Pax and Box

 The two main "commodities" in the port of Halifax in the autumn of the year are passengers (Pax) and containers (Boxes).  The cruise lines try to avoid the hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean by sailing north to New England and eastern Canada. September and October are usually the busiest months, but the lines seem to be getting off to an early start this year, after two years of shut down.

Container lines usually see an increase in traffic in the early autumn too as retailers stock up for the Christmas buying spree.

Today, August 30, was another "two cruise ship day" with the now familiar Nieuw Statendam arriving from Boston, Portland, ME and Saint John, NB.

The 99,902 gt ship, built in 2017 by Fincantieri, Marghera, can carry 2,666 PAX and 1,053 crew. The Pinnnacle class ship has 1,339 passenger cabins and 589 crew cabins, so sharing is required for a "maximum persons onboard" total of 4,173 souls.

The Nieuw Statendam picked up its pilot at about 0900 hrs, giving the first passenger ship arrival, at 0630 hrs, the Norwegian Pearl, time to tie up, get clearance for passengers to disembark, and to clear the parking areas of a lot of the first armada of buses and taxis. 

Departure times were similarly synchronised with Norwegian Pearl sailing at 1630 for Portland, Maine and Nieuw Statendam sailing at 1930 for Corner Brook, NL.

 The Norwegian Pearl 's cruise also originated in Boston. It then proceeded via Charlottetown, PE and Sydney, NS to Halifax. The 93,530 gt ship was built by Meyer Werft, Papenburg in 2006 and carries 2,394 passengers and 1,099 crew.

As far as the box commodity is concerened much of the activity was concentrated at the southend terminal, PSA Halifax's Atlantic Gateway.

ZIM Monaco embarked its pilot at 0600 hrs and tied up at Pier 42 shortly after 0700. The ship is on ZIM's ZCA (Atlantic) run from the Mediterranean.

It is a 40,030 gt, 50,775 dwt ship built in 2009 by Samsung, Koje, with a capacity of 4,253 TEU.

Pier 41 (the northern portion of Pier C, and with the largest cranes) was left vacant for this afternoon's arrival MOL Charisma a 86,692 gt, 90,390 dwt ship with a capacity of 9060 TEU including 630 reefer plugs. 

Working for THE Alliance's EC5 service, and eastbound, the ship would normally have docked at Fairview Cove. However with the two terminals now under common PSA management, the operators have the option of  berthing ships at the most convenient location. It is possible that the ship's air draft exceeded the harbour bridge clearance requirements, since it did appear lightly loaded (by draft).

It was widely speculated that when PSA took over the operation of Fairview Cove that it would shuffle  the lines with the larger ships to the Southend and those with smaller ships to Fairview Cove. Aside from the occassional "one-of" shifts such as this one, no permanent moves have been detected yet.

MOL Charisma was launched by Mitsubishi, Nagasaki in 2007. It was delivered as APL France and operated with that name until 2010 when it reverted to its orginal name.

Footnote

The Eimskip charter Vantage did indeed sail late this morning after working containers at Pier 42. The ship arrived from Reykjavik on Friday, August 26, ostensibly on the Green Line route to Portland, ME. However the ship moved to Pier 36 where it was idle until this morning. Meanwhile Eimskip's regularly scheduled Green Line ship Skogafoss arrived yesterday, and seems to have picked up some of  Vantage's cargo before sailing to Portland. [See previous posts]

(File photo from Jume 11, 2022)

Eimskip's schedule shows the ship on Green Line service, arriving in Thorshavn, Faroes Islands on September 7, then shifting to the Purple Line service running between the Faroes and Scrabster, in the north of Scotland.

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All Sorts

 There was all sorts of shipping activity in Halifax today, August 29, - here is a sampling:

There were two cruise ships alongside at Pier 20 and Pier 22, both regulars, the Zaandam and the Celebrity Summit, respectively.

The larger of the two is the Celebrity Summit built as the Summit in 2001 and renamed by Celebrity Cruises in 2008. Chantiers de l'Atlantique in St-Nazaire built the ship, which has since been upgraded and now measures 90,940 gt with a passenger capacity of 2,218 (all berths), 2,158 (lowers only) and a crew of 999. 

It sailed this evening for Boston, giving shipwatchers a close up view as it went west and north of George's Island. Waterfront buildings presented a shadow show on the ship's hull.

There were other arrivals and departures today too. Eimskips's Skogafoss put in en route from Reykjavik to Portland, ME. 

