Going, Going...

 When the NYK Constellation got underway from PSA Fairview Cove Monday afternoon, May 20, the sun was shining brightly in Bedford Basin.

NYK Constellation dates from 2007 when it was delivered by Hyundai Ulsan. It has a gt of 55,534 with a deadweight tonnage of 65,919 and a capacity of 4922 TEU including 330 reefers. 

 As the ship passed through the lower harbour it began to encounter some wisps of fog and by the time it passed the PSA Atlantic Gateway terminal, and Ives Knoll at the northern tip of McNab's Island, visibility was reduced and the ship began to use its fog signal.

And as it continued seaward it was gradually enveloped.

By the time it reached Mauger's Beach it was largely invisible from shore...

The ship operates on THE Alliance's AL5 service and is en route from Antwerp to Port Everglades, FL. That route will take the ship through the Panama Canal to the west coast. It will them retrace its path back through Cartagena, Boca Chica, Saint John, Halifax, Southampton, Le Havre, Rotterdam and Hamburg before starting westbound again from Antwerp. The ship was last in Halifax April 16-17 when it was eastbound.

With the annual fog season arriving, visibility will vary considerably depending on the on shore air temperature and the state of the tide, making photographs challenging until July or even August.

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Narrows Action

 Activity in Halifax harbour today (February 22) saw ships in the Narrows en route to or from Bedford Basin.

 The usual parade of Daedalus class ships continues for THE Alliance, but today's arrival is a reminder that one of the ships is sill in port after ten days.

NYK Constellation arrived this morning from Antwerp on the AL5 service, enroute to US east and west coast ports, before returning via Saint John and Halifax to North Europe. The port rotation is Southampton – Le Havre – Rotterdam – Hamburg – Antwerp – Halifax – Port Everglades – Cartagena – (Panama) – Rodman – Los Angeles/Long Beach – Oakland – Rodman – (Panama) – Cartagena – Caucedo – St. John - Halifax – Southampton. It headed for PSA Fairview Cove, passing smartly through the Narrows with the Atlantic Bear working as stern tethered escort.

 Built in 2007 by Hyundai, Ulsan, NYK Constellation is a 55,534 gt, 65,919 dwt ship with a capacity of 4922 TEU including 330 reefers. Meanwhile sister ship NYK Romulus, built in 2009, has been in port since February 13. It moved from PSA Fairview Cove to Pier 31 on February 17 for some kind of repair. A large crane has been seen on the dock - not to handle cargo but likely to lift some piece of equipment on or off.

Ships at Pier 31 are difficult to see from shore with P&H's flour mill to the left and container stacks all around, but a 55,00 tonner dominates the scene when it is alongside.

Waiting patiently in Bedford Basin was the bulker CSL Tacoma with a cargo of Gold Bond gypsum bound for Wilmington, NC. As soon as the Narrows was clear the ship stood on and was soon outbound.

An Equinox class ocean going self-unloader, the CSL Tacoma was built in 2013 by the Chengxi Shipyard in Jiangyin, China. The 43,691 gt ship has a deadweight tonnage of 71,552, but carries much less than maximum capacity when sailing from Halifax due to the restricted draft at the gypsum dock. On this trip its sailing draft was 9.5meters, representing about 43,000 tonnes deadweight.

After delivering a split load of coal to Point Tupper and Sydney, NS for power generation, the ship returned to Halifax for its third load of gyspum so far this year. (It also sailed from Halifax December 30, 2023.) Its coal loads have orginated from the Curtis Bay coal piers in Baltimore. Gypsum cargos have gone to Savannah and Baltimore.

Following the CSL Tacoma through the Narrows for sea was the CCGS Sir William Alexander. heading eastbound.

As with most CCG ships it is multi-tasked for Seach and Rescue patrol as well as its primary duties related to Navaids. It is carrying several buoys on deck, no doubt to replace those that are to be removed for maintenance. The label YS6 is visible on one buoy. (Number 578 Porter Island West light and bell buoy. Located off Clam Harbour, about 60 km NE of Halifax harbour.)

