ONE of the world’s largest container ships has been named after a former Felixstowe woman – and the vessel will help maintain her links with the town.
The 366-metre long vessel was named after Katie Parvin, who was also invited to carry out the launch ceremony.
Katie, who was born in Ipswich, and brought up in Constable Road, Felixstowe, where she lived with her parents Alison and Chris and younger brother Sam, was given the honour of having a ship named after her because her dad works for MSC.
The company has a long-held policy of naming its new vessels – traditionally female in the shipping world – after the wives and family of employees, carrying their names on the high seas all over the globe.
Katie, who lived in Felixstowe until she was eight, was lucky enough to travel with her family to South Korea, where the MSC Katie was built at the Stx Offshore and Shipbuilding company’s yard, to christen the 140,000 ton container ship.
In a quayside ceremony last November, she sliced a rope with a hatchet to unveil the new vessel’s name.
The ship – which is able to carry 12,400 standard-sized boxes – is one of the largest in the MSC fleet.
After the ceremony the MSC Katie set off on her maiden voyage, which included a visit to the Port of Felixstowe, which will be one of its calls on its service.
Katie and her family moved to America in July, 1995, as her father Chris’s career progressed.
He is now MSC’s vice president of US Marine Operations in Charleston South Carolina. He and his wife live in the Isle of Palms.
Katie, now 25, works with children aged six and seven through the Teach For America programme in Colorado.
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