Mix and Match - tankers and box boats

One of the appeals of Halifax harbour to ship watchers is the several types of ships that call in the port. Container ships of various sizes from a variety of shipping lines are the most predominant form of shipping to be seen. There are regular callers - some of which will be calling in the port for their entire working lives of twenty-five years or more - but there are also short term and one-time ships that add variety. 

There are also bulk carriers and tankers on a steady basis with some general cargo ships from time to time, and a regular parade of auto carriers on about a weekly basis.  

There is also a substantial number of support vessels such as tugs, workboats and various marine construction and dredging "floating plant" that work around the harbour.

On the non-commercial side the Royal Canadian Navy has its Atlantic base in Halifax and there are often comings and goings of RCN ships and some NATO visitors. The Canadian Coast Guard and Canadian government research ships, operated the Coast Guard, form a colourful back drop with their red hulls. 

Halifax Regional Municipality operates harbour ferries on two routes across the lower harbour with plans under way for a longer run from Bedford. Halifax Fire and Emergency Services operates a fireboat which can be seen regularly, but is seldom needed to fight a fire.

Adding to all that activity are pleasure craft and tour boats, which operate seasonally, as do their larger passenger carrying kin - cruise ships.

All of the above leads up to the variety of shipping that can be seen on just one day - such as today - January 21.

At the PSA Fairview Cove container terminal ZIM Integrated Shipping Services operates two weekly services. One operates between the west coast of South America to the East Coast of North America, and Halifax is the nothernmost port. Called the ZCX, Colibri Express, it also serves as a feeder to ZIM's hub port of Kingston, Jamaica. 

ZIM also operates the ZCA (ZIM Container Service Atlantic) service from the Mediterranean to the North American east coast. Today's caller on that service is the chartered ship Spyros V on its return visit to Halifax. It was last here November 17, 2024.

The ZCA service makes 13 calls in its long loop from Ashdod to Haifa, Izmir (Aliaga), Piraeus, Genoa, Barcelona and Valencia to Halifax. It is next scheduled to call in New York, then to Norfolk and Savannah before heading back across the Atlantic to Valencia and Barcelona. 

The Spyros V dates from 2011 when it was delivered by Jiangsu New Yangzijiang Shipyard in Jingjiang, China, as theBella Schulte. In 2017 it was acquired by current owner Technomar Shipping Inc of Athens. The 40,542 gt, 49,891 dwt ship has a capacity of 4250 TEU.

(Note the larger number of Hapag-Lloyd containers on deck on this trip. Perhaps a sign of things to come as Hapag-Lloyd amd Maersk re-align their services under a new joint venture called the Gemini Cooperation.)

At PSA Halifax Atlantic Hub in the south end of the port, the Mediterranean Shipping company's MSC Tamara was at Pier 42 - a regular caller it is serving MSC's Med Canadian route from  Halifax and Montreal. 

At Pier 41 it was a "two chairs - no waiting" situation as the departing ONE Cygnus was soon replaced by the arriving sister ship ONE Falcon.

The outbound ONE Cygnus is accompanied by two tugs, as tethered escorts.

 

Ships of this class are regular callers now on THE alliance's Asia - North America service, arriving from Colombo, via the Cape of Good Hope. But that may change next month as Hapag-Lloyd withdraws from THE Alliance. (Another ship with a large number of Hapag-Lloyd and UASC boxes on deck.) The ship measures 146,694 gt, 138,611 dwt and has a capacity of 14,026 TEU, and was built by Japan Marine United in 2019.

There are tankers in and out of Halifax on a nearly daily basis as both Imperial Oil and Irving Oil have large storage and distribution depots. Today at Irving Oil it was the East Coast while at Imperial Oil the PS Augusta was still discharging after its arrival Sunday January 19 from Antwerp, Belgium.

Ships of this size, around 50,000 dwt are the most common type of tanker and are seen world wide. This one was built in 2011 by STX Shipbuilding Co in Jinhae, South Korea, and comes in at 29,717 gt, 51,063 dwt. It was built as Gold Point and was erenamed PS Augusta in 2020.

 

Another tanker was also in Halifax, but not at one of the fuel terminals. Instead the Sten Aurora was tied up at Pier 9C to take on fuel for its own use. Irving Oil delivered fuel to the ship by truck.

 

Largely concealed from view by a large number of wind turbine towers, the refueling trucks are not visible.

 

The ship was built in 2007 by the Jiangnan Shipbuilding Group at the Qiuxin shipyard in Shanghai. It is a 11,943 gt, 16,596 dwt ship, rated as Ice Class 1A with polymer lined tanks for chemicals. Its most recent routing is more specific to a chemical carrier. It was in Sarnia December 2 to 4 then called in Quebec City, New York, New Orleans and Houston December 31. It then returned to New Orleans and sailed January 2 directly to Port Alfred (La Baie), QC, arriving January 16. There is a demand for a variety of chemicals to support the aluminum and the biomaterials industries in the Saguenay region.

The ship is due to sail this evening for Taft, Louisiana, site of large Mosaic and Dow / Union Carbide chemical plants about 30 miles upstream of New Orleans..

