A Tale of Two Cities

 Maybe a better title would have been Two Tales of One City. 

Over the years many ships have carried the name of Canada's largest city, Toronto. These have included naval vessels, passenger ships and bulk carriers. Today April 30 saw the current HMCS Toronto FFH 333 put out to sea. It has been noted for the past several days operating in local areas. 

 Built by Saint John Shipbuilding, it was launched December 19, 1990 and commissioned July 29, 1993. It is the second HMCS Toronto. The first, K538 was built by Davie Shipbuilding and Repair in Lauzon, QC in 1943 and was commissioned in 1944. It saw active duty in World War II, was upgraded and recommissioned in the 1950. In 1956 it was loaned, then sold in 1959 to the Royal Norwegian Navy as HMNoS Garm. Renamed HMNoS Valkyrien in 1965 it was broken up for scrap in 1977.

Arriving not long after was CSL Tarantau, a self-unloading bulk carrier, which uses an archaic form of the city's spelling. It is also the second CSL ship to use this spelling in its name - the first was a "Laker",  named simply Tarantau. Built by Collingwood Shipbuilding in 1964 it was a self-unloader, measuring 712' x75', and had its wheelhouse forward and was steam turbine driven. It was laid up in 1966 and broken up in 2000.

 

The current holder of the name was built by Chengxi Shipyard in Jiangyin, China as one of five Panamax Trillium class self-unloaders. Three were built for CSL and two for Torvald Klaveness, and all were for operation in the CSL International Pool. When Klaveness decided to leave the pool in 2016 they sold Balchen to Algoma as Algoma Vision, and this ship, which was built as the Balto went to CSL where it became CSL Tarantau. Both ships continue to work in the CSL pool. It is a 43,691 gt, 71,279 dwt ship which carries aggregates, coal, and gypsum. The orange paint on the self-unloading gear is a carryover from the Klaveness colour scheme, which used the same colour for the hull paint. This is a 2015 view:

 

 Footnote:

The name "Toronto" may be derived from the Mohawk "Tkaronto" meaning "where there are trees near the water" or the Wyandot word for plenty, or perhaps even "Taranto" - meaning "narrows". It is also thought that "Tarantou" or "Tarantau" originally applied to the area betweenLake Simcoe, and Lake Ontario which was a traditional meeting place. The City took the name to replace the previous name of York or Fort York, applied by British colonists. It has also had numerous nicknames, most of which were not flattering and do not need to be repated here.

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HMCS Toronto in the Basin

 Reference has been made in the past to the Jonquière Bank anchorage in Bedford Basin, an area used by naval vessels for acoustical and other testing. See: Jonquière Bank

HMCS Toronto is the current occupant of the anchorage, using a spread of four or possibly five permanent mooring buoys to secure the ship in position.

In compliance with current government policy the ship was flying its flags at half staff to commemorate the hundreds of children whose remains have been detected in unmarked graves at former residential school sites.

HMCS Toronto FFH 333 was the fourth ship in the Halifax patrol frigate program. It was launched December 18, 1990 and commissioned July 29, 1983.

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Big RCN Day (number one)

 Today, Friday June 25, was the first of two big days for the Royal Canadian Navy. HMCS Sackville, Canada's World War II Naval Memorial, returned to its summer station at Sackville Landing on the Halifax waterfront (coincidentally at the foot of Sackville Street). The ship is fresh from a major refit at HMC Dockyard where a new skin of plating was added to the hull. The ship's original plating had deteriorated and was dangerously thin. The new plate will ensure that the ship remains afloat and safe for many years to come.

With the tugs Glenevis (partly visible) and Merrickville (not visible), Sackville completes a sail past.

Powered by tugs, Sackville did a grand tour of the harbour from the Dockyard to the Narrows, back to the lower harbour,  circumnavigating George's Island. 

The submarine HMCS Windsor , with the Admiral aboard, made a trip to Bedford Basin and returned to the lower harbor  to take the salute.

Displaying the Admiral's pennant, and missing several acoustical panels from the hull, Windsor is southbound in the Narrows.

Also in the harbour for the ceremony, were numerous naval small craft, and the RCN's oldest vessel Oriole, under sail (but also using its engine due to light winds.)

As Sackville approached its berth, the Stadacona band stuck up "Heart of Oak", accompanied by McNally Construction on the tenor chain saw, hard at work on the adjacent new piers.

Later in the day HMCS Fredericton was noted taking fuel from Asterix and HMCS Toronto headed to Bedford Basin anchorage.