There was also tanker activity in the Narrows, and both ships were berthed. Algoscotia tied up at Pier 9B, after returning from CornerBrook to Imperial Oil yesterday. It appeared to be fueling from trucks this morning.

I hear that the Algoscotia will be headed to Viana do Castelo, Portugal for refit where it will also receive a new Ballast Water Treatment System at the West Sea Viana Shipyard. Fleet mate Algocanada received the new Teramtech BWTS system at the same shipyard last year.

Further alsong, awaiting its turn to refuel was the Liberian flag crude tanker Haifeng The ship had offloaded at Irving Oil's Canaport facility off Saint John, and anchored off Halifax February 20. It moved into port this morning.

The ship was built in 2018 by Shanghai Waigauqiao sshipyard in 2018. It is now working on its third name. First named Salamina it became Dumo Square in 2021 and Haifeng in 2023. It is registered at 62,508 gt, 109,898 dwt.

Neither Halifax (nor Saint John) have bunkering barges, and so ships needing to refuel must come alongside where the fuel can be pumped aboard from trucks. There are no suitable docks for that in Saint John, but Halifax is well equipped for the work, and apparently has trucks available, but even so ships apparently have to take turns.

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Follow Up

 As a follow up to the January 23 post about the new Maersk /Hapag-Lloyd Gemini Cooperation, it will be business as usual for the time being. The official launch date of the new arrangement is the end of January 2025, when Maersk leaves the M2 Alliance and Hapag-Lloyd leaves THE Alliance.

Today's (January 26) arrival of NYK Constellation on THE Alliance's AL5 North Europe - North American service, is much like ZIM's January 23 arrival: there is a lot of H-L orange and UASC green showing. The ship is eastbound from Saint John, NB for Southampton. (The port rotation is Southampton – Le Havre – Rotterdam – Hamburg – Antwerp – Halifax – Port Everglades – Cartagena – (Panama) – Rodman – Los Angeles/Long Beach – Oakland – Rodman – (Panama) – Cartagena – Caucedo – St. John - Halifax – Southampton.)

 My totally unscientific analysis of the visible containers reveals more than half are identifiable as Hapag-Lloyd or United Arab Shipping Company. A loss of all that  cargo would certainly make a serious dent in THE Alliance's bottom line.

The NYK Constellation is one of the seven Daedalus class ships on this particular service. Built in 2007 by Hyundai Ulsan, it is a 55,534 gt, 65,919 dwt ship with a capacity of 4922 TEU including 330 reefers.

Very few of the visible containers are identifiable as belonging to THE Alliance's Japanese partner ONE or its constituent members K-Line, NYK or MOL. Leased containers cannot be associated with any particular line, but even so they are less than half the visible boxes.

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Fairview Cove traffic

 The PSA Fairview Cove container terminal was a busy spot this morning (August 26) with a departure followed immediatley by an arrival.

NYK Constellation arrived late yesterday afternoon for an evening start to work. It still had one crane working at pilot order time of 1030 hrs today, but was ready to go soon after. It was off the berth and underway off Africville park for a photo at 1115.

A member of the NYK Daedalus class, the ship was built by Hyundai Heavy Industry Co Ltd in Ulsan in 2007. At 55,534 gt, 65,919 dwt, it has a capacity of 4922 TEU including 330 reefers. Most of the eight ships of the class have called at Fairview for THE Alliance's AL5 service. Since PSA acquired management contracts for both terminals, some of the ships have been handled by the South End Container Terminal (SECT), PSA Atlantic Gateway. 

That was not the case this time since the SECT had the Ultra size ONE Apus and the Vistula Maersk to handle.

While the NYK Constellation was clearing Fairview Cove the ZIM China was making its way inbound with the tethered escrort tug Atlantic Oak and was in the Narrows approaching the A. Murray MacKay bridge at 1112 hrs. The two ships passed just inside Bedford Basin in a neat bit of passage planning. [No photo due to impending rain and very wet grass.]

