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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Celestial Convergence

 Ships of NYK's Daedalus class are weekly visitors on THE Alliance's AL5 North Europe / North America service. It is rare however for two ships of the class to be in port at the same time. Today (February 17) when NYK Nebula arrived on its eastbound leg from Saint John, NB, its berth at PSA Fairview Cove was occupied by sister ship NYK Romulus, which ship, also eastbound, has been in port since February 13.

 NYK Nebula northbound in the Narrows heading for Fairview Cove. The tug Atlantic Oak is running alongside preparing to make up forward. Stern escort tug Atlantic Beaver is hidden from view.

The NYK Romulus may have some deficiency which is preventing it from putting to sea, but it was able to move under its own power to Pier 31. When it got away from the Fairview Cove west berth it went well out into Bedford Basin, leaving lots or room for NYK Nebula to turn and back in to the same berth.

This gave the opportunity to see both ships at the same time.

Once the NYK Nebula had cleared the way (stern escort tug Atlantic Beaver assisting with the Atlantic Oak) the NYK Romulus made its way southbound through the Narrows to Pier 31with tugs Atlantic Bear and Atlantic Larch.

The NYK Romulus is the second container ship to move to Pier 31 this week. MSC Porto III had sailed February 13, but after idling offshore it returned to port (yesterday) February 16 and tied up at Pier 31. It sailed later in the day. Pier 31 is not a working berth for containers or any cargo, so is used by ships that need to tie up for repairs that can't be effected at anchor.

The NYK Nebula and NYK Romulus may not be exact sister ships, but are built from the same basic design. NYK Nebula was built by Hyundai Heavy Industries Ulsan shipyard in 2007. It is a 55,534 gt 65,600 dwt ship with a capacity of 4922 TEU. NYK Romulus came from Hyundai's Samho yard in 2009 and has the same gross tonnage and 4922 TEU capacity, including 330 reefer plugs, but its deadweight tonnage is recorded at 65,833.

At time of writing there was no ETD for NYK Romulus. NYK Nebula is due to sail overnight, efectivelty "lapping" its fleet mate.

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Bluer than Blue at PSA Halifax

 PSA Halifax welcomed two blue ships today, June 10, at its South End terminal, Atlantic Gateway. First in was the Ultra size CMA CGM Adonis. At 154,839 gt, 155,502 dwt, it has a capacity of 15,536 TEU including reefer plugs for 1800. The giant was built at Shanghai Jiangnan Chanxing Shipbuilding and was delivered in March of last year.

Although its capacity is about 1,000 TEU less than the largest ships to call in Halifax, it nevertheless made an impressive sight, occupying a large swath of Pier 41-42.

 It also used the three largest cranes leaving the two small cranes unused at the south end of the pier due to clearance issues.

The ship's dark blue hull looked dull in overcast conditions, but when the sun broke out for a few minutes it took on quite a glow.

Unfortunately the sun did not stay out long enough to light up the inbound Volga Maersk all the way in to Pier 41. Too bad because there are few more impressive sights than the (trade marked) Maersk Blue in bright sunshine,

This is the first time to see Maersk Lines' new white lettering and seven point star motif on the ship's hull. The A.P. Moller-Maersk company has used the seven point star on a sky blue background since 1886. It has appeared on their house flag since 1904 and on their funnels and more recently on their containers. They began to paint their ship's hulls in sky blue starting in 1955. At that time the ship's full name was painted on the side in black letters. Many Scandinavian ships, going back to the pre World War II  era, carried their full names in a similar fashion.

 The Halterm container terminal was operational, but they were still building one crane in January 1971 when I caught the Clifford Maersk at Pier 36.

In the late 70s the hull lettering was changed to "Maersk Line".

