No encore at this concert

Another ACL ship has gone to the breakers.Atlantic Concert arrived off Alang, India September 15 and  was beached two days later. Scrapping likely began immediately. Its fleet mate Atlantic Companion was the first to go in September 2015, followed by Atlantic Compass in June 2016.

Last call.

The last time I saw the Atlantic Concert, it was sailing from Halifax July 23, 2016 for the last time and it was certainly obvious that no investment was being made in the ship except to keep it running long enough to get through its last few weeks of service.

 

Atlantic Concert in 1984

The first time I saw the ship it was brand new, in June of 1984. Fresh out of the Kockums AB shipyard in Malmo, Sweden it measured 25,435 grt / 36,500 dwt with a capacity of 2157 TEU and a huge RoRo capacity served by a massive stern ramp, it dwarfed most other ships calling in Halifax.
I was a less prolific photographer then, so it was not until August that I finally got a picture.

Atlantic Concert in 1986

The ship was then owned by Wallenius Lines, an original partner in ACL, and remained under their ownership when ACL began a joint service with HAPAG-Lloyd to Montreal in 1987. The ship was renamed Concert Express and sent to Hyundai Mipo to be lengthened 42m thus increasing tonnages to 57,255 grt / 44,988 dwt (later reported as 51,648) and container capacity to 2908. Its overall length was then 292.01m ( 958 ft).

Concert Express in 1989.

(as seen from the bridge of the tug Point Halifax and through tinted glass)

In 1990 Atlantic Container Line AB was formed in Sweden to own the ACL ships with Grimaladi Group as the owner and managers. In 1994 the ship reverted to its original name again and has been a predictable presence in Halifax ever since. With five G3 class near-sisters, ACLs were the most readily identifiable ships in  Halifax and that is why I chose one for the mast head photo (Atlantic Compass taken November 23, 2014).

Atlantic Concert docks at Fairview Cove Febraury 1, 1986, as the tug Point Vibert stands by to flush broken ice away from the dock. 

(Bedford Basin rarely freezes over, but ice does form or is blown into Fairview Cove.)

The two remaining G3 ships, Atlantic Conveyor and Atlantic Cartier will also be heading to India as the next G4 class ships come into service.

With the new ships ACL is expanding its capacity considerably and has expressed concern about the recent talk of moving Fairview traffic to Halterm and resultant delays in rail loadings. If Halifax cannot compete with New York for delivery of mid-west traffic, we may see the last of ACL ships.

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New Faces and Old

It was a fairly quiet weekend in the Port of Halifax, so there is not much to report on.

A first time caller, the autocarrier MSC Immacolata visited Autoport on Sunday. MSC autocarriers never visited Halifax before this year and now we have seen three.

This was one was built by STX Dalian shipyard in Wafangdian, China in 2012, and measures 59,835 grt. It is owned by Niki Shipping Co Inc of Athens and flies the Panama flag on charter to MSC.

Now a frequent caller to pier 9 with cargo for Wilson Fuels, the tanker Nanny arrived on Thursday from Come-by-Chance and sailed today.

A wisp of fog creeps in with the incoming tide as the tanker gets away from pier 9.

After turning off the pier it heads for Loon Bay, NL, near its home base port of Lewisporte.
Once it gets there it may meet up with the newest meber of the Coastal Shippping Ltd (Woodward Group) fleet. Sten Fjord was registered in St.John's May 24. A tanker of 8,882 grt, 13,670 dwt, it was built in 2004 by Jiangyang Shipyard in Shanghai as Falcon and was renamed in 2009 by Stenerson AS, flying the flag of Gibraltar. Coastal does not usually rename it ships, so it is likely to enter service as Sten Fjord.

The fog came well into the harbour with the colder tidal water, silhouetting the Angus L. Macdonald bridge, where re-decking has reached mid-span.

On Saturday that newest deck section was waiting on the barge Timberland, with more fog at the harbour mouth. The tugs Halifax Tugger (left) and Belle D. (right) and workboat Captain Jim are in attendance. They will move it under the bridge where the old deck section will be lowered and the new section raised in place.

Sunday also saw the arrival and sailing of the Atlantic Concert. Now down to three G3 ships, ACL's second G4 ship, Atlantic Sail will  is due tomorrow on the eastbound leg of its first trip.

