by Steve Saunders
SEEN AS a novel form of advertising Cape Town's bid to host the 2004 Olympic Games, P&O's 2 984 teu Table Bay has been renamed the City of Cape Town.
At a festive ceremony conducted from a cruise launch drawn up alongside the container vessel and attended by some 150 guests last week, the mayor of the city, Alderman Theresa Solomon, officially renamed the vessel to the accompaniment of an on-board brass band and considerable noise from the ship's siren.
John Turner, chairman of Ellerman & Bucknall, agents for P&O in SA, said that the introduction of the City of Cape Town, which replaces the City of Durban on SAECS (SA - Europe Container Service), was evidence of the improvement in container services to and from South Africa introduced by P&O in the face of recent encouraging growth in exports.