ZIM China made it first call in Halifax December 27, 2022 on ZIM's ZCA service. Built in 2008 by Samsung Shipbuilding + Heavy Industry in Geoje, South Korea, it is a 40,487 gt, 51,733 dwt ship with a capacity of 4275 TEU. It carried the name Hanjin Kenya from 2008 to 2017 then after a brief spell as Seaspan Kenya it became ALS Fauna later in 2017. It became ZIM China as of April 1, 2022.

ZIM has just recently shifted its operations to Fairview Cove with its feeder Contship Leo's first call on August 4 and the first Atlantic service ZCA ship, ZIM Vancouver on August 5. The benefit of the rationalization of services was evident today as the terminals were operating continuously and the ships were minimally delayed if at all.

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More variety

 There was more variety in harbour traffic again today, August 3. 

A late morning arrival was the medium endurance USCGC Forward WMEC 911 out of Portsmouth, Virginia. 

It is a Hero class vessel, named for a former Secretary of Treasury 1841-1843, Walter Forward, whose "hero" status is at best questionable. Built by the Robert Derektor Shipyard Inc in Middletown, RI it was completed in 1989 and commissioned August 4, 1990. It appears that it will be observing that anniversary here along with the other Dockyard visitor FS Garonne (see yesterday's post), both of which will be in port for long-weekend holiday celebrations.

Traditionally the founding of Halifax - its Natal Day - was celebrated on June 21, even though the first 2,500 British colonial settlers arrived starting July 2, 1749. In recent years however the first Monday in August has been a civic holiday observed province-wide and not just in the former City of Halifax (which is now part of the Halifax Regional Municipality, formed in 1996 from four different municipalities, each with its own founding date.) Parades, fireworks, road races and other events coincide with the annual busker festival for an extended long weekend of celebration.

As Forward sailed it met the outbound HMCS Windsor which has been seen about the harbour and area in recent days, sometimes exercising with a helicopter.

HMCS Windsor in the Narrows, July 31.

An early morning arrival was the auto carrier Don Pasquale a regular at Autoport on Wallenius Wilhelmsen's transatlantic service. Late in the afternoon it shifted to Richmond Terminals, Pier 9C as it has done several times recently, to unload additional RoRo cargo.

As usual the ship went to Bedford Basin, turned and re-entered the Narrows to tie up starboard side to the dock. The Don Pasquale was built by Daewoo Heavy Industries in Okpo in 1997 and in 2007 it was lengthened from 219.3 to 227.9 m by Hyundai Vinaship in Vietnam. The reworked ship now registers 67,141 gt, 28,142 dwt with a capacity of 7,194 cars. Its stern ramp is rated for 125 tonnes.

The heavy lift ship Pijlgracht completed its work at the IEL dock this morning and sailed in the early afternoon for Providence, RI. That port is not far from the Vineyard Wind project, so perhaps it has more cargo for that project, in additon to what it unloaded here.

 

 

A late afternoon arrival was the NYK Constellation on THE Alliance's AL5 route from North Europe to North America. 

 The 55,534 gt, 65,919 dwt ship was built in 2007 by Hyundai, Ulsan and has a capacity of 4922 TEU including 330 reefers. It was certainly carrying a large number of reefers aft (likely empty). It berthed at PSA Fairview Cove.

A ship meeting, which would be interesting to see, was to take place in the late evening and after dark. The outbound ONE Falcon would meet the inbound ONE Apus outside the pilotage area in different traffic lanes where there is lots of sea room.  It is rare that two of the 14,000 TEU sister ships would be in the area at the same time. Normal schedules would have them several days apart.

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Box Ships and Cruisers

 The cruise season is now well underway and today, May 16, marked the arrival of both a familiar ship and a new ship to Halifax.

