Algoma Growing

 The Algoma Central Corporation is on another growth spurt, with new bulk carriers ordered for its international operations and new tankers for charter.

The company's ships are often seen in Halifax, and this week was no expception with three of its ships in port, each representing a different area of operations. By this evening, November 21, all had sailed on their ways to wisdespread destinations.

In the international bulk shipping realm, Algoma is a partner in CSL's self-unloader pool, with nine ships including the Algoma Integrity which loaded at Gold Bond Gypsum and sailed November 19 for Tampa. In this file photo taken in January 2024 the ship is transitting the Narrows in Halifax headed for the loading dock at Wright's Cove in Bedford Basin.

The former Gypsum Integrity built in 2009 by EISA-Ilha in Rio di Janeiro, was built to service US Gypsum's Canadian operations in Little Narrows and Hantsport. When those operations shut down the ship was reassigned and Algoma purchasd it in 2015. The 33.047 gt, 46,293 dwt ship has a self-unloading rate of 3,000 tonnes per hour.

In January 2023 Algoma and CSL each ordered two Kamsarmax self-unloaders from Jiangsu Yangzi-Mitsui Shipbuilding Co Ltd. The 72, 250 dwt ships will unload at 5,000 tonnes per hour. The first ship is due for delivery in July 25 and subsequent ships in three month intervals thereafter. They will replace older ships in the CSL pool. (Kamsar is an important bauxite port in the Republic of Guinea. Ships that can load there are considered to be the most versatile.)

In the domestic area, Algoma operates ten self-unloaders and eight gearless bulkers under Canadian flag and took delivery of another new Equinox class ship this year - Algoma Bear. It will likely be restricted to the Great Lakes / Gulf of St. Lawrence iron ore / grain trade.  Some of the self-unloaders can make extended trips to Halifax such as the Radcliffe R.Latimer which delivered a load of grain from the Great Lakes, sailing from Thunder Bay November 9 and arriving here November 19.

 The ship will sail this evening for Auld's Cove on the Strait of Canso to load aggregate. I have recounted the ship's history here before, but briefly again: built in Collingwood in 1978 as Algobay, upgraded to Caribbean class in 1987-88, chartered to CSL as Atlantic Trader 1994 to 1997. Towed to China where new forebody and engine were installed - redelivered in 2009 and renamed in 2012. Now a 26,102 gt, 37,257 dwt Seawaymax ship, can unload at up to 5440 tph; "Coastal Class" with restricted sea voyages.

Algoma Tankers Ltd has also been busy increasing and renewing its fleet, with several additions added this year. In the last week three of its fleet have called in Halifax: Algoscotia, Algoberta, and Algonova. The last of which (see yesterday's post) sailed today for the Esso refinery in Nanticoke. Algoma Tankers was formed with the takeover of the Imperial Oil (Esso Canada) fleet and has been Imperial's dedicated carrier. 

However in 2023 Algoma Tankers announced that they had ordered two Ice class, 37,000 dwt  Mid Range 2 tankers from Hyundai Mipo for delivery in 2025. The ships will be chartered exclusively to Irving Oil and will sail under Canadian flag. They will replace two older ships, the Acadian, and the Esst Coast [see yesterday's post], both built in 2005 and chartered from Iver Ships BV, the tanker operating arm of the Dutch Vroon Group. 

The new ships have not been assigned official names yet, but are listed by builder's hull numbers as Hyundai Mipo 2900 and Hyundai Mipo 2901. The first delivery is due in January so an announcement can be expected soon. The second ship is due in March.

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East Meets West and All Around the Circle

 The variety of traffic in Halifax Harbour today (November 28) was not unusual, and so is a reminder of how vital the port is to a number of aspects of the Canadian economy. The amount of traffic was due in part to yesterday's stormy weather which caused the suspension of pilotage operations until early this morning when traffic began to arrive in a ,bunch.

HMCS Fredericton was outbound this morning and met the inbound CSL Tacoma in the Middle Ground area off Point Pleasant. The Canadian frigate is named for the capital city of New Brunswick and was built in Saint John, New Brunswick by Saint John Shipbuilding Ltd. It was commissioned in 1994 and is based in Halifax.