Big Day 2 will be tomorrow, Saturday, June 26 when the RCN's newest ship, HMCS Harry DeWolf  AOPV 430 is commissioned. The first of the Arctic Offshore Patrol vessels built by Irving Shipbuilding in Halifax, was handed over to the RCN eleven months ago and has been busy with post-acceptance trials at sea.

 

Predominantly Blue

 Blue was the colour of choice in Halifax today, Saturday, May 1, and thereby hangs a tail or two.

The Maersk Penang arrived at PSA Halifax this morning after sitting at anchor outside the harbour since Thursday, April 29.

Due to labour disruptions in Montreal, the ship's normal westbound transatlantic route was changed when it went instead to Saint John, NB. However with export cargo waiting for it in Halifax, the ship then came here and anchored until picking up the normal scheduled sailing day - today.

In March, Maersk announced that the ship would make a trial call in Saint John, March 23, then Halifax March 26 (it did not) and Montreal March 29. If Maersk has been tempted away from Montreal by the Port of Saint John and CP Rail, then one wonders how long they will continue to call in Halifax.

Now that longshore workers have been legislated back to work in Montreal it may be a while before we see the resolution of this story. So far the next scheduled ship on the Maersk CAE service, Maersk Palermo, is south of Newfoundland en route to Montreal, more or less as per normal except about one day later than usual.

Cerescorp, Fairview Cove had its own blue ship today too. MOL Glide is here once again on THE Alliance's AL1 service. The AL1 service is due to end in 2Q 2021, but Halifax has been added to the AL5 service which has already started to call here, serviced by NYK ships.

Still wearing the MOL colours MOL Glide it has not yet been repainted in Ocean Network Express (ONE) magenta as MOL's "M" class ships have. 

No blue ships at Autoport today, but instead it was the green over grey Wallenius Wilhelmsen hull colour scheme of their merged fleets. Manon is one of the veterans of the fleet, built in 1999. It ranks as a regular caller, and was last here March 27, 2021.

There was very bright blue at HMC Dockyard as HMCS Toronto shows off its new 'boot topping". The term is an ancient nautical one denoting the paint on the portion of a ship's hull that is usually under water. The paint is also specially formulated to discourage marine growth and is described as "anti-fouling." The bright blue paint has recently been applied while the ship has been out of the water on the Syncrolift.

The Syncrolift [a registered trade mark] is an elevator platform that lifts ships out of the water by means of a couple of dozen synchronized electric winches (under the light blue hoods in the photo). The RCN's own ship repair unit, called Fleet Maintenance Facility Cape Scott (FMFCS), can perform a multitude of repair and maintenance chores once the ships are "in the dry". 

The FMFCS facility recently celebrated its 25th anniversary as commemorated in the forces newspaper Trident

Of note is a current tender to remove .5 meter of toxic sludge that has built up on the harbour bottom under the platform. The project, which is expected to cost in excess of $3 million, will allow the platform to be lowered to its design depth.

The last caller was another exception, because I couldn't see a spec of blue anywhere on Alpine Madeleine arriving from Antwerp for Imperial Oil.

A typical MR tanker of 29,266 gt, 49,999 dwt, like scores of others, it was built by Hyundai Mipo, Ulsan in 2008. The ship is operated by Diamond S Management LLC (hence the funnel mark), a large publicly listed tanker operator with a fleet of 64 ships, 50 of which are MR tankers like this one. Diamond S recently announced a merger with International Seaways, another NYSE listed company, with mostly crude tankers, which will make a combined fleet of 100 ships. Both companies are US based.

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Reassurance

HMCS Toronto sailed today for a six month NATO assignment with Operation Reassurance. The departure was delayed and so I missed the actual sailing, but I did catch the ship yesterday as it was fueling up at Irving Oil, Woodside, completed with helicopter on the flight deck.

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Navy

There has been a fair amount of navy off Halifax in recent weeks, with HMCS Moncton as one of the participants. It is always interesting to see the ship in different lightning conditions with its disruptive paint scheme, shown here before.

Another participant, after sending some munitions ashore at the Bedford Magazine was moved back to HMC Dockyard by tugs.

With Granville on the bow and Glenbrook on the stern, HMCS Ville de Quebec was looking decidedly seedy, with a lot of rust streaks, and a poorly housed anchor.

Meanwhile at HMC Dockyard, HMCS Toronto has been on the synchrolift and looks quite neat and tidy.

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Some harbour action

After a period of delays due to weather, activity picked up in the harbour this afternoon.
Irving Oil's Acadian sailed for Saint John after delivering is cargo of refined product.

Its place at the Irving Oil terminal in Woodside was taken by the supplier Burin Sea.