The Pearl Mist ought to be familiar because it was built by the Halifax Shipyard. Its story is a convoluted one, best summarized by its Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_Mist

 With a passenger capacity of 210 (in 105 cabins, all outside with balconies) and 70 crew, the ship is one of the smallest cruise ships to call in Halifax. It arrived this morning from Portland, ME and sailed this afternoon for the Strait of Canso en route to the Great Lakes for the summer.

At the other end of the scale was the first time caller Norwegian Prima, a 143,535 gt behemoth with a passenger capacity of 3,099 and crew of 1,506.

 The first of six ships to be built by Fincantieri, Marghera, it is just about the ugliest passenger ship I have ever seen. It boasts large open deck space including a ten deck water slide and a race track, plus an exclusive First Class section called The Haven which is isolated from the common passenger area. No doubt it has many other amenities, which can be enjoyed without actually having to see the ship.

There was lots of more prosaic container ship activity in the port too. The MSC Rossella made a call at PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway to top up cargo en route from Montreal to Barcelona on MSC's Canada Express 2 service.

A veteran ship, built in 1993 by Samsung Geoje, it is a 37,398 gt, 43,605 dwt vessel with a container capacity of 3398 TEU. Launched as Hansa Europe it was delivered as Ville de Carina and renamed MSC Rossella in 1997. With the fluctuating market for ships these days it is hard to know how much longer it will survive. With all the deliveries of new ships scheduled for 2023-2024, the market may become saturated, but few of then will be this size, which is ideal for the St.Lawrence trade. However thirty year old ships are rare due to the cost of keeping them in class. It is due for its next surveys later this year and almost all of its certificates expire December 31, 2023.

In the above photo, the MSC Rossella is outbound in the Main (Eastern) channel and the tug Atlantic Willow is on its way to meet the ZIM Qingdao inbound in the Deepwater (Western) channel. Ferguson's Cove is an ideal viewing spot for ships in the western channel as they swing close to shore.

On the Zim Container Atlantic (ZCA) service, arriving from Valencia, Spain, the ZIM Qingdao is a 39,906 gt, 60,690 dwt ship with a capacity of 4250 TEU. It was built in 2006 by Dalian New Shipbuilding.

By using the Western Channel, ZIM Qingdao gave the Norwegian Prima lots of room in the Eastern Channel.

Another arrival, about an hour later sailed on through the harbour to PSA Fairview Cove. The NYK Constellation is another of the Daedalus class of 55,534 gt, 65,919 dwt, with a capacity of 4922 TEU with 330 reefer plugs. As with several recent sister ships it is on THE Alliance's AL5 service arriving from Saint John, NB on the eastbound leg. Its sister ship NYK Daedalus arrived early this morning westbound from Antwerp, also at PSA Fairview Cove. There was thus the rare opportunity to see two ships of the same class together - which I missed.

Despite best efforts (Shipfax can only be in one place at a time - so far) I also managed to miss the MSC Cornelia on the Turkey-Greece run en route to Boston and the auto carrier Supreme Ace from Emden for Houston. (Both ships hsave been mentioned in this blog before.)

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HMM Courage - more initials

 When the Hyundai Courage was last here on the westbound leg of the EC5 service of THE Alliance I posted ship's info and the details of HMM (formerly Hyundai Merchant Marine.) See: Shipfax March 7, 2023

At the time I was not able to get a decent photo, but today (March 21) when the ship returned on the eastbound leg conditions were ideal.

As the Hyundai Courage made its way inbound it passed the outbound CCGS Captain Jacques Cartier.

 Due to its size the ship used the tethered stern escort Atlantic Fir.

It was met by the Atlantic Oak in the lower harbour for the transit through the Narrows. Once the ship reached Bedford Basin it held off PSA Fairview Cove while the NYK Constellation got underway. That ship is on the westbound leg of THE Alliance's AL5 service from Antwerp and bound for Port Everglades.

Built in 2007 by Hyundai HI, Ulsan, it comes in at 55,534 gt, 65,919 dwt with a capacity of 4922 TEU including 330 reefers.