CSL Tacoma operates for CSL Americas and was named for the sister city to Seattle, WA, which occupies the southernmost reaches of Puget Sound. CSL operates ships on the Pacific coast also, often carrying aggregates from Canadian quarries to US cities such as Tacoma. Oddly there is a Tacoma Drive in Dartmouth, NS. How it acquired that name is not known to me, but it is in the Westphal area, which in itself is named for a pair of brother Royal Navy admirals, originally from Nova Scotia. One of the brothers, Sir George Augustus Alexander Westphal, served with Nelson (and was also wounded) on HMS Victory, and was the last surviving RN officer from the batle of Trafalgar when he died at age 90 in 1875.)

CSL Tacoma is a Trillium class self-unloading ocean bulker of 43,691 gt, 71,552 dwt, built in 2013 by Chengxi Shipyard in Jiangyin, China. It will load a cargo of gypsum at the Gold Bond Gypsum facility in Bedford Basin.

Also arriving to load gypsum was Algoma Integrity, also a self-unloader, built in 2009 by EISA-Ilha in Rio de Janeiro. It was built for the United States Gypsum Company's Gypsum Transportation Ltd, and named Gypsum Integrity, Designed to serve their Hantsport and Little Narrows, Nova Scotia export facilities, it measured 33,047 gt, 47,761 dwt. When USG's Canadian subsidury Canadian Gypsum Corp (CGC) closed the Hantsport facility in 2011 the ship was chartered out and in 2015 was sold to Algoma and renamed Algoma Integrity. CGC closed the Little Narrows mine in 2016, but earlier this year announced the re-opening, although it will be some time before they ship any product.

Algoma Integrity will remain at anchor in Bedford Basin until the CSL Tacoma sails.

Lingering waves from yesterday's storm brought out some hardy surfers off Point Pleasant as ship traffic made its way inbound.

Another of those early arrivals was the container ship BF Fortaleza for the first time for Melfi Shipping of Cuba. The ship stood by off Halifax most of yesterday and boarded its pilot for 0700 hrs AST this morning.

It tied up at Pier 42 and so had a view of a lobster boat working just off the pier. The lobster season in this region opened a day early, on Sunday November 26, in view of the predicted weather for the usual opening day - the last Monday in November. I was surprised to see the boat however as there is a newly imposed ban this year on lobstering in many areas of Halifax harbour close to industrial and port facilities.

BF Fortaleza was built by the famed, but now defunct, J.J.Sietas shipyard in Nuenfeld, Germany in 1996. It was launched as Partnership but renamed Yvette on delivery. It became Partnership again from 2003 to 2004 then City of Lisbon until 2005, Carla until 2009 and WEC Rubens until 2011.  The 6362 gt, 7202 dwt ship has a capacity of 700 TEU, and unusual for Melfi, it is gearless.

Another ship that spent yesterday standing by off Halifax arrived this morning for Imperial Oil. The oddly named Silver Ginny is an otherwise typical Mid-Range tanker of 29,460 gt, 49,746 dwt, built in 2014 by Hyundai Mipo, Ulsan.

The ship is arriving from Good Hope -Norco, Louisiana, an area upstream of New Orelans on the Mississippi River, and home to two large refineries. Shell Oil's Norco refinery produces 250,000 bbl per day and Valero's St. Charles refinery produces 340,000 bbl per day. Both also produce a variety of chemicals. Since Shell and Valero are competitors of Imperial (Exxon Mobil) today's cargo is likely part of an elaborate trade off mechanism to meet a specific need.

The ship is owned by Sinokor Petrochemical Co Ltd which has several ships named "silver + woman's name".

Rounding off the arrivals was the westbound Atlantic Sky from Liverpool, UK.

Once again the weakness of Transatlantic trade is evident with the very light deck load. Most Atlantic ports are showing a decline in traffic after a few years of dependably steady traffic or slight growth. Halifax and Montreal are no excepetions to this trend. The Port of Halifax saw a 12.9% decline in container traffic in the third quarter of 2023 over last year. That gives a year to date total of 409,000 TEU versus the 2022 YTD of 448,000 TEU. The year 2022 saw a record 601,700 TEU throughput (import + export). This year's projection may be be in the range of an 8% to 10% decline.

