Built as a ro-ro cargo vessel under yard No 249 by Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., Ulsan, Korea for Wilhelmsen Enterprise A/S, Lysaker, Norway.
04 November 1983 launched as the BARBER TEXAS.
Tonnage 28.287 grt, 16.244 net, 44.081 dwt, dim. 262.08 x 32.31 x 21.01m., length bpp. 246.41m, loaded draught 11.73m.
Powered by an 8-cyl. 2 S.C.S.A. Burmeiser & Wain oil engine, 36.600 bhp. manufactured by Hyundai Shipbuilding & Heaqvy Industries Ltd., Ulsan, speed 21 knots.
Fitted out with a stern ramp.
Container capacity 2.451 TEU’s.
14 March 1984 completed, building cost 511.800.000.00 NKr.
10 February 1989 renamed by owners in TEXAS, and registered under the NIS (Norway International Shipping Registry.)
Under this name she appears on a Pitcairn stamp issued in 1997, while she is engaged in taken a sick patient on board off Pitcairn Island.
The patient is transported from the island to the waiting ship by a whaleboat, the island which did not have a harbour, transport all the people and goods via the whaleboats from or to the waiting ship.
The owner of the TEXAS told that the ships sailing in the service from the Panama Canal to Auckland mostly on the request of the New Zealand Authorities made calls at the island to transport sick people or people what need a medical examination to a hospital in New Zealand.
2003 Converted to a vehicles carrier.
2009 As given by Equasis, in service owned by Wilhelmsen Lines Shipowing and managed by Wallenius Wilhelmsen Lines. IMO No. 8204963. Still under NIS registry.
Pitcairn 1997 $3 sg515, scott 468.
Source: Watercraft Philately. http://www.miramarshipindex.org.nz