Back to the initials again, NYK Line or Nippon Kabushiki Kaisha (Japan Mail Shipping Line) is part of the giant Mitsubishi conglomerate, with some 800 ships of all types in its fleet. However it spun off its container interests in 2017 with the founding of Ocean Network Express (ONE). NYK has a 38% interest in ONE with MOL (31%) and K-Line (31%). Some ships continue to appear in "heritage" colours and with parent group names., while others have adopted ONE colours and names.

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Great Conjunctions - almost

With ships of various shipping lines calling eastbound and westbound in Halifax it is not unusual when two ships of the same line are here at the same time. Sometimes those ships are sister ships, and it is interesting to see two of them in port at once. So today's arrivals (May 7) of NYK Deneb and NYK Constellation in quick succession at Fairview Cove could not be called unusual. The sister ships are members of the ten ship NYK Daedalus class.

 NYK Constellation completed working cargo late this afternoon, but held its berth at Fairview Cove until NYK Remus made its way to Bedford Basin. This left lots of room to pass (but I was not in suitable spot to take a photo with both ships in the frame.)

NYK Remus inbound in the Narrows with Atlantic Fir forward and Atlantic Oak astern.

NYK Remus was built by Hyundai Samho in 2009 with tonnages of 55487 gt, 65,981 dwt and a container capacity of 4922 TEU, including 330 reefers.

NYK Constellation outbound in the lower harbour, picking up speed.

 

NYK Constellation dates from 2007 when it was delivered by Hyundai Ulsan. It has the same gt of 55,534 but measures 65,919 dwt. It also has a capacity of 4922 TEU including 330 reefers,

Both ships are sailing on THE Alliance's AL5 service with NYK Remus eastbound from Vancouver, Oakland, Los Angeles, Panama and Cartagena and NYK Constellation westbound from Rotterdam, Hamburg and Antwerp for Port Everglades.

At the southend terminal, PSA's Atlantic Hub, there were to be two ships due for MSC, but they were not sister ships. First along was Seamax New Haven, reported to be on a new (but not yet announced) Turkey, Greece and Mediterranean run called Mediterranean Express (MX). Instead of docking on arrival as anticipated, the ship went to number one anchorage. This was possibly for a Canadian Food Inspection Agency inspection and clearance.

Seamax New Haven anchored in the main harbour for a few hours before going alongside.

The Semax New Haven was last here March 10 on the Indus 2 service from North India, but has apparently switched routes. A 90,449 gt, 100,807 dwt ship with a capacity of 8084 TEU, including 700 reefers, it dates from 2005 when it was built by Samsung, Koje. It carried the name Ever Charming until 2017 [so much for the staying power of charm!]

The second MSC ship, that was intended for anchorage, instead put back to sea and will now arrive tonight. It is MSC Hong Kong, on Canada Express 2 service bound from Italy and Spain for Montreal. It is expected to reduce draft to meet St.Lawrence River restrictions by dropping some cargo here over night, then sailing early in the morning. Its departure may be too early for a photo op.

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More Weather, More Boxes

 Thursday's heavy snow vanished over night Saturday / Sunday (December 11-12) as another storm blew through with thunder, lightning, wind and heavy rain. Snow removal is a huge headache for container terminals, and it is a time consuming and costly operation to clear and dispose of the white stuff. However when rain washes it away for you, operations can get back to normal very quickly.

PSA Halifax was wall to wall with three ships alongside Sunday morning December 12. MSCLeigh took the centre berth with Eimskip's Vivienne Sheri D at Pier 41 (right in photo) and ZIM's feeder Taipei Trader at Pier 42 (left in photo).

MSC Leigh arrived from Montreal December 11 to top off  before setting out for Valencia and Barcelona on MSC's Canada Express 2 service.

Built in 2006 by Daewoo Mangala the ship was launched as Buxtime but was delivered as MSC Leigh. It is a 50,963 gt, 63,411 dwt ship with a capacity of 4884 TEU including 560 reefers.

Things were also busy at Fairview Cove, with NYK Constellation arriving in the morning of December 11, and sailing mid-morning today, Sunday December 12.

