Renate Schulte - aufedersein

1. Reanate Schulte arriving off Halterm at dusk April 11, 2012.

When Renate Schulte sailed on February 14, 2013 I suspected that the ship was on its way to the scrap yard, and that has proven to be true. It arrived at Alang, India on March 24 and by now has probably been reduced to bits.
At nineteen years old, that is not a great age for a ship, but as a result of overbuilding, there is a glut of ships in certain sectors. More modern and more versatile ships are available, and shipping companies are sending ships to the breakers rather than spending money on maintaining or upgrading them.
Bulk carriers, general cargo ships, tankers and container ships are all victims of this vicious cycle. The sole exception is specialist ships that cannot be replaced easily. See prior story on Atlantic Cartier - a unique ship type that has had a very long life.
There was nothing special about Renate Schulte, it was a fairly typical small container/general cargo ship of 14,619 gross tons, 20,275 deadweight tonnes built in 1994 by Stocznia Szczecinska SA in Szczecin (Stettin) Poland. It was equipped with three 45 tonne cranes, so was able to handle its own cargo in ports without sophisticated facilities.It was also ice strengthened.
Owners Bernard Schulte of Hamburg, part of the Schulte Group is a ninety ship fleet, built the ship for charter to shipping lines. Many of these lines required the ship to carry standard names and thus the ship was renamed seven times in its career. Built as Renate Schulte it was immediately renamed Europa Express (hinting at a Hapag-Lloyd charter) but reverted to Renate Schulte in 1995. In 1996 it became Libra Houston for less than a year when it reverted to Reante Schulte. In 2001 it became Kartago until 2004.Its next assignment was for a longer term and it carried the name CMA CGM Oyapock until 2012. It then resumed its original name Renate Schulte and took up a charter with Melfi Lines.

2. Libra Houston inbound on one of my favourite shipwatching spots- the Houston Ship Channel- May 16, 1997.

3. By the next day the name was obliterated and the crew had started to re-apply the name Renate Schulte.

The ship made the news at least twice before this.On June 27, 2009 the ship rammed the cement carrier Marti Princess in the Aegean. The spectacular result had Reanate Schulte riding up and almost all the way over the other ship. See:http://www.cargolaw.com/2000nightmare_singleonly14.html#Marti.Princess
Shortly after taking up the Melfi charter, the ship arrived in Halifax February 21 and remained in port until March 1 and sailed without working any cargo. (Melfi found another ship to take up her missed port calls).  
On a more positive note, on June 4, 2012 the ship responded to a US Coast Guard request for assistance under the AMVER plan (Automated Mutual-Assistance VEssel Rescue System.) The sailing vessel Wacaw with Canadian aboard reported a medical emergency 1250 mi SW of Nantucket. The boat was en route Europe to Canada but had diverted towards Bermuda due to weather. Renate Schulte stood by the boat. The story after that becomes unclear, but it seems that medical advice was relayed by radio. Unfortunately the sailor fell overboard some days later and was lost.
Once on the Melfi charter and headed for Halifax, the ship was  holed by its own anchor on December 21, 2012 and spent last Christmas in Halifax undergoing repairs, finally sailing on January 2. See several posts in December and January on this incident.

4. Renate Schulte arriving in November 2012.

Heinrich J arrives in ballast

Arriving for Melfi Lines this morning, Heinrich J anchored until Monday morning. The ship is obviously in ballast, and a check of the Melfi schedule on the Protos Shipping website reveals that is not arriving from Europe.www.protos.ca/

 It appearts to have come directly froim Cuba instead, possibly due to the Christmas time  problems with Renate Schulte, previously reported here. That ship made its last call here last week.

Renate Schulte - finally sails, Heinrich J too,

 1. Renate Schulte sailing at noon time today.

Renate Schulte sailed today after spending twelve days in Halifax, instead of the usual one day visit. Sailing for Melfi Lines, the ship arrived on December 21 with hull damage. [see previous posts] (Rumours persist that she acquired some more damage while berthing.) Cutting out the old hull plate, making necessary internal repairs and welding in the new plate took time, and the ship was caught up in the Christmas shutdowns.
Although the repairs were completed before the New Year's Day shutdown, cargo work was not finished and so she was held up again, until loading and unloading was completed today.
She took two tugs on departure, signalling to me that repairs to the bow thruster are yet to follow at a later date. 
All this time meant that the next ship in the Melfi rotation, Heinrich J caught up with Renate Schulte, arriving December 30. It was also held up for a time due to weather and came alongside Halterm on December 31. Its cargo work was also not completed  before the New Year's break, but should be done today, allowing it to sail more or less on time.
There is not a lot of "slop" built into these schedules, so some adjustments will have to be made to allow things to return to normal. Some shipyard time may be needed for Renate Schulte.

