PSA Halifax - more

 Following yesterday's (June 16) account of doings at PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway, I updated the post when the MSC Sagitta III sailed this morning, well loaded. Instead of sailing for Freeport, Bahamas the ship sailed for Montreal. It had also arrived from Montreal - raising more questions about its actual service route. It is still listed as an "Extra Vessel" on MSC's website, with a destination of Freeport, and as Halifax Feeder on the Port of Halifax site.

 

In contrast to yesterday's photo when the ship had no containers on deck, the ship is well loaded today, but not to St.Lawrence River draft.

Arriving today, June 27 the ship ONE Milano is another of the "M" class of ships on the Premier Alliance Asia-North America EC 3 service. It departed from Colombo May 20 and tracked south of the Cape of Good Hope.

Built as the Milano Bridge in 2018 by Imabari Shipyard Co Ltd, Hiroshima yard, it was renamed ONE Milano in 2022. The 150,706 gt, 146,931 dwt ship has a capacity of 13,900 TEU with 800 reefer plugs. It is owned by Japanese investors associated with K-Line, but is managed by Ocean Network Express Pte Ltd of Singapore.

Things have been quiet at PSA's other terminal - PSA Fairview Cove - but they picked up this morning with the arrival of Oceanex Sanderling on its weekly call from St.John's.

The ship appears unusually well loaded. Of note Oceanex containers have been showing up in large numbers on CN Rail trains recently. This may be because one of the two Oceanex ships on the Montreal / St.John's route, Ocean Avalon, was in refit at Méchins, QC from May 25 June 13 and returned to Montreal, arriving May 15. Some of its cargo, which could not be handled by fleet mate Oceanex Connaigra, would certainly have been re-routed by the Oceanex Sanderling to Halifax and sent west by train.
 

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PSA Atlantic Hub (updated)

 There were two ships working at PSA Halifax's Atlantic Hub, the South End Container Terminal (SECT) today, June 16.

SHIP ONE 

MSC Sagitta III was working at Pier 42 and presented the unusual sight for Halifax, of clear decks, and perhaps little or no cargo below deck.(Halifax is a waypoint for most lines, and therefore ships do not fully unload as they would at a terminal port.)

 The ship was operating a new Boston and Montreal service called "Halifax Feeder", but now shows on the MSC schedule as an "Extra Vessel"out of Montreal and bound for Freeport, Bahamas. Update: In fact the ship sailed for Montreal, June 17.

[Dating from 2010 the 36,519 gt, 42,614 dwt vessel was built by Nordseewerke, Emden to the Thyssen C3X design. It was delivered as Frisia Brussel but immediately renamed Sagitta. It became MSC Sagitta III in 2021. ] 

Perhaps as a coincidence, Tropical Shipping, which would normally have a ship in today heading in the same direction, has a "blank sailing". The line's weekly service has been reduced to alternate weeks since May. The ship Tropic Lissette last called here May 2, and sister ship Tropic Hope has been here every other week since May 11. Tropic Lissette has since been operating out of Philipsburg, Sint Maarten and Palm Beach, FL to various Caribben ports.

Tropic Lissette March 14, 2023 file photo

 

MSC's Halifax / Boston / Montreal Feeder only started operating June 3, but no longer shows on MSC's schedule.

 SHIP TWO

At Pier 41 was a first time caller on the Ocean Alliance's Asia / United States East Coast USEC3 service, CMA CGM Jean Gabriel .

 

Built in 2018 by COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry in Yangzhou, it is a vessel of 96,223 gt, 109,624 dwt, with a nominal container capacity of 9452 TEU (other sources say 10,926 TEU) with 1640 reefer plugs. The ship has the split superstructure - bridge forward of midships and engines aft, typical of the larger container ships.

CMA CGM Jean Gabriel sailed from Singpore May 17, via the Cape of Good Hope, passing Cape Town May 31. In April CMA CGM routed this ship southbound from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea through the Suez Canal but has since discontinued that routing due to ongoing conflict.

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MSC's feeder goes hungry, ZIM's too

 Some container lines operate "hub and spoke" routes, allowing big ships to call at a few major "hub" ports with feeder ships coming from several directions to service the hub.

Both MSC and ZIM operate their own feeder services in and out of Halifax while other lines such as Oceanex, Transport Maritime St-Pierre (TMSI), and Eimskip serve as feeders for several lines.

Today (June 3) saw two feeders arrive. MSC's new Halifax Feeder service links Halifax, Boston and Montreal using the MSC Sagitta III.

