Some shipping people still remember The Sanko Deal. This is not the disastrous handy bulk carrier deal, but the one before that - the Aframax tanker deal. Sanko went out on a limb in 1972 and placed orders with Japanese shipyards for more than 80 Aframax tankers. Like the Liberty ships and the Victory ships, the Sanko deal tankers were not expected to last very long. "Built on the cheap," some said. There are only a handful of them still trading. One by one, they are being withdrawn from service. One such vessel, the 1976-built Endeavor II, has been sold for demolition at auction. She attracted a very firm price of $425.50 per ldt (about $7.2M)'as is' Karachi. This Polembros vessel has gone to meet its maker in the Tasman spirit.
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