There were some small craft at work in the harbour too. The Halifax Port Corporation's own workboat Maintainer I was spotted at Pier 23 working on the removal of inflatable fenders for the winter. The fenders, commonly called Yokohama fenders (which is a trade name of the Yokohma Rubber Co) are deployed at cruise ship berths to protect visiting ships from impact with the piers. The resilient surfaces sometimes attract marine growth which is removed before they are set out again in the spring.

Built by A.F.Theriualt + Sons Ltd in Meteghan River, NS in 1995 it is a 12 gt vessel with a 210 bhp engine driving a single screw. It is equipped with a substantial Palfinger knuckle boom crane with a lifting capacity of up to 3.3 tonnes.

Nearby was the Canadian Coast Guard boat Point Caveau a 31.9 gt aluminum hulled work boat built in 2003 by ABCO in Lunenburg, NS. The 14.6m (47.9 ft) vessel has reputed top speed of 30 knots.

I think the Pointe Caveau was displaced from its usual inside berth at the Bedford Institute by construction of the new section of dock. Also displaced from BIO was CCGS Jean Goodwill which has been tied up at Pier 9C for the last couple of days. (November 27 photo)

The ship took on stores today and sailed on SAR patrol as CCGS Sir William Alexander arrived.

With lobster season now underway from in Areas 33 and 34, from Halifax down the southwest shore and around the western end of the province to Digby, Coast Guard SAR patrols are stepped up due to the hundreds of small craft in coastal waters.

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Back to Normal

 After a brief period of record cold temperatures February 3-4 when the mercury dropped to -25 degrees C (-13 F) in Halifax, there was a quick return to normal, and above, on February 5-6 when the high reached  +5C (41F). Several ships were late in arriving, probably to avoid the high winds and dangerous freezing spray.

Among the February 5 arrivals were two ships coming from the south, where conditions were slightly better. Viviene Sheri D running for Eimskip was en route from the US to Argentia, NL then Iceland and AS Felicia was on ZIM's Florida feeder service. 

Vivienne Sheri D had a dusting of frozen spray on its sides forward.
 

There was no frozen spray visible on AS Felicia.

On February 6 the NYK Deneb and Algoma Integrity arrived from the south, Cartagena and Portsmouth (Newington), NH respectively:

NYK Deneb headed directly for Fairview Cove.

Algoma Integrity also headed for Bedford Basin, but anchored waiting the CSL Kajika which was loading at Gold Bond Gypsum.

On February 6 the container ship MSC Alyssa arrived from Montreal, having travelled through a lot of ice on the St.Lawrence and very rough conditions in the Gulf. By the time it arrived in the afternoon, any sign of frozen spray had disappeared. It will top up cargo to ocean draft before heading back across the Atlantic.

The Siem Cicero Confucius arrived off Halifax February 3 and waited out the cold spell offshore until February 6 to enter port and tie up at Autoport. The ship sailed from Emden and is now headed for Baltimore.

The pilot boat Scotia Pilot accompanies the ship outbound. Rather than standing by at the pilot station in the lingering slop and swell, it remained in the harbour until it was time to set out to disembark the pilot.

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Big Ships, and various updates

Container lines keep adding bigger ships to their fleets, and placing them on routes that once were served by much smaller ships. This certainly places pressure on the ports and terminals they visit to be able to berth and serve the larger ships efficiently. PSA Halifax is able to handle two "Ultra" class ships (larger than 10,000 TEU, 350m long) at the same time. Thanks to the most recent extension to Pier 42 they can berth the ships, but they do not yet have sufficient cranes to work the ships efficiently. 

One new crane is reported to be on order and there is an option for another. But with build times of up to 18 months, crane manufacturers have backlogs and it will years before the second crane arrives. By that time even larger ships will be calling and there will likely be demand for even more cranes. Certainly if there are two Ultra class ships, or even two moderately large ships in port at the same time, they need to be served quickly or the port loses advantage over other ports.The Port of Saint John will apparently be getting some cranes second hand from Prince Rupert, BC. Terminal operator DP World took delivery of the largest crane in Canada in Prince Rupert in June 2021, and will transfer a pair of older cranes to their newly enlarged Saint John operation.

