Saturday action

Several arrivals today meant that there was something happening almost continuously.

The earliest arrival was Maersk Patras at Halterm. This is a ship that was a week late last month, but now that Arica has been inserted in the lineup, Maersk Patras is here on a Saturday.

The ship tied up out near the end of pier 42 allowing room for the next arrival, APL Santiago.

 Built in 2014 by Daewoo, Okpo, the 109,712 grt, 115,077 dwt ship has a capacity of 9200 TEU.

The ship's distinctive full width bridge, is more than 45 meters from side to side.

After a short wait, the next arrival was Atlantic Huron for a load of gypsum. Its last port was Charlottetown, PE where is had delivered a cargo of construction aggregates.

Built in 1984, converted to self-unloader in 1989 and rebuilt mid-body in 2002, the ship just keeps on keeping on. Once a frequent caller here with grain, it seems to specialize in coal, aggregates and gypsum now.

Next up was the MOL Paradise for Fairview Cove.

 MOL Paradise glides in abreast of George's Island, with Bluenose II and Chebucto Head in the background.

This is the ship's first arrival in Halifax and is on THE Alliance's EC5 service. The 71,902 grt, 72,968 dwt ship was built in 2005 by Koyo Dockyard Co in Mihara, with a capacity of 6350 TEU (including 500 reefers).


As the ship was only minutes away from the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge, someone or something plunged off into the water near the Halifax side. It was surprising that no shipping in the harbour was aware that police had closed the bridge and were on the scene.

When HMCS Charlottetown reported the incident a minute or so after I saw the splash at 11:11, it dispatched a RHIB to the scene, however nothing appeared to have re-surfaced. A general Mayday was issued for ships in the area to assist if possible.

CCGC Pennant Bay, which had passed the area few minutes earlier came about in Bedford Basin and sped to the scene.

CCGC Pennant Bay with crew on the flying bridge make haste off Pier 9. The lifeboat, delivered late in 2017 will be stationed in Sambro, NS.

 It was far too late to halt the movement of MOL Paradise which passed though the area only about 5 minutes later.

Later this afternoon two autocarriers arrived. However only one entered port. Viking Conquest went to anchor offshore while Shanghai Highway continued on in.
 

Built in 2005 by Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corp at the Nantong COSCO shipyard in China it is of an older type design, with no aerodynamic faring that is common on modern car boats. It also has numerous hull penetrations that appear to be small sections of open deck.

The ship is also smaller than many we see here. It comes in at 48,927 grt, 15,413 dwt and has a reported capacity of 5,036 cars.

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