And another one.......

The parade of Dutch ships continued today, as Pioneer left with her cargo of wood pellets for Hull, England, and Onego Houston arrived with more rails.

Onego Houston is one of about 30 ships operated by Onego Shipping & Chartering of Rotterdam from offices in St.Petersburg, Russia, Houston, Texas and New York. However, as can be seen by her paint scheme she is in fact a ship managed by Wagenborg, but in fact owned by Rederij Smith BV. (All that is missing is the Wagenborg name on the side of the hull.)
Built in 2010 as Ijsselborg, the ship was renamed earlier this year to take up duties with Onego. She measures 8999 gross tons and 12,016 dwt, and is built to the same sort of specs as the other recent Dutch vessels: open hatch cargo/bulkers, with ventilated holds. She is slightly different in that she carries two 80 tonne cranes, which apparently do double duty handling cargo and the ship' pontoon type hatch covers.
I have always liked Onego because they use Nova Scotia's Peggy's Cove lighthouse on their web site.
http://www.onegoshipping.com/

Parade of Dutch ships

1. The now familiar Frisian Spring arriving 2011-04-25 for another load of utlity poles.

2. Eemsborg arriving 2011-04-27 with a cargo of rails.

3. Daniella sailing today after taking on one heavy lift for Albany, NY.

4. Pioneer arriving this morning. She does not have the usual Flinter colour scheme, so is likely a managed vessel, rather than one owned by Flinter.

There has been a virtual parade of Dutch ships this week. The Dutch have an enviable reputation in the world for specialising in heavy lifts, dredging and ocean towing, but they are also now well known for their small ships. They have developed large fleets of gearless small general cargo/bulk carriers with ventilated holds, capable of carrying grain and other humidity sensitive cargoes including paper products, such as pulp and wood pellets.

First to arrive on Monday was Frisian Spring. This ship has a strange history. Its hull was built in Canada, but cost overruns resulted in the bankruptcy of its builders, Port Weller Drydock in St.Catharines, ON. It was finally completed in 2007 in the Netherlands. It has made several trips to Halifax to load utility poles. The poles are from trees grown in Oregon, which arrive in Halifax by rail and by truck. Frisian Spring then takes them to Ireland. She measures 4087 gross/ 6550 deadweight.
As soon as it was loaded and sailed, its berth was taken by Nirint Hollandia, a cargo/containership on its regular call to Halifax with nickel sulfides from Cuba.

Next to arrive was Eemsborg on Wednesday. It had a cargo of rail for CN. Built in 2009, it measures 7196 gross tons and is operated by the Wagenborg company of Delfzijl and sports the company's trademark red and gray hull colours.

Yesterday's arrival was Daniella, a heavy lift ship. It had unloaded refinery components in Toledo, OH and other material in Hamilton, ON before coming to Halifax light ship. It picked up one heavy lift unit for Albany, New York and sailed today. It has two cranes - open rated at 400 tonnes and one at 200 tonnes. It made short work of its one lift. Built in 1989, it measures 5818 gross/ 7580 dwt.

The next arrival was this morning. The Pioneer was built in 2010 and measures 6621 gross/ 11047 deadweight and is operated by Flinter Management. That company owns several ships, but also manages many others which are often owned by individuals or smaller companies. This tradition of pooling ships goes way back in Dutch history and is one of their trademarks.

Aside from the heavylifter, the ships are all built to a similar design. They have box like holds, with large, full width hatches. A gantry runs on rails to lift and move the hatch covers. The two prominent boxes on deck are ventilatiors, which permit controlling the humidity in the holds. They are thius very versatile and can carry a variety of bulk and breakbulk cargoes.

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Quest shows her new colour scheme

1. CFAV Quest lies alongide navy jetty Lima this morning with her odd gray paint job, and new sponsons aft.

Prior reports about CFAV Quest's new paint were not backed up by pictures, due to the ship's location within HMC Dockyard. In the last day or so Quest has moved to the Dockyard Annex in Dartmouth, also known as the Gun Wharf and Jetty November Lima.

It seems that what was black paint is a very dark grey (or the black has been covered with dark gray.)

Her pennant number 172 has been painted on with black, so it would seem that this scheme may be here to stay for a while. At this point it is only on her port side, and even then not consistently applied. There also seem to be different shades of the gray - near the bow and waterline forward, suggesting that the painters may have been using up some paint from stock. In any event it is much darker than standard RCN gray, but similar to the gray used for yardcraft, such as the tugs.

