KOTA LEKAS (IMO: 9625401) Table Bay, Cape Town
KOTA LEKAS IMO 9625401 | Cape Town Ship Spotting & MOS
KOTA LEKAS, IMO 9625401: a 2014-built container ship documented in Cape Town through the Vernon Chalmers Maritime Observation System. |
| ORIENT ADVENTURER (IMO: 9664706) Table Bay, Cape Town |
Photographer's Note: ORIENT ADVENTURER (IMO: 9664706) was photographed by Vernon Chalmers in Table Bay, Cape Town. The image forms part of the Vernon Chalmers Photography Maritime Studies Project and is also published in the Shipspotting.com database.
A Container Ship Enters the Maritime Observation System
A vessel does not need to be photographed from a harbour wall to become part of a maritime photographic record.
Sometimes the first encounter is an image appearing within a much larger visual stream — in this case, a Shipspotting index associated with Cape Town. The vessel's name, KOTA LEKAS, immediately provides the starting point for a Maritime Observation System investigation.
The IMO number — 9625401 — then becomes the critical identifier.
This distinction is important. A ship's name can change, while its IMO number is intended to remain its persistent identity. For MOS, therefore, the name begins the investigation; the IMO number establishes the vessel record.
KOTA LEKAS becomes the latest addition to the growing VCP maritime archive.
From Visual Observation to Vessel Identity
The MOS process begins with OBSERVE.
At this stage the objective is deliberately uncomplicated: record what is actually present in the photographic or documentary evidence before attempting to explain it.
The Shipspotting record identifies the vessel as KOTA LEKAS and associates it with IMO 9625401. Independent vessel databases identify the same IMO number with a container ship approximately 255 metres long and 37 metres in beam. (Shipspotting)
The IMO number provides the bridge between the photograph and the vessel's wider maritime history.
This is where IDENTIFY begins.
Once the identity is established, the photograph ceases to be simply an image of an unidentified ship. It becomes an observation attached to a specific vessel.
KOTA LEKAS — The Vessel
KOTA LEKAS is a large cellular container vessel built in China in 2014 at Shanghai Shipyard Company Ltd. Fleet records give the vessel's construction date as 30 September 2014, with the vessel having been launched in November 2013. (Fleetphoto)
Its principal characteristics place it firmly within the large ocean-going container-ship category:
- IMO: 9625401
- MMSI: 563172300
- Call sign: 9V8480
- Length: approximately 255 m
- Beam: approximately 37 m
- Gross tonnage: approximately 47,933 GT
- Deadweight: approximately 57,700 tonnes
- Container capacity: approximately 4,848 TEU
- Year built: 2014
- Builder: Shanghai Shipyard, Shanghai, China
Current flag: Singapore
The most recent sources agree on the Singapore registration and the operational identifiers 9V8480 and 563172300. (Flexport Atlas)
There is, however, an interesting historical detail in the vessel record.
Earlier Ship spotting records show KOTA LEKAS under the Hong Kong flag, with the callsign VRNU3 and MMSI 477518400. Those records also identify the vessel's previous name as CAP SERRAT, ending in September 2014. (Shipspotting)
More recent records show the transition to Singapore registration and the current callsign and MMSI. This is precisely the sort of detail that demonstrates why MOS records should be treated as evolving research records rather than static collections of photographic captions.
Vernon Chalmers Ship Spotting Photography Portfolio
The Meaning of "KOTA"
The name itself is characteristic of the naming tradition associated with Pacific International Lines.
KOTA is a Malay word associated with a city or fortified settlement, while PIL has historically used the KOTA prefix extensively within its container fleet.
KOTA LEKAS therefore belongs not merely to an individual vessel record but to a broader naming and fleet tradition within Asian maritime transport.
The vessel has also been documented operating in international container trade. Historical records show KOTA LEKAS calling at ports including Singapore, Durban, Santos and other international destinations. A 2025 photographic record, for example, documented the ship at Hong Kong after a voyage sequence involving Xiamen, Kaohsiung, Singapore, Cape Town and Durban. (Flickr)
This is particularly relevant to a Cape Town-based maritime observation project.
The appearance of a vessel in Table Bay is rarely an isolated event. It can represent one visible point within a much larger commercial and geographic system.
