Newspaper Article 1978 – Launched any ships lately?

Launched any ships lately?

We are all subjects to flights of fancy during our lifetime.

It is highly unlikely that many of us ever dream we will one day be asked to launch a ship! Such an honour did, however, fall recently to Marion Kiddle, Havelock North. Marion’s husband Ken, is the Dominion Chairman of the New Zealand Apple and Pear Marketing Board, and it was in this capacity that he and Marion were invited by the Danish Shipbuilding firm of J. Lauritzen A/S to visit Japan and launch the 12,000 tonne ship “Balkan Reefer” then building at the Nagasaki shipbuilding yards of the Hayashikane Shipbuilding and Engineering Company.

This Danish firm has recently been subletting contracts to the Japanese firm, and it is a subsidiary line of the Danish company that carries a great deal of New Zealand fruit to Europe, 290,000 cartons of apples to be exact. A sister ship to be named “Asian Reefer” had already been launched but was tied to a neighbouring quayside awaiting the naming ceremony, and this took place at the same function. I was told that the name “Reefer” attached to ships of this line means that the ship is a refrigerated vessel.

The day of the launching was April 25, but Marion and Ken went to Tokyo the previous weekend, where their Danish hosts met them and entertained them at the Hakone National Park in which is the famous outdoor sculpture museum. There they were wined and dined all weekend and accommodated in a well-appointed hotel.

The actual launching was a most impressive and moving ceremony. With the Japanese love for vivid decoration, the dais erected for the official party was a riot of colour and the party was given tremendously large rosettes to wear. The ladies were presented with sheaves of exquisitely arranged flowers by gaily-clad Geisha girls, and a band in scarlet uniform was in attendance on the quayside. The dais held the Danish Ambassador and his wife, representatives of the Danish shipping line, while other New Zealand guests besides the Kiddles included Dr and Mrs W. A. McGilvray, late of Palmerston North, representative of the NZ Dairy Board, Mr and Mrs J. Mills, Asian director of the NZ Meat Board, and Mr and Mrs Ross Walker, Managing Director of McKay’s Shipping Company.

“After the bouquets were presented,” said Marion taking up the tale, “I had to step forward to a small table on which were placed two boxes. One contained a scroll which was handed to me. On it were the words of the speech I was expected to make, but I had already prepared my own and it was this I used – “I name this ship ‘British Reefer.” May she make many safe and prosperous voyages of the high seas. Bless this ship and all who sail in her.

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and removed the chocks, leaving a strut on each side. Two Japanese men came forward, bowed, and presented lynch pins, and two more came up with flags for signalling. They then opened the second box and handed me a small silver axe. A red and white cord ran across a small block of wood on the table, and up to the prow of the ship. I was asked to chop the cord through with the axe.

“The traditional bottle of champagne was up in the bows and as I chopped through the cord, the bottle high above was dashed across the bows and broke, hundreds of bright balloons rose in the air, and coloured tinsel drifted downwards in a rainbow cloud – it all looked so beautiful. At the same time the men with the flags signalled to men on either side, and they in turn cut through the remaining struts with a welding torch.

“The ship immediately started to slide gently towards the water. There was then a terrific noise of chains rattling and clouds of red dust (probably from the rusting chains) rose high into the air. The whole performance seemed to take only a minute or two and was completely effortless with no doubt that all that it would be a successful launching.”

The launching completed, they all then went around to the other wharf where a similar ceremony took place to name the second ship “Asian Reefer.”

Marion was warm in her praise of the hospitality lavished upon them wherever they had gone. The night before the launching the Japanese shipbuilding company had entertained them at a typically Japanese meal where they had sat on the floor at long tables. Geisha girls were in attendance to pour their wine and make conversation. It is significant that they paid little attention to the ladies of the party – as a rule women are not taken out to functions of this kind.

After the launching a Chinese lunch was served, and that evening the Danish shipbuilding company put on a formal dinner for the visitors served in Western style, at which there was a most striking centrepiece – a huge bird carved out of ice. All the meals were very palatable and beautifully cooked.

The Kiddles were impressed with Japan and hope to return there one day – the countryside is very pretty – and very clean, the people all very well dressed, an air of prosperity abounds, and above all the people, particularly the children, are very happy and friendly.

Hilda Bradley

Photo captions –

Mrs Kiddle speaking at the launching ceremony.

The Balkan Refer [Reefer] moves down the slipway.