Ybarra Panama. “Bayano” (1976-1980)

The third of the four ships rented by Ybarra y Cía. in the mid-1970s from the American Navigation Company of Vapores SRL was named “Bayano”. It paid homage to the maroon black whose origins remain nebulous. It is said that he was the most notable of the leaders of the slaves who, having escaped from the control of their masters, dedicated himself to all kinds of mischief, attacking the traffic on the Camino Real and the neighbors of Panama and Nombre de Dios, causing enormous losses to the colonists. The uprising of Bayano, whom his followers elevated to the status of king, lasted according to sources from 1552 to 1556 or from 1556 to 1558. His end is unclear. Some say that when he was captured, he was sent to Seville and honored – which is surprising after having inflicted so much damage – while other authors maintain that he was hanged in Peru.

With the four ships of this stage – the other three sailed under the names “Balboa”, “Bastidas” and “Belalcázar” – Ybarra y Cía. opened a new line that made stops at several important European ports: Le Havre, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Bremen, Hamburg, Liverpool, and Glasgow. This was a consequence of its membership in the River Plate-Europe-River Plate freight conference and the shipping rights that the National Port Administration of Uruguay (ANP) had in Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, and the United Kingdom. Since the aforementioned ANP did not have ships, Ybarra offered to charter space on his, making the agreement of notable significance. Uruguayan law stipulated that 50% of the import and export cargoes of Uruguay had to be transported on national-flagged ships.[1]

This was the maritime appearance of the four ships of the V series of KPM

Construction number 545 from the De Merwede S & M shipyard in Hardinxveld (Holland), it was launched on November 2, 1957, named “Van Heemskerck” and delivered on March 21, 1958, flying the flag of the company Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij (KPM). On its maiden voyage, chartered by Holland America Line, it set sail on April 5 from Amsterdam with a cargo of cars bound for Cape Town, continuing directly to Japan.

It was the first of a series of four line freighters of type V named after Dutch painters and had accommodation for 12 passengers. The other three were named “Van der Hagen”, “Van Spilbergen” and “Van Linschoten” and were designed to serve the traffic of the Indonesian archipelago, although when they entered service, the plans had changed and they were assigned to cover the regular line of the so-called East Africa Service between Amsterdam and Hong Kong via Cape Town and intermediate ports.

The independence of Indonesia in 1965 and the subsequent problems between Holland and New Guinea led to the decision in 1966 to reorganize national maritime transport. For this reason, it was agreed to merge the companies KPM and Koninklijke Java-China-Paketvaart Linjen NV (KJCPL), also known as Royal Interocean Lines (RIL), which took effect on January 1, 1967. In the same operation, the subsidiary companies Hollandse Vrachtvaart Maatschappij (HVM) and Nederlandse Tank-en Paketvaart Maatschappij (NTPM) were merged, resulting in the aforementioned RIL, based in Amsterdam, having a fleet of 77 ships totaling 520,620 gross tons.

In its second stage, it sailed under the name “Straat Le Maire”

In 1966, the hull of the ship “Van Heemskerck” was lengthened, and in 1967 it passed to the Royal Interocean Lines, renamed “Straat Le Maire”. In 1968 and 1969, together with the ship “Straat Luzon”, formerly “Van Spilbergen”, it served a regular line based in Sydney with stops in Hobart, Melbourne, Lourenço Marques, Durban, Cape Town, Abidjan, Takoradi, Tema, and Lagos, while on return trips it made stops in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Durban, Freemantle, Adelaide, Melbourne, Dunedin, Auckland, and rendered in Sydney.

In February 1976, it was inspected at the port of Abidjan and shortly thereafter acquired by the American Navigation Company of Vapores SRL, flagged in Panama and renamed “Bayano”. A new stage then began in which it flew the flag of Ybarra y Cía. The designated crew took charge of the ship in April 1976 at the port of Rotterdam, and when the contract ended, it was delivered in February 1980 at the port of Bilbao. It then passed to the United Five Shipping Corp. and, under the new name “Tribute Five”, arrived in Kaohsiung (Taiwan) in June of that year, where it was dismantled at the Yung Steel Wire Co. factory.

Its maritime appearance, especially the masts, clearly denoted its origin. When it set sail, it was a ship of 5,924 gross tons, 3,071 net tons, and 7,309 deadweight tons, with a hull measuring 127.80 m in overall length -117 m between perpendiculars-, 17.37 m in beam, 9.44 m in depth, and 7.62 m in draft. It had four holds with a capacity of 8,778 cubic meters.

In 1966, a new section of 18 m was added, which became hold number three equipped with a hydraulic crane – the total cubic capacity increased to 9,259 cubic meters – while hold number four was prepared for the transport of liquids. The length increased to 145.80 m, and the gross tonnage was 6,827 tons with a deadweight of 8,453 tons. It was powered by a diesel engine that allowed it to maintain a speed of 14.5 knots. IMO Code 5376129.

Photos: Fernando Estrañi (via Alberto Mantilla), Richard Matterson and Cris Howell (shipspotting.com).

Note:

[1] Castillo Dueñas, Adolfo and Ybarra Mencos, Iñigo. The shipping company Ybarra. p 350. Seville, 2004.