Asian Emperor - on its way again

The fairly rare sight of a car carrier sailing from Bedford Basin today signaled the end of a lengthy stay for the Asian Emperor. The ship arrived in Halifax February 15 for what would normally have been an eight hour call at Autoport to unload some cars.
Instead, while not far off Halifax, the ship struck heavy weather, cargo broke loose and mayhem ensued as the ship pitched and rolled. There was extensive damage to cars, farm and construction machinery and other industrial cargo and internal damage to the ship. The damaged cargo was removed at pier 27, Autoport and pier 31 and repairs and cleanup began at once.
On February 24 the ship moved to the Ceres container terminal at Fairview Cove in Bedford Basin, due to shortage of pier space elsewhere, where repairs continued.
The ship cleared for New York at 1300hrs today.

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Asian Emperor - on the move again

The damaged autocarrier Asian Emperor was on the move again this evening, shifting from Pier 30-31 to Fairview Cove. Welding repairs to the ship's stern ramp were going on all weekend, and no doubt a lot of other work was taking place within the ship which was not visible.

Asian Emperor en route to Autoport February 18.

 

 

Today's move was brought about by the need to free up Pier 30 for tomorrow's arrival of Zeelandia. The Nirint ship is due to unload nickel sulfides from Cuba, and Pier 31 is set up for that work. The cargo, in bulk bags, is loaded directly on to rail cars or stored in the nearby transit shed. With no ships due at Fairview Cove, the berths there are open for several days. However we could expect Asian Emperor to move again when those berths are needed for container ships.

 

 

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Asian Emperor - cleanup continues

Aboard the autocarrier Asian Emperor the cleanup and repair from storm damage continues, now at pier 30. The ship originally berthed at pier 27 where both the stern ramp and side ramp were used to access the cargo deck and remove damaged machinery and other cargo that had broken loose in a storm while crossing from Southampton to Halifax. [see previous post]
Yesterday the ship moved to Autoport to unload the automobiles that were scheduled for delivery in Halifax.

Asian Emperor entering Eastern Passage en route to Autoport yesterday.

 

At midnight the ship shifted over to pier 30 where cleanup continued, with the removal of other damaged cargo, pumping spilled fuel out of bilges and repairs to damaged decks and fittings. It is also possible that they may restow some of the damage cargo for delivery to US insurers.

 

 

At pier 30 the cleanup continues.

 

 

This combine will not be harvesting any crops, but the digger behind it  may be repairable.

 

I have received numerous requests from persons with cars aboard the ship, about possible damage to their vehicles. Unfortunately I do have access to Autoport, where the cars destined for Canada would have been unloaded. Most of the owners had BMWs on the ship, but there are likely to have been other brands as well.

 

It does raise interesting questions however. Autoport would be able to repair minor damage to vehicles, but obviously they would not be able to repair severe damage. In previous cases where automobiles were seriously damaged, submerged or remained heeled over for lengthy periods, the auto makers elected to have the cars scrapped. Rather than face potential warranty issues with the cars, it was wisest to write them off.

 

In this case however, I am not aware of any such severe damage to cars. Most of the damage seems to have taken place on the oversize cargo area near the stern of the ship where something broke loose and rolled around crashing into the other cargo and causing those units to break loose too.

 

 

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Asian Emperor and Gracious Ace - two autocarriers

Autocarrier Asian Emperor has been due in Halifax for a couple of days now, but only arrived this morning. It was supposed to go to Autoport, but while inbound its destination was changed to pier 27-28. A second autocarrier, Gracious Ace, which was to have followed later in the day, instead came in and went directly to Autoport.

Word is that while crossing the Atlantic, Asian Emperor was struck by this week's major storm and sustained damage below deck when cargo broke loose. Extent of damage is still to be determined, so the ship will remain at pier 27-28 until it has been assessed and cleaned up.
Built in 1999 by Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan, South Korea, the ship measures 55,729 grt, and can carry 6,246 cars. It is actually owned by Wilhelmsen South Korea of Pusan, and chartered to EUKOR [EURope KORea] a company set up to deliver Hyundai and Kia cars.
As with most Wallenius Wilhelmsen autocarriers, it operates in a world wide pool and carries autos from many manufacturers. A recent list of ports that it has visited included Piraeus (Jan 14), Livorno (Jan 18) Sagunto (Jan 19), Zeebrugge (Jan 29), Bremerhaven (Jan 31), Southampton (Feb 4).

Gracious Ace was built in 2012 by Imabari Shipbuilding in Marugame, Japan and measures 59,583 grt. It is operated by MOL Ship Management of Singapore, an operating arm of the Japanese company MOL. (Mitsui OSK Lines) It also has a capacity of 6200 cars.

Unlike the Wallenius ships, it is on a different sort of routing. A summary of its last ports include Australia (October), Japan (December), Boston (Dec 19), Lagos (Jan 14), and Eemshaven (Feb 2).
From this it would seem to have been a couple of days behind Asian Emperor, thus escaping the worst of the weather.

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