A new shipping firm certainly knows how to stand out from the crowd

New shipping line ONE (Ocean Network Express) has painted the hulls of its container vessels bright pink.

The first of these magenta monsters to visit Southampton was One Continuity, which was captured on camera by Echo reader Phil Kempsey from Hythe.

He took this picture form Shore Road in Hythe as the One Continuity, sailing from Hamburg, made its way to the DP World container terminal.

One continuity was built in 2008, is 320 metres in length, and weighs in at 90,466 deadweight tons.

Ocean Network Express, or ONE, was formed through the combination of Japan’s three biggest container shipping lines, NYK Line, “K” Line and MOL.

It began operations on April 1, 2018, as the world’s sixth largest container shipping company controlling a fleet of about 240 vessels.

The company chose to repaints its ships pink as a nod to the cherry tree whose blossom is the symbol of spring in Japan.

One's arrival was greeted by staff of DP World wearing pink hard hats.

A spokesman for DP World said: "On this occasion, because the vessel is pink and it’s breast cancer awareness month, we decided to mark her arrival by wearing pink and presenting the captain with a cake to celebrate breast cancer awareness."

ONE Continuity will be a regular visitor to the port as she is part of the Ocean Network Alliance's FE1 service that operates between Asia and Europe.

After loading and discharging boxes in Southampton, she headed to Le Havre before departing for the Far East.