Today's arrival at PSA Halifax seems to have had a domino effect on other ships.

CMA CGM Hermes arrives this morning February 9, while ZIM Vancouver continues to wait at an outer anchorage (it has been there since at least February 5). The ship used all four harbour tugs to berth, including Atlantic Oak the stern tethered escort tug that met the ship off the pilot station, (in the photo the fourth tug is not visible on ship's starboard side) .
 

CMA CGM Hermes is still very new, just delivered by Chinese builders in October. The 154,995 gt, 156,500 dwt ship, with a capacity of 15,536 TEU, including 1800 reefers, is about 1,000 TEU shy of being the largest container ship to call in Halifax, but at 366m x 51m it still monopolizes the resources (including cranes) of PSA Halifax. 

CMA CGM Hermes was built to Tier III emission standards and has numerous eco-friendly features. Builders are reported by some sources to be Shanghai Jiangnan Chiangxing Shipbuilding Co Ltd, and by others as Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Co (the latter may be the parent company - both are state owned).

PSA Halifax is also expecting the MSC Leigh later in the day, so will be full with its arrival.

The Fairview Cove container facility at the north end was also busy with ONE Majesty at the west berth on THE Alliance's AL5 route. It was joined by the MSC Tianjin (see February 7 post) on the Indus2 run, which had moved from PSA Halifax to Bedford Basin anchorage and moved again today, to Fairview Cove's east berth.

ONE Majesty is the former MOL Majesty, which was renamed and repainted in 2021. Built in 2010 by Mitsubishi, Kobe, it is a 78,316 gt, 79,443 dwt ship with a capacity of 6724 TEU,  including 500 reefers.

It seems that Fairview Cove may have been doing PSA and MSC a favour by allowing the MSC Tianjin to use the east berth, likely for repairs, since it did not appear to be working cargo. There is still no word on whether PSA's takeover of the Fairview lease will be permitted under the competition laws. Cooperation between the two is not unheard of however as the Southend terminal under Halterm operation and now PSA has accommodated ships in the past that were too large to reach Fairview Cove.
 

 MSC Tianjin, as previously reported, arrived off Halifax February 4 and anchored for a time until entering port on February 5. Built in 2005 by Samsung Koje it is a 89,097 gt, 105,528 dwt ship with a capacity of 8063 TEU, including a very large capacity of 1400 reefers. It was built as OOCL Tianjin, renamed GSL Tianjin in 2007 and became CMA CGM Tianjin in 2019.

Note both ships have substantial container lashing bridges at the stern, a feature common on ships built for Pacific Ocean service where large following seas can wash containers overboard.

Updates

Stormy weather again February 8, caused Star Pyxis to drag anchor in Bedford Basin, and a pilot was called to re-anchor the ship. It was re-established somewhat to the south of where it had been. (See previous post).

I like to get pictures of ships from both sides!

Also in Beford Basin Algoma Integrity was taking on cargo at Gold Bond Gypsum.

HMCS Kingston has been exercising in the Basin for the past few days with HMCS Summerside. While the latter was nowhere to be seen today, Kingston was in an unusual anchorage position off Rockingham in an area where large ships don't go.

The lead ship of its class, it was launched by Halifax Shipyard August 12, 1995 and commissioned September 21, 1966.

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Gypsum outbound

 There has been a slight lull in harbour traffic over the Chrisitmas / New Year week, and a few days of bad weather slowed traffic down, and discouraged ship watching, so there has not been much to report of late. 

This morning's (January 9) sailing of Algoma Integrity would otherwise have attracted little notice but for the fact that it occurred in daylight.

The former Gypsum Integrity until 2015 - no surprise -  loaded Gold Bond gypsum for Baltimore. It was of note however that the ship was not down to its marks, that is to say it was not fully loaded. Drawing 10.1m  according to AIS, but according to my observation it appeared closer to 10m.

As ships earn their keep by carrying tonnage, a slight difference in draft can be converted fairly directly to dollars. Draft may be restricted at the loading dock (as it is at the Gold Bond dock in Bedford Basin) or at the unloading facility (unknown to me) or by the amount of cargo the customer can take at one time, but can also be dictated by the classification society in the interests of safety. The latter does not seem to be the case this time, since the plimsoll mark shows more than a meter of additional draft beyond the 11.1m allowed for winter, but perhpas there is an additional margin for safety.