 2. Heinrich J arriving on December 30.

Heinrich J. was built in 1998 and is German owned, flying the flag of Antigua and Barbuda. It measures 5850 gross tons, 6770 deadweight.It is rated for 647 TEUs and has two 45 tonne cranes. Interestingly it was built in Portugal by Est.Navais de Viana do Castelo S.A.

Renate Schulte - patch

Yesterday's assumption that the Renate Schulte was getting bow thruster repairs, appears to be incorrect. From comments to the previous post, it seems a loose anchor at sea perforated the hull and flooded the bow thruster compartment. Today, once a few trailers were moved inside Halterm, and the tide rose a bit, I was able to see a that a small section of hull plate just aft of the bulbous bow has been removed. This would certainly explain why the ship has been ballasted down in the way it has. The area is now above water, allowing work to proceed.
However with another storm and high winds on the way, there was no work going on today. Perhaps they are in a warm shop somewhere fabricating a new plate. It will therefore be several days before the ship could be ready for sea.

Christmas Business

As usual the port was very quiet on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

On Christmas Eve, the last ship to leave port was Hollandia. It sailed for Grande Anse, QC:

On Christmas Day itself, the St-Pierre et Miquelon feeder Fusion sailed from anchorage in Bedford Basin, to arrive at St-Pierre tonight.
And today the RoRo ASL Sanderling made a rare mid-day arrival for Autoport:

Remaining in port over the holiday were three foreign flag ships. The tug Craig Trans still detained for deficiencies, the cable ship IT Interceptor standing by at pier 9 and the container ship Renate Schulte. Crews from Dominion Diving have been working at the bow of the ship since before Christmas. The ship was moved end for end at pier 36 on the 24th to give them some more shelter. The ship has also been ballasted down by the stern and to the starboard.  I am assuming this is to give better access to the bow thruster, which is the likely source of the problem.

The ship's position makes photography somewhat awkward. Not visible is Dominion Diving's tug/workboat Roseway tucked in under the bow.

Melfi Lines - ships to change

Melfi Marine Corp S.A. a Panamanian company, which operates as Melfi Lines, has been calling in Halifax since the 1992. Founded as an inter-Caribbean shipping service by the government of Cuba in 1981, it has grown considerably over the years, particularly when it took over the failed Coral Lines  in 2003. (They had operated jointly for a time. That acquisition lead to the present transatlantic service which sails from ports in Italy and Spain to Halifax and hence to Cuba. (It has also called on the St.Lawrence River -a hold over from Coral.) Through connecting services it then serves Central and South America.
Currently operating with four ships, it usually calls in Halifax every two weeks. (A scheduled October 17 call by Hansa Catalina did not materialize.)

Melfi does not own its own ships, and has chartered a wide variety of craft over the years. Today's arrival,  Renate Schulte is the fourth ship on the rotation, and carries the name of her owner's Bernard Schulte of Germany. At one time Melfi renamed the ships during the charter period, but that practice seems to have stopped. There was even a Melfi Halifax for a short time.
Now there is about to be a change in ships as two of the older units have been sold for scrap by their owners. Teval and Marwan were built as sister ships by Kvaerner Warnow Werft in Warnemunde (formerly East) Germany in 1994. As they approach their 20th anniversaries, and face extensive refitting to maintain their classification ratings, the owners have opted to sell them for scrap. They are owned by single ship Cypress based companies, but  managed by XSM Cross Ship Management GmbH of Germany,
Both ships are 14,685 gross tons, and carry 1338 TEUs and are fitted with three 40 tonne cranes.

Marwan has carried the following names in its career: Marwan-95, Cabo Blanco-97, Marwan-99, Barrister-99, P+0 Nedlloyd Kildin-03, Marwan-04, Cala Palenque -09, then Marwan again.

Teval was renamed before it left the shipyard as red Sea Emerald-95, Emerald-97, Teval-02, P+O Nedlloyd Camoes-03, Teval-03, Armada Holland-04, Teval-04, Cala Porlamar-06, and again Teval. It made its first call in Halifax for Melfi on November 1, 2006.
Teval is due back in Halifax on November 16, and Melfi's schedule shows Marwan on December 3., however the latter remains to be confirmed.
Melfi Lines ships are often called up on the carry odd cargoes in addition to standard containers. Used vehicles, particularly trucks and buses, usually from Europe are commonly seen on flat 40 foot container frames. However Canadian vehicles are also common, notably old Quebec school buses, and trucks.

The ships have become a bit of a fixture, with Teval in particular as one of the longest serving ships in Melfi's history with Halifax, but time marches on, and there is a glut of more modern ships available at good rates.