Although it is early days (I think this is only the second trip from Montreal), only a dozen containers on deck does not appear too promising.

MSC Sagitta III was built by Nordseewerker, Emden in 2010. The 36,519 gt, 42,614 dwt ship was a capacity of 3428 TEU and has a large nuber of reefer plugs, noted as "392 + 108". [I'm not certain what that means but may describe the number below and above deck or vice versa.]

Initially named Frisia Brussel it was renamed Sagitta in 2010 and MSC Sagitta III in 2021.

ZIM's service combines a feeder service to and from New York and Kingston, Jamaica with a longer run to the west coast of South America. It appears to be somewhat better used but the ship Contship Cup had a spotty deck load as it arrived from New York.

 

The ship was built in 2012 by Zhejiang Ouhua Shipbuilding Co in Zhoushan, China to their Ouhua 1500 class. It is a 17,068 gt, 21,281 dwt gearless vessel with a capacity of 1,496 TEU and a substantial number of reefer plugs. It joined the feeder service in March.

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MSC Sagitta III - unusual diversion

 The container ship MSC Sagitta III made a diversion from its usual northbound route on MSC's Canada Gulf Bridge service from Mexico to Montreal, arrriving in Halifax April 2. Instead of berthing at PSA's Fairview Cove or Atlantic Hub container facilities it tied up at Pier 27-28 in the Ocean Terminals section of the port. Pier 27 is an open pier and Pier 28 is the grain export pier and has no means of handling container cargo.

The ship requires some repairs that may involve the main engine, and thus could not be made with the ship at anchor. (Ships must have their main engine available while at anchor in the Port.) 

This is not the ship's first call in Halifax. It was here in June 29, 2024 on its first inbound trip on the Gulf Bridge run, likely for Canadian Food Inspection Agency clearance. It was back again in November and December 2024 when it was one of two MSC ships granted coasting licenses to transfer containers from Halifax to Montreal. The boxes had been stranded in Halifax during the Montreal port workers strike earlier in the year*. The ship was in port from late November to mid-December while the coasting license application was in the works. 

December 16, 2024 photo
 

The ship is a rare European built container ship. Dating from 2010 the 36,519 gt, 42,614 dwt vessel was built by Nordseewerke, Emden to the Thyssen C3X design. It was delivered as Frisia Brussel but immediately renamed Sagitta. It became MSC Sagitta III in 2021. 

It is fitted with a prominent exhaust gas scrubber abaft the superstructure.

 

November 25, 2024 photo

 MSC's schedule shows the ship arriving in Corner Brook April 10 and Saint John April 13, but no longer shows an arrival date for Montreal.

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* Two MSC ships were granted coasting licenses to transfer stranded boxes from Halifax to Montreal.  The other is the ill-fated MSC Baltic III which was on the same Canada Gulf Express service. On February 15 it lost power and drifted aground on the west coast of Newfoundland while making for Corner Brook. 

The ship remains aground with its bottom holed. A laborious salvage operation has removed hazardous cargo, and is now working on removing fuel. It is in a precarious position with the risk of more damage if struck by bad weather. It is not clear if it will be possible to refloat the ship.

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More Boskalis, less MSC, plus one

1.  Boskalis 

 Today, December 16, saw the arrival of another Boskalis-owned semi-submersible, heavy load carrier - the Triumph. This is quite a different sub-species of the category however. Instead of a purpose-built ship (see yesterday's long story) this one is a conversion.

 The Triumph started out as the Suezmax crude oil tanker Marble, built by Brodosplit in Croatia in 1992. It was a 77,931 gt, 149,999 dwt ship. As it neared fifteen years of age its owners, the Norwegian company Frontline, opted to sell the ship and the Dutch company Dockwise snapped it up. They sent it to the COSCO Guangdong shipyard where the existing cargo section was removed and scrapped and a new 130m x 44.5m mid-body was inserted. The bow and stern sections were then heavily modified to make the ship semi-submersible. Also an auxiliary navigation bridge was installed on the forepeak for use when visibility from the main bridge is blocked by deck cargo. The "new" Triumph, completed in 2008, was reduced from 269.0m overall length to 216.86m , with revised tonnages of 42,525 gt and 53,818 dwt.

Chinese shipyards made similar conversions, using ships with good maintenance records and reliable engines. The Triumph has a 6 cylinder MAN / B&W Diesel main engine rated at 13,364 kW, built under license by Brododplit, which was likely a factor in its selection.