It will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow when fleet mate Vantage, which was also en route to Portland, moves from Pier 36 to Pier 42. (See yesterday's post).

An early evening sailing was the Augusta Sun en route from Cuba to Spain. It arrived Saturday, August 27, and unloaded bagged nickel sulfides. At least some of the cargo seems to have been loaded directly to rail cars, instead of being stored in a transit shed. Many more open gondola rail cars are awaiting cargo on nearby sidings.

 The Augusta Sun backed out of Pier 27 as the Celebrity Summit was getting underway.

There was another vessel of note that wandered in front of my camera and there is a story behind its odd name: Viva Knievel.

The boat was ordered by the owner of Broward Marine in about 1975 or 76, but acquired "in the stocks" by none other than the American daredevil Evel Knievel. Renamed Evel 1 it was then lost in a poker game to Jay Sarno, the owner of the Caesar's Palace gambling den in Las Vegas. Renamed Bottom Line it was sold in about 1980 to a Florida owner who lavished great care on the boat, employing a full time year round crew.

In 2020 the Halifax based automobile dealership tycoon* Rob Steele bought the boat in Fort Lauderdale,  and renamed it after a 1977 movie starring his childhood hero. Steele uses the boat for pleasure cruises, but it is also home to his Evel Knievel memorabilia collection and is a sort of shrine to the stunt jumper.

[* Full disclosure - the official Shipfax harbour watching vehicle was acquired from Steele Ford of Halifax, one of scores of dealerships of all brands (57 at last count),  collision centres, and power centres, owned by the Steele Group in Canada and in the US. Shipfax is not otherwise affiliated with the Steele Group.]

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A Summer Sunday Summary

 There was a fair amount of activity in the harbour today (Aunday, August 28), including an abundance of pleasure craft. The last weekend before Labour Day weekend (which marks the traditional end of summer) is always a busy one for boaters - weather permitting. And this weekend weather was nearly perfect, with warm temperatures, light winds and lots of sun. That also meant ideal conditions for ship watching.

The Lake Wanaka arrived early this morning at Autoport from Emden, and sailed this afternoon for Davisville, RI weaving its way through small craft without incident.

 The Lake Wanaka was here March 30 of this year, and Shipfax reported its unusual movements and technical details. The 46,800 gt, 12,272 dwt PCTC was built in 2008 by Xiamen Shipbuilding Industry Co and has a capacity of 4902 CEU. The ship sailed under the name Triumph until 2019 when it was renamed after a lake in New Zealand. Since new it has been managed by Eastern Pacific Shipping UK, a 200 ship strong operator for many owners - some with uninformative corporate names.

Following it in was the Vayenga Maersk from Antwerp en route to Montreal, and docking at Pier 42, PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway (a.k.a. the southend terminal).

Shortly afterwards its route mate CMA CGM Montreal arrived at mid-berth Pier 41-42 from Montreal en route to Europe. The two ships (along with EM Kea and Vistula Maersk) operate the weekly joint Maersk/CMA CGM St.Lawrence service, and usually call in Halifax to top up (eastbound) or lighten (westbound) because of St.Lawrence River draft restrictions. Because of the many containers on the pier the CMA CGM Montreal was hidden from view.

Another arrival this morning was the Canadian tanker Algoterra from Sarnia, ON, docking at Imperial Oil, number 3 dock.(It is the only operational dock at Imperial Oil - docks 4 and 5 are still there but not in use. Docks 1 and 2 were demolished many years ago.)

Ships usually dock starboard side to at the oil dock (bows north) but for some reason Algoterra tied up bows south- thus an unusual photo angle. The harbour tour boat Silva of Halifax is just rounding George's Island on one of its regular outings with a full deckload (of people).

Algoma ships are usually painted a very dark blue, but Algoterra is the exception to the rule. It had very nice paint from original owners Knutsen Produkt Tanker of Norway when it was acquired in 2019, so presumably Algoma Tankers saw no reason to replace a perfectly good coating. The ship was built in 2010 by Jiangnan, Shanghai as Louise Knutsen. The 11,889 gt, 16,512 dwt ship was renamed Louise K. briefly in 2019 for the delivery trip to Canada. The paint is looking a bit faded now, but its next class renewal survey and drydocking is not due until March 2025 so it may not see new paint until then.