NYK Constellation outbound with the pilot boat Capt. E.T. Rogers in attendance, bound for Southampton.

NYK Constellation is on THE Alliance's North Europe - North America AL5 service, eastbound. The ship was built by Hyundai Ulsan in 2007 and is a 55,534 gt, 65,919 dwt vessel with a capacity of 4922 TEU including 330 reefers.

As soon as the NYK Constellation was clear of the berth, the Hyundai Faith began to move in. It had arrived late yesterday afternoon, December 11 and spent the night at anchor in Bedford Basin.

The HMM ship (Hyundai Merchant Marine rebranded itself as HMM in 2020) was built by - wait for it - Hyundai, Samho in 2008. The 95,681 gt, 98,967 dwt ship has a capacity of 8562 TEU. It is on THE Alliance's EC5 Asia-North America run and arrived directly from Singapore.

 

All was quiet in the rest of the harbour, but was considerably brightened in the "grey ship" zone, where HMCS Montreal was showing off its new, bright blue, anti-fouling hull paint.

 

The ship is perched on the Syncrolift, an elevator - like platform that was built to lift ships (including submarines) out of the water, using banks of electric motors (the light blue objects), all carefully synchronised as to speed. The facility is being upgraded to increase its capacity for the future drydockings of new frigates (not yet built), but it does not have the capability of lifting the very heavy Arctic Offshore Patrol Vessels. They will have to be drydocked in Newfoundland or Quebec, or on a semi-submersible barge.

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The way it was at Richmond Terminals Pier 9 to Pier 9C

 The Richmond Terminals area, Piers 9 to 9C, at the extreme north end of the harbour, are not highly active parts of the waterfront these days. Of the three large transit sheds, only one remains in use as such. The Pier 9 shed (once a Volvo assembly plant) is now used as a warehouse by Halifax Shipyard. The Pier 9A shed is now the home to IT International Telecom and does see some ships transferring specialized cargo including cable or undergoing refit.

Only the Pier 9B shed is used for freight. Lately it has been used to transfer cargo from rail car to container (mostly paper products as far as I can tell) and stainless steel wire for tire manufacturing.

The extra height boxcar is dedicated to paper transport, and is a rare Golden West reporting mark for Southern Pacific. Note the three Nova Scotia Power smoke stacks peeking above the roof. They are from the company's Tufts Cove generating station, which now burns natural gas, but was built for coal and oil

The open Pier 9C was recently rebuilt and provides a hard surfaced open area, which has has seen a variety of uses for project or bulk cargoes such as coal, and is now storing salt (see recent posts), but was also used as an offshore oil and gas service base.  

Before the most recent rebuild, Pier 9C was a large gravel surfaced open shoreline. It had been used to store bulk coal, seen here in 2004, but was mostly used for trailer storage.

Although the entire Pier 9B, 9C area may  look underutlized, it is a useful resource for odd cargoes, and a good place to tie up ships for repairs or short term layups. Oceanex Sanderling was there a week ago for repairs.

There is also the rarely used "Marine Terminal" at Pier 9 where a pipeline runs up to Wilson's Fuels storage tanks on Barrington Street. Originally Petrofina tanks, they have been used infrequently recently to receive fuel from Newfoundland, and to refuel some ships. Wilson's have sold the terminal and storage facility to Couche-Tard along with its Wilson's gas stations in the region, so it remains to be seen what the future will bring for the terminal.

In 1970 the tanker Texaco Chief delivered cargo to Petrofina via the pipeline from Pier 9 to the Barrington Street Marine Terminal. At the time, the shed to the right was a Volvo car assembly plant.

Volvo received crated and palletized car components from Sweden via early container ships (converted cargo ships). They were unloaded by shore cranes. This arrangement was discontinued when Atlantic Container Line began its container and RoRo service.  

(In the background Halifax Shipyard is busy building an oil rig.)

