MV ''Taiko'' was a roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) freighter managed by the Norwegian-Swedish shipping line

Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics was a privately owned Norwegian/Swedish shipping company, established in 1999 and co-owned by the two shipping companies Wallenius Lines and Wilh. Wilhelmsen. Overview Prior to its restructuring and division of its ...

. She was built as ''Barber Hector'' by

Hyundai Heavy Industries Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (HHI; ) is the world's largest shipbuilding company and a major heavy equipment manufacturer. Its headquarters are in Ulsan, South Korea. History HHI was founded in 1972 by Chung Ju-yung as a division of the ...

Ulsan Ulsan (), officially the Ulsan Metropolitan City is South Korea's seventh-largest metropolitan city and the eighth-largest city overall, with a population of over 1.1 million inhabitants. It is located in the south-east of the country, neighboring ...

, South Korea in 1984 for

Blue Funnel Line Alfred Holt and Company, trading as Blue Funnel Line, was a UK shipping company that was founded in 1866 and operated merchant ships for 122 years. It was one of the UK's larger shipowning and operating companies, and as such had a significan ...

, part of the

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

company Ocean Transport & Trading Ltd, and was Blue Funnel's last newbuilding. She was deployed on Barber Blue Sea Line, a joint venture between Blue Funnel,

Wilh. Wilhelmsen Wilh. Wilhelmsen Holding ASA (WWH) is a Norwegian multinational maritime industry, maritime group, headquartered in Lysaker, Norway. The group employs more than 21,000 people and has operations in 75 nations. The Wilhelmsen group operates the la ...

, Oslo and the Broström Group of Sweden. In 1988 Ocean withdrew from Barber Blue Sea line and ''Barber Hector'' was sold to the Swedish partner, chartered to Wilhelmsen and renamed ''Taiko''. Wilhelmsen purchased the vessel in 1993. Built to carry RoRo cargoes and containers, the ship initially had a tonnage of 27,990 GT. In 2008 ''Taiko'' was converted to a vehicle carrier in China, resulting in an increase to 66,532 GT. In addition to its car decks, loaded and unloaded through a ramp with 400 tonnes carrying capacity (via a 6.4 m high and 12.5 m wide hatch), it has two hoistable decks.Fleet List
(from the

website. Accessed 11 March 2008.) In December 2013, ''Taiko'' was hired by the Norwegian Government to transport Syrian chemical weapons abroad for destruction, involving also the Danish cargo ship ''Ark Futura'', under protection of the Norwegian frigate and the Danish support ship as well as Chinese, Russian and British warships. Specialist military personnel were also placed on board. ''Taiko'' loaded chemicals at the

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

n port of

Latakia , coordinates = , elevation_footnotes = , elevation_m = 11 , elevation_ft = , postal_code_type = , postal_code = , area_code = Country code: 963 City code: 41 , geocode ...

, for transport to Finland and the USA for destruction.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taiko 1983 ships Ships built by Hyundai Heavy Industries Group Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics Ro-ro ships

See also

References