On arrival in Halifax today it headed for anchorage in Bedford Basin, quite near its fleetmate Forte. Unlike that ship, this one has a deck load consisting of wind turbine pylon components.

 Triumph heading north into Bedford Basin with the Forte in the distance.

The visible pylon section carried the designation AJ 06, which indictes it is likely headed for the Wineyard Wind project, where 62 wind turbines are to be installed offshore Massachusetts.

This is not the Triumph's first call in Halifax. On its previous visit January 8 to January 11, 2011, it showed its versatility by lifting the jack-up drilling rig Rowan Gorilla III.

2. MSC

The movement of containers left in Halifax during the Montreal port workers strike last month continued today with MSC Sagitta III taking another turn. The ship arived yesterday on its second call under a coasting license to carry stranded containers from Halifax to Montreal, and other empties to balance supply. It docked at PSA Fairview Cove where the majority of boxes seemed to have been stored. This morning it moved to PSA Atlantic Hub, but first it did a 360 turn in Bedford Basin, then went to anchor in the lower harbour until berth 41 was vacated.

 

MSC applied to use both MSC Sagitta III and MSC Baltic III for an estimated three trips each between Halifax and Montreal under the coasting license by the completion date of December 31.

The berth at Pier 41 was occupied by the CMA CGM Lapérouse, but it sailed at noon time, and MSC Sagitta III moved in shortly after.

 

 3. Plus One

The Shipfax TMU (terrestrial mobile unit) was kept scurrying today to catch all the action, which also included an Autoport caller. The Traviata appeared in Wallenius Wilhelmsen colours, which have been applied within the last year. 

 The Dominion Rumbler scurries ahead to handle the ship's head lines to the mooting buoy off Autoport.

When the ship was here December 27, 2023 it was still wearing the Wallenius Lines white over green hull colour.

The ship was built in 2019 by Tianjin Xingang, to the HERO class design used by both Wallenius and Wilhelmsen. It must have beeen one of the last - or indeed the last - ship to use the old Wallenius colour scheme. Since it was due for a five year survey in 2023 it was probably repainted during the drydocking.

The 73,358 gt, 23,889 dwt ship, has a capacity of 7656 RT43 autos, and mounts a 320 tonne SWL stern ramp. As with most modern autocarriers it has no side ramp.

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MSC boxes begin to move

 The great stacks of MSC containers began to diminish somewhat today, November 30, as two ships started to load boxes that were stranded in Halifax during the Montreal port workers strike. The federal government has presumably now issued coasting licenses to the foreign flag ships MSC Baltic III and MSC Sagitta III that will allow them to move the containers from Halifax to Montreal (see previous posts).

MSC Baltic III arrived off Halifax November 21 and entered port this morning, tying up at PSA Fairview Cove.

Fleetmate MSC Sagitta III which had been idle at Fairview Cove since November 19 and may have begun loading last night, moved this morning to PSA Atlantic Gateway.

This photo shows the MSC Sagitta III on a prior visit June 29, 2024:

 

MSC Baltic III dates from 2003 when it was built by Aker MTW in Wismar as Nordbaltic. It was renamed on delivery as CMA CGM Romania. In 2008 it became Nordbaltic again until 2011 when it was economically renamed Baltic but only until 2012. It then took the name Niledutch Gemsbok but reverted to Nordbaltic again in 2015. That lasted until 2021 when it took its present name. The Roman number III in the name indicates MSC's size category. Built to Wismar's MTW 2500 class, various sources rate its actual capacity as 2478 TEU, although some say 2526 TEU. It also has 400 reefer plugs: 300 above deck and 100 below deck. It carries three cranes.

There was a better view of the ship when it was last here October 12:

The ship is normally assigned to the Canada Gulf Bridge service out of Montreal for Freeport, Bahamas and Mexican ports and return via Saint John, NB. It would usually not call in Halifax.

Each ship was expected to make three calls in Halifax between November 24 and December 31 to move the backlogged boxes. Now with nearly a week's delay in issuing the coasting licenses, there may have to be an adjustment in the ship's schedules, such as dropping one or more  port calls in Mexico, or "feedering" Mexico cargo from/to Freeport. 

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What's the Hold Up

 The transfer of containers stranded in Halifax from the Montreal lockout and strike does not seem to be happening very quickly. As previously noted trucks and trains have done what they could do, but they also have the normal regularly scheduled containers moving through the port.