The ship sails for the CSL Americas self-unloader pool, and CSL's website has highly detailed specifications for all its ships: Integrity specs

The data sheet for the Algoma Integrity shows a  deadweight of 39,500 tonnes at 10.1m versus a 46,293 deadweight at  just over 11.4 m summer draft. That reduction of cargo would only be in the interests of safety or requirements of the customer.

One interesting data column on the spec sheet is "TPC". That stands for "tonnage per centimeter" . For more on that topic see: https://marineinbox.com/marine-exams/tonnes-per-centimetre-immersion-tpc/

As there was no wind to speak of on departure, the ship only required one tug to get away from the dock and turn outbound for sea. That duty fell to the Atlantic Willow, which still carried a bit of snow around the edges from the January 7-8 storm. 

Atlantic Willow is a 4,000 bhp ASD (Azimuthing Stern Drive) tug with 50 tonnes of bollard pull, and firefighting capability. It was built in 1998 for service at the Strait of Canso, based on the NuStar oil storage facility, and is registered in Port Hawksbury. The joint-venture arrangement between Svitzer Canada and Atlantic Towing Ltd formed in 2010 has Svitzer providing tug service on the Strait and Atlantic working in Halifax, so Atlantic Willow is one of four Atlantic Towing Ltd tugs normally based in Halifax. The other tugs range from 5,000 to 5,500 bhp and 66 to 70 tonne bllard pull.

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Algoma Days - Part 2

 Another day, another Algoma. After yesterday's two Algoma ships, there were again two today,  November 27, with Algoma Integrity arriving for another load of Gold Bond gypsum.

 Purpose built to serve CGC (Canadian Gypsum Corp) the Canadian branch of US Gypsum, in 2009 by EISA-Ilha, Rio de Janeiro, the ship was originally called Gypsum Integrity and was owned by the shipping subsidiary Fundy Transportation. When USG closed its operations in Hantsport and Grand Narrows, NS, the ship 's managers, Beltships Ltd, found work for the ship and its sister Gypsum Centennial in Africa, shuttling iron ore to larger bulk carriers in Sierra Leone.

Algoma Central Corp acquired and renamed the ship Gypsum Integrity in 2015 and operated it under Canadian flag for two years until new ships were completed. It was then registered in the Bahamas and placed in the CSL Americas pool of self-unloaders. It continues to carry gypsum, but also carries coal and aggregates. It has become a regular caller in Halifax for Gold Bond (formerly National Gypsum) the direct competitors of its first owners.

The tugs Spitfire III (aft) and  Atlantic Willow (forward) make up to the ship as it passes Pier 9 in the Narrows bound for the Gold Bond dock in Bedford Basin.

The 33.047 gt, 47,761 dwt ship can unload gypsum, coal and aggregates at an average rate of 2,500 tonnes per hour, and ore at 3,000 tonnes per hour. (CSL Americas quotes the ship's capacity at 46,293 dwt.)  Its 76.50 meters long telescoping unloading boom has an outreach of 60.40 meters.

When I checked up on the other Algoma ship, the Radcliffe R. Latimer at Pier 26 this morning, it was not unloading its grain cargo - possibly due to off and on rain showers. 

(See yesterday's post for a photo of the ship with its boom swung out for unloading.)

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Where are the ships - Part 3

 The container ships that had been anchored off Halifax, came in to port today, September 22, one each for PSA Halifax and Cerescorp, Fairview Cove.[ See previous post.]

First in at an early hour this morning was Conti Contessa tying up at Fairview Cove on THE Alliance's EC5 service.

Late in the afternoon it was time for MSC Shristi for PSA Halifax. Atlantic Fir came alongside first to push the ship's turn, with Atlantic Oak standing by to come alongside near the ship's starboard bow. Interestingly the ship used the Western / Deep Water channel, which the pilot referred to as the "Main Channel" when communicating with a sail boat.

The ship anchored off Halifax September 19 en route from New York to Montreal. It still does not show on Montreal schedules and PSA Halifax gives it a voyage number XA135A, which may mean that it is an "extra loader" - not scheduled and just here to pick up or redistribute empties. On the other hand it may be here just to lighten its load to meet St.Lawrence River draft restrictions.

