Long Stay, Short Stay

Ships may make short or long visits to Halifax. Ranging from a few hours to weeks or months the length of the stay depends on a number of factors. Today, October 11 saw what was a very short stay for one ship and a range of stays for others.

The short stay was the familiar miniature cruise ship Pearl Mist arriving at Pier 23 around 0800 hrs ADT and sailing again at 1430 hrs.

The Pearl Mist eases in alongside Pier 23 using its bow thruster. With only three cruise ships in port today, the landing stage at Pier 24 is not needed.

The Pearl Mist was mostly built in Halifax, and completed elsewhere. Despite such an inauspicious beginning, it has had a successful career calling in many smaller ports.

 The second cruise ship, the Silver Shadow tied up at Pier 20 for a longer than usual stay. Also coming alongside for 0800 hrs it will remain in port until 2230 hrs this evening. Most ships are in and out in eight to ten 10 hours. [no photo]

The third cruise ship, which arrived at the pilot station at 1230 hrs and came alongside Pier 22 at about 1330 hrs was the Arcadia. [click for Wikipedia entry]

 

Unusually it had the tug Atlantic Willow assist in berthing. Black scuff marks likely ensued as the tug was not wearing the white canvas apron that used to be mandatory for berthing white ships. Cruise ships rarely need tugs in Halifax unless the weather is averse (which it was not) or the ship has a malfunction (possible).

The Arcadia will remain in port overnight and all day tomorrow - also unusual - and is scheduled to sail at 1630 hrs October 12.

Another arrival is likely to be in port for several days. It is the "Supramax" dry bulker Eva Bright. 

The ship came from the Jiangmen Nanyang Ship Engineering Co Ltd in 2023, measuring 25,130 gt and 40,577 dwt. Typical of ships of its type it carries four cargo cranes and grab buckets.

The ship tied up alongside the  AP Revelin at Pier 27 for no other possible purpose than to transload the latter ship's cargo. The AP Revelin lost its propellor off Nova Scotia and was towed in to port September 21 and was anchored for a time then moved alongside on October 3. I assume that its cargo must be offloaded before it can go to drydock for installation of a new prop and possibly repair to damage resulting from the loss.

 The transloading process will take several days at best, and is likely weather dependent, so may extend into weeks. [see Footnote]

What may also extend to a longer stay if past performance is an indicator, is today's move of the multi-purpose ship Nord Logos from Pier 9B to anchor in Bedford Basin.

 Since its most recent arrival on October 6 it has loaded cable racks, and will now wait for its appointment at the factory in Portsmouth (Newington) NH to load fibre optic cable. 

The Nord Logos may be a familiar sight to Basin watchers. It was last anchored here from December 11, 2024 to January 10, 2025 - also awaiting its turn for Portsmouth. The former Thorco Logos was also in port (on and off) from November 4, 2018 to February 10, 2019, also loading cable tanks and standing by to go to Portsmouth. It had a similar lengthy stay in 2017.

Footnote

The Port of Halifax has a large grain storage facility which is also used to store and export wood pellets. Pellets arrive in Halifax by truck and grain arrives by train or by ship. In recent years ships bringing in grain from the Lakehead, and sometimes corn from Windsor or other Great Lakes ports are self-unloaders. As a result the port's own offloader - called the grain leg - has fallen into disuse, and may no longer be serviceable. It is many years since it has been used, and I believe the last time it was used was to unload a ship that was damaged, and had to have its cargo removed. It may be easier to off load the AP Revelin directly into the Eva Bright than to re-commission (and sanitize) the grain leg and transfer the cargo (whatever that may be, and I don't know, but assume it is grain) through the grain elevator.

The grain leg (at right) at Pier 25-26, is no longer in use, except a s pigeon roost, now that self-unloading ships bring in grain cargo.

The grain leg in use in 1975, back when the world was black and white. The device consists of an endless loop of buckets that feeds grain to the conveyor system (above at right) transferring the cargo to the grain elevators.

 .

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.

.

Connector - gone south

 The offshore construction ship Connector sailed from Halifax today, January 4, after a lengthy stay in port. It is destined for Boston, presumably to be closer to the Vineyard Wind project.

The ship arrived in Halifax September 3 and aside from a brief Dynamic Positioning trial in Bedford Basin in November it has been idle ever since. Its details were given here December 23, 2024 when fleet mate Symphony shifted layup berths.

A year ago it was reported that the Connector would be working on the Hornsea 3 wind farm off the Yorkshore coast starting in January 2025. It would be laying sub-sea power transmission cables for the Danish company Ørsted. However it appears that the ship will be working for Ørsted on the Vineyard Wind project instead. Work on that project is resuming after a five month suspension after a wind vane collapsed. A large power substation will be established to send power ashore via a high capacity sub-sea cable.

As Connector sailed this morning the cable ship IT Intrepid moved from anchorage in Bedford Basin to Pier 9C - likely to refuel. In the background the ship Nord Logos awaits its next asssignment. The ship has been used to carry fibre optic cable, and its last port of call is recorded as Portsmouth (Newington) NH, site of the Sub Com cable factory.

 

.