Table Bay Maritime Environment Through Photography
KOTA LEKAS and the Cape Town Connection
The maritime significance of KOTA LEKAS becomes clearer when its operating pattern is considered.
Current shipping data associates the vessel with services connecting Asia and Southern Africa, including the PIL UBX service. The published service rotation includes Singapore, Durban and Cape Town within a broader Asia–Southern Africa route structure. (Flexport Atlas)
This provides an important interpretive layer to the MOS observation.
From the perspective of Milnerton and Table Bay, a container ship can appear to be simply another vessel moving along the horizon.
From a maritime perspective, it may represent:
Asian manufacturing → container transport → Southern African port infrastructure → regional distribution → international supply chains.
The photograph therefore becomes a small visual fragment of a much larger economic geography.
That is one of the reasons shipspotting becomes considerably more interesting when observation is followed by investigation.
A Vessel Designed for Distance
At approximately 255 metres long, KOTA LEKAS is substantial enough to demonstrate the scale of contemporary container shipping even when observed from several kilometres away.
Its dimensions also illustrate an important photographic challenge.
A vessel of this scale does not necessarily appear large in a photograph.
Distance compresses the relationship between the ship and its surroundings. Atmospheric haze, sea conditions, heat shimmer and the limited angular resolution available at long focal lengths can all reduce the amount of visible detail.
This is where the MOS project intersects directly with photographic practice.
The objective is not simply to produce a visually attractive ship photograph.
The objective is to produce an image sufficiently informative to support identification, documentation and later investigation.
That changes the photographer's relationship with the subject.
The Photographic Problem
A vessel such as KOTA LEKAS presents an interesting focal-length problem from the Cape Town coastline.
At approximately 255 metres in length, the ship can occupy a substantial horizontal dimension in the frame while still appearing relatively small when it is offshore.
A long telephoto lens therefore becomes useful not simply for magnification, but for information retrieval.
Super-telephoto photography can reveal:
- bridge and accommodation details;
- container-stack configuration;
- funnel markings;
- hull lettering;
- cranes and deck equipment;
- bow and stern design;
- navigation structures;
- draft markings;
- distinctive colour and livery patterns.
The resulting photograph can consequently operate on two levels.
It is simultaneously a photograph and a research document.
That distinction is central to the VCP Maritime Observation System.
From Identification to Investigation
Once KOTA LEKAS has been positively associated with IMO 9625401, the next MOS stage is INVESTIGATE.
Several questions immediately become possible:
Where was the vessel built?
When did it enter service?
What was its previous name?
Which flag does it currently carry?
What are its dimensions and cargo capacity?
Which shipping services has it operated?
Which ports does it connect?
What does its appearance tell us about its class and operational role?
The answers gradually transform the original observation into a vessel history.
In the case of KOTA LEKAS, the investigation reveals a vessel constructed at Shanghai Shipyard, entering service in 2014 and subsequently operating internationally as a container ship. Its documented history includes both Hong Kong and Singapore registration phases, while its operational history connects it to the Asia–Southern Africa trade network. (Fleetphoto)
The Value of the IMO Number
For MOS, 9625401 is more important than the vessel's name.
This may initially seem counterintuitive.
A photograph identifies a ship visually through its name, markings, structure and context. But names can be duplicated, modified or changed.
The IMO number provides a more stable research key.
Consequently, the MOS database uses the vessel's IMO number as the principal identifier wherever one is available.
KOTA LEKAS therefore becomes:
MOS Vessel Record → KOTA LEKAS → IMO 9625401
Future observations can then be attached to the same vessel rather than generating another independent vessel record.
This becomes particularly valuable if KOTA LEKAS is photographed again from Table Bay.
The second photograph will not represent another vessel.
It will represent another observation of the same vessel.
The Possibility of a Future Repeat Observation
This is where the MOS database begins to develop beyond a conventional ship spotting collection.
A traditional photographic index may simply contain multiple photographs of KOTA LEKAS.
MOS asks a different question:
What changed between observations?
A future sighting could reveal a different voyage, different cargo configuration, different draft, different weather conditions, different lighting or even a change in vessel appearance.
