Coast Guard in - Coast Guard out

A sunrise arrival today was CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent a fairly rare sight in Halifax in recent years after its political transfer to Newfoundland.
 

Whether the ship was actually escorting the Icleandic Lomur (see yesterday's post) can't be confirmed, but that ship arrived a very few minutes later. There was no damage visible to Lomur from a great distance, and the containers I could see appeared intact.

The Louis S. St-Laurent had been on ice operations in the Cabot Strait, and tied up at Irving Oil in Woodside. Ice has retreated dramatically from the Nova Scotia coast in the past week thanks to warm temperatures and favourable winds. While there is still considerable ice in the central Gulf, even that is diminishing rapidly.

After the Louis had been tied up for a while it was time for the departure of USCG Seneca WMEC 906 that had been in port since Friday at HMC Dockyard. There are often US vessels in port to commemorate important historical dates, but I can think of none this time. Maybe St.Patrick's day? If so at least some of the 100 strong complement were able to stand on deck for the departure.

Seneca is based in Boston, but gave Portland, ME as its last port of call before arriving here.
A member of the Famous class of Medium Endurance cutters, it was laid down in 1982 and launched in 1984 by the Robert Derektor Shipyard Inc in Middletown RI. It was in service in 1986, but not formally commissioned until 1987.  Despite their age, the Famous cutters are expected to remain in service until the 2030s, thanks in part to the transfer of weapons and equipment from decommissioned Oliver Hzard Perry class frigates.

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US Coast Guard in Halifax and a Triumphant return (not)

For the 1,000th posting on this blog I have nothing particularly celebratory  to report, so instead I will do a double header.

U.S. Coast Guard in Halifax

Despite the fact that the US of A is our closest neighbour, there is almost no US ship traffic in Halifax. There is a long tradition of the US Coast Guard paying courtesy calls, but they are usually few and far between. This week however we have seen quite a bit more of the US Coast Guard, with two cutters stopping over in Halifax for crew R&R.
First in was USCGC Northland, WMEC-904, which made a stopover February 11-14. It is based in Portsmouth, VA.

1. Northland sails on February 14, passing the old Canadian Coast Guard base in Dartmouth.

Today the Boston based USCGC Seneca WMEC 906 arrived.

2. The tug Atlantic Willow makes up to Seneca to assist in berthing.

Since the USCG's primary duties are SAR and law enforcement, one would be free to assume that some coordinated activity in the latter category may have brought the boats to this area. Both cutters  belong to the Famous class of medium endurance patrol vessels. They have a crew of about 100 and are packed with serious surveillance electronics and are armed.

Both ships were hosted by HMC Dockyard.

Triumphant Return (not)

The almost ridiculously appalling conditions on the cruise ship Carnival Triumph after an engine room fire in the Gulf of Mexico, became the subject of considerable (and often over the top) media attention this week. Despite the lack of adequate food, sanitation, air conditioning (and stabilizers) all passengers survived their trip and landed back in Mobile yesterday. It will take several months to repair and sanitize the ship, but it does raise some interesting questions about cruise ship engineering design.  

How is it that a modern ship has so little system redundancy that it would loose all but the most basic emergency systems after a fire? 

The ship is powered by six diesel engines powering six generators and two electric propulsion motors. This is a fairly standard arrangement in modern ships (it was built in 1999 by Fincantieri). Should it not be possible to isolate some components to ensure that basic services can be maintained at all times? The US Transportation Safety Board will eventually publish findings on this, which may lead to changes in ship design.

3. Carnival Triumph made several calls in Halifax in 1999 when it was brand new.