Unusual Box Boat

 There was an unusual container ship in Halifax today, June 29, but it did not load or unload cargo.

The ship is called the MSC Sagitta III and under the new Mediterranean Shipping Company naming protocol, the Roman numeral "III" appended to the ship's name indicates a container capacity in the 3,000 TEU range. On line information rates it at 3426 TEU.

 The ship has been assigned to the Canada Gulf service out of Montreal, to the Bahamas and Mexico. However this appears to be its first voyage on the service and it was required to call in Halifax for Canadian Food Inspection Agency clearance. If the ship was in Asian waters recently it must be inspected for invasive moth species. Presumably it passed inspection, because it sailed for Montreal after a few hours at anchor.

The ship is a rare European built container ship. Dating from 2010 the 36,519 gt, 42,614 dwt vessel was built by Nordseewerke, Emden to the Thyssen C3X design. It was delivered as Frisia Brussel but immediately renamed Sagitta. It became MSC Sagitta III in 2021.

Its recent itinerary may be of interest. From April 23 to 25 it was in Mombassa, then called in Coega, Cape Town, and by May 30 had arrived in Antwerp. It then proceeded to the River Thames (unspecified location), Napoli, Livorno, Valencia, Sines and arrived in New York June 25.

It is due in Montreal July 5 and will sail for Freeport, Bahamas, Veracruz, Altamira and Progresso. Ships on the Canada Gulf service do not usually call in Halifax as they are small enough that they are not effected by St.Lawrence River draft restrictions. They do not need stop here to reduce draft inbound and can usually load fully in Montreal.

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