Mixed Bag

 There was a variety of shipping in Halifax today, November 13, starting with container ships.

Two ships arrived for PSA Fairview Cove. First was MSC Shristi from Las Palmas on the Turkey-Greece service. The ship called here previously in 2021.(Today's arrival was in the dark.)

MSC Shristi September 19, 2021.

Hyundai Heavy Industries built the ship in Ulsan in 2005 as Venice Bridge. It was renamed Baltic East in 2019 and MSC Shristi in 2020. A 54,519 gt, 64, 989 dwt vessel, it has a capacity of 4738 TEU including 374 reefers.

The MSC Shristi tied up at the west berth at Fairview Cove (nearest camera in photo above) and had by my count, sixty-three (probably empty) reefers stacked up aft. It was soon joined by ZIM Iberia (background in photo above).

ZIM Iberia dates from 2009 when it was built by Jiangsu New Yangzijiang in Jingjiang. First named Rudolf Schepers it became Arka Africa in 2017 then Als Juno in 2018. In 2022 it took its current name, which had previously been carried by a 1997 vintage ship that was scrapped in 2014.

Arriving at anchor in the lower harbour was the Sluisgracht belonging to the Dutch company Spliethoff. It is a multi-purpose tween decker of 16,639 gt, 21,449 dwt built in 2001 by Szczecinska Porta in Poland. It is equipped with three crane, of 120, 90 and 50 tonnes. It also has two large side load doors with five 16 tonne SWL elevators suited for package and palette handling.

 Spliethoffs built the ship to carry paper, lumber and other sensitive cargoes but the company has also developed a niche transporting yachts and small vessels. I believe that is what brought the ship to Halifax, but all I could see was a  Dominion Diving tug alongside.

The other arrival of interest was USS Marinette LCS 25, the latest in a series of Freedom class littoral combat ships built by Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Marinette, WI. The ship was commissioned on September 16 and is en route from the builders to its base in Mayport, FL. It was held over for a few days in Cleveland during the Seaway strike last month.

 USS Marinette inbound to HMC Dockyard.

(That is the German research vessel Maria S. Marien at the C.O.V.E dock in the background)

 Of the previous dozen ships in the series eight have called in Halifax on their delivery trips. The other four by-passed, including USS St.Louis in July 2020 due to COVID lockdown. The ships have also had their problems with propulsion and transmission issues that now seem to have been corrected on the more recent builds. Nevertheless five of the ships have already been decommissioned: USS Milwaukee LCS-5,  Detroit LCS-7, Little Rock LCS-9 and Sioux City LCS-11, all of which called here, and the lead ships Freedom LCS-1. Detroit and Little Rock are being held for possible sale to other countries. (The even numbered LCS ships are of an entirely different design and are Independence class trimarans built by Austal USA.)

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