CSL Tarantau Comes to Baltimore December 18, 2020

This 228×32 (748x105ft) Bahamas flagged bulk freighter was built in 2013 by Chengxi Shipyard in Jiangyin, China for Norway based Torvald Klaveness and named Balto. According to this Ship and Bunker article this ship was based on a design by Finland based Deltamarin called B.Delta.

This 2013 Offshore Energy article says she underwent successful sea trials but this 2019 Splash247.com article shows there was a yet to be discovered issue with torsional vibration dampers. The shipbuilder eventually agreed to pay Torvald Klaveness $875,000 to settle the dispute but doesn’t indicate if any corrective action was taken or required.

The blog Shipfax posted in 2015 this article that Klaveness decided to sell all of its self-unloaders of which the Balto was one. She went to CSL which renamed her the CSL Tarantau. CSL posted this news release about its acquisition of two of the ships and describes the former Balto as a Trillium-class vessel.

CSL has this interesting PDF data sheet on the ship which includes diagrams.

Surprisingly I found no news items on this ship other than what I have already indicated above nor any video of this ship.

In my 7 minute 4K video below she can be seen turning onto the Patapsco River from the Chesapeake Bay then making another turn before the pilot boat Baltimore goes out to meet her. As she nears the self discharging equipment comes into clearer view. In the final scenes a pair of Moran tugs can be seen providing assistance.

You can view my photography (more than just ships!) here and more videos here.