Fleet Week Preparations

 The Royal Canadian Navy is hosting its first ever Fleet Week, (more accurately Fleet Weekend) between September 7 and 11. Several Canadian and visiting naval vessels will be in port and open to the public. The event will culminate on Sunday, September 10 with a sail past as most of the ships depart for an annual NATO exercise called Cutlass Shield. 

First among the visiting ships was HMS Portland F79 arriving September 5 at HMC Dockyard.

A type 23 frigate, it was commissioned in 2001 and established a record as the fastest ship of its class when it achieved 30.8 knots on trials.

Today saw the arrival of the first of four United States navy vessels to participate in the event. USS Porter DDG 78 is an Arleigh Burke class destroyer launched in 1997. The other three are due tomorrow.

Several RCN  ships will be positioned outside HMC Dockyard to make it easier for visiting. Appropriately HMCS Moncton MM708 will be at Sackville Landing, adjacent to Canada's naval memorial HMCS Sackville. Both vessels feature disruptive pattern paint schemes, designed to confuse visual recognition during World Wars I and II. The form of camouflage was applied to Moncton on the 75th anniversary of the end of the Battle of the Atlantic. It now has the added (genuine) rust streaks common on ships during war time when maintenance down time for painting was kept to a minimum.

HMCS Glace Bay MM 701 will be at Alderney Landing in Dartmouth. Both Kingston class ships were built at Halifax Shipyard and are based in Halifax.

HMCS Margaret Brooke will be open to the public at HMC Dockyard. Although it is not on the current open house list, Max Bernays was getting ready today by hoisting signal flags.

 Today also saw HMCS Fredericton FFH 337 moving to the Tall Ships Quay on the Halifax waterfront boardwalk. The move took some preparation and had to be coordinated with other harbour activities.

Two "camel" barges were moored at the quay to provide fendering and gangway access. HMC Dockyard craft such as YFU 128 and the "pup" tug Granville YTL 594 positioned the two camels and secured the fenders.

The Dockyard's own fleet of camels are all in use for its own and visting ships, so the scow Dominion Mercury from Dominion Diving was brought over from Dartmouth.

YFU 128 is a DockYard Fleet Utility boat.

Granville (Yard Tug Little 594 ) is one of the three "pup" tugs based in Halifax.

Once the camels and fenders were in place the area was left clear, briefly, for the departure of the cruise ship Zuiderdam, and for passage of the arriving of the Bluenose II and the ConRo Atlantic Sun as HMCS Fredericton stood off. Zuiderdam used the tug Atlantic Beaver to get off the berth at Pier 20 due to tight quarters with the camels and another cruise ship, the Norwegian Joy immediately astern.

Tight quarters at Pier 20.

Atlantic Beaver with a head line to assist Zuiderdam.

 

After heading north and east of George's Island the Zuiderdam arranged a port to port meet with the inbound Atlantic Sun. The schooner Bluenose II kept well to the west.

The Bluenose II was motoring, so was not under full sail.

Fredericton was on a "cold move" (i.e. not using its own engines) and had the pup tug Merrickville  YTL 593 pulling on a head line and Glenbrook YTB 643 aft for power.
 

As they neared the Tall Ships Quay they were joined by the Granville and turned to head bow north and come alongside.

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Odds and Ends

 Today, June 15, was one of those days when Halifax Harbour was the scene of a great variety of shipping activity. There seemed to something happening in almost every sector.

A visitor to number one anchorage represented the bulk carrier category. Danae arrived for clearance from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency before proceeding on to La Baie, QC. The ship is carrying bauxite, loaded at the west African port of Kamsar, Guinea, the world's leading bauxite exporter. Due to limits on the size of ships than can load there a whole class of bulk carriers are named "Kamsarmax". With a maximum length of 229m, ships of the class are also sized to navigate the Panama Canal, so are limited to 80,000 to 85,000 tonnes deadweight.

 Built in 2012 by Penglai Zhonghai Jinglu, in Penglai, China Danae is a gearless bulker of 44,060 gt, 80,989 dwt. The ship arrived during the late evening June 14 and sailed late morning today. It is destined for Rio Tinto Alcan's unloading facility in Port Alfred. Its cargo will feed the giant aluminum production complex in the Saguenay region.

Intermittent fog during the day did not seem to delay shipping to any degree, but some ships did perhaps sneek in or out more or less invisibly. The Kingston class HMCS Moncton wearing its commemorative disruptive paint scheme, was one of them. The camouflage was applied to the vessel as a tribute to vessels that served during World War II's Battle of the Atlantic.

