with local container ships arriving half full -- and later than usual after arduous voyages in winter seas.

Two unscheduled callers, meanwhile, continued to be hampered by engine problems.

And Bermuda Harbour Radio played a critical role in monitoring a ship fire aboard a freighter moving through the Atlantic.

Meyer Agencies reported the arrival of the Bermuda Islander on Monday afternoon instead of its expected morning arrival. She left the Island about 9 a.m. on Tuesday after discharging 41 containers, including three refrigerated ones.

Meyer also reported the return of the US military supply ship Strong Icelander to Bermuda last Thursday for engine repairs. She had left the day before for the Azores and departed again following repairs on Saturday morning.

And the ocean-going St. Vincent-flagged tugboat Ole Rabudal , named after a Bermuda ship surveyor, made an unscheduled stop on Monday to fill up with fresh water and check in with her locally-based head office, Gypsum Transportation in Hamilton, before heading to Halifax, Canada.

En route from Spain, the 114.8-foot salvage tug with a crew of seven left Tuesday afternoon from St. George's.

Meyer expects the Maltese-registered Motor Tanker Gonio , here for major engine repairs, to depart Dockyard on Friday for Gibraltar and then Cyprus where she will off load her cargo of cooking oil.

More spare parts were due in yesterday, an agent said.

Container Ship Management reported the Oleander arrived in Bermuda 12 hours behind schedule due to a gale ripping through the waters off the US East Coast.

She discharged 74 dry containers, 26 refrigerated and three bulky mafis of goods including generator equipment for Belco, steel piling and a 38-foot second-hand yacht. John S. Darrell reported the expected stopover tomorrow of the Liquid Propane Gas tanker EMSGAS , en route from the Bahamas to the US East Coast.

Harbour Radio also had a quiet week, though it started out with a bang.

The local station was among the first to learn of a fire last Thursday that broke out in the cargo hold of a German-registered freighter moving through the Atlantic.

An officer said Harbour Radion was alerted to the plight of the Bergen about 1 a.m. shortly after her distress beacon went off 1,200 miles east northeast of Bermuda, or several hundred miles off Newfoundland, Canada.

Bermuda and the New York Coast Guard asked all local stations to alert shipping in the area and to keep a sharp lookout for signs of distress, an officer said.

A Hercules aircraft was dispatched out of Greenwood, Nova Scotia, and a Nimrod from Britain to keep an eye on the ship. The cause of the fire was not immediately known but was soon brought under control and the ship continued on to Scotland. The Bergen, with a 16-member crew, was carrying wood pulp from North Carolina to Aberdeen.

Weather in the area was poor at the time, with 46-mph winds, 26-foot-high seas and freezing spray.

UNEXPECTED VISIT -- The motor tug Ole Rabudal , recently renamed from Reus Tarragona , made an unscheduled stop in St. George's, berthing at Penno's Wharf on Monday evening to fill up with fresh water before departing again Tuesday at 5 p.m. She was en route from Spain to Halifax, Canada.