Hamburg Süd makes major donation for general overhaul of the “Cap San Diego”

The preservation of its former general-cargo freighter “Cap San Diego” is an affair of the heart for Hamburg Süd. The shipping group consequently supports the world’s largest seaworthy museum cargo vessel in a variety of ways.

This includes donations for financing the docking periods of the “Cap San Diego”, which are necessary to ensure her seaworthiness. With a donation of roughly 370,000 euros, therefore, Hamburg Süd recently plugged the funding gap for the general overhaul of the museum freighter undertaken at Blohm + Voss in spring 2011. The shipping group had previously contributed some 500,000 euros to settle the bill for shipyard work in 2006.

In the past two decades, Hamburg Süd has played an instrumental role in keeping the “Cap San Diego” seaworthy. Initially it was mainly replacement parts that the shipping group provided for maintaining and repairing the freighter.

Additionally, former Hamburg Süd seamen have been involved in inspection and maintenance work on a voluntary basis for many years, making a major contribution to the preservation of the vessel. Furthermore, the Hamburg Süd subsidiary Columbus Shipmanagement GmbH lends its expertise as needed in the form of technical guidance.

For Hamburg Süd, the “Cap San Diego” represents a successful and significant epoch in the 140 years of the shipping group’s history. She was launched at Deutsche Werft AG on December 15, 1961, the final newbuilding in a series of six general-cargo freighters for the company.

As the “White Swan of the South Atlantic”, she subsequently completed over 120 round trips for the Hamburg Süd Group from Europe to South America in the space of 20 years, transporting not only the classic general cargoes – coffee, textiles and meat – but also machinery and cars.

On her voyages, the “Cap San Diego” carried the name of the Hamburg Süd shipping group to many of the world’s major seaports and was simultaneously an ambassador of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. <Korea Shipping Gazette>