Passenger Invasion

 With three passenger ships in port, Thursday August 11, downtown Halifax was awash with visitors, not to mention outlying tourist destinations as far flung as Peggy's Cove and the vineyards of the Annapolis Valley. If the three ships were loaded to capacity, the number of guests totaled more than 11,000, not to mention 3,000 crew members. 

The three  were all regulars and thus not particularly noteworthy except for their size and the conjunction of three ships in port at once.

Zaandam, built in 2000 by Fincantieri, Marhera was the smallest ship at 61,396 gt and a capacity of 1,432 passengers and 615 crew.

 (May 26, 2022 photo)

The other two ships are comparable in size and capacity, but dissimilar in appearance:

 Caribbean Princess, built in 2004 is a 289.9m long ship of 112,894 gt, built in 2004 by Fincantieri, Monfalcone, has seventeen decks (two of which are not for passengers) and has a capacity of 3,142 passengers and approximately 1,200 crew members.

 

Visualising the ship without the "push bar" lounge over the stern, I imagine it could be a handsome vessel by current standards.

Adventure of the Seas, dating from 2001 is a product of the Kvaerner Masa New yard, in Turku, Finland and claims a capacity of 3,807 passengers with 1,185 crew spread over fourteen decks. At 311 meters long, it has a gross tonnage of 138,193.

 

Although I am not a great fan of modern cruise ship design, this one is perhaps the better looking of the two large ships.

Three cruise ships can be accommodated with ease in Halifax with the current port facilities. However as the work begins to fill in the basins betwen the ocean terminals finger piers, valuable berthing space will be lost. So far no firm plan has emerged for a new cruise terminal facility. I note Quebec City has moved its cruise ship terminal to underutilized industrial port space, far from the old Lower Town, but with easier access for tour buses, fuel trucks and ship chandlers - and beyond walking distance to any tourist attractions. Perhaps a similar supplementary space is needed in Halifax when there are more than two ships in port at once.

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Busy Day

 Today, July 28, was a busy day in the harbour with both civilian and military shipping activity. Among the arrivals were a US Coast Guard cutter and a Danish frigate.

USCGC Bear WMEC-901 is a Famous class, medium endurance cutter, based in Portsmouth, VA.

Sun angles and the tug Atlantic Willow conspired to prevent a clear view of  the arriving USCGC Bear.

The famous previous vessel after which it is named had a Halifax conneciton. The US Revenue cutter Bear was a "wooden wall" built in 1874 as a sail/steam sealer, that served in Alaska for many years.It then worked for Admiral Richard Byrd in Antarctica and for the US Navy in Greenland during World War II. After the war it was acquired by Shaw Steamships of Halifax for use as a sealer. In 1963 "Pop" Shaw sold the ship to a restauranteur from Philadephia. It departed Halifax March 16, 1963 in tow of (the first) Irving Birch but sank 90 miles south of Cape Sable after the tow line parted and the ship wallowed out of control.

The current USCGC Bear, fitted with sophisticated sidescan sonar, located the wreck in 2019 and it has since been confirmed and exensively mapped and photographed from an ROV in 2021. (Sea History Issue 178, Spring 2022 has more detailed information.) Since the wreck is in Canadian territorial waters discussions are underway between Canada and the US on how to protect it.

His Danish Majesty's Ship Triton F358 arrived in the early afternoon at HMC Dockyard.

 

The 3500 ton displacement vessel was launched in 1990 by Svendborg Shipyard and commissioned in  1991. It is a Thetis class frigate, one of four in the RDN, tasked with "maintenance of sovereignty, search and rescue, fishery inspection and support to local (mainly Greenlandic) authorities. The operation areas are normally Greenland and the Faroe Islands, but the vessels also operate near Iceland on transit between Greenland and the Faroe Islands, and near Denmark". [quoted from Wikipedia]

 

A third naval vessel movement involved the submarine HMCS Windsor which had been occupying the sound range anchorage below York Redoubt for the last day or two. This morning navy tugs Glenevis, Listerville and Merrickville assisted the sub in getting underway.

 

As the sub got underway, it was clear enough to see the containership One Hangzhou Bay  in an offshore anchorage.

There were two much larger ships in port today - both in the 140,000 gross tons range, and both in excess of 300 meters in overall length.

First in was the Royal Caribbean Cruises ship Adventure of the Seas with a calculated gross tonnage of  138,193 tons and an overall legth of 311 meters. To cater to its 3,807 passsengers and to operate the ship, there is a crew of 1,185. The ship was built by Kvaerner Masa in Turku, Finland and delivered in late 2001.

The topmost of the ship's fourteen decks tower over the Pier 21-22 buildings.

On sailing this evening, the ship made an impressive sight even though there were no nearby objects to give a sense of scale.

 

The other large ship was the late afternoon arriving CMA CGM T. Roosevelt arriving directly from Colombo, Sri Lanka.

 Tugs alongside are usually a nuisance to photographers, but the ship is so huge, they hardly matter. The stern tug is "putting on the brakes."

