Built as a tanker under yard 1224 by Oy Wartsilla ab of Turku/Abo, Finland for Seavalor Ocean Transports Corp., Liberia.
12 February 1976 launched under the name MESSINIAKI ANATOLI.
Tonnage 18.029 gross, 11.947 net, 32.389 dwt., dim. 171.35 x 25.73 x 11.33m.
Powered by a Sulzer diesel 12.000 bhp.
1977 Delivered to owner.
1979 Sold to A.P. Moller, Denmark, renamed GERD MAERSK.
1987 Transferred by I/S Gerd Maersk, Denmark to Maersk Co. Ltd., Isle of Man and renamed MAERSK GANNET.
2003 Sold to Middle Holdings, Piraeus, Greece and managed by Unibros Shipping, Piraeus, Greece, registered under Panama flag and renamed GANNET.
The same year transferred to RPTD Sold Nigeria, not renamed.
March 2005 transferred to Olimpex Nigeria, Lagos, Nigeria, not renamed.
September 2007 renamed by owners in MT PHOENIX.
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Peter Crichton relates: “ In 1990 at the outbreak of the First Gulf War, I took over the post of Royal Fleet Auxiliary Agent in Gibraltar and it was at this time I first came in contact with the MAERSK GANNET which was on charter to the Ministry of Defense (Navy). Her main task was carrying bunkers and aviation fuel to basis in the Mediterranean with the odd trip to Ascension Island to take fuel to the MAERSK ASCENSION, which was anchored off the island.
“My first visit aboard was not an auspicious occasion. Shortly after the ship berthed in Gibraltar, I went on board and after only two paces ended up on my backside, a fate that befell a colleague only seconds later. The captain later told me that during a rough crossing of the Bay of Biscay on her way to the Rock, she had suffered broken hydraulic pipes and the fluid ended up all over the deck”.
For the next two years every time I went on board it was like walking on an ice rink. I did find the MAERSK GANNET to be something of a jinx ship for me. On one occasion, the gangway seized up while she was at anchor and I had to go up the rope ladder, something I hated after an earlier bad experience on a RAF vessel. On another occasion, one of the rails on the gangway collapsed, as I was halfway up. I just managed to avoid a 30-foot fall, which would have taken me between the ship and the quay.
Despite all these problems I always looked forward to the MAERSK GANNET’s visits to Gibraltar, as I got on very well with her captain and the company rep who used to fly out from London.
After the Gulf War, the MAERSK GANNET remained on charter to MOD(N), and continued her shuttle trips around the Mediterranean. On 26 February 1999, she departed westbound from Augusta in Italy, and after passing Gibraltar on 3 March, headed south for Ascension Island to relieve the MAERSK ASCENSION, which had left the island and reached Apapa-Lagos on 29 April 1999, with reports that she was to be renamed ASCENSION.
The Ascension Post leaflet gives on this stamp:
Various tankers operated by the Maersk Company have until recently, been moored at Ascension Island. Some had been at Ascension since the 1982 Falkland War when they played a vital role for offshore fuel storage. Indeed, Maersk tankers were assigned their own BFPO (British Forces Post Office) numbers at that time.
2009 as given by http://www.equasis.org gives: IMO No 7359503. Call sign HPUF. Same owner and manager.
Marine News 1979/597, 1988/230. Watercraft Philately 2004/42.