OOCL Oakland - home from the wars

The post-Panamax container ship OOCL Oakland arrived yesterday morning and sailed at noon time today. The ship appears to have been in at least a minor battle with a pier, and shows a large crease and other marks on its starboard quarter.

 

The crease does not appear to have happened here [ but it did - see comment]. OOCL ships are usually very neat and clean looking, so the damage must have been done fairly recently.

The ship is on the G6 Alliance service, which seems to have been monopolized by ships of HAPAG-Lloyd and APL recently.

 

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Busy anchorages

Anchorage space is rarely at a premium in Halifax, but with two large tankers at anchor in the lower harbour, it was  necessary for an autocarrier to anchor in Bedford Basin.

1. Familiar Halifax caller Jasmine Knutsen anchored north of George's Island.

First in was the Canadian shuttle tanker Jasmine Knustsen, arriving yesterday for a couple of days maintenance. The 80,918 gross/ 148,644 deadweight tonnes ship is anchored north of George's Island, leaving space for only a small ship in the northernmost anchorage.

2. Fully laden Princimar Integrity anchored south of George's Island.

Meanwhile at number one anchorage, reserved for short term and deep draught visitors, the full laden crude oil tanker Princimar Integrity is awaiting Canadian Food Inspection Agency clearance for Asian gypsy moth before she moves into Imperial Oil to discharge. The Suezmax tanker is a 2012 product of Samsung's Koje shipyard in South Korea. At 81,326 gross/ 158, 529 deadweight, she is comparable in size to Jasmine Knutsen but lacks all the bow loading gear of a shuttle tanker. The ship operates in the Stena Sonangol Suezmax pool of tankers, managed out of Houston TX. Ownership resides with Principal Maritime an operating arm of Apollo group, based in Southport, CT. Interestingly the ship is managed by Bernard Schulte Ship Management, based in that iconic British seaport of South Shields. Once the home of numerous British builders and shipping companies, it was also the home of many seafarers, until the collapse of the British shipping industry in the 1970s.Despite all this the ship flies the flag of the Marshal Islands, a favourite offshore register for American controlled tankers.

3. Autocarrier Höegh Masan anchored off the Rockingham railway yards in Bedford Basin.

Forced to go north to Bedford Basin the autocarrier Höegh Masan, is also awaiting CFIA  clearance before heading to Autoport to unload. Although bearing the name of the Norwegian shipowner Leif Höegh, the ship is managed by the Danish AP Moller-Maersk group of companies and flies the flag of Singapore. Built in 1998 it has a capacity of 4300 ceu (European cars) with a gross tonnage of 44,219. After leaving Halifax the ship will travel to New York, Baltimore, Jacksonville Galveston, then the West Africa ports of Lagos, Cotonou, Tema and Sagunto. These secondary routes are served the smaller and older members of the autocarrier fleets.

4. Fairview Cove using its three large cranes to work OOCL Oakland. 

Despite the fact of Easter Sunday both container piers were also working ships. Halterm had Zim Colombo (see Halifax Shipping News http://blog.halifaxshippingnews.ca/2013/03/big-waves-broken-containers.html for more on her visit) and Fairview Cove has OOCL Oakland, a post Panamax ship.
With the big ships in the lower anchorages, OOCL Oakland passed west of George's Island outbound, giving a rare chance for a closeup photo.

5. Skimming the shore outbound west of George's Island.

6. Crew members stow mooring lines forward. Symbols for two bow thrusters and a bulbous bow decorate the hull.

7. The pilot door stands open ready to disembark the pilot.

8. Chebucto Pilot paces the ship, but will soon move out ahead.

Quiet Weekend

1. OOCL Oakland sails Sunday, showing some signs of winter wear and tear. Atlantic Fir is stern escort.

2. OOCL Kaohsiung dwarfs Rotterdam Express at the dock. The extreme with of the OOCL ship prevents her from passing through the present Panama Canal, but helps to account for her much greater carrying capacity. She also stacks boxes much higher on deck.

It was a quiet weekend containershipwise, with activity concentrated at Cerescorp's Fairview Cove terminal.

On Saturday OOCL Kaohsiung and Rotterdam Express shared the terminal and on Sunday OOCL Oakland had it all to itself.

OOCL Kaohsiung and OOCL Oakland are sisters, of a class of 11 ships built betwween 2003 and 2008 by Koyo Dockyard in Mihara, Japan. They are post-Panamax ships of 5888 TEU. Both are Japanese owned, but by different owners. OOCL Kaohsiung has the distinction of being named after a Taiwanese port, but registered in Hong Kong. OOCL Oakland is registered in Panama.

Rotterdam Express has a much smaller capacity at 4890 TEU, and due to its width can pass through the current Panama Canal.

This distinction will be lost next year when the enlarged Panama Canal begins operation.

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Busy pilots

How you might ask, does the eruption of the Icelandic volcano effect shipping in the port of Halifax?

It turns out that among the thousands of stranded passengers in Europe were several Halifax harbour pilots. They were in Europe for training sessions, and were stuck there when flights were grounded because of the ash cloud.

Ship traffic in and out of Halifax harbour was thus delayed due to a shoratge of pilots.

Here we see the pilot on the bridge wing of OOCL Oakland as she gets under way from Fairview Cove this afternoon.

And another shot of the ship as she steams past Tall Ship Quay.