The observation dates then become meaningful.
The database begins to preserve a maritime timeline rather than merely a collection of photographs.
This is especially relevant for vessels repeatedly operating between Asia and Southern Africa.
KOTA LEKAS has already been documented in connection with Cape Town and Durban in historical photographic and shipping records. (Flickr)
A future Cape Town observation could therefore become a second MOS record linked to the same permanent vessel identity.
DOCUMENT — Building the Maritime Record
The MOS DOCUMENT stage brings together the various strands of the investigation:
Image + vessel identity + IMO + location + date + technical information + maritime context.
For KOTA LEKAS, this creates a documented Cape Town observation of a 2014-built container ship operating within international liner shipping.
The record is deliberately modest.
It does not claim to reconstruct the entire history of the vessel.
Instead, it establishes a reliable starting point from which additional observations and research can be attached.
That is an important principle of the MOS archive:
A maritime record does not have to be complete before it becomes valuable.
It has to be identifiable, traceable and capable of being expanded.
ARCHIVE — From Photograph to Institutional Memory
The ARCHIVE stage gives the observation permanence.
KOTA LEKAS is now part of the VCP Maritime Observation System database under IMO 9625401.
That creates an important distinction between the image file and the maritime record.
The image is the original observation.
The database is the structured memory of the observation.
The essay provides interpretation.
The three components reinforce each other.
Over time, this creates something increasingly different from an ordinary personal shipspotting collection: a geographically anchored maritime photographic archive of vessels observed in and around Table Bay.
INTERPRET — What Does KOTA LEKAS Add?
The final MOS stage is INTERPRET.
KOTA LEKAS contributes another example of how apparently distant maritime activity becomes visible from Cape Town.
The vessel's history connects Chinese shipbuilding, Asian container logistics, Singapore registration, Pacific International Lines, Southern African ports and international trade.
All of that can ultimately be encountered through one observation.
This is the deeper value of the MOS methodology.
The photographer begins with something visual:
a ship on the horizon.
The investigator asks:
Which ship?
The researcher asks:
Where was it built? What does it carry? Where does it operate?
The maritime observer eventually asks:
What does its presence here tell me about the wider maritime system?
KOTA LEKAS therefore becomes more than another ship photographed from Cape Town.
It becomes a documented node within a much larger network.
Conclusion
The addition of KOTA LEKAS — IMO 9625401 to the VCP Maritime Observation System demonstrates the continuing evolution of the project from ship spotting into structured maritime observation.
The vessel is a substantial 2014-built container ship, approximately 255 metres long, with a capacity of roughly 4,848 TEU. Its documented history connects it to Shanghai shipbuilding, Pacific International Lines, Singapore registration and international container services linking Asia with Southern Africa. (Flexport Atlas)
But the most important aspect of the record is not its specifications.
It is the connection between observation and knowledge.
A vessel appears.
A photograph records it.
The IMO number identifies it.
Research reveals its history.
The database preserves the observation.
And interpretation places the individual ship within the much larger maritime landscape of Table Bay and the world beyond it.
That is the essence of the Vernon Chalmers Maritime Observation System:
OBSERVE → PHOTOGRAPH → IDENTIFY → INVESTIGATE → DOCUMENT → ARCHIVE → INTERPRET
KOTA LEKAS is now part of that developing record.
Sources and further vessel reference
The vessel's Ship Spotting record provides photographic history and historical particulars, including its 2014 construction, Shanghai Shipyard origin and earlier Hong Kong registration. (Shipspotting)
Current vessel databases identify KOTA LEKAS as a Singapore-flagged container ship with IMO 9625401, MMSI 563172300, approximately 255 m length, 47,933 GT and 57,712 tonnes DWT. (Flexport Atlas)
The PIL/UBX service documentation places KOTA LEKAS within an Asia–Southern Africa container-service context that includes Cape Town and Durban. (Flexport Atlas)
Photographic Equipment
Camera: Canon EOS R6 Mark III
Lens: Canon RF 800mm f/11 IS STM Lens
Photographic Genre: Maritime Photography / Ship Spotting
Post Processing: Adobe Lightroom Classic Version 15
Reference point: Milnerton Lighthouse, Table Bay, Cape Town