 

The berth at Piet 9C was only vacated yesterday by the general cargo ship Nord Ling, which moved out to anchor in Bedford Basin to make room.

 

Since arriving January 6 [qv] the ship has been fitted with fiberoptic cable racks. If that work is complete, the ship may be anchored for a while waiting its turn to go the Portsmouth, NH to load the cable.
 

Adding to the colourful activity in the harbour the CCGS Sir William Alexander has been running in and out port on its winter buoy program, which involves removing buoys from ice prone areas. As a multi-tasked ship, it also provides icebreaking assistance, Search and Rescue standby and patrol.

 

On arrival January 20 the ship had a number of buoys on deck to be taken ashore for maintenance and storage until spring.

.

Exodus from Bedford Basin - Part 1

 It was a day of departures from Bedford Basin as several ships put out sea despite storm warnings. After several weeks of up to three ships at anchor in the Basin at any one time, the anchorages cleared of merchant ships (with one naval vessel remaining - see Part 2). Not surprisingly for the time of year, all the ships headed south.

CSL Tacoma arrived January 8 and anchored in Bedford Basin until fleet mate and sister ship Rt. Hon. Paul E. Martin completed loading yesterday, January 9, and sailed for Baltimore. It is not often that the two ships are in port at the same time, and due to positioning it was diffficult to get any kind of photo with the two ships in the same frame.

CSL Tacoma back, left and Rt.Hon Paul E. Martin front, right, December 9.

CSL Tacoma then moved in to Gold Bond Gypsum, loaded overnight and sailed today, January 10 for for Burlington, NJ. Both ships are Trillium class self-unloaders, are for all intents and purposes identical, and were built by Chengxi Shipyard in Jiangyin, China. Rt. Hon. Paul E. Martin was completed in September 2012 and is a 43,691 gt, 71,406 dwt vessel. CSL Tacoma came out in October 2013 with the same gross tonnage, but 71,552 dwt. Unloading rates range from 4,200 tonnes per hour (tph) for coal, 4,500 tph for gypsum and 5,000 tph for aggregates.

CSL Tacoma outbound this morning.

Next away was the UBC Tarragona, a ship that has been in port since December 22. After unloading containers at PSA Fairview Cove it moved out to anchor December 23. As noted here December 24 , the ship is a general cargo vessel, with no provision for carrying containers in celluar guides as dedicated container ships do. 

UBC Tarragona outbound with the Nord Logos at anchor in the background.

(Number one crane is stowed in such as way that its boom is not visible from this angle)

The last merchant ship anchored in the Basin is the Nord Logos and it is due to sail this evening. It has been in port since December 29 when it arrived from Portsmouth, NH. 

 Nord Logos usually carries fibreportic cable, as does its sister ship Nord Ling which is  being fitted for cable racks at Pier 9C. The racks are fabricated in sections and assembled in the ship's holds.

The cable racks (or tanks in cable parlance) are used to stow the cable in a circular pattern for ease of loading and deployment.

 There was more activity in Bedford Basin, but that is for Part 2 - to follow.

Nord Ling back with new name

 A ship that has changed name twice since it was last here tied up at Pier 9C this morning, January 6, from Jacksonville, FL. 

 The Nord Ling has the familiar profile of a series of ten ships built by the Honda Shipyard in Saiki, Japan. Of relatively modest dimensions of 13,110 gt and 16,953 dwt and fitted with two 50 tonne capacity cranes (that can work in tandem for 100 tonne lifts) it is a general cargo ship with moveable tween decks. [Honda is the family name of thr shipyard founders and is not connected with the automobile manufacturers.]

Orginally named Thorco Luna when built in 2014, it was in Halifax in May 2017 to be fitted with racks to carry fibreoptic sub sea cable. 

Some cable rack material on trailers at Pier 9C in 2017.

In 2021 it was renamed Glen Grant and in 2024 it became Nord Ling.  Several of its "Thorco L..." sister ships have also gone through several name changes, some with "Franbo" prefixes. And several have been in Halifax to be fitted with cable racks. In fact another sister, the Nord Logos (ex Ultra Durban, ex Franbo Logos, ex Thorco Logos) arrived December 29 and has been anchored in Bedford Basin, in sight of Pier 9C. (See yesterday's post.) It has also been here before (as Thorco Logos) in 2016 and 2017.

Thorco Shipping A/S was a large Danish operator, founded in 2003. At one time it had more than seventy ships in its fleet. Financial difficulties arose, amid fraud charges (later dismissed) and the company was acquired by NORDEN Projects and Parcelling in 2023.  NORDEN operates a tanker pool and also pools project cargo ships for a number of owners.

Nord Logos' owner appears to be Franbo Lines, based in Taiwan, currently with a fleet of 17 ships, including five ex "Thorco L..." ships.

Nord Ling appears to be owned by Hosei, a Japanese joint venture between three companies with about 15 ships in its corral. All are similar, with two former "Thorco Ls" in the mix,

No matter the owners, these ships seem to be favoured as cable carriers, and I expect that is why they are both here. Nord Logos arrived from Portsmouth, NH, where fibreoptic cable is Manufactured.

.