It is taking on fuel for its next assignment - which it seems will also be its last. It is due to sail for Turkey towing fleet mate Trinity Sea where both boats will be broken up for scrap. They are due to sail Sunday - see Tugfax for an update.

It was still quite breezy in the harbour, (the camera flattens waves) but there were lots of white caps and even the gulls were "sitting it out".

Things were about the same in Bedford Basin where HMCS Toronto took up position on Jonquiere Bank anchorage.

Things were returning to normal at Cerescorp and PSA with the end of the rail strike and given an improvement in weather, shipping should be returning to normal soon.

Roundabout the harbour

HMCS Toronto put to sea this morning for a day of exercises. With a storm brewing in from the sou'east (again) the ship was back in port by evening.

HMCS Toronto recovers its RHIB. It had returned the navy pilot back to the Dockyard.

The biggest thing that happened in Halifax harbour today was the Malta flag bulk carrier Proti at number one anchorage for Asian Gypsy Moth (AGM) inspection en route from Rotterdam (Maasvlakte) to Sept-Iles for a cargo of iron ore.

Built in 2015 by Japan Marine United, Ariake, as Indomitable, the 93,297 grt, 182,476 dwt ship was sold and renamed in 2016. (Japan United was formed in 2013 by merging Universal Shipbuilding and Ishikawajima - Harima Heavy Industries. It is now the second largest shipbuilder in Japan.)

Inspection completed, the pilot boat heads out to the Poti.

The ship spent no longer in port than it absolutely had to, and was gone as soon as the inspection was completed.


Another arrival for AGM inspection was the tanker Silver Express. A Mid-Range tanker of 26,900 grt, 47,701 dwt, it was built by Onomichi Zosen, in Onomichi Japan in 2009. It also used stay in port to take on bunkers.

 Algoma Dartmouth has taken up position alongside the ship for bunkering.

The ship arrived from New Haven CT, and does not show a destination, but is likely headed for Newfoundland.


Another Mid-Range tanker arrival was the NS Stella 27,357 grt, 47,197 dwt arriving from Saint John for Irving Oil.

Owned by the Russian company Sovcomflot, it is nevertheless registered in Liberia and managed from Dubai by SCF Management Services (a SovComFlot subsidiary). It was last in Halifax in Septmber 2016 when it docked at Imperial Oil.


There has been a bit of an unveiling at the Bedford Institute, as the hoarding around the wheelhouse and bow of CCGS Hudson has been removed. Bridge window replacement was apparently part of the refit work that the ship had yet to complete when it returned from Hamilton, ON last fall. The ship is looking pretty good, so it seems possible that it will make the revised completion date of April.

On March 7, work was still underway from staging around the bridge and bow.

Also a number of fenders had been rigged. 
The yellow bags are in fact water weight used to test the ship's davits.

Today all that was cleared away and the ship is returning to normal appearance.

Also in at the BIO is the CCGS Sir Wilfred Grenfell after assisting the distressed vessel Nordika Desagagnés off Louisbourg. [see Tugfax].

The ship was built originally as an anchor handling tug supplier and although converted for Search + Rescue, it still has its stern roller and winch house.

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Suspension - day 3

Pilotage operations remain suspended for the third day as high winds and seas continue to blast the port. Despite sun and above zero C temperatures today and relative calm inside the harbour it continues to be very windy and unsafe to board or disembark pilots at the pilot station.

Seas crash over the Maugher's Beach spit.

There may be damage to the lighthouse since it appears to have a slight tilt.

 

 Even inside the harbour high gusty winds halted the movement of big ships. The master and pilot of Aniara agreed that it was too windy for the autocarrier to move from pier 31 to Autoport. The ship has been in port since Friday.

APL Phoenix continues to hold off Halifax. It did make an attempt to board a pilot this morning the but the operation was scrubbed.

The autocarrier, Pegasus Highway, has had its arrival put off again. It was originally due March 1, but because of the potential backlog at Autoport it remains at sea with no firm ETA. The ship was hove too off Cape Breton for the weekend, but today was it was noted closer to Halifax.There is concern ashore that the ship has cargo damage, but my sources are close lipped as usual.

HMCS Toronto completes a turn off Africville Park. Winds in the Basin averaged 24 knots and with gusts over 30 knots there were lots of white caps. 

There was small craft activity in the harbour today (see Tugfax) but the only large ship movement took place in the blustery Bedford Basin where HMCS Toronto was doing some high speed turns. Hope the crockery was well stowed.

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More Sunday by the numbers

HMCS Toronto made an ice-clad arrival - which I missed-  and tied up at HMC Dockyard Jetty Charlie 3 about 1000, to be met by dependents and other well wishers. After six months in the Mediterranean, the ship berthed first in St.John's NL last week and came on to Halifax. It must have been making speed to have accumulated so much ice.

