A ship that has been calling in Halifax for fifteen years arrived again today, November 10, but this time with a different name. The familiar ZIM Luanda, is now sailing as the Jamaica, and for a while at least, will still be serving ZIM's ZCA service from the Mediterranean to the North American Atlantic coast.
On a windy and rainy day the Jamaica makes its way through the Narrows - with tug escorts - to PSA Fairview Cove.
The ship was built by Samsung Shipbuilding and Heavy Industries in Geoje, South Korea in 2009. It had been ordered by Seaspan Corp but was delivered in June 2009 to Danaos Corp to take up a charter to ZIM under the name ZIM Luanda. It made its first call in Halifax on January 31, 2010 and has been a regular ever since on the ZCA route.
Sailing from Halifax on its first call, January 31, 2010, the ship appeared to be fully loaded. One Maersk and a few Evergreen boxes peeked out from a load of mostly new looking ZIM containers.
It carried the ZIM logo on its hull until fairly recently when it, and other ships connected to Israel, became targets for demonstrations and threats of various sorts, and chose to reduce their profile.
Earlier this year the Danaos charter may have come to an end. It would be normal to have a ten year charter with a five year extension, and that would explain a renaming in June of this year to Luanda. In September / October it was renamed Jamaica perhaps in recognition of ZIM's hub in the Port of Kingston, which is now the end point of the ZCA's North American calls. Ships return from there directly to Spain and on to the eastern Mediterranean.
ZIM schedules show the ship continuing on the ZCA service for at least one more call in January.
While tugs turned the ship to back in to PSA Fairview Cove,the bulk carrier Rt. Hon. Paul E. Martin was outbound from Gold Bond Gypsum for sea.
Since at least 2006 the ZCA has also been carrying Hapag-Lloyd boxes. The agreement has survived Hapag's withdrawal from the THE Alliance as ZCA ships can still be seen to carry Hapag's orange boxes.
A One Of
Ships of the Spliethoff Group call in Halifax on an irregular basis. The company maintains a Europe / Great Lakes service, seasonally, and sometimes its ships call here in winter. Today's arrival of their Muntgracht was certainly a "One of" as the ship has already made a Great Lakes call.
The ship tied up at the east end of the PSA Fairview Cove terminal and appears to have used one of its own cranes to handle cargo.
Built in 2012 by Zhejiang Ouhua in Zhoushan,it is a 9524 gt, 11,744 dwt general cargo ship.With a Finnish Ice Class I it is also rated for heavy loads and heavy lifts. It has three cranes listed at 80, 65 and 50 tonnes SWL and can combine them for a 160 tonne lift. It can also carry up to 696 TEU containers.
It has certainly made the rounds in recent months. Sailing from Sauda, Norway September 9 it entered the St.Lawrence Seaway September 22 (after an inspection in Montreal). It called in Hamilton September 24 to 28, then went all the way to Burns Harbor, Indiana for October 1 to 4. It headed for sea again with a brief stop in Detroit October 6. After exiting the Seaway October 9 it was unreported for nearly a month, then appeared in Bay Bulls, NL November 2-3. It may well have been standing by awaiting orders, or possibly calling at a remote port that did not register on AIS.
At time of writing there was no indication of the ship's next port of call, but this will be updated when more info arrives.
Update: the ship did not sail until November 11 - see that day's post.
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