Amongst today's departures was the Contship Leo sailing for Kingston, Jamaica, the sole ship on ZIM's Canada Feeder Express service, CFX. The route also includes New York northbound.

 Contship Leo was built in 2008 by China Commerce Group Kouan Shipbuilding as Vega Saturn. It became CFS Paceno in 2016 and took on its current name in 2020. The 9957 gt, 13,803 dwt ship has a container capacity of 1118 TEU and carries two 45 tonne cranes.

The giant container ship CMA CGM Alexander von Humboldt sailed early this morning from the southend terminal. Shipfax was not on  scene this time, but covered the ship on a previous visit on December 27, 2021.

There was one more container ship to deal with, but at the other end of the size scale at 354 TEU (including 100 reefer plugs). The 3871 gt, 3650 dwt Vantage which has been sailing for Eimskip, arrived from Reykjavik on Friday August 26. It was to have sailed that evening, but remained in port overnight and moved Saturday morning to Pier 36. Although that pier is within the PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway facility, it is not served by a container crane, so the ship cannot be working cargo. 

The ship started calling here June 11, 2022 on Eimskip's Green Line from Iceland to Argentia, NL, Halifax and Portland, ME. It is currently not showing on any future Green Line schedules, but appears to be carrying a deck load. (Those are just reflections on the bow - not damage.)

Despite the stacks of Tropical Shipping boxes on the dock, the Vantage is sailing for the Icelandic company Eimskip (and from the opposite direction).

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Vantage for Eimskip

 The year 2007 must have been a good one for shipbuilders - we have seen several ships of that vintage in the past few days. Most of those ships have had more than one name so far in their careers. That is hardly surprising as the proliferation of investment syndicates was in full swing before the economic bust of 2008. Those investors were prepared to put up their money to finance ship construction on the strength of a charter contract, usually in the five to ten year range. When the charter was up the ship had to find other work, so was often chartered to another operator or put on the spot market. In any event an identifiable "brand name" was not wanted by a competitor so a change had to be made. It was also common for the orginal investor to "cash out" or even for the charter company to purchase the ship.

Therefore it was interesting to see a ship arriving this morning (June 11) still carrying the name assigned to it when built in 2007. Vantage was built by the VeKa Bijlsma shipyard in Lemmer, Netherlands to the builder's Confeeder 350 class. Measuring 3871 gt, 3650 dwt the gearless ship can carry 124 TEU in the hold and 230 TEU on deck, totalling 354 including 100 spots with reefer plugs. [These are nominal TEUs, as the capacity is only 228 TEU at 14 tonnes]. As a modern feeder ship it is also structured to carry 45 foot containers.[Is that a 2.25 TEU? - not sure]. 

Of interest is the presence of the shipbuilder's name on the breakwater - something I can't recall seeing before. It may be there because this was the first built of the Confeeder 350 class. [VeKa comes from the family names of the company founders, VErsluis and KApel].

 A notation in the ship's listing in most sources says the ship was completed at the Bijlsma yard, indicating that its hull was built elsewhere - I believe in China. VeKa is Europe's largest builder of inland vessels and commonly has those hulls built in foreign yards and completed in the Netherlands. 

Vantage arrived in Halifax westbound for Eimskip on the company's Green Line service from Reykjavik via Halifax to Portland, ME and return (eastbound) via Halifax, Argentia (and St.Anthony seasonally). The route also serves as a New England feeder service out of Halifax for CMA CGM avoiding possible congestion in New York / New Jersey.

Tangential Diversion

 Straying from the specific topic of the Vantage:

Eimskip is a large reefer user and most are 45 footers, which have become the standard for road transport. 

Stacks of 45RTs (45 foot long containers) at PSA Halifax form a backdrop to an Oceanex 53 footer.

Oceanex's services from Montreal and Halifax to Newfoundland remain among the few shipping lines that carry 53 foot containers. [Although I expect that US lines to Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Alaska must carry 53 footers by now.]

 

Railways have been carrying 53 footers in North America for many years, but are now adapting to 60 foot "cans" pioneered in Canada by the Canadian Tire chain of hardware, general merchandise and auto parts stores. [Non-Canadians may not be aware that this iconic brand sells very few tires in comparison to all its other wares. It also sells gasoline and repairs cars.It has 667 stores coast to coast]

 

The thought of 60 foot containers rolling down the highways may throw fear into the hearts of the brave, but they are coming and the world will adjust, just as we did for 53 footers. They really aren't that much bigger - are they?

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