Morning Pilot

 Today, Sunday, September 15, the car carrier Morning Pilot followed the now familiar routine of docking first at Autoport to offload automobiles then moving to Pier 9C to unload RoRo cargo. This is the second such caller in recent days with Wallenius Wilhelmsen's Tiranna docking at Autoport and Pier 9C on Thursday September 12.

By the time I arrived back in Halifax on September 12 the Tirranna had already tied up at Pier 9C so I did not get a photo of the ship underway. It was in the process of discharging the usual variety of wheeled vehicles for construction and forestry work, and one unusual "vehicle" - a shrink wrapped helicopter on a MAFI trailer.

I was more fortunate this evening and was able to catch the Morning Pilot northbound in the Narrows, turning in Bedford Basin and southbound back to Pier 9C to dock starboard side to the pier.

The tugs Atlantic Oak and Atlantic Maple (operating in reverse mode) shepherded the ship through the Narrows northbound.

 

With the sun rapidly sinking behind the Bedford Hills, the tugs squared up to slow and then to turn the ship.

Once turned and headed south, the ship passed CSL's Baie St.Paul loading gypsum at the Gold Bond dock in Burnside.

 

 As the ship clears the A. Murray MacKay bridge it is apparent why this movement is necessary. The stern ramp is skewed to starbaord and not adjustable, so the ship must tie up starboard side to the dock. The side ramp may not be large enough to accommodate the RoRo cargo.

The Morning Pilot was built in 2014 by Hyundai Heavy Industries, Ulsan, registering 65,276 gt and 22,675 dwt and has a capacity of 7627 CEU*. It is managed by Wilhelmsen Ship Management (Korea) Ltd and is running on Wallenius Wilhelmsen's transatlantic route.

The Tirranna dates from 2009 and was built by Daewoo Shipbuilding + Marine Enginerring Co in Okpo. The 71,659 gt, 30,089 dwt ship can carry 7620 autos of RT43* size and is fitted with a 320 tonne stern ramp.

* The term CEU for Car Equivalent Units and RT43 are used by RoRo carriers to represent the standard size of an automobile. Dating back to the first dedicated car carrier, the unit represents a  1966 Toyota Carolla of 4 x 1.5 meter size. All cars and other RoRo cargo are thus rated as a percentage of CEU or RT43 for cargo stowage planning purposes, so a very small Sub-compact may be a 90% CEU or RT43 and a large car such as a HUMVEE may be 150% of a CEU or RT43. The term is thus a useful one to compare the capacity of different ships, but may not represent the total number of cars on board on any given voyage. When the ship is carrying large sized RoRo cargo, the figure may be even less representative. In those cases the ship's capacity may be quoted in "lane meters" or "lanes in meters" (LIMS) which may also account for variation in lane widths between ships.

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Old amongst the New

 There was a mixed bag of shipping in the Port of Halifax today, Saturday, September 14. Some ships were new (or new to me) and others not so new.

The container ship APL Paris started the list of ships I saw when it departed PSA Halifax Pier 42. Built in 2012 by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering it is a 128,929 gt . 135,432 dwt ship with a capacity of 10,700 TEU.

"APL" for American President Lines LLC, is part of CMA CGM through its 2016 acquistion of the Singapore based Neptune Orent Line, which itself had acquired APL in 1997. APL LLC is incorporated in the US based and operates nine ships with some under US flag.

The ship used the two new tugs Atlantic Ash and Atlantic Maple as tethered stern escorts to swing the ship into the deep water, western channel, leaving the main eastern channel clear for inbounds.

 

The first of those inbounds was the familiar Norwegian Jade which did not waste time clearing the outbound.

Next inbound was the MSC Nahara.

 

Built in 2024 by Daewoo it is new to me (although it was here August 4) and is a thoroughly modern ship in appearance with its bluff bow, covered forepeak, and lashing frames for deck cargo (to secure against  loss overboard). It is a 45,387 gt, 45,209 dwt ship with a capacity of 7100 TEU and with 700 reefer plugs. It is also equipped with an exhaust gas scrubber system.
 

 Next along was the regular caller for Eimskip, the Bakkafoss, a small gearless container vessel en route from Portland, Maine to Reykjavik, Iceland. The stern escort tugs had the outbound APL Paris well under control to maintain clearance between the two ships.

 

Built in 2009 by Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding Co in Fuzhou, the 11,550 gt, 14,669 dwt Bakkafoss has a capacity of 1025 TEU, including 231 reefers. Built as JMS Brisbane it was renamed JRS Pollux on delivery, becoming Pollux in 2013 and Elbsummer in 2020. It received the name Bakkafoss in March 2023 when it took up a charter from Ernst Russ to Eimskip.

