Boxing Day activity

While still a holiday for most, there was activity in the harbour today:

As dawn broke, the container/cargo ship Zeelandia could be seen at anchor off Chebucto Head. It will wait until 2300 tonight to take its pilot, docking at pier 30-31 just after midnight. There will be no holiday overtime pay for the longshoremen, December 27 is just another working day. The ship is a regular caller for Nirint Lines.
Here is how she looked on a very hot day in June sailing up the  St.Lawrence:

Before dawn the autocarrier Hoegh Masan arrived at Auoport and began unloading the usual little white vans, but also Toyotas and other brands of cars.

Dating from 2008 the former Maersk and CSAV ship is on at least its fourth visit to Halifax this year, as the the auto trade continues to boom.

Soon after sunrise the unfortunately named FPMC 21 sailed. It arrived on the 23rd and was last here November 30. 

The pilot boat A.P.A.No.1 heads out ahead. The regular boat Chebucto Pilot is in refit.

The  Liberian flag tanker was built in 2009 and takes its name from the Formosa Plastics Marine Corp of Taipei, Taiwan.

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Heroes at Rest

It seems fatuous for this blog to comment on recent events not related to shipping, but it is a time for everyone to remember that this country has many heroes whose deeds allow the rest of us to carry on a very normal life.

As two Canadian Coast Guard Hero class patrol boats, M.Charles M.B. and Captain Goddard M.S.M., rest quietly at the Bedford Institute this evening awaiting assignment, harbour traffic carries on as normal. The  CCGS Sir William Alexander stands by at her berth, and the tug Gulf Spray and barge return from a stores delivery to the bulker Atlantic Erie loading at National Gypsum.

Paralleling events in Ottawa, Quebec and Halifax, the calm harbour conditions follow almost three days of turbulent seas that prevented most ships from entering or leaving Halifax. The weather induced "lockdown" was eerily similar to the situations when many Canadians found themselves locked out, or as in my case, twice, locked in when familiar, and usually placid places were barricaded.
 

The cargo ship Zeelandia was held off Halifax for two and a half days due to weather, and finally made port this morning, and will now unload. The Swiss flagged ship works for the Dutch Nirint Shipping Co, carrying nickel ore cargo form Cuba, to be processed in Canada and sent on to Europe.

That Canada is able to carry on trade in this manner, with many nations, is thanks largely to heroes - sung and unsung - who have made possible the things we take for granted.

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Busy pier 30-31 Thor Bronco - loading, Zeelandia - unloading

For months now, large white cylinders have been arriving in Halifax by rail and have been collecting on pier 30. Stevedores have loaded them on transfer trailers and parking them in line waiting for shipment.

  Today Thor Bronco arrived to haul them off to Libya.

 The ship had to squeeze its way in to pier 30 around Zeelandia tied up at pier 31 to unload her usual cargo of bagged nickel sulfides from Cuba for Nirint Shipping.

 

In a very stiff breeze, and with the aid of two tugs, the ship was soon alongside.

Once it had offloaded its pontoon type hatch covers, loading got underway, using the ship's own 45 tonne crane.

Thor Bronco was built in 2008 by Donfeng Ship Industry of Chongqing, China as FCC Pioneer. It was renamed BBC Pioneer the same year, and in 2010 adopted its current name. It is operated by Internaut Shipping of Limassol, Cyprus, but with headquarters in Bremen. It flies the Antigua and Barbuda flag. Tonnages for the ship are 6,569 gross, 8,090 deadweight.

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From to Z to A to Z - Zeus joins Anet and Zeelandia

Early this morning the gearless cargo ship Zeus arrived and squeezed into pier 28. By the start of the work day its hatches were open and it was ready to load wood pellets or grain. Owned by BBS Bulk VIKS, the ship forms part of the 50 ship strong Flinter Group fleet of Barendrecht, Netherlands.

Built in 2000 by Ferus Smit shipyard in Hoogezand (although its hull may have been built offshore) it measures 6142 gross tons and 9100 deadweight. It has no cargo handling gear, but a hoist, which travels on deck rails, is used to lift and stack its pontoon type hatch covers.  Its box shaped holds are ideal for grain and other bulk cargoes, but also break bulk such as timber and project cargo.

It joins Zeelandia, a regular caller for Nirint Lines, which is unloading nickel sulfides from Cuba at pier 31. Nirint Lines is a Dutch company, but the ship is owned and flagged in Switzerland. See also http://shipfax.blogspot.ca/2012/04/nirint-zeelandia-hurry-up-and-wait.html for a photo of the ship underway. (It was called Nirint Zeelandia previously.)

 

Zeelandia completed unloading and sailed late this afternoon. The bagged nickel is loaded onto rail cars for transport to Fort Saskatchewan, AB for processing. Built in 2005 it has carried the names Safmarine Basilea, SD Basliea and Nirint Zeelandia since it was built in 2005 by Kyokuyo Shipyard in Japan.. It measures 9990 gross tons, 12,500 deadweight and carries its own cranes of 80 tonnes capacity.

Third ship in the trio is Anet at pier 27, which appears to be loading a project cargo.

Built in 2010 by Damen Shipyard of Gorinchem, Netherlands (although its hull was likely built in Poland or Romania), it measures 8999 gross tons, 12,080 deadweight. It carried the name Onego Bilbao from 2010 to 2011, but is now part of the 180 ship strong Wagenborg fleet, which manages the ship on behalf of its owners, BOS EAK. (Many Dutch ships are owned by consortia of small shipowners, and are chartered to the larger fleet operators.)   The ship has folding hatch covers and two cranes of 80 tonne capacity each.

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