Hother Isle was built in 1956 by Howaldswerke, Hamburg as the general cargo ship Christiane, and in 1969 was lengthened 12m and converted to carry containers. It lasted until 1986 under numerous owners and names.

The sheds were built in the early 1960s to take pressure off the Deepwater Piers sheds in the southend, where the container pier was to be built. There was also a planned service to Newfoundland using side door ships with forklift loading (which in the end was short lived.) Among the users of the sheds in the late 1960s and into the 1970s was Saguenay Shipping and various other South American shipping lines such as Compania Sud American de Vapores (Chile) , Cia Peruana de Vapores, Columbiana Internacional de Vapores, and perhaps others, using their own ships and various tramps. These were generally state of the art express general cargo ships of fine lines and are still regarded as the epitome of ship aesthetics. 

Garcilaso at Pier 9C. Note only one stack at NS Power, Tuft's Cove in 1970.

Garcilaso was built by Wartsila, Turku, Finland in 1969 for Cia Peruana de Vapores SA. It lasted until 1994 when broken up in Peru.

 Anamilena from Colombiana Internacional de Vapores at Pier 9C in 1971 (by then there were two stacks at Tuft's Cove.)

Anamelina was built by Sociedad Espanola ce Construccion Naval  in Matagorda, Spain in 1968 but seems to have been repo'd in 1973. It served under six subsequent names and six flags until 2012 when its listing was dropped as "existence in doubt". 

Bordagain loading - it was a messy job with slings and forklifts speeding around.

The A.Murray MacKay bridge in the background did not open officially until July 10, 1970.

Bordagain built in 1958 by Redhead, South Shields, was Baron Garioch for H.Hogarth until 1968. It lasted until 1982 when it was broken up in Bombay. 

In the pre-container days when all cargo was "hand bombed" in slings, or on pallets, the Richmond Terminals were constantly busy with ships in port at all times. Cargo was transferred to / from rail or truck via the sheds from / to the ships and was very labour intensive.  It was the "last gasp" for conventional cargo ships that within a few years were relegated to third world service as container ships took over lucrative cargo work.

Hadjitsakos was another of the handsome general cargo ships.

AG Weser in Hamburg built the Hadjitsakos in 1956 for a Stavros G. Livanos company, and placed the corporate emblem on the bow. (See my September 15 post for a recent Livanos arrival in Halifax.) The ship was sold in 1972 but lasted until 1986 when it was scrapped in Aliaga.

The German ships tended to be the best looking:

Back to 1970 again, with only one chimney at Tuft's Cove, Poseidon is tied up at Pier 9C, but appears to be idle.

Built in 1952 by Flender, Lubeck, Poseidon was sold in 1971 then resold in 1981. As Viki K its owners secretly unloaded the ship's cargo in Egypt  then scuttled the ship and claimed on the insurance for ship and cargo.

British built ships were also good looking, although slightly more conservative in design.

Atlantic Fury with an inexplicable hole in its bow, joins fleet mate Hadjitsakos at Pier 9B.

Atlantic Fury was a 1960 product of Furness Shipbuilding, Haverton Hill, when it was built as Duke of Mistra. Livanos acquired and renamed the ship in 1965 and sold it on in 1975. It went through several names and owners until scrapped in 1983 on Gadani Beach.

Just to conclude the story of the smoke stacks, Nova Scotia Power Corp built the first part of the generating station boilers in 1965, known as Tufts Cove #1. Tufts Cove #2 was completed in 1972 and Tufts Cove #3 in 1976. Each boiler has its own 500 foot high (152 meters) chimney.

Oceanex Sanderling in port for repairs tied up at Pier 9B with the Tufts Cove generating station in the background. I usually attempt not to get the chimneys in the picture, but the red and white colours on ship and stacks were too good a target to miss. Even from a distance the chimneys tend to stand out.

NYK Constellation arriving September 25 has passed Richmond Terminals and Tuft's Cove and is about to pass under the A.Murray MacKay bridge. The extra wide angle lens was needed to include the entire 1398 ft (426 meters) of the main span. 

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