The fog partly concealed the tanker Acadian at anchor. It is due to move alongside Irving Oil's Woodside terminal this evening.

The fog was thicker in a seaward direction, but as it lifted it also revealed container ship activity at PSA Halifax. The MSC Nuria remained hidden at Pier 42, but the ZIM Luanda could be seen at Pier 42, even if the tops of idle cranes were not.

 

The 40,030 gt, 50,697 dwt ship dating from 2009 has a capacity of 4253 TEU. Samsumg Shipbuilding + Heavy Industry Co Ltd built the ship at its Koje (now khown as Geoje) shipyard. The ship is a long time regular caller on the ZIM Container Atlantic (ZCA) route.

There was only one herring seiner in Halifax today. The Morning Star arrived in mid-morning and sailed at noon time after unloading its catch to tank trucks. (The gull escorts accompanied the boat in from sea).

The difference in size between the Danae and Morning Star presented quite a contrast.

Autoport received an unsual vessel, the Grande Togo one of about 27 Container / RoRo's operated by the Grimaldi Group. (Grimaldi also owns the Atlantic Container Line, which has five more ConRos.) The ships of this increasingly rare type usually operate between Europe and Africa, where they can handle a wide variety of cargo at all kinds of ports. Grimaldi is one of the last operators of ConRos of any substantial number. Its presence on a transatlantic run is certainly an "one of".

Built in 2011 by Uljanik Shipyard in Pula, Croatia, it is a 47,232 gt, 26,650 dwt ship with a capacity of 1318 TEU and 3037 cars. It is equipped with two cranes (probably of 40 tonne SWL capacity).

Of note are the truck cab/chassis units stowed on the open deck. It must be the first time in many years that vehicles have been seen here in the clear like this. There is some evidence of protective panels on the front grillles of some of the cabs, but they must have taken at bit of a saltwater shower en route. The ship is not taking the usual transatlantic route. Although it loaded in Antwerp, Jun 3-6, it also called on Vigo, Spain June 8-9 before embarking on its transatlantic voyage.

Another consignment of wind farm pylons arrived this afternoon on the GPO Sapphire. The ship is a fleet mate of GPO Grace which delivered a similar cargo in May.

GPO Sapphire was built by CSBC Taiwan Corp in Kaohsiung in 2019. Measuring 49,091 gt and 63,581 dwt, it is a semi-submersible specialist heavy load carrier, one of four sister ships in the GPO Heavylift fleet.

The six pylons, including pilings, bases and towers will be assembled and transferred to the installation vessel Orion at the IEL pier in Dartmouth. The Orion is currently installing the first six units in the Vineyard Wind project off Massachusetts.

 

There is one more type of vessel, not covered in the above "catalog" and that is pleasure craft. While Halifax is home to scores of small craft, from PWCs on up (see yesterday's post), it is also a way point for larger vessels en route to and from the various pleasure ports of the world. Two such "boats" are in port now, and are perhaps worthy of mention.

Epiphany (with the "i" given as "!") is a 132 gt motor sailer built in 2003 in New Zealand. It previously carried the names Nephele and Ipanema. The 34m x 8m aluminum hulled craft can accommodate six guests and five crew (in 3 cabins). It arrived from Newport June 12. Its mast is visible from blocks away.

 On the other side of the pier, the motor yacht Vive la Vie provides something of a contrast. It is a 60 m long miniature ship of 1277 gt, built in 2009. Its more spacious hull can cater to 12 guests in six cabins and has eight double berth cabins for crew. It arrived from Gibraltar June 13.

These two craft are tied up at a new timber pier built on the site of the old Foundation dock, which to my mind was a lot more interesting when it was home to the tugs of Foundation Maritime and later Eastern Canada Towing. It was a little less pedestrian friendly however.

There are nine tugs tied up at the Ectug pier in this 1977 (ca. May 1) photo.

(One tug is hidden behind the cook house / dispatch office with only its mast showing.) 

The tugs are from the left:

1, 2 (hidden) and 5: three of the same class Point Vim, Vigour, and Viking; 

3: Point Valiant; 4:Point Vibert; 6: Point Valour, 7 and 8: Point Gilbert and/or/and Point James 

and 9: either Point Carroll or Point Spencer

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Carnival Legend and Container Piers

 Legend

Most cruise ships arrive at the break of day to provide for a full day ashore. With three ships due in port today September 8, one ship had to be the last and that was Carnival Legend, arriving at the pilot station as late as 1000 hrs. This ship also tied up at Pier 31 which has been cleaned up and fenced off for the cruise season. (Zaandam tied upat Pier 20-21 and Adventure of the Seas at Pier 21-22.)