The Mediterranean Shipping Company applied for coasting licenses to use the foreign flag MSC Sagitta III and Baltic III as no suitable Canadian ships are available. They made the application to the Canadian Transportation Agency on November 15 and as far as I can tell the Agency made its recommendation to the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness on November 20 with a proposed start date of November 24. 

As reported the MSC Sagitta III is alongside at PSA Fairview Cove and MSC Baltic III is anchored standing by offshore, but as of today, November 27, there has been no start to load. What is the hold up? Surely the Minister is not so busy that they can't apply a signature. 

As ZIM's H Cygnus (nearest camera) prepares to sail from PSA Fairview Cove this morning the MSC Sagitta III (background) sits idle.

 I wonder if the stranded containers are clogging up the normal flow in the terminals. The truck lanes are certainly chock full and lined up out into the streets at PSA Fairview Cove and there are MSC boxes stored in places that I don't normally see.

 Things appear to be closer to normal at PSA Atlantic Gateway but there are lots of MSC boxes there too, stacked well to the south of the main terminal (left background in the photo) at the Pier 30s.

 

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Montreal Strike Fall out

 The large quantities of containers stranded in Halifax due to the recent port workers strike and lockout in Montreal is diminishing somewhat, but by most reports there are still hundreds if not thousands of containers waiting for transport westbound. (There may have been as many as 5,000 containers off loaded here.) The terminals, and CN Rail, are coping with the extra boxes while still serving their regular customers and have pretty much maxed out the ability to move the containers any faster. The limited number of Halifax longshore workers has also been maxed out according to some reports. Fleets of trucks have been brought from Quebec, but each moving one container at a time is a slow go.

MSC has applied for a coasting license to use two foreign flag ships to carry some of the stranded boxes from Halifax to Montreal. (See November 20 post.) Both ships were en route to Halifax and had extra capacity.

MSC Sagitta III moved in to Fairview Cove Saturday, November 23 in hopes of a speedy Ministerial approval of its coasting license application, which may happen today. However when I passed the area late this morning there was no activity on the ship.

MSC Sagitta III alongside as in the background HMCS Ville de Quebec sails into Bedford Basin. (The Port of Quebec City has no container pier and has labour issues of its own.)

The second ship, MSC Baltic III has been standing by offshore since at least November 21 awaiting its turn for a license. There is no ETA in Halifax for it yet.

CMA CGM operates a four ship transatlantic service from Bremerhaven, Rotterdam and Antwerp to Montreal called St Laurent 1, jointly with Maersk. Because there are draft restrictions on the St.Lawrence River, ships often call in Halifax on the return eastbound leg from Montreal to top off their loads to oceangoing draft. They rarely if ever call in Halifax westbound.

CMA CGM also operates a joint service with Hapag-Lloyd from Mediteranean ports to Montreal called MEDCAN, using seven ships. 

During the recent port workers strike and lockout in Montreal, CMA CGM diverted one of the Medcan ships, the Barcelona Express to the Port of Saint John, NB where it offloaded containers bound for Montreal.

CMA CGM then applied for a coasting license to use one of the St-Laurent I ships, the EM Kea, on its westbound leg, to pickup the boxes in Saint John and take them to Montreal. Some of the boxes were temperature controlled and there was a risk of spoilage if they were deayed too long.

In the end, the New Brunswick Southern and CPKC railways were able to move the 143 containers and the coasting license application was withdrawn.

Meanwhile in Halifax today, November 25, the CMA CGM Paranagua arrived on the eastbound leg of the St-Laurent 1 service to top off.  CMA CGM Paranagua is very similar in appearance to the 2007 built EM Kea, but is two years older, dating from 2005. The ships were built, in series of a dozen or more sister ships, by Stocznia Szczecinska Nowa in Poland over period of several years. The are readily identifiable by the sloped fairing on the after side of the superstructure.

 

It is a 35,881 gt, 41,801 dwt ship with a capacity of 3091 TEU with 500 reefer plugs. Unlike its younger sister however, it is equipped with three cargo cranes.

Originally named Cosima by the Peter Doehle organization, it was renamed Norasia Atlas in 2005, and Letavia briefly during 2006 becoming Emirates Freedom to 2009 when it was again named Letavia until 2021. CMA CGM then acquired the ship and it took its present name, and placed it under the management of NSB Niederelbe.

Paranguá is a major port in the south of Brazil, and its name comes from the indigenous Tupi language, and means "great round sea".