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Freezing spray and fog

That unique combination of frozen spray and fog prevailed today as temperatures rose to zero and above. The melting snow from two days ago and light rain saturated the air which was still cooler than the sea surface temperature, resulting in a moderately thick fog.
However colder temperatures just a day ago had given inbound ships a thick coating of frozen spray. Not much effort was made to remove the stuff, since it was sloughing off in the warmer air anyway.

Atlantic Concert picked up a heavy of frozen spray south of Newfoundland on its way across the Atlantic.

It sailed from Fairview Cove this morning and its booming fog signal echoed off the walls along the Narrows and could still be heard even after the ship had passed Meagher's Beach on the way out to sea. Thick ice still coated the fore section of the ship, but was sliding off periodically.

A regular caller since June 1984 the ship and its remaining three sisters are on the way out, with the news that the first G4 ship Atlantic Star sailed from Liverpool December 28. It is due in Halifax January 4 or 5, replacing Atlantic Companion, which has already gone to the scrappers.

At Haltern, another ship that had followed a similar course across the Atlantic, picked up its frozen spray on the way from Argentia to Halifax.

Selfoss  had a thick coating on its breakwater, making for awkward work on the foredeck for the crew. The ship is now bound for Portland, ME and warmer temperatures.

Selfoss has been a regular since February of this year when it was added to the Eimskip service with Reykjafoss and  Skogafoss. It was built in 1991  by Orskov Christensens in Frederickshavn, Denmark, first as Hanne Sif. It was soon renamed Maersk Tertio, then Hanne Sif, Elizabeth Delams, Vento di Ponenete and Hanne Sif again before becoming Selfoss in 1999.
It carries 724 TEU and two 40 tonne cranes and measures 7676 grt.

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Grand Benelux - not your usual ACLer

Shipping lines adopt various colour schemes to distinguish their ships from their competitors. Various shades of the primary colours of red, blue and green seem to be as popular as greys and blacks, so subtle shadings are needed to further differentiate ships. Few lines chose yellow however, so Grimaldi Lines ships are distinguishable anywhere, even if the colours must be very difficult to maintain.

Grand Benelux provides high visibility even in murky weather.

Today's Autoport visitor Grand Benelux scores on both counts of instant recognition, but does point out the need for diligent maintenance. That would certainly be easier in the company's home turf of Italy, but today was no day for touchups in Halifax. The ship sailed during a break in what some were calling "fat rain"- a form of of precipitation halfway between rain and snow. 

The ship was built in 2001 by the Uljanik shipyard in Pula, Croatia, and measures 37,212 grt, 12,594 dwt, making it one of the smaller carriers, nevertheless it has a capacity of 4500 cars.
 
One interesting aspect of the ship is that it actually owned by Atlantic Container Line and chartered to the parent company Grimaldi Group. ACL owns the five ConRos we see in Halifax ion a regular basis, but also has seven more ConRos and PCTCs (pure car and truck carriers) which it charters out for use by Grimaldi Group companies.  ACL ships are painted in the more serviceable dark blue, but even it becomes battle scarred after a winter in the North Atlantic.

 A wide angle view of Atlantic Concert leaving Bedford Basin on Sunday, showing the wear and tear from winter work.

ACL has an enviable reputation on the North Atlantic. Read this interesting speech by the company's president and ceo: http://splash247.com/atlantic-container-line-carriers-obsessed-with-market-share-instead-of-profitability/

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Foggy-part 2

Later in the morning the wind came up and blew most of the fog away, but there was misty rain from time to and some unusual moisture.

Atlantic Cartier arrived and held off the Fairview Cove terminal until Atlantic Concert was ready to leave. It gave time to study the many small differences between the two fleetmates.

Although both ships were of the same general design,  they were built to the order of the various partner companies in the Atlantic Container Line. Atlantic Concert was built by Kockums of Malmo, Sweden for Wallenius Lines.

Atlantic Cartier was built by Chantier du Nord, Dunkerque for Cie Générale Maritime. The enclosed forepeak was added some years later, but its accommodation was built on quite a different arrangement-note the different pattern of windows.

At the time these G3 ships were built, the other partners in ACL were Cunard (Atlantic Conveyor built by Swan Hunter) and A/B Transatlantic, of the Brostrom Group (Atlantic Companion and Atlantic Compass built by Kockums). Since then the ownership of the line has been consolidated, with Grimaldi Group owning 100%. All ships are now registered in Sweden.

Things were almost brightening up when Barkald sailed from National Gypsum for Baltimore. (See yesterday's post for more on this odd ship.)

