The offshore support vessel Siem Pilot sailed this evening for the Cabot Strait. As reported previously in my companion blog Tugfax August 16 there is no traditional work for suppliers off Nova Scotia since there is no oil or gas activity.
Tuesday, August 31, 2021
Siem Pilot sails
Monday, August 30, 2021
Busy Monday
It was a busy Monday in the port with almost all facilities seeing ships alongside. Although rainy, misty and at times foggy in the morning, the weather did clear later in the day allowing for some photos.
PSA Halifax had three ships, MSC Sandra B (east bound for top up), Zim Yokohama (see yesterday's post) and Lagarfoss. The latter ship is on the Icelandic shipping company Eimskip's Green Line service en route to Portland, ME.
Both oil docks had "customers" today. Irving Oil's Woodside terminal saw the company tanker East Coast on its customary "milk run" to several regional terminals. Its last port was Charlottetown. Later in the day the tanker Mitera arrived from Amsterdam and anchored awaiting the berth to clear. It may also have required CFIA inspection for L. dispar clearance.[ see August 18 explanation for the new terminology].
Sunday, August 29, 2021
DOUBLE HEADER, TRIPLE HEADER
Two of the facilities in Halifax harbour were busy today. Gold Bond Gypsum (formerly National Gypsum) had one ship alongside and one waiting and PSA Halifax (operators of the southend container terminal) had two ships alongside and a third waiting.
Gold Bond had been accumulating a large stockpile of material for the last several weeks:
Arriving this morning, August 29, Algoma Integrity began to load immediately, and by late afternoon had reduced the stockpile noticeably. It has raised its self-unloader boom to allow the mobile ship loader to access all the ship's hatches. The loader is at about midships position in this photo, and appears to be loading the ship from aft to forward - perhaps in one pass.
Saturday, August 28, 2021
Horizon Arctic arrives
The offshore support vessel Horizon Arctic arrived in Halifax today, August 28, from its expedition to explore the wreck of the Titanic. Chartered by OceanGate Expedition Inc the ship was base for the five person submersible Titan. The sub went 2500 ft down in what is to be the first of an annual series of visits to monitor the condition of the wreck, the debris filed and surrounding eco-system.
Thursday, August 26, 2021
Acadia to sea
The legendary Canadian Survey Ship Acadia put to sea today in tow for Shelburne, NS. This is the first time the ship has left the confines of Halifax Harbour since it became the centrepiece of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in 1982.
Wednesday, August 25, 2021
Another ONE
THE Alliance brought in another "new to Halifax" ship on its EC5 service today. ONE Honolulu is one of three H class sister ships owned by K-Line. All have been renamed and repainted in Ocean Network Express (ONE) colours as K-line joined partners MOL and NYK to form ONE.
Monday, August 23, 2021
Big Changes at PSA Halifax
On August 20 we learned through media that the thirty day written submission period was ending the next day for the latest "plans" deposited with the Canadian Impact Assessment Agency for a major redevelopment of the southend container terminal operated by PSA Halifax. No public notice had ever been posted by the Port, thus removing any reasonable opportunity to comment or make constructive suggestions.
The submission to CIAA was verbal only, with no engineering drawings or artists renderings to show the nature of the "proposed" work at and around the terminal, changes to roads, and to CN rail lines and another, perhaps unrelated, expansion of warehouse space at P+H Milling's flour mill. It would require a fairly intimate knowledge of the facility to determine how the changes would impact the public without seeing engineering drawings. A contact address was available to an engineering firm, but there was no way anyone could see the nature of the project in the submission itself, or even to learn if there had been comments received. Apparently work will now begin almost immediately.
The "proposed" project will mean major disruptions to truck, train and likely car traffic, but there is no explanation of how this will be mitigated during construction. It is also stated that a pedestrian and bicycle bridge will be built to assist in crossing tracks during train shunting. However the media report August 21 suggested that the bridge may be optional, or built much later.
Underutilized track between the terminal and the P+H flour mill (to the right of the pole in the photo) will be removed and the area converted to port workers' parking. The mill will also be expanding its warehouse space.
Those tracks were once heavily used before the container era. Freight was moved through pier sheds to and from box cars. It took some years for the full transition to containers.
