Hong Kong containership takes Montreal's gold headed cane

CAPTAIN Steven Lloyd, the skipper of the OOCL Belgium, has formally received the Gold-Headed Cane award for the first arrival of the New Year by an ocean-going vessel at the Port of Montreal without a stopover, in a maritime tradition that dates back to 1840.

The containership operated by Hong Kong's Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) flies the Hong Kong flag, reported The Gazette.

It noted that the trophy - created in 1840 to stimulate transatlantic traffic - wasn't always a cane. Indeed, until 1880, a beaver top hat was given to the winning captain. It then became a cane capped with a 14-karat gold head.

Much of the honour is deprived of real meaning as the prize was once won in the spring ice break-up and presented to the ship that ran some risk in making it into harbour first to open the summer navigation season. But with winter-long ice breaking service, it now often means the first ship in after midnight December 31.

(Source: www.schednet.com)