The other ships on the CMA CGM /Maersk St.Laurent 1 service do not seem to have been held up very much by the Montreal strike, which lasted from October 31 to November 14:

 EM Kea had sailed from Montreal before the strike and called Halifax October 30. It is now en route from Antwerp (November 15) and is due in Montreal November 25. 

The Volga Maersk was in Halifax eastbound October 19 and is now due in Montreal again November 24. It appears to have been slow steaming for a time since it left Antwerp November 9.

Vistula Maersk sailed from Montreal November 1 and was in Halifax eastbound on November 5. It sailed from Antwerp November 22 and is due in Montreal December 6, possibly slow steaming for a time.

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Busy Day

 There was a lot of activity in Halifax harbour today, November 20, mostly container ships.

An over night arrival anchored in the lower harbour. MSC Sagitta III is on the Mediterranean Shipping Company's Canada Gulf Bridge route and does not normally call in Halifax. Because of the large number of containers landed in Halifax during the Montreal longshore workers strike MSC has applied to use this ship and the MSC Baltic III to transfer the stranded boxes to Montreal. (Some have already been dispatched by train and truck, but there were reportedly 5,000 boxes left off in this port.) Canada's cabotage law restricts shipping between Canadian ports to Canadian ships, unless no suitable Canadian ships are available. In such cases a coasting license may be granted to a foreign ship, and I expect the MSC Sagitta III is waiting for the Minister of Public Safety to grant the license  in the next few days.

MSC Sagitta III was built by Nordseewerker, Emden in 2010. The 36,519 gt, 42,614 dwt ship was a capacity of 3428 TEU and has a large nuber of reefer plugs, noted as "392 + 108". [I'm not certain what that means but may describe the number below and above deck or vice versa.]

Initially named Frisia Brussel it was renamed Sagitta in 2010 and MSC Sagitta III in 2021.

The ship is northbound from Freeport, Bahamas, and is expected to top up at PSA Fairview Cove on the first of three trips once the license is granted.

Arriving at PSA Fairview Cove, the NYK Nedula held off the dock allowing Ophelia to sail (see yesterday's post.)

At the same time the Oceanex Sanderling was arriving from St.John's and it also held off in Bedford Basin before coming alongside.

Container activity at PSA Atlantic Gateway got off to a slow start as there was no acitivity in the morning.

With the coastal tanker Algonova at anchor in the foreground waiting its turn at Imperial Oil, there was a backdrop of the South End Container Terminal with all its cranes inactive. Two cranes were in the "down" position. The northmost crane (at right in the photo) is rarely raised. It is one of the new cranes at the facility and may have a problem. One other crane was also down and it certainly did appear to be U/S as traveller wires were sagging and the spreader appeared to be on the ground. (Not sure why the adjacent crane had chains hanging from its spreader.)

 Things picked up at the SECT as the day wore on.

A noontime arrival was the MSC Don Giovanni another Canada Gulf Bridge ship arriving from Montreal, likely to top up to salt water draft. This is another "classic" from MSC, built in 1996. It is a hatchless design of the revolutionary Eco Box 42 class, from the Flensburger Shipbuilding Company in Emden. The 29,181 gt, 41,590 dwt ship has a capacity of somewhere between 2480 and 2604 TEU (depending on sources.)

It was launched in 1996 as the Jean Lykes but delivered as Jean and very soon sold to MSC and renamed. The famous US shipping company Lykes Line was bankrupt in 1995 and may have defaulted on this ship. CP Ships bought Lykes in 1997 and CP in turn was bought by TUI in 2006 and melded into Hapag-Lloyd.

Considered to be very elegant when new, the ship is looking a tad seedy now.

Soon after it was a new to Halifax caller for Melfi Lines. Orinoco is northbound from Mariel, Cuba.

Built in 2010 by Fujian Shipbuilding Co in Fuzhou, the 9994 gt, 12,306 dwt ship has a capacity of 880 TEU and carries two cranes of unknown capacity. The ship was launched as E.R. Helsinki but completed as Friesdijk. It was renamed X-press Tajumulco in 2013 and became the Orinoco in 2020.

There was also tanker activity in Halifax today. As noted above the Algonova arrived and anchored in the lower harbour. It has cargo from Nanticoke, and in the early evening moved to Imperial Oil on the departure of the Al Reem (see previous posts).

There was also a mid-afternoon departure from Irving Oil's Woodside terminal. The East Coast is headed back to Saint John to load after its latest trip to Charlottetown.