Rock On

Gypsum Integrity arrived at sunset this evening, making an interesting sight as it approached the MacKay bridge, with the tug Atlantic Beaver Bear en route to Gold Bond to load gypsum (rock).

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DOUBLE HEADER, TRIPLE HEADER

 Two of the facilities in Halifax harbour were busy today. Gold Bond Gypsum (formerly National Gypsum) had one ship alongside and one waiting and PSA Halifax (operators of the southend container terminal) had two ships alongside and a third waiting.

Gold Bond had been accumulating a large stockpile of material for the last several weeks:

The raw gypsum ore is transported from the open pit mine at Milford by CN rail in dedicated unit trains. Cars dump their loads in the white building at left, where the material is conveyed under ground to the large stacker/crane. It is conveyed again (white structures to left of centre) to the mobile ship loader on the pier (dark structure in centre, in front of the stacker crane).

Arriving this morning, August 29, Algoma Integrity began to load immediately, and by late afternoon had reduced the stockpile noticeably. It has raised its self-unloader boom to allow the mobile ship loader to access all the ship's hatches. The loader is at about midships position in this photo, and appears to be loading the ship from aft to forward - perhaps in one pass.

Also arriving today, Thunder Bay anchored nearby and will move in as soon as the Integrity is finished.

At PSA Halifax (formerly Halterm) there were two ships alongside. CMA CGM Andromeda is new to Halifax. A 131,332 gt, 131,236 dwt ship, it was built by Hyundai Ulsan in 2009 and has a container capacity of 11,200 TEU. It is sailing on the Columbus JAX service.

Also alongside was Maersk Penang on the east bound leg of its transatlantic regular run. Returning from Montreal its next scheduled port is Bremerhaven.

Once both ships are clear, it will be time for the long awaited Zim Yokohama to berth, now scheduled for tomorrow morning.

The ship has been in quarantine anchorage off Halifax since August 6 due to COVID cases among the crew. 

The only other commercial activity in the harbour today was at Pier 30-31 where another regular caller, Augusta Luna, was tied up.

The ship arrived yesterday with another load of nickel sulfides from Cuba. The ship sails for the Dutch company Nirint Shipping BV. Cuba's economy is in paralysis, since the shut down of tourism due to COVID. One of the country's few sources of foreign revenue is the sale of nickel - although it is believed rum is still doing well. (See the container tanks on deck forward.)

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Big Ship Day

 It was a big day for ships or put another way it was a day for big ships. 

The first arrival was Algoma Integrity to take on a load of gypsum from Gold Bond. 

Algoma Integrity loading at Wright's Cove in Bedford Basin.

At 33,047 gt, 47,761 dwt, the self-unloader is a regular caller. The former Gypsum Integrity was acquired and renamed by Algoma in 2015 after a brief career with U.S. Gypsum's Fundy Gypsum fleet. It was built in 2009 by EISA-Ilha in Rio de Janeiro to serve Hantsport, NS and Little Narrows, NS, but was redeployed, then sold, when the parent  company shut down its Nova Scotia operations.

Next along was a most unusual caller. The Marshal Islands flag crude oil tanker Elli arrived at Pier 9C. It first went to Bedford Basin where it was turned by tugs then tied up at Pier 9C, with its bow facing seaward.

The ship was met at Pier 9C by a pair of fuel tankers, operated by the J.D.Irving trucking company RST Transport. 

( The large grey objects are fenders which are used along the pier faces for cruise ships. They are unlikely to be deployed this year.)

New Times Shipbuilding Co of Jingjiang, China, built the ship in 2010 as United Fortitude. It took its present name in 2018 when Halkidon Shipping Corp of Piraeus, Greece took over. The ship figures to be 62,775 gt, 112,719 dwt.

Elli arrived from Point Tupper, NS where it off loaded a cargo to Nu-Star's terminal.Canaport, Saint John, NB . Once it had refueled it sailed for sea for tank cleaning, then will be headed for Sorel-Tracy, QC .

