Christophe Colomb

 As a French company CMA CGM (the amalgamation of the former Compagnie Maritime d'Affrètement and Compagnie Générale Maritime) uses the French version of the name of the explorer we know as Christopher Columbus, in English, and Cristoforo Colombo in Italian. The "explorer class" ship arrived today with the name rendered as CMA CGM Christophe Colomb.

 Making a broad daylight arrival allowed fror a better view of the ship than on previous arrivals and departures. Built in 2009 by the Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co in Okpo, it is the shipyard's 14000 class even though its capacity has variously been reported at 13,344 TEU and 13,800 TEU with 800 reefer plugs. Tonnages come in at 151,446 gt and 165,375 dwt.

As required by Port Authority regulations, it used two tethered escort tugs (Atlamtic Oak and Atlantic Bear) on the stern and was joined by Atlantic Beaver, which made up forward, just below the bridge.

When the ship had slowed and was ready to turn round, Atlantic Oak moved alongside and made up near the stern. The ship then was then berthed starboard side to pier 41 at PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway.

CMA CGM's so called "explorer class" includes ships of two sizes. The first five ships in the series, such as this one, which was the first, are 365.5m long overall and 51.2 meters breadth. The last three, including CMA CGM Marco Polo of Daewoo's 16,000 TEU design measure 396 meters x 53.6 meters. (Some name sakes such as Benjamin Franklin and Jules Verne aren't explorers either.)

The CMA CGM Marco Polo is the current record holder for largest container ship to call in Halifax. Oddly its name does not seem to have been translated, nor have all the other explorer's names.

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