Pier 9C, at the north end of the Narrows, close to the A. Murray MacKay bridge, has become the drop off pier for aircraft components. The long loads, mounted in their own steel crates and fully tarped, arrive from Belfast, Northern Ireland on an endless variety of general cargo ships. Using their own cranes, the ships very quickly land the components, which are loaded onto trucks and headed off to the factory - usually in Downsview, ON.
Today's activity at Pier 9C was a little unusual - there were two ships in, both unloading aircaraft components at the same time. The ships left Belfast a week apart, but one apparently made a slow crossing, probably to avoid the remnants of Hurricane Erin.
The Happy Dragon sailed from Belfast August 31 and was the first to complete unloading this morning. It then sailed for Mobile AB, still with some cargo aboard - notably some big cable reels mounted on deck.
The Happy Dragon is a heavy lift ship of 14.784 gt, 18,103 dwt, built in 2011 by Zhejiang Ouhua Shipbuilding Co in Zhoushan. It is fitted with moveable tween decks, and can be configured to sail with the upper hatches open. It carries one 120 tonne, and two 400 tonne maximum capacity cranes. One large crane made short work of unloading. (I believe the shrink-wrapped boat in the photo arrived on a previous ship.)
The ship's operators, Biglift Shipping, are now part of the Spliethoff Group, based in Amsterdam.
The other arrival was the Onego Otra, which sailed from Belfast August 23. It was built in 2010 by Damen Yichang as a 8059 gt, 10,872 dwt multi-purpose type. It is also built with moveable tweendecks and is fittted with a pair of 80 tonne cranes. Orginally named Jork, it took its current name in 2022, but appears to have the same owners, the Heinz Corleis company of Germany.
It also made easy work of unloading its components, at least one of which when directly onto a telescoping trailer.
When the Onego Otra sailed early this afternoon its destination, listed on AIS, was given as ESPJE. (Usually destinations are given as abbreviations of country and port, such as CAHAL for Halifax. The letters ESPJE suggests Spain, and possibly Pasajes.)
The ship's hull has some slight fairing of the midship section in order to maintain the same width for the entire length of the deck. This allows the rail-mounted gantry crane free run to lift and stack hatch covers. When not in use, the red painted gantry is "parked" just forward of the superstructure. In the other photos it is seen alongside the forward crane.
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