Grande Halifax

 Another one of Grimaldi Lines' colourful auto carriers paid a visit to Halifax July 12 and 13. As with other ships of the line, it is named for a port or region where the ship is likely to call. In this case it is the Port of Halifax, and when the Grande Halifax called here for the first time in May 2018 it was received with considerable fanfare and an onboard naming ceremony.

This call was run of the mill however, except that it was a rare overnighter. Most auto carriers are in and out in eight hours. The ship sailed from Livorno June 30 and stopped in Savona (July 1) and Valencia (July 2-4) before setting out for Halifax, and arriving at the pilot station at 0530 hrs ADT July 12. Its sailing time this afternoon was for 1530 hrs.

Jinling Shipyard in Nanjing delivered the ship in January 2018. The 62,134 gt vessel measures 18,353 dwt and has a capacity of 6700 cars and is equipped with a 150 tonne SWL stern ramp. As I noted in 2018, the underside of its side ramp is also well painted in yellow.

The Grande Halifax is bound for New York harbour (but in fact will be docking in Newark, NJ) where its unfortunate fleet mate Grande Costa d'Avorio now rests as a burnt out hulk. That ship, loaded with cars and containers (it is a ConRo - not a Pure Car and Truck Carrier), caught fire July 4 and burned for five days. Two Newark firefighters lost their lives while fighting the fire, which resulted in the total constructive loss of the ship. Several recent auto carrier fires have been blamed on Electric Vehicles (EVs) but it is reported that there were no EVs aboard the ship.

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