Alster N

At 171,924 gross tons, Alster N is the 326th largest of the 84,014 vessels in this registry that report a tonnage. The median across that set is 5,994 GT, so this hull is about 29 times the typical vessel on record here. The largest measures 499,167 GT.

Among the 6,890 bulk carriers held here, it ranks 21st by tonnage — larger than 100% of that group. Their median tonnage is 32,837 GT, and the largest tenth begin at 85,849 GT. The flag most often flown by this group is Panama (1,548 ships). The yard that appears most often against it is Oshima Shipbuilding, with 337 hulls on record.

Alster N was built in 1988, making it 38 years old. It is one of 920 hulls in this registry delivered that year, a cohort whose median tonnage is 1,512 GT; within it this ship is the 1st largest. Across the whole of the 1980s the registry holds 13,213 vessels, median 3,004 GT. The median build year across the entire registry is 1995.

At 340.0 m overall, Alster N is 150.0 m longer than the 190.0 m median for bulk carriers on record.

IMO numbers are issued in broadly chronological blocks. Within 500 either side of 8418162 this registry holds 45 other vessels, whose median build year is 1985 and which range from 1984 to 1992. That places this hull’s registration in the same part of the series, consistent with its recorded build year of 1988.

Its IMO number, 8418162, carries its own check digit. The first six digits are weighted seven down to two and summed — 8×7 + 4×6 + 1×5 + 8×4 + 1×3 + 6×2 = 132 — and the last digit of that total, 2, must equal the seventh digit, 2. It does, so this number is well formed.