Eimskip's latest schedule does not show this ship, but shows the EF Ava, Lagarfoss and Vivienne Sheri D on the Green line service, joining Reykjavik, Halifax, Portland, ME, Halifax, Argentia, NL, Reykjavik. (Halifax and Argentia are optional). 

An early morning arrival was the Seven Seas Grandeur, a ship I hadn't seen before. I did manage to catch it departing  in bright sun.

 

Built in 202 3 by Fincantieri Marghera it is smaller than it looks at 56,199 gt and with a passenger capacity of 750 (double occupancy) and crew of 542 on ten passenger decks. Operators are Regent Seven Seas Cruises of Miami, but the ship's owner is NCL Bahamas. 

Regent Seven Seas is #3 on the list of most luxurious cruise lines. Heading the list is Viking Ocean Cruises, followed by Seabourn Cruise Line at #2. All three have ships scheduled for Halifax this season.

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Partial Eclipse of Shipfax

 

Thursday, September 12, 2024

Partial Eclipse of Shipfax

 This is to report that I was away from Halifax from July 27 until today - September 12. I was expecting to have internet access while at my summer place in Quebec, but due to unforeseen circumstances that was not possible for the short term.

So my apologies for the seeming disappearance of Shipfax, and thanks for the messages of concern and interest. I hope to be posting again as I get back up to speed in a day or so.

Although I am no Celebrity I was in Eclipse mode (that is to say not visible for a time) while in Quebec. I did manage to get a pretty good photo of the Celebrity Eclipse from my front porch  on September 3 (and many other ships too). The ship also visited Halifax in my absence on August 6.

Built by Meyerwerft, Papenburg in 2010, it is a 121,878 gt ship with a capacity of 2,850 passengers and 1271 crew.

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Lightering

 

Friday, September 13, 2024

Lightering

 There were four cruise ship in port today, Septmber 13. Due to the limited nunber of acceptable berths for cruise ships the Emerald Princess once again anchored in number one anchorage in the lower harbour and transferred passengers to and from shore using the ship's own "lighters". These small craft, which are slightly larger than the ship's lifeboats, are often used in remote destinations where no port facilites exist or if the ship is too large to enter port.

The Emerald Princess in number one anchorage retrieving a lighter this evening. The ship's lighter boarding area is at the waterline near midships.

(The kayaks in the left middle ground are not among the lighers!)

Due to expansion of the southend container terminal the berths at Piers 30 and 31 are no longer available for cruise ships, and aside from the regular berths at Piers 20 to 23, there are no other berths where cruise ships can dock. Even when those berths were available, passengers had to be bused through industrial activity when leaving or re-boarding the ship as it was unsafe for pedestrians.

The shortage of berths was foreseen last year and the Port of Halifax installed a landing stage at Pier 24, consisting a small floating platform and a ramp up to the pier. Some tents on the pier allow for passengers to be "processed" by Canada Border Services and to wait under cover for buses and taxis to take then on shore excursions. Although new and shiny - the landing stage has the air of a temporary fix (which it is) and a cheap one at that. 

The Port has no solution to the problem of increasing demand for cruise ships space. Although there have been several suggestions, such as docking ships at the Develop Nova Scotia (former IEL) pier in Dartmouth (surely unpalatable), no permanent solution is in the works. [I note that the Emerald Princess is too large to dock at Quebec City's excellent cruise terminal and on September 6 it had to dock some distance away in an industrial zone with no pedestrian access, so Halifax is not alone with this problem, which seems to be world wide, viz. Venice, Alaska, etc.,]

Lighters too-ing and fro-ing from Pier 24 with the bow of the Norwegian Breakaway looming over the end of Pier 22.

As reported in Halifax Shipping News on August 11 the use of lighters (operated by the ship's own crews, and with crew members taking the lines at the landing stage) has quite rightly raised the ire of the Longshore union. The union's contract assigns line handling work to its members. They also note that non-Canadians, operating non-Canadian vessels in Canadian waters is at odds with cabotage laws [in spirit if not in letter].

This is a continuing story, and so will likely result in a follow up post.

Emerald Princess  was biult in2007 by Fincantieri, and its fifteen decks and 113,561 gross tons can accommodate 3,114 lower berth passengers and 1200 crew. The ship was sponsored by Florence Henderson, Marion Ross, Erin Moran and Susan Olsen. (If you don't know who thsese people are / were congratulations - that means you are young.)

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