Sunday, August 22, 2021
HMCS Toronto in the Basin
Reference has been made in the past to the Jonquière Bank anchorage in Bedford Basin, an area used by naval vessels for acoustical and other testing. See: Jonquière Bank
HMCS Toronto is the current occupant of the anchorage, using a spread of four or possibly five permanent mooring buoys to secure the ship in position.
In compliance with current government policy the ship was flying its flags at half staff to commemorate the hundreds of children whose remains have been detected in unmarked graves at former residential school sites.
HMCS Toronto FFH 333 was the fourth ship in the Halifax patrol frigate program. It was launched December 18, 1990 and commissioned July 29, 1983.
Thursday, August 19, 2021
MSC Sandra - full speed ahead
MSC Sandra made a day long call in Halifax today, August 19, to lighter off some cargo en route to Montreal. Built in 2000 by Hanjin Heavy Industry + Construction Co Ltd, it is a 43,575 gt, 61,468 dwt ship with a container capacity of 4340 TEU, including 150 reefers.
Halifax remains unaffected directly by port delays in the US, with such ports as New York/New Jersey and Savannah with nine to seventeen ships (respectively) anchored offshore waiting several days for berths. There have been no diversions to Halifax, as a lot of the delays are in export cargo, due to truck and labour shortages.
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Sigma T - taking a rest
One of the busiest boats in Halifax is called the Sigma T, but it is perhaps not well known. Operated by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans from the Bedford Institute, it can be seen in Bedford Basin or out in the approaches on most days.
Wednesday, August 18, 2021
APL Dublin - daylight arrival
APL Dublin arrived in Halifax again today on the Columbus JAX service. This is the first time that it has arrived or sailed in full daylight, and so I was finally able to get a clear photo.
APL Dublin dates from 2012 when Daewoo Shipbuilding + Marine Engineering built the 128,929 gt, 131,204 dwt ship in Okpo, South Korea. Its capacity is listed as 10,960 TEU, but is nominally 11,000.
As for the mysterious ZIM Yokohama lurking offshore, it is shown on the port's arrival list for August 29. It sailed from Valencia, Spain on July 28 on its regular ZCA service. Its next port is to be New York, August 31. It is a 39,906 gt, 50,532 dwt ship with a capacity of 4250 TEU, built by Dalian New Shipbuilding, China in 2007. It has been overtaken on its route by several other ZIM ships, including today's ZIM Monaco.
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Tuesday, August 17, 2021
Sized to Suit - and a moth by any other name
It was a matter of different strokes for different folks or as the British say - horses for courses - today, August 17 as bulk carriers of vastly different sizes arrived in Halifax.
Johanna C is a multi-purpose "Tween Open Hatch Box" type. It has box shaped holds, with portable tween decks, and hatches the full width of the hold. With a pair of 80 tonne cranes and 12 cubic meter grabs it is suitable for many types of bulk cargoes and all sorts of general and project cargoes.
Hold cleaning and airing is underway as the ship arrives in Halifax this morning.
Owned by the British company Carisbrooke Shipping, and registered in Cowes, Isle of Wight, it is managed by SMT Shipping of Cyprus. The ship was built in 2009 by Jiangsu Yangzijiang of Jianyin, China, 9530 gt, 12,947 dwt. It arrived from Wilmington, North Carolina to load wood pellets.
Towards the other end of the size scale the Chinese flag bulker Ri Guan Feng occupied number one anchorage for several hours. Built in 2010 by Jiangnan, Shanghai, for China Ocean Shipping Co (COSCO) is a 40,913 gt, 75,566 dwt ship of 225m over all length. That makes the ship a "Kamsarmax". The port of Kamsar, Guinea can only accommodate ships of a maximum length of 229m. As one of the busiest bauxite exporting ports in the world, many bulkers are built to suit the port.
Monday, August 16, 2021
Another Bridge for Toronto
Cherubini Metal Works, the Halifax based bridge and steel fabricators, have completed the third of four bridges to be installed in Toronto harbour. Cherubini assembled the bridges at their Eisner's Cove facility in Dartmouth where they can be loaded directly to a barge for waterborne delivery to Toronto.