 

The truly large ship of 140,872 gt, 148,992 dwt and 366.96 m overall length, has a capacity of 14,414 TEU. It was built in 2017 by Hyundai, Ulsan, and is one of six sister ships operating for the Ocean Alliance of CMA CGM, COSCO, Evegreen and OOCL from Asia to North America via the Suez Canal. CMA CGM acquired Neptune Orient Lines, owners of American President Lines, in 2016. They have retained the presidential naming scheme and still operate a US branch now called APL with US flag ships.

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Weather Watch

High winds and rough conditions meant that the port has been on weather watch for more than 24 hours. With pilotage operations at the pilot station suspended Friday afternoon there was little harbour activity to report Saturday. Conditions will be reviewed  again at 2130 hrs ADT Saturday.

Self-piloted vessels,  such as Oceanex Sanderling and Nolhan Ava that did not have to embark or disembark a pilot were able to sail on Friday evening, but other ships that arrived Friday and required pilots to depart, remained in port over night. Arriving ships either put back out to sea to await improvements or by-passed their Halifax call.

It was a gloomy sight that greeted overnighting cruise ship passengers this morning. Pearl Mist remained tied up at pier 23 and Serenade of the Seas loomed over at pier 22.

Driving rain probably convinced most passengers to remain aboard.

Serenade of the Seas did manage to sail late Saturday morning, but whether they carried the pilot over en route to Boston is not known to me. Container ships Zim Yokohama and Brighton also remained in port all day.

Two cruise ships opted to by-pass Halifax. Adventure of the Seas from Sydney, NS carried on for Bar Harbor and Amadea from Baie-Comeau kept on for New York.

Commercial traffic such as Maersk Patras is holding off until Sunday morning along with CMA CGM Elbe. The Netherlands warship HNLMS De Ruyter also put back to sea.

Movements within the harbour returned to normal today. The tanker BW Lynx moved from Imperial Oil to anchor in Bedford Basin Friday evening due to high winds, but returned to Imperial Oil Saturday evening.

The Halifax Police Department boat Garrett Cotter was out and about for a time this morning despite the unpleasant conditions.

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Variety of Shapes

Another gloomy day greeted cruise ship passengers today, although one benefit of their mid-morning arrival meant that showers had largely ended. Sales of hoodies were expected to boom as cool temperatures remained.

Adventure of the Seas features a plain white livery with barely visible blue stripes running almost the entire length of the ship. So far Royal Caribbean International has not succumbed to the super graphic / alias graffiti of other lines, although on this ship a huge water slide mounted high over the stern does detract from its clean lines. The yellow lifeboats and tenders are change from the usual safety orange.
Built in 2001 by Kvaerner-Masa, Turku, Finland, the 137,246 gt ship has a passenger capacity of 3,114 and crew size of 1,180 according to most sources.

As a contrast in appearance the next arrival lacked some of the grace of the previous one.

Carrying more than enough cars  to outfit every passenger and crew member of the cruise ship, Victoria Highway arrived an hour later. The 73,528 gt, 21,114 dwt ship was built in 2018 by Tadotsu Shipyard Co in Kagawa, Japan. It has a capacity of 7,450 CEU.
The ship features the new paint scheme adopted by K-Line for its autocarriers and looked quite striking as the tugs Atlantic Bear and Atlantic Fir came alongside to nudge the ship towards Autoport.

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Some weekend activity

Far from  a complete rundown of weekend activity - this will have to be a few glimpses.

On Friday the centre section of AOPS 2 (Halifax Shipyard Hull No. 104, future HMCS Margaret Brooke) was rolled out onto the hardstand. This is Megablock #2 of the three sections that will make up the ship, and is by far the largest.

 Workers are lowering the (red) transporters so that the (blue) cradles will rest on the ground.

Despite high winds and showers Megablock#3, the stern section, was rolled out Saturday morning and perfectly aligned with Megablock #2.

In the case of AOPS1, it was five months before the bow was moved into position.

The ship will likely remain in this condition for some time until the bow section, Megablock#1 is ready for assembly. In the meantime it is much easier for workers to access the innards of the ship.

It was still dark and blustery at 0800 hrs as CCGS Hudson arrived from sea, and it did not attempt to tie up at the Bedford Institute, instead continuing on out to anchor in Bedford Basin.

Hudson bypasses its berth at BIO.

 Those high winds caused some interesting moments docking the cruise ships Disney Magic and Adventure of the Seas on Saturday morning. The Disney Magic had tug assistance. However by sailing time conditions had changed considerably and it was a glorious sunny afternoon, although still windy.

Sailing in the late afternoon,  Adventure of the Seas made a large swing to starboard to create a lee for the pilot boat (which is barely visible alongside the ship).

The product tanker Star N was also due on Saturday, and it was planned that it would anchor in Bedford Basin until its berth at Imperial Oil was free. The Harbour Feature was due at the berth first. Instead Star N remained at sea until Sunday morning, then anchored in the lower harbour.

Unlike Saturday, Sunday was more or less dead calm - the anchor is straight up and down.

Star N dates from 2009 when it was built as Mekong Star  by Hyundai Mipo, Ulsan. A handysize tanker of 23,312 grt, 37,836 dwt, it was renamed in 2013 and is managed by Navios Tankers for anonymous owners. Its last port was Milford Haven, UK.

For a compressed view of last Thursday's bustling harbour activity see:

https://youtu.be/6_dLX_sjjfk

Be sure to read the play by play commentary on the YouTube page.

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