Built way back in 2002 by Kvaerner Masa, Helsinki, the ship somehow survived the purge of older ships in recent years. The 85,942 gt ship has a capacity of 2,124 passengers and 930 crew.

It is the first Carnival ship I have seen with the big blue "swoop" on the bow. It might be interesting to see this feature from a distance, which resembles the disruptive colour patterns used in war time. The new paint scheme, which includes a red and white stripe the full length of the hull, was introduced in 2021, and is in celebration of the company's 50th anniversary.

HMCS Moncton carries a disruptive paint pattern in commemoration of the Battle of the Atlantic. (September 3 photo)

 Containers

 There has been considerable activity at the container piers recently, which may explain an unusual move. 

CMA CGM Marco Polo sailed this morning after a 48 hour (approximately) stay at PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway. 

The current record holder as largest container ship to call in Halifax, and any other Canadian port, was not the only ship served by the terminal in the past few days, it surely taxed the capacity of the facility.

With CMA CGM Marco Polo at Pier 41 and Tropical Lissette (left) at Pier 42 and Oceanex Sanderling at Pier 36 (barely visible at right) there was no more room at the Southend Terminal.

The MSC Sandra which had been at the southend terminal, was "bumped" Sunday September 4, and went to to anchor in Bedford Basin (see previous post). First thing this morning,instead of going bac=k to the southend terminal, it moved alongside PSA Fairview Cove where there was an available berth.

It seemed to be that the cranes were working the after deck, which is usually reserved for empties. MSC ships do dock at Fairview from time so this is not a unique event, except that the ship used both terminals during its stay in Halifax. The ship will sail this evening (September 8) for Europe.

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RCN

 It was a busy morning (July 15) for the Royal Canadian Navy. Two frigates returned from NATO assignments, accompanied on the last leg of the trip by a supply ship.

The first movement however was the departure of HMCS Moncton MM 708, displaying its Battle of the Atlantic disruptive (camouflage) paint scheme. It met the inbound ships outside of the Maugher's Beach lighthouse.

 

The frigates emerged from the fog and were greeted in the Middle Ground and escorted into the harbour by the Halifax Fire and Emergency Services Fireboat 1, Kjipuktuk, with an impressive water display.

The first ship in line was HMCS Montreal FFH 336, which has been away since January 19.

 It was followed by HMCS Halifax FFH 330 which left its home port March 19.

The ships sailed in west of George's Island, allowing close up views, and meant that the ships were within vocal range of shore. Spectators at Pier 20 could see and hear (and be heard by) those on the ships. As usual, all available hands were on deck.

 

Following the frigates was the supply ship Asterix [not pictured] which sailed from Halifax July 6. It met the frigates off Newfoundland and accompanied them for a port call in St.John's last weekend.

Although Montreal and Halifax have returned from Operation Reassurance, two RCN coastal defence vessels, HMCS Kingston and HMCS Summerside sailed from Halifax June 26 for the Baltic to join the same operation. 

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Delays, Stays and Make Ways

 The passing of Hurricane Larry, well offshore from Nova Scotia, but making a direct hit on the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland September 11 caused wild weather and sea conditions over a large area. Several ships steered wide of the storm, delaying their arrival or remained in port or returned to port. 

Among the delayed arrivals was EM Kea on its regular run from Montreal to northern Europe on the Maersk./CMA CGM service. It would normally arrive in Halifax on a Saturday, but instead steamed slowly across the Gulf of St.Lawrence, missing some of the worst conditions, and arrived today (Sunday instead.) This did not pose a problem for PSA Halifax, with only one other ship to handle.

EM Kea at PSA Halifax pier 42 had two cranes while MSC Veronique at Pier 41 got three.

Opting to stay in port, Oceanex Sanderling did not make its usual Friday (September 10) departure for St.John's (scheduled arrival September 12) but instead remained in Halifax. After a time at anchor it moved to Pier 9B, perhaps to give the crew some shore leave. Update: Later reported the ship had a stack fire shortly after sailing October 10 and returned to port.

Conditions remain somewhat chaotic in Newfoundland with damage ashore and power outages, so no new departure date has been set for the ship, but also a  hint that the ship may be here for more than a day or two.

Returning to port, smaller naval vessels that were participating in Operation Cutlass Shield 2021, avoided the severe conditions, and instead exercised in Bedford Basin yesterday. This morning they sailed again, accompanied by the fishing trawler Patrick and William*, which appears to have been hired to work with the operation. HMCS Summerside and HMCS Moncton sailed while HMCS Kingston remained in Bedford Basin.