The pilot aboard was intending to head the ship west of George's Island for sea, but came to find out that he had to go east. No Notice to Shipping was posted, and Halifax Traffic seemed totally unaware of an exclusion zone around pier 20 (right next to the Port Authority's office!) where two tugs were carrying out a water display.

Atlantic Willow and Atlantic Oak do pinwheels, while hurling gobs of water and creating their own drizzle and fog off pier 20. [See also Tugfax]

Halifax Regional Municipality Police boat Garrett Cotter patrols an exclusion zone.

Visiting cruise passengers from the Veendam may have thought the demo was for them, and customers at the Seaport Market may have had similar thoughts. My own opinion is that it was arranged for the visiting royal personage by marriage, the Duchess of Cornwall. She and her spouse, Prince Charles were in Halifax for the day on a short tour of the Maritimes. The Duchess was at the Seaport market at the time of the display, while Prince Charles was visiting veterans.
Royal security apparently precludes broadcast notification for mariners.

Breaking off the display, the two tugs headed for Fairview Cove for the scheduled 1630 departure of Virginia (see previous post). That event was delayed until 1800 as tugs and pilot cooled their heels until the last boxes were put aboard.

Unlike her arrival, conditions were clear for Virginia's departure this evening.

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Foggy - part 1

Dense fog at the pilot station, with visibility reported at under 300 meters, did not discourage arrivals and departures today. Although the pea soup thinned out a bit in the inner harbour, it was still thick enough for ships to be sounding their fog signals.

  First time caller Virginia enters Bedford Basin in company of tugs Atlantic Oak and Atlantic Larch. Built in 2005 as APL Virginia by Hyundai Samho, the ship is a sister ship to Zim Savannah, Zim Haifa and Zim Beijing. The 54,592 grt, 66,644 dwt ship has a capacity of 5,047 TEU, including 450 reefers. It is owned by NSC Schiffahrts GmbH of Germany and flies the Liberian flag. It is here on the G6 Alliance which includes Hapag-Lloyd and APL.

Atlantic Concert emerges from the soup off pier 9. It berthed at Fairview Cove as soon as Virginia was secured.

 Meanwhile in the lower harbour, the fog cleared off enough to catch a glimpse of the crude tanker United Honor as it completed bunkering from Algoma Dartmouth. The launch Halmar [see Tugfax: http://tugfaxblogspotcom.blogspot.ca/2014/05/halmar-on-go.html ] scurries out
to the ship with the agent.

Built in 2010 by New Times Shipbuilding Co of Jingjiang, China, United Honor measures 62,775 grt, 112,795 deadweight. Owned by Marine Management Services of Piraeus, Greece it flies the Greek flag. It arrived in Halifax last night after unloading at Canaport (Saint John, NB)and sailed for Whiffen Head, NL to load.

Pot pourri

There was a mixed bag of shipping in Halifax today, with an equally mixed variety of weather.

Atlantic Concert made a very brief visit to Halifax this morning. The ship emerged from the fog once inside the harbour and was tied up at Fairview Cove by 0800. It sailed again before noon, having discharged a variety of RoRo cargo that included numerous European camper vans and two A4 class steam locomotives.

Thanks to protective tarps, we will not see them in all their glory. They are returning from England after a two year stay, where they were restored to their original LNER livery and numbering. They will now be transferred to rail cars and shipped back to their North American homes in St-Constant, QC and Green Bay, WI. For more on these 1937 vintage steam locomotives see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LNER_Class_A4_4489_Dominion_of_Canada

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LNER_Class_A4_4496_Dwight_D_Eisenhower

The next ships were just emerging from the fog when I saw them.

Seasalvia is another product tanker, a product of the STX Offshore + Shipbuilding yard in Jinhae, South Korea. It was built in 2013 and measures 29,925 gross tons, 50,908 deadweight. It had been anchored off Halifax since about May 6. It is headed to Imperial Oil's number 4 dock.

Following along by a few minutes, Western Regent joins the fleet of seismic ships gathering in Halifax for BP. Built in 1992 by Ulstein Werft it is a UT 747 type, and will be one of two streamer vessels working on the BP project.
Western Neptune arrived after dark last night, and it will be the other streamer boat.

Western Neptune is a UT 753 class ship, built by Ulstein Werft in 1999.It will tow long cables that pick up the echoed sound waves from the "gun boats". The data is collected and sent by satellite for analysis.

It had cleared off a bit by noon time when the next ship hove into view.

