple of hours until the winds eased.
22 February 2011 is a date no one in Christchurch in particular will ever forget - the date of the deadly lunchtime earthquake which forever changed the South Island's principle city.
"Westport" played her part in the recovery process. She was in Lyttelton at the time, having undergone her latest dry docking, and remained in port for a further month after the quake, serving as a power source for services such as the police to use, given power was down over a substantial area.
 On May 9 2016 came one of the highlights of her distinguished career, as she recorded her unprecedented 1100th visit to Onehunga, weeks before the Port's anticipated mid-year closure to freight operations.
Like those of the Port, "Westport"'s days are also numbered. As long ago as 2007, Holcim were contemplating a replacement for her, but 'La Grande Dame' of the New Zealand shipping scene has kept on trucking, although spells in the Lyttelton drydock have been more frequent in later years - not surprisingly, given her age.
 She was initially retired from service upon arriving at Onehunga on what was anticipated to be the last day of shipping activity at the port, on 19 June. But six days later, she was back on duty (above), heading back to her home port to take on the final load of cement produced at the Cape Foulwind works for discharging at Onehunga, where she returned on 2 July.
Her retirement this time lasted eight days! Off she sailed to Westport again on July 10, this time to take on truckloads of cement from the Westport railhead which had previously been intended for use in the South Island market.
 Around 1300hrs on July 23, however, she returned, this time for good. And now "Westport" has finally retired from service, after some 484 months - or 14,729 days - operating around the New Zealand coast, a wee slice of New Zealand's maritime history goes with her, along with the days of ships operating for forty years and beyond for a single operator.
On 7 September, 2016, news came through that "Westport" had been sold as a going concern by Holcim, with SMT Shipping acquiring her for the cement trade in Europe. Exactly two weeks later, she sailed from Onehunga at 11am for the very last time, sporting the name "Fjordvik" - even the seagulls knew it was a momentous occasion, affording her a 21 gull salute on her stern line minutes before she cast off!
 Her initial destination was New Plymouth, fourteen hours later, in time for an in-water survey at first light, after which, at 1.48pm on 22 September 2016, this great servant of the New Zealand maritime scene departed these shores for the very last time, with passage via Papeete and the Panama Canal to Gdynia, Poland, for drydocking - she arrived there on 14 November.
She commenced work for her new owners early in 2017, based in Aalborg, Denmark, and subsequently paid visits to a variety of ports in England, the Faroe Islands, Holland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and, of course, Denmark, before, sadly, this happened.
Make no mistake, we'll probably never see the likes of "Westport" again.
 How "The Westport Turn" was done before the battle with the Bridge!
Taken by Duncan Montgomery, NZ Coastal Shipping Forum
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