The conventional general cargo vessel CARIBIA was delivered about 3 months after her sister vessel CASSARATE by VEB Warnowwerft Warnemünde, Warnemünde, near Rostock in the former GDR (German Democratic Republic) under the hull number 449 for Suisse-Outremer Bereederungs- und Befrachtungs A.G., Zürich. The vessel was launched under Liberian flag on 21.10.1966 and was christened by Mrs. Nadja Tiller, the famous Austrian movie actress of the fifties and sixties. During outfitting the owners transferred the vessel to St. Gotthard Schiffahrts A. G., Chur and the CARIBIA was entered under register number 081 in the Swiss registry, call sign: HBLA. Her home port was Basilea (Italian language for Basel) and she was delivered on 13.3.1967 to her owners. Lloyd’s Register No. 6710138.
The vessel was a Type VI (also called Vyborg class) conventional cargo ship, of which 34 ships were built between 1963 and 1970, mainly for the USSR (18), China (6), France (4), Norway (2), Singapore (2) and for Switzerland 2 vessels. These ships were apparently not too successful and soon were made obsolete by new developments in the shipping industry. For this, most vessels were scrapped at an age of about 20 years. One ship of this class, the 1965 built, Soviet flag VELIKIYE USTUG sank on 13.03.1968 during a severe storm southeast of Newfoundland, while under way from Cuba to Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). All crew were saved.
The ship had 5 cargo holds and her large superstructure was ¾ aft. The cargo gear consisted of: 1x 60-ton SWL heavy lift (Jumbo), 4x 3-10-ton SWL, 8x 3-5-ton SWL derricks, served by 12 electric cargo winches. She had hydraulically operated steel hatch covers and steel tweendeck covers, which made the job of the deck crew easier, on the other hand, the maintenance of the cargo gear was a very time consuming task. Further, old AB's sailing on these vessels remember, that the ships were very easy to steer and responded very well.
The propulsion plant consisted of one two-stroke, slowspeed, turbocharged 9 cylinder crosshead diesel engine of MAN design, built under license by DMWR, Dieselmotorenwerke Rostock, type: K9Z 70/120 A5 developing 8'150 BHP. The reversible engine was directly coupled to a FP-propeller. The design was modified from the original MAN-design and it caused a lot of headaches and dirty work for the engine crew. The scavenge air receivers and scavenge air ports fouled-up quickly with oily soot and sludge, causing frequent scavenge air fires and therefore had to be cleaned very often.
The 3 diesel generators, made by SKL (VEB Schwermaschinenbau Karl Liebknecht, Magdeburg, GDR) run at a modest 500 RPM and the alternators produced 3-phase AC, 380V 50 Hz. These engines were very sensitive to the quality of the diesel oil burnt and usually smoked very badly.
The ship had no bridge control and no automation fitted in the engine room. Engine room watches had to be kept at sea and in port. However, for all major systems automatic temperature control valves were installed, but these were of poor quality and soon were taken out of service and the temperatures were manually controlled by the watch keepers.
In the late sixties, early seventies the majority of the crew were still Swiss nationals, but many of the officers, especially deck and senior officers came from other West European countries, like Germany and the Netherlands. However, there were also several Swiss masters and chief engineers serving on board these two vessels. The crew accommodations were at a comparatively high standard, all ratings had single cabins, except for deck and mess boys, who lived in double cabins. A few cabins for passengers were also provided.
At first the CARIBIA was in time charter for the French company Transatlantique, sailing from Europe to the West coast of South America, later she was trading for Fabre Lines to the East coast of South America. Other charters included CAS Central America Service of KNSM, Amsterdam, Deutsche Afrika Linien, Hamburg, Hapag-Lloyd, Hamburg, North Star Line, USA, Maersk Line, Copenhagen and other shipping lines. The CARIBIA and her sister CASSARATE mainly traded from Europe to South, Central and North America (Great Lakes), East and South Africa, the Far East and the Persian Gulf.
During her maiden voyage and first passage of the Kiel-Canal, the CARIBIA collided on 15.03.1967 with the West-German coaster "Uppland" (649/55) from the Partenreederei M.S."Uppland", Hamburg (Management: Mathies Reederei K.G., Hamburg). The coaster sank, but all her crew was saved.
During 1967 the CARIBIA was sold internally to Bernina Hochsee-Schiffahrts A.G., Chur (same management), with name, flag and homeport retained.
April 1978, the management name was shortened to Suisse-Outremer Reederei A.G., Zürich.
In early 1980 sold to First Newham Shipping Co. S.A., Panama, the management was with Snaddon Co. Ltd., Hong Kong. She was taken over by her new owners in Tampa, Fla. USA on 28.02.1980, renamed AFRICAN AMBER and registered under Panama flag (official No. 10198-80, call sign: H8PY).
The ship was sold again on 21.04.1982 at Lagos/Apapa, Nigeria to Oceanwave Marine Corp., Piraeus, the managers were Shipping & Commercial Corp., Piraeus. She was renamed ANTONIS and put under Greek flag with her home port being Piraeus (GRT: 8665, NRT: 5009, DWT: 12'837, official No. 8264, call sign: SZQN).
In 1986 sold for demolition to Taiwan at a reported price of 116.- USD per lightweight ton. She arrived on 15.03.1986 at Kaohsiung, Taiwan and demolition began on 26.03.1986 by Nan Ho Steel Enterprise Co. Ltd., Kaohsiung.