Nestled in between Sackville and Preserver, Toronto is shedding some of its frozen spray as the temperature rises.

It was not until later in the afternoon that Cenito finally moved back to Imperial Oil #3. By that time Algoma Dartmouth had moved on the pier 9, where it will take Algonova alongside for bunkers this evening.

 Cenito at anchor yesterday morning in Bedfrod Bains, with a few lingering traces of sea smoke.

Meanwhile Sarah Desgagnés arrived at pier 26 just at dusk. A rare caller in Halifax, the ship usually works abroad under Barbados flag during the winter, but this year appears to be headed for layup.

Atlantic Larch assists Sarah Desgagnés to turn and back in to pier 26 to layup. She shows no frozen spray, indicating an arrival from the south.

Built in 2007 by the Gisan shipyard in Tuzla, Turkey as Besiktas Greenland it was registered in Quebec May 2, 2008. It spent the winter of 2008-2009 trading between the UK and Europe. Over the winter of 2010-2011 it spent nine months in Antwerp when its charterer went into bankruptcy. It was freed in March 2011 and returned in Canada in May. It usually operates on the St.Lawrence and the Great Lakes in the shipping season, but does go farther afield.. It is the second Desgagnés tanker to layup in Halifax this winter - Maria Desgagnés is at pier 33.

In somewhat more clement conditions Sarah Desgagnés makes her way upbound in the Welland Canal in May. Nevertheless she soon met thick ice at Port Colborne as the Lakes had record ice cover in the winter 2013-2014, and it was still clogging the locks well into May.

HMCS Toronto and Atlantik Confidence

On March 31, the Halifax based frigate HMCS Toronto seized a boat load of heroin in the Indian Ocean. Since January the ship has been part of Task Force 150, an international anti-terrorism patrol on The Indian Ocean, Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The heroin, weighing 500 kg, and valued at over $100mn on the street, would have been used to fund terrorism activities according to official sources.

1. Inbound, HMCS Toronto has run the dynamic sound range off York Redoubt, and is coming in to the harbour to turn for another pass in December 2012.

2. HMCS Toronto makes a sharp turn south of George's Island for another sound range run.

Meanwhile, off Oman, the bulk carrier Atlantik Confidence suffered an engine room fire on March 30. USS Nicholas (FFG-47) was tasked to respond and flew off a helo. Once on scene it found the crew (all from Turkey) had safely abandoned ship and were picked up later by the Turkish tanker YM Pluto. Nicholas sailed out of Norfolk VA, also in January, and has been on anti-piracy patrol off the Horn of Africa in the NATO Standing Group 1.
Atlantik Confidence was in Halifax November 24, 2012 to change flag and take bunkers.

http://shipfax.blogspot.ca/2012/11/atlantik-confidence-changes-port-of.html
The ship is now reported to be in a sinking condition. There are suggestions of irregularity in the incident. Photos show the ship down by the stern, but with no smoke or flames.  Reports also state that the ship is now registered in Liberia. There has been no news about possible salvage.
http://www.seanews.com.tr/article/ACCIDENTS/98443/Atlantic-Confidence-Fire/

Naval Activity

Filed from a remote location:
Even though I was not in Halifax to witness these events in person, I was able to see the sailing of HMCS Toronto yesterday and the arrival of HMCS Athabaskan this morning thanks to the Nova Scotia web cams, with their 24 hour history feature.
http://www.novascotiawebcams.com/halifax/waterfront-history.html
You can set it a 10 min or 30 minute intervals.

Weather watch continued - for some

Halifax Harbour remains closed to ship movements this evening due to high winds. The Atlantic Pilotage Authority did venture out once in the morning for Maersk Palermo for Halterm and again late afternoon to board the car carrier Noble Ace at about 1700 hrs AST, and it docked at Autoport. However as of 1730hrs the weather watch was re-instated and will not be revisited until tomorrow morning.
That did not mean that there was no activity:

1. The lobstermen on Oralee were busy tending to traps close in to Point Pleasant Park. They did have  to keep an eye open for the odd surfer trying to catch The Big One, but otherwise it was quite calm.

2. The bunkering tanker Algoma Dartmouth returned to her home base at Pier 34 after two days at pier 9A where there was no swell and better shelter.



And of course the RCN did not have to worry about boarding pilots, so HMCS Toronto was able to run the dynamic sound range by steaming in and out at a pretty good clip too. It involved some fairly hairy high speed turns in the Number One anchorage area. The great advantage of doing this work today was that there was no other shipping on the area to mess up the ship's sound signature.

