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SPEECH - SAFMARINE KOMATI - LUNCH - PE
Speech: Safmarine Komati naming - by Peter Ehrenreich - lunch time address
Godmother, Mrs. Jingying Liang, Mr. Zhang Ming Lei, Mr. K. W. Park, Captain Smith, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good afternoon,
First of all - I want to take this opportunity to thank Mrs. Liang Jingying for being our Godmother this morning.
I congratulate her for a job well done even though it always breaks my heart to see a good bottle of champagne being wasted. Mrs. Liang Jingying - you did a great job and we are so happy we no longer have to call our new baby for "Hull No 173" - we now have a named Lady - a Lady ready to face the big oceans.
And she is very beautiful - she is not just another ship !I would argue, with Mr. Park's permission to spice up this a bit - we have a sexy Lady of the Seas -and she is proudly named Safmarine Komati.
I know you will all say I have been in shipping for too long and I am brain damaged when I can call a ship "sexy". But why do I call Safmarine Komati for a sexy Lady?
Well - She is voluptuous with beautiful curves along the 40 metres she is wide and 300 metres she is long - three rugby fields or soccer fields, she can carry more than 81,000 tons cargo.
She has a container capacity of 6,160 twenty foot containers - if we take all the containers we expect to load on Safmarine Komati and put them next to each other like a long snake - the snake would almost reach the length of a marathon race of 42 km, she had special designers like any great Hollywood star, and her service speed on the ocean is 25.1 knots or approximately 46 kilometres per hour.
In fact, you can easily water ski behind her !!!
So all in all - YES - I find Safmarine Komati very sexy !A very impressive Lady of the Sea indeed.
In Safmarine - it is a tradition that we name our ships after African mountains, African lakes and African rivers.
Today - a river's name was used. Safmarine Komati is identical to her sister who was named on March 31st here at the very same yard. Her sister, Safmarine Kariba, was named after a large lake in Zambia.
Safmarine Komati was today named after an African river. For those of you who were unable to attend geography lessons at school - or unable to stay awake - please allow me to refresh your memory and give you some details about this particular river.
The Komati River (also called Inkomati River) is a river running through three countries : South Africa, The Kingdom of Swaziland and Mozambique.
The Komati River is 480 kilometres long, with a drainage basin of 50,000 square kilometres (19,300 sq mi) in size. This is larger than my home country Denmark.
The name Komati is derived from the word inkomati (in siSwati the language of Swaziland), meaning "cow".
Now why would the local people in Swaziland name a river after a cow ? And why on earth would Safmarine name a ship after a river - named after a cow ?It does not make sense unless it is a "cash cow". I have tried to dig deeper to find out.
Well, the Komati River is a so-called perennial river. A perennial river has water flowing the entire year compared to many other rivers, which dry out during some parts of the year. This is therefore a river with many benefits for the people living along it as they can rely on it throughout the year. The local Swazi people therefore called the river for inKomati comparing the river to a cow that can always give milk.
It is my hope - the Safmarine Komati will also be a perennial ship - always being safe on the ocean - and always generating lots of revenue for its owner.
The Komati River rises at an elevation of about 1,700 metres in the Ermelo district of the Mpumalanga province. It flows, as water usually does, in northeasterly direction and reaches the Indian Ocean at Delagoa Bay. The Komati Gorge is situated in the upper reaches of the Komati River and is the habitat of many endangered species, wild animals and the flora is also very diversified. In 2001 the 115metres high wall of the Maguga Dam was completed south of Piggs Peak, Swaziland.Many people therefore today also enjoy the electricity generated from the dam on Komati River.
The Komati River gives life to many People, Animals and Plants !
There has also been drama along the Komati River.
On September 23, 1900, during the Second Boer War, 3,000 Boers crossed the frontier at the small town of Komati Poort, and surrendered to the Portuguese authorities. Later, on November 7, 1900, the river banks of the Komati became the site of a battle between the British Empire and the Boers. The Battle of Leliefontein was a retreat by the British, harassed by the Boers, who were threatening to capture the British Artillery. The British guns were saved by the Royal Canadian Dragoons who charged the Boers, the British kept their artillery and won the battle.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today, we fortunately had no battle to fight along the Safmarine Komati apart from the champagne explosion caused by Mrs. Liang Jingying when she named our perennial ship after inKomati - the Sexy Cow with milk forever - the Lady of the Sea - our Safmarine Komati.
I hope you all agree with me that Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction have delivered a master piece to Safmarine today. Thank you Mr.K.W. Park and to your professional team as well. Also thank you for hosting us all at today's luncheon.
As I thank you all for having attended the naming ceremony with Safmarine today - I ask you kindly to join me in a toast for our fine ship under the safe leadership of its Master, Captain Smith.
To Safmarine Komati !
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