In ballast Elli was an impressive sight in the Narrows.*

Sprague Energy operates the Kildair Services ULC facility in Sorel-Tracy, where they store and export diluted bitumen crude for Suncor. That crude comes from Alberta by rail. In 2013 the federal government permitted ships wider than 32 meters on that portion of the St.Lawrence River, but they still restrict draft. Tankers loading at Kildair are known to top up at other facilities once they get to deep water.

When Elli sailed, the ConRo Atlantic Sky was inbound, and a passing plan was arranged whereby Elli would pass west of George's Island and Atlantic Sky would pass to the east, leaving each vessel lots of room.

At 100,430 gt, 55,828 dwt, the ACL G4 ships are the largest by dimension to transit the Narrows on a regular basis., but not the largest in terms in terms of container capacity.

Among the other ships in Halifax today is Energy Progress arriving from Port Neches, TX (Beaumont-Port Arthur) for Imperial Oil. Most ships arriving for Imperial lately have been from Antwerp, in part because of the disruption to refining caused by severe winter weather in the southern US.

Tugs Atlantic Willow and Atlantic Fir push the ship alongside Imperial Oil #3 dock.**

A fairly typical MR tanker of 29,605 gt, 46,606 dwt, it was built in 2008 by the lesser known Sungdong Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering of Tongyeong, South Korea. Unusual also is that it is registered in Douglas, Isle of Man. 

Operators Golden Energy Management are based in Athens, Greece.

The other sizable ship to call in Halifax today was the container vessel Bilbao Bridge, which, at 46,944 gt, 59,623 dwt would be considered medium sized to small these days, with a capacity of 4526 TEU.

Such is the demand for container ships these days, there is little talk of inefficiency in sips of this size. It was built by Samsung Shipbuilding and Heavy Industry in Koje, South Korea in 2011. It is on charter to K-Line from Seaspan Corp. (K-Line's container operations are now part of Ocean Network Express ONE).

Footnotes:

I rarely mention the fact that I like to include wild life in my photos if possible, without distracting from the main subject. Halifax harbour and its shores are home to many species of birds - some seasonal - and mammals such as seals, occasional whales and squirrels. I feel fortunate when I am able to include one of these creatures, since they are rarely willing to sit still:

Today I was able to include birds on two occasions.

* - (dead centre bottom) - a starling (year round residents)

** - (bottom left and bottom right) - common eiders (seasonal)

Sometimes of course I see an animal when there is no ship in sight and I am forced to take a solo photo. Recently I spotted two birds that are usually hard to get:  this thick billed murre, a fairly rare sight in my experience.

Red breasted mergansers usually dive out of sight before I can get a picture:

Some readers noted the squirrel in a post a while back: 2021-02-04

I have no intention of making this a nature photo blog, so will refrain from noting animal life in future unless it is particularly noteworthy.

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Halifax - lots of integrity

Use of the word "integrity" seems to be on the increase. Once it was just an assumed characteristic of most people and things. It now seems necessary to assure others that you, your company or its product has integrity. Overstating it does little to reassure me, but it does make those companies that can bring themselves to use it a sort of cachet, if only in their own minds. 

The Port of Halifax has had lots of "integrity" lately with three ships of the name showing up in within a few days. Yesterday it was the autocarrier Integrity operating for American Roll On Roll Off Carriers. (That company likes the name so well it also has a ship called ARC Integrity in its fleet too.)

When IT International Telecom added another cable ship to its fleet, based at Pier 9A in Halifax, they named it IT Integrity. It returned to port December 12 from a repair mission to Cabot Strait.

Passing Pier 9A today on its way inbound to National Gypsum, Algoma Integrity caught the sunlight quite nicely.

The ship more or less inherited its name from its original owners, Canadian Gypsum who called it Gypsum Integrity. Since they intended it for use in our northerly climate, they equipped it with enclosed bridge wings, giving excellent weather protection year round. The ship is on a more or less regular run these days delivering raw gypsum to Baltimore, and other US ports. It was here twice in November.

Current owners Algoma Central Corp, gave the ship its current name in 2015, and placed it in the CSL Americas pool.

Aspirational and perhaps inspirational names for ships seem common nowadays, but as with many fads and fashions they do get overworked after a time. Perhaps this particular word has hit that mark and thus lost its integrity. 

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