Today saw the arrival of the tug Beverly M1 from McKeil Marine and the barge Glovertown Spirit which tied up at Cherubini's wharf ready to load.
Loading will not take long, but the bridge must also be secured to the barge, so it may be three to four days before they are ready to sail. Shipfax will provide what coverage we can.
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Friday, August 13, 2021
More Cable Ships
Halifax has frequently hosted cable ships, going back to the early days of the technology. Western Union, the French cable company and others have made Halifax their base. In recent years IT International Telecom has established its marine base here and IT ships are in and out of port regularly. Their IT Intrepid is currently in port as is the offshore supplier Siem Dorado undergoing conversion for cable work. The general cargo ship Enna is still alongside the Siem Dorado possibly transferring cable or other gear.
On August 12 another cable ship arrived, but for a completely different company. The Marshall Islands flag Durable is owned by Transoceanic Cable Ship Company LLC, a US corporation, with bases in Baltimore, MD and Honolulu.
The ship was built by Keppel Hitachi in Singapore in 2002 as the Tyco Durable. When Tyco became over extended and failed, the ship was sold and renamed in 2010. Transoceanic has a huge contract with the US Navy, signed in 2018 and extending to 2023. Presumably it involves maintaining seabed communication and monitoring systems.
The Cable Wharf, adjacent to the Halifax ferry terminal, still uses the name, but has not been used for cable since the 1960s. It was once the Western Union wharf, and had a large storage building for cable and other equipment, and was the base for two famous cable ships the Cyrus Field and the Lord Kelvin. My 1971 photo of the "ferry plaza" between the Law Courts and Queen's wharf is barely recognizable today.
Taken from beneath the Law Courts bridge across Water Street, the white building is the Fisherman's Market - most recently Nova Scotia Crystal. The Western Union building - long since demolished - is in the background.I have published the following photo before, showing the cable ship Lord Kelvin arriving in Halifax in 1955.
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Thursday, August 12, 2021
NYK Romulus
Wednesday, August 11, 2021
Fog in the Approaches
The phrase "fog in the approaches" (to Halifax harbour) was once a common one when marine weather reports were broadcast on public radio. The phrase was particularly appropriate today. Fog lingered offshore and crept in and out with the tide, while the main harbour remained sunny and clear.
Tuesday, August 10, 2021
MSC Angela returns
One of MSC's St.Lawrence service regulars, MSC Angela arrived again today to "decant" some cargo.
Monday, August 9, 2021
HMCS Shawinigan
The RCN Kingston class coastal defence vessel HMCS Shawinigan returned to Halifax today, August 9 after working with US and Dutch authorities in Operation Caribe.
Siem Super-Eco
A Siem Auto Carriers "Super-Eco" ship arrived today at Autoport. The dual fuel Pure Car and Truck Carrier was built in 2020 by Xiamen Shipbuilding Industry Co and uses LNG to supplement standard marine diesel oil.
The ship also has a 200 tonne capacity stern ramp and 20 tonne capacity side ramp, so it presumably can also carry RoRo cargo other than cars. Like sister ship Siem Confucius it is dedicated to Volkswagen service. It made its maiden voyage in Janauary of this year.
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Saturday, August 7, 2021
CMA CGM Thalassa
It was a return appearance today for one of CMA CGM's "ultras". One of the nineteen ships in the Columbus JAX rotation it was once in the cohort of largest ships to call in Halifax. That was as recently as 2019 when cracking the 10,000 TEU mark was the record to strive for. Now the 17,000 TEU mark is the number to beat.
In comparing photos from 2019 with today's arrival, the ship appears to have loaded one more (an eighth) tier of boxes, compared to the seven tiers in 2019. Business is certainly booming as are charter rates for ships. Ships of this size are routinely being chartered for well in excess of $100,000 per day as compared to the $47,200 quoted in the 2019 post.
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Friday, August 6, 2021
IT Integrity - trouble in BC
The cable ship IT Integrity is reported tied up in Port Alberni, BC after its main engine was disabled due to "fuel issues". The Halifax registered ship, owned by interests connected to IT International Telecom Canada Inc.
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