5 May, 2022 by Juan Carlos Díaz Lorenzo

The Maritime Life of the Ship “Liana” (1967-1990)

For more than forty years, since its foundation in 1922, the Santander shipping company Vapores Costeros operated a fleet of coastal vessels from various shipowners who had joined forces in the same company, until in February 1967 the first newly built ship entered service for this company.

It was called “Liana” and although it was originally going to be built at the La Naval shipyard in Sestao, the contract was transferred to the Matagorda shipyard (Cádiz), where it was the 138th construction. Launched on August 17, 1966, with the usual ceremony, it was a general cargo ship with two holds, with the superstructure and engine room at the stern, which took shape in nine months and was registered in the naval registry of Santander.

With this ship, Vapores Costeros abandoned its tradition in coastal cabotage of the Cantabrian Sea and made long-distance voyages, crossing the North Atlantic several times and servicing other freights in Northern Europe, North Africa, and the Canary Islands. In its early years, it had supports to assist in loading and/or unloading operations, which were later removed.

In its first stage, it was chartered by ENSIDESA, loading large steel pieces in Avilés for cold rolling – 10-ton billets – for steel mills in Northern Europe, returning with the same material transformed into coils of the same weight. In February 1969 – captain, José Urrutia – it crossed the North Atlantic with a cargo of fluorspar destined for New York – also taking a statue of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, coinciding with the 450th anniversary of his birth – and on the return trip, it would carry the first cold rolling train, machinery that was loaded disassembled in pieces in Philadelphia and Baltimore.

The account of that journey has a first-person protagonist, the radio officer Elías Meana, who describes the incidents in detail in the following link. On the return trip to Spain, the first officer José Ángel de Martino suffered an accident, and at the request for medical assistance at sea, the Soviet factory ship “Trudovaj Slava” came to help.

In 1978 it was sold to the Compañía Canaria de Navegación and for a long time was chartered to Naviera Pinillos, a stage during which we visited this ship with captain José “Pipo” Perera Marrero. In 1984, still under the same name, it was resold to Churruca Hermanos, being dedicated to bulk traffic both in the national and international markets.

From its sale in 1990 until its scrapping in 2001 in August 2011 in Aliaga (Turkey), it changed names seven times and at least four owners: “Meritt” (1990-1991, Medrunners Shipping Co. Ltd, Malta), “Captain Nikolas” (1991-1996, same owner and flag), “Kimberly” (1996-1999, Ipanema Shipping Co. Ltd., Malta), “Panayiotis” (1999-2000, ?, Georgia), “Nantia S” (2000, ?, Georgia), “Tia” (2000, ?, Georgia) and “Tiara” (2000-2010, Vestral Shipping Co, Sao Tomé).

With a gross tonnage of 2,197 tons and a deadweight of 3,657 tons, it measured 93 m in length, 14.50 m in beam, 6.30 m in depth, and 5.36 m in maximum draft. It was powered by a Sulzer 8TD48 engine, with 2,800 horsepower on a shaft, allowing it to maintain a speed of 14 knots. IMO Code 6619669.