Roll On/Roll Off Cargo Ship TAIKO (Revisited)

During our recent visit to Western Australia, a unique looking ship caught my eye along the North Quay deep in Fremantle's Inner Harbour. She was the 'Roll On/Roll Off' cargo ship TAIKO and when launched in 1984 as the BARBER HECTOR, she not only had RO/RO capability, but also carried containers on her upper deck. In 1988, she was purchased by Wallenius Wilhelmsen and a huge garage with two hoist-able decks was built in front of her superstructure which allowed her to solely carry cars along with heavy machinery for the mining, construction and farming industries. 

The 861'x106' TAIKO was built at Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan, South Korea where they crush old Hyundai Excell and Pony cars and make them into ships. I could be wrong about that. Regardless, she currently flies the flag of Norway and her home port is Tonsberg, Norway.

Also catching my eye during our walkabout at Fremantle's Victoria Quay was the Liberian-flagged bulk carrier IPANEMA with her hatches open and this poor swimmer who only scantily clad in a bikini was frozen stiff. It was all this Canadian 🍁 could do to warm her up and take the chill off. Sometimes you do what you have to do, if you know what I mean.

So the song "Girl From Ipanema" is about a ship. c):-o I did not know that.