Maersk continued to use conventional cargo ships for several years because many of the ports they served could not handle containers. The Chastine Maersk was typical in that sense, but untypical in how scruffy it looked. Later that year it was rebuilt as a container ship with a new longer and wider forebody so maybe the neglect was intended as the old forebody was scrapped.(Note the word "Line" was added and the name "Chastine" was painted over, giving an unbalanced look to the billboard.)

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Volga Maersk was fresh from drydock when it joined the St-Laurent 1 service in April of this year, and still looks very neat on arrival today.

Volga Maersk dates from 2018 when it was built by COSCO Zhoushan Shipyard Co. It is a 34,882 gt, 40,079 dwt ship with a capacity of 3600 TEU. It is one of several (seven by may count) ships built to ice class for Maersk's Baltic service. When sanctions were imposed on Russia in 2022, two of the ships of this class were transferred to the St-Laurent 1 service operated by Maersk and CMA CGM. 

Sister ship Vistula Maersk remains on the St-Laurent 1 service and Vayenga Maersk has been in Setubal, Portugal since May 9, presumably in drydock where it is likely receiving the new white bill board. 

On its previous trip to Montreal in mid-May Volga Maersk returned directly to Bremerhaven and did not call in Halifax. It then called in Rotterdam and Antwerp on its way back to Montreal.

Sister Vayenga Maersk June 6, 2022 in the "old" livery.

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Blue and Black

The blue hulls were confined to the south end, as PSA Fairview Cove handled the more usual black hulled NYK Nebula for THE Alliance's AL5 route.

Another member of the large Constellation class and built in 2007 by Hyundai, Ulsan, the 55,534 gt, 65,600 dwt ship has a capacity of 4922 TEU. NYK is one of the partners in Ocean Network Express (ONE) along with MOL and K-Line. The lines new ships are painted in ONE's magenta and given ONE names, but the existing ships retain their individual line identities.

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An ill wind

 It may have been an ill wind that blew through Halifax Harbour (and Atlantic Canada) this morning (November 14) because it certainly played havoc with ship schedules and does not appear to have brought benefit to anyone.

Both Northumberland Strait and Cabot Strait ferries cancelled their crossings today and in Halifax three ships that were due to dock went to anchor instead.

Tropical Lissette and Lagarfoss were to have tied up at the South End terminal this morning. Due to the high winds they anchored near each other in the lower harbour and it was not until 1500 that Lagaross got underway and 1600 for Tropical Lissette to move to their intended berths at piers 41 and 42 respectively. 

Lagarfoss is on Eimskip's Green Line service, departing Rekjavik November 8 and headed next for Portland, ME.

Tropical Lissette operates for Tropical Shipping and departed St.Croix, VI November 9. It's next scheduled port is Palm Beach,

It is interesting that these ships, sailing from opposite directions meet in Halifax. Both Eimskip and Tropical are large users of refrigerated containers (which are usually painted white).

The third ship that went to anchor instead of docking was the first time caller Neptune Koper arriving from Emden for Autoport.

Built in 2004 by Uljanik, Pula, Croatia, it is relatively small for an autocarrier at 44,408 gt, 14,650 dwt. However it does have a respectable capacity of 5,380 CEU. Orginally named Grande Lagos for Grimaldi Lines, it was acquired by Norwegian Car Carriers in 2010 and renamed NOCC Kattegat. Current owners Neptune Lines of Piraeus, Greece, acquired the ship in 2021 and renamed it for the Slovenian port of Koper. They placed the ship on a weekly service between Turkish ports, Piraeus and Koper, however that has obviously changed. The ship's latest itinerary was Gemlik, Turkey October 15-16; Sète, France October 20-21; Valencia, Spain October 22-23; Vlissingen, Netherlands October 27-30; and Emden October 30-November 3.

The Neptune Koper anchored in number one anchorage, where it twirled around for much of the day. It finally moved to Autoport in the late afternoon. The ship may be substituting for a Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean visit which was listed as a "blank sailing" on the Port's schedule.

