Schippersgracht Comes to Baltimore December 21, 2020

This 168x25m (551x82ft) Netherlands flagged general cargo ship was built in 2000 by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Kobe, Japan for Amsterdam, Netherlands based spliethoff which provided this interesting data sheet.

This ship was caught in the middle of an uncomfortable situation in 2012 when she was named “The Ship of Shame” according to this Amnesty International article when she was carrying weapons from the US to Egypt. I was not able to find out what the final disposition of this cargo was.

In a happier blog posting by Shipfax in 2018 she made an arrival to Halifax to unload new Rubber Tired Gantry cranes. No photos are forthcoming unfortunately, however, as weather prevented that. This blog posting does go on to talk about the source of the Schippersgracht name and does include photos of that.

A 2019 Marine Safety Innovation Lab posting talks about her visit here in Baltimore.

This 2011 video shows her on the Weser River in Germany. This video posted in 2018 but taken in 2014 shows her loading and unloading boats.

In my 6 minute 4K video below she can be seen arriving one foggy morning on the Patapsco River as she heads for Baltimore, Maryland. A row of blue spliethoff containers can be seen on deck. As the ship nears crew members can be seen working on the bow to prepare her for docking. A pair of tugs, one McAllister and the other Moran can be seen passing preparing to receive a following ship. Tug Rising Sun can be seen pushing floating crane Hampton Roads in the last two scenes.

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