3. Starting an outbound run.

4. Returning inbound and reducing speed a bit,

5. Making the turn for another outbound run.

Divers were also working on the bow of the container shipRenate Schulte at pier 37, and by aftenoon the sun was shining brightly.

HMCS Windsor and other navy news

1. HMCS Windsor

When HMCS Windsor put to sea yesterday (see photo) it represented the culmination of a huge refit program conducted by HMCS Cape Scott, the navy's repair arm in HMC Dockyard. The sub entered the Extended Docking Work Period  (EDWP) in 2007 and was expected to emerge in 2009. However virtually every one of the 200 systems aboard the boat required extensive work, and was not until April of 2012 that the sub re-entered the water. The work period ended officially December 13 and last weekend Windsor could be seen in Bedford Basin on the start of work-ups and trials, which include crew certification.
The sub will be fully operational during 2013, possibly as early as the first quarter.
Meanwhile on the west coast, HMCS Victoria is operational, HMCS Corner Brook will start its Extended Docking, with repair to grounding damage in 2013, and HMCS Chicoutimi will be assessed for fire damage and begin its rebuilding in 2013.
It had always been the intention to have two subs operational, one on each coast, and two in various stages of refit. The next EDWP for these subs will begin in 2016 and will extend to 2024, allowing about two years for each sub. By that  time of course we might be aware of more detailed plans for replacement. Discussion is underway, but it will be a long process to try and avoid some of the problems encountered with the acquisition of this class of subs. The long and sometimes sad story of the former Upholder class RN , and now Victoria class RCN subs is worthy of a much longer essay than I can give here. Suffice it to say however, that bringing Windsor back to service is a major milestone and achievement for the RCN.

2. HMCS Toronto ditto

After completing a very brief drydocking at Halifax Shipyard last week end HMCS Toronto has been preparing for its next assignment. This evening it headed for the Static Sound Range off Macnab's Island.  Range work is usually one of the last steps before the ship leaves port.

3. HMCS Preserver calls in civvy tug

HMCS Preserver arrived this evening from sea in gale conditions, with gusts of 40 knots and driving rain. Pilotage operations for commercial traffic were suspended by the Atlantic Pilotage Authority due to the weather, but this does not effect naval vessels who have their own berthing master/ docking pilots.
In view of the previous incident when Preserver allided with the Novadock floating drydock with extensive damage to both, the RCN called in the commercial tug Atlantic Larch to assist navy tugs to berth the ship at Jetty Hotel.
This underscores the need for new tugs in HMC Dockyard, and as reported lately in Tugfax http://tugfaxblogspotcom.blogspot.ca/2012/12/naval-large-tug-construction-project.html
 efforts are underway, or at least in their early stages, to acquire new tugs, with considerably more power, for events such as this.

4. HMCS Athabaskan

Meanwhile at Seaway Marine and Industrial in St.Catharines, ON, the tugs Ocean Delta and André H. have just departed (1930 AST) the shipyard with Athabaskan in tow for Halifax. Ocean Delta is the lead tug and will carry out the tow all the way to Halifax. It is not clear if André H. will come all the way. It may just assist with the Seaway Locks and river as far as the Cap-aux-Oies area. However with such an important tow, it would seen prudent to have two tugs along all the way.

HMCS Toronto

It is rare to see a Canadian frigate in the Novadock floating drydock at Halifax Shipyard. The HMC Dockyard is normally able to drydock its own ships on its synchrolift for minor work, and only major refits occur at the Shipyard. The ongoing FELEX program is currently occupying the graving dock at the Shipyard, and the yard currently has only one other drydock.
HMCS Toronto is on the Novadock for some minor work, but which may require some extra TLC. The ship is due to depart in the New Year for an extended overseas assignment and the RCN opted to go with the Shipyard for the work.
The ship is berthed in the south end of the dock, so that her props and rudders are easliy accessed from the land, and so it is only the ship's bow that is visible from the shore at pier 9.

HMCS Toronto - heading to the shipyard

1. HMCS Toronto glides through the Narrows this morning on the way to HMC Dockyard.

It was announced yesterday that HMCS Toronto will be heading to Halifax Shipyard later this work for work prior to an overseas deployment. This is welcome news for the yard which had to lay off some people after completing the refit of the ferry Atlantic Vision last week.
The same announcement stated that CCGS Alfred Needler and CFAV Firebird were going to Shelburne for refit work, resulting in the recall of some of the laid off workers there.

2. A shore party disembarks to a RHIB.

3. The forecastle crew stands by forward.