One ship that did berth on arrival was the NYK Nebula which embarked its pilot at 1500 at the pilot station. By the time it reached the inner harbour about an hour later, the extreme gusts had died down and it was able to transit the Narrows (with tug escort) for PSA Fairview Cove. 

Meanwhile in Bedford Basin the Maersk Idaho remained at anchor. There is nothing quite like bright sun on a Maersk hull.

At Imperial Oil it was the coastal tanker Algoscotia which arrived last night from Nanticoke.

 

The ship secured at the newly upgraded moorings at Imperial Oil's dock number 3. The facility was rebuilt to allow ships to remain alongside in high winds. Judging by all the lines out they were taking no chances even so. It was unusual that the ship berthed bows south - they usually tie up bows north.

(That is the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic's ship CSS Acadia in the background.)

The RRS James Cook arrived in Halifax Friday November 11 and tied up at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography. The Royal Research Ship is operated by the Natural Environment Research Council.

Completed by Flekkefjord in Norway in 2007 on a hull built by Crist in Gdansk, the 5401 gt ship has conducted numerous research missions in the North Atlantic. (It was last in Halifax on September 27.)

Today it loaded some gear at Pier 9C and sailed in the early evening.

With the retired CCGS Hudson in the background, shore cranes load some gear on the James Cook.

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NYK Nebula - back again

 Thanks to a recent re-shuffle of shipping services by THE Alliance, several once familiar ships are returning to Halifax. The AL5 service (Europe to Halifax, East Coast US, Panama, West Coast US, Vancouver and return) is using ships of the NYK Daedalus class. The ships were regular callers here on the old G5 Alliance in 2014, 2016, etc., Today's arrival is NYK Nebula a typical member of that class.

Built in 2007 by Hyundai Heavy Industries, Ulsan, South Korea, it is a 55,534 gt, 65,600 dwt ship with a container capacity of 4922 TEU. Now sailing for Ocean Network Express (ONE) it still carries the name of the pre-merger NYK Line, however the large "NYK" letters on the hull have been painted over. It is unlikely that older ships and chartered ships will be renamed or repainted in ONE's distinctive Magenta hull colour, so will still reflect their "ancestry" for some time to come.

In pre-ONE days, the ship carried the NYK Line banner on its side. There was also quite a different mix of containers, reflecting the G5 Alliance member lines.

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Merger for Survival

Another huge coming together of shipping lines has been announced. This one is more than just an alliance, it is an actual merger and represents the desperate times most container shipping companies face. Following the collapse of Hanjin Shipping and with the future far from certain for Hyundai Merchant Marine, the financial tsunami is rippling out from Korea and has now engulfed Japan.

NYK Nebula

The three major Japanese shipping lines, NYY Line, Mitsui OSK Line (MOL) and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K-Line)  have decided to create a new company that will take over the container operations of all three of these important lines. The new entity will represent 7% of the world container trade and it will be the second largest Asian line after China COSCO (which was formed this year by the merger of COSCO and CSCL).

 MOL Committment, Hamburg

Following required regulatory approvals from the EU, the US, China, Japan and others, the new line will be formed July 1, 2017, but will not actually begin operations until April 2018.  There will be 256 vessels in the  fleet (based on current ships) under one management with all synergies and other spin offs that implies.

Vecchio Bridge

NYK will own 38%, MOL 31% and K-Line 31% of the as yet unnamed new corporation. It will be strictly containers, with bulkers, terminals and other shipping interests of the three not included. (All have significant auto carrier fleets too.)

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NYK Nebula

There is nothing nebulous about today's arrival for the G6 Alliance.

 NYK Nebula is a solid looking 4922 TEU ship, built in 2007 by Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan. Tonnage of 55,534 gross and 65,600 place it at the top end of Panamax ships. It arrived from a voyage that left Japan and stopped at several west coast ports, before making the Panama Canal, then making its way via Savannah and Norfolk to New York.

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