Lead by HMCS Montreal, the small flotilla sails out the main channel while the container ship MSC Maria Clara takes the western channel and hoots for some pleasure craft to clear the way.

MSC Maria Clara arrived to anchor in the lower harbour for Canadain Food Inspection Agency clearance. The ship, which has only recently been acquired as part of MSC's ship buying binge, was no doubt in Asian ports recently and needs to be inspected for Limantria Dispar larvae. No stranger to Halifax in its varied career, the ship deserves a post all of its own, which I will file later.

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* Footnote

Patrick and William showed up in port September 3.

Built by Glovertown Marine Ltd in 2001 as Katrina Charlene it was renamed in 2019 by RS Marine Ltd of St.John's. 

Basin boats, and cars and boxes

There is no particular theme to today's post - it is more a random collection of my observations.

There was lots of room in Bedford Basin for various activities. HMCS Fredericton moved, with tug assistance, from HMC Dockyard to the Bedford Magazine (Jetty NN) and HMCS Moncton took up an anchorage position not far away.

Moncton is still wearing its commemorative paint scheme marking the 75th anniversary of the end of the Battle of the Atlantic in 2020. Bedford Basin played a critical role in that battle as it was a marshaling point for ship convoys. Naval escorts and some other ships were painted in a variety of schemes to confuse or mislead the enemy about the ship's position, direction of travel or speed. 

Also in the Basin for some form of trials was the newest vessel in the Fisheries and Oceans fleet based at the Bedford Institute. CCGS Capt. Jacques Cartier was delivered earlier this year by Seaspan and has already conducted several scientific missions.

I earned a stern rebuke some time ago for stating in a previous post that new Canadian ships are too small, but they certainly appear stubby compared to the ones they replace. I am sure they are technically advanced, seaworthy and packed with all necessary equipment, but they are not as aesthetically pleasing as ships of yore. [I am a charter member, and currently the only surviving member (as far as I know), of the Canadian Committee on Aesthetic Responsibility and am therefore qualified to comment.]

On the west side of the Basin at Mill Cove the tour boat fleet has settled in for the winter. 

From left to right these are:

Kawartha Spirit - returned from Lunenburg and laid up. It did not operate in Halifax during 2020.

Theodore Too - laid up and apparently still for sale.

Harbour Queen I - did operate tours in 2020 and provided ferry service to George's Island.

Silva of Halifax - also operated in 2020 giving harbour tours.

Anchored in Mill Cove is the schooner Katie Belle . It appears that they crew went ashore without stowing sails. It made one trip to sea during 2020 - September 19 to October 19. See: September 19

It certainly did those sails no good if they were left that way for a month.

At the other end of the harbour the autocarrier Viking Queen made one of its periodic visits. The 55,775 gt, 16,890 dwt ship was built in 2007 by Ujanik, Pula, Croatia, with a capacity of 7,000 cars.

Outbound rounding Ives Knoll, the Viking Queen leaves lots of room for Dominion Bearcat doing some sort of work off Pier 20-23.

And as an update on the demolition work at the former Foundation Maritime dock (latterly Svitzer Canada) - the salvage pier has been completely removed, and the "cook house" has been removed from the main pier. Work has now started on dismantling the main pier starting with the guard rails.

The crane barge Canadian Argosy removes material and places it on the deck barge VM/S 87. 

(The name painted on the barge is "VMS 087" but that is incorrect.)

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Back to Work

It was a good morning to get back to work in Halifax harbour.

With the arrival of the 9200 TEU container ship APL Miami at PSA Halifax, all four cranes were back at work. The number 2 crane (second from the right) had been out of commission for a time after contact with a ship's crane, but appeared to be working fine this morning.

APL Miami using four cranes at pier 41-42.

HMCS Moncton sailed this morning after a cold move yesterday. It carries a commemorative paint scheme in recognition of the 75th anniversary of the end of the Battle of the Atlantic. [If you enter "Moncton" in the search box on the left you will find several references to this "Disruptive" means of confusing ship spotters.]

It sailed past a now vacant Woodside Industries (IEL) pier. The oil rig Noble Regina Allen was in the process of moving to #2 anchorage.

Siem Commander has the rig in tow, and with the assistance of harbour tugs Atlantic Oak, Atlantic Larch and Spitfire III is headed for the anchorage. The rig has been in for repairs before starting its next project.

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