Ocean Charger flies the flag of the United States of America, but was built in 2000 in Portugal by Estaleiros Navais de Viana do Castelo, as Virgo J. It was almost immediately renamed Industrial Charger, by its German owners, a name it carried until 2009. It is now operated by Pacific-Gulf Maritime of Terrytown, LA, and registered in New Orleans.
  

The ship is fitted with a pair of Krupp cranes, each with up to 120 tonne lifting capacity. It tied up at pier 9A where it will be fitted out to carry subsea cable. The ship's holds will receive special metal framing to carry the coiled cable. Called tanks in the cable business, they will ensure that the cable is kept in good condition and not kinked or bent beyond its minimum radius.

By late afternoon, when the sun was blazing happily between the clouds, it was time for Hoegh Masan to sail from Autoport.

Built in 1998 as Maersk Teal and renamed in 2008, it carried the name CSAV Rio Salado from 2011-2012. It has been a regular caller in Halifax since new.
 
The sun, and warm air temperatures (over land it reached 19C in Halifax) brought out the usual quota of  the foolhardy.

Despite a water temperature of 5C and an air temperature over the water of 8C, this sail-boarder was clad only in swim trunks. With no pfd or any means of staving off hypothermia in the event of an accident, he was certainly putting his own life at risk.
The Coast Gard has started its summer rescue patrols in the harbour - I hope he did not need them.

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Busan Express - new to Halifax

1. Maersk Pembroke and Zim Panama at Halterm on Saturday- the pier was working flat out.

Both container piers in Halifax are scrambling with extra traffic brought on by the effects of storm Sandy in the ports of New York/ New Jersey. Both Fairview Cove (Cerescorp) and Halterm have been inundated by extra traffic from ships that could not berth in NY/NJ or diverted because of the effects of the storm.

2. Busan Express arrived this morning at Fairveiw Cove, followed by Atlantic Concert

In all this bustle there was also the arrival of Busan Express, a new to Halifax post-Panamax container ship. Until now Hapag-Lloyd has been using OOCL's post-Panamax ships (some renamed to Hapag names), but this may be the first in Hapag colours. Built in 2004 by Daewoo, in Koje, South Korea, it is a 75,590 gross tons/ 85,810 deadweight tonnes ship with a capacity of 6,750 TEUs. This puts it at slightly larger than the OOCL class of post-Panamaxes.

3. Atlantic Concert sails up the Narrows this morning bound for Fairview Cove.

4. Italy Express sails Friday as OOCL Antwerp gets underway from anchorage to go into Fairview Cove.

5. OOCL Antwerp sails on Saturday.

Atlantic Concert finally gets away

1. Atlantic Concert revs up to pass under the MacKay bridge at 0830 this morning in blowing rain.

Atlantic Concert arrived on Wednesday February 16 with two stowaways aboard. The two had apparently boarded the ship in Liverpool, UK, ten days before. The Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) is not releasing much information about the incident, but it is most likely that their presence was detected by the crew before the ship arrived in Halifax.

The ship was held in port while the two were removed (they have apparently applied for refugee status in Canada) and a full scale search conducted to see if there were any more on board.

Stowaways are unusual on the North Atlantic in winter, but the Atlantic Companion and its sister ships of the Atlantic Container Line (ACL) are not typical container ships.

As the largest RoRo/LoLo (Roll on Roll off/Lift on Lift off) ships in the world, they are in reality huge floating garages with many internal decks to stow trailers, cars, and other rolling goods, as well as conventional deck loaded containers. Built specifically for ACL's transatlantic service, the ship run on a tightly organized schedule with weekly eastbound and westbound calls in Halifax. They have been targeted by human smugglers before, since they are a fairly quick way to get across the Atlantic, have lots of places to hide, and stop in Canada first before going on to the US.

The ship was built in 1984 and lengthened in 1987. Between 1987 and 1994 the ship was renamed Concert Express when HAPAG-Lloyd and ACL ran a coordinated service. Otherwise the ship has lead an uneventful existence plying its route in strict rotation with the other ships in the fleet.

Because the ship was not able to get away until this morning, that schedule must be in a bit of a mess at this point, however it will probably be made up by skipping some US ports and its eastbound call in Halifax. The ship is giving Baltimore as its next port.

Atlantic Container line is part of the Grimaldi Group of Italy, but its ships still fly the Swedish flag reflecting some of the orginal founding owners of ACL. Crew services and other management has recently passed from Rederi AB Transatlantic to other operators.

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