The ship makes regular trips to Halifax, Charlottetown and St.John's but also to Boston and Providence from time to time.

The only ship not photographed today was CSL Kajika arriving to load gypsum. The ship made its first call in Halifax on April 19, 2022 and full details are provided in my post of that date.

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MSC Diversion fallout

 Short term work stoppages followed by an indefinite longshore workers strike in the Port of Montreal started on October 31. The employers then declared a lock out as of November 10. The strikers were ordered back to work, by government edict, effective today, November 16, with binding arbitration to follow. As a result of the Montreal shutdown The Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) diverted ships to Halifax. The scale of the diversions was apparent from the number of MSC boxes piled up at the two container terminals. [see previous posts]

It is also apparent that clearing those boxes and sending them back on their way to Montreal now that the strike is over will be a major operation. CN Rail has added extra trains, but that is apparently insufficient to move the large number of stranded containers on top of the normal amount of cargo moving through the port at the height of the consumer goods season.

Montreal is a terminal port, where ships unload completely then load new cargo. Halifax in the other hand is usually a waypoint, handling only a portion of the cargo aboard any given ship. When Montreal is unavailable the ships that divert to Halifax must offload all their cargo here. It is fortunate that the Port of Halifax has the additional capacity available so that ships can keep moving instead of being stalled at anchor for the duration of a strike.

MSC has applied for coasting licenses to use two foreign flag ships to move the stranded boxes from Halifax to Montreal. There are no Canadian ships able to handle the amount and type containers, so it is expected that permission will be granted. Trade between Canadian ports is restricted by law to Canadian flagged ships. If no suitable Canadian ships are available a coasting license may be granted to a foreign flag ship by the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness upon recommendation by the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA).

In their application to the CTA, MSC requested permission to use the MSC Baltic III 2526 TEU and MSC Sagitta III 3426 TEU for three trips each between November 24 and December 31 from Halifax to Montreal. The ships normally operate on the Canada Gulf Bridge route from Montreal to Mexico, so may be calling in Halifax on their northbound legs and adding the diverted boxes to whatever cargo they may already have on board or they may be making special trips. They also have relatively large reefer capacity - in excess of 300 TEU each.

In its application to the CTA MSC noted the names of ships that were diverted to Halifax while en route to Montreal: MSC Nahara, MSC Levina III, MSC England and MSC Jordan III [see previous posts]. The application suggests that in excess of 5,000 containers are involved, both loads and empties. There are several hundred temperature controlled containers included, that must be maintained in operation.

Readily identifiable MSC boxes, and others that may have been carried on MSC ships, are stacked in all available space in the two terminals sharing space with the regular number of containers from other lines.

A letter from the Port of Halifax supporting the CTA application states that yard utilization stands at 60% for PSA Fairview Cove and 92% for the PSA Atlantic Gateway. Plug in space for temperature controlled boxes stands at 95% for Fairview and 65% for the Atlantic Gateway.

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Unusual Box Boat

 There was an unusual container ship in Halifax today, June 29, but it did not load or unload cargo.

The ship is called the MSC Sagitta III and under the new Mediterranean Shipping Company naming protocol, the Roman numeral "III" appended to the ship's name indicates a container capacity in the 3,000 TEU range. On line information rates it at 3426 TEU.

 The ship has been assigned to the Canada Gulf service out of Montreal, to the Bahamas and Mexico. However this appears to be its first voyage on the service and it was required to call in Halifax for Canadian Food Inspection Agency clearance. If the ship was in Asian waters recently it must be inspected for invasive moth species. Presumably it passed inspection, because it sailed for Montreal after a few hours at anchor.

The ship is a rare European built container ship. Dating from 2010 the 36,519 gt, 42,614 dwt vessel was built by Nordseewerke, Emden to the Thyssen C3X design. It was delivered as Frisia Brussel but immediately renamed Sagitta. It became MSC Sagitta III in 2021.

Its recent itinerary may be of interest. From April 23 to 25 it was in Mombassa, then called in Coega, Cape Town, and by May 30 had arrived in Antwerp. It then proceeded to the River Thames (unspecified location), Napoli, Livorno, Valencia, Sines and arrived in New York June 25.

It is due in Montreal July 5 and will sail for Freeport, Bahamas, Veracruz, Altamira and Progresso. Ships on the Canada Gulf service do not usually call in Halifax as they are small enough that they are not effected by St.Lawrence River draft restrictions. They do not need stop here to reduce draft inbound and can usually load fully in Montreal.

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