As explained previously this is part of the Defence Research & Development's research into radiation.

See previous reference here: (be sure to click on "Comments")

http://shipfax.blogspot.com/2011/04/what-is-going-on-with-quest.html

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CSL Atlas

1. CSL Atlas weaves her way past ferries and the inbound Italy Express. For a bird's eye view see Armchair Captain!

2. CSL Atlas ghosts past the Tall Ships Quay with a part load of gypsum.

3. Her articulated unloading booms rest on deck. Her signal mast has also been struck to reduce airdraft passing under harbour bridges.

4. Her booms swing well out over the dock, as she unloads Nova Scotia gypsum in Tampa, Florida in 1993.

CSL Atlas is the largest gypsum carrier to make regular calls in Halifax. It is so large that it cannot take a full load at National Gypsum due to draft restrictions at the dock. If fullyloaded its deadweight tonnage is 67,308 tonnes, and draft is 13.418m.

On leaving this afternoon her draft was about 10.5m, giving a deadweight of about 43,000 tonnes, which is still a substantial cargo of gypsum.

When built by Verolme Estaleiros Reunidas do Brasil in Agra dos Reis, Brazil in 1990, she was the only Panamax size self-unloading bulk carrier in the world. Since then she has been joined by many others, of which 14 are in the CSL International pool alone.

She also had a new type of unloading boom, that was articulated in the middle. The inner boom can swing 100 degrees and is connected to an outboard boom which can swing 300 degrees from the pivot point. This gives the ship considerably more flexibility to position cargo than ships fitted with the conventional single boom. Unloading speed ranges from 3,000 tonnes per hour for coal up to 4,500 tonnes per hour for ore.

The ship is also a regular caller in other Canadian ports with ore and coal, and loading stone and gypsum outbound.

For detailed particulars on the ship CSL has provided the following fact sheet:

http://www.cslint.com/pdf_specs/AT-CSLAtlas.pdf

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Louis bares all

CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent entered the Novadock floating drydock on schedule on Thursday April 21. She was soon high and dry and work commenced on her $2.9 mn refit, which is to be completed June 15.


1. The Louis shows some paint wear on her bow due to ice abrasion. 2011-04-25.

2. The only time the Louis was actually in ice and in Halifax. This is pre-midlife refit, April 1987. Her bow was completely replaced at that time.

3. The Louis in the graving dock in April 1970.

The ship has a long history with Halifax, including her mid-life refit here, and numerous other refits and drydockings.

She has only once been called in to actually be an icebreaker here, and that was in 1987 when Gulf ice swept down the Nova Scotia coast and packed in to Halifax harbour, inconveniencing shipping for several days. The very rare occurrence was has only happened two or three times and is unlikely to happen again. She did not actually have to break ice, since the ice was broken already, but it was packing in due to tide and wind, and she was able to clear paths for traffic.

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Even uglier PCTC

1. Bess leaves Eastern Passage, and will turn around Indian Point and Ives Knoll to head for sea.

2. Her plumb bow is a feature rarely seen on modern ships.

3. A broadside view shows the shoebox-like proportions of the ship.

Pure Car and Truck carriers (PCTCs) are floating garages, and much effort has been expended on making them both hydroponically and aerodynamically efficient. Their great slab sides and blunt bows, have usually been softened by some rounded shapes and often a fairly graceful stem.

As the pressure increases to cram more and more cars aboard, the boundaries are again being pushed.

Today's arrival, Bess, built in 2010 and on long term charter to Wallenius-Wilhelmsen by Japanese owners, Excel Marine Co., has pushed another boundary for sure. Her perfectly vertical stem, is no doubt the result of intense study and computer modelling, but it is no thing of beauty! Even compared to the last posting of Capricornus Leader, she is a definitely a runner up in the pageant.

[As with all Wallenius vessels, it is named for an operatic character, in this case Bess of Porgy and Bess, a 20th century American opera, as opposed to a more classical European one.]

Capricornus Leader

1. Tugs scurry to catch up with Capricornus Leader. They will assist in turning the tug to head for Eastern Passage, then turn it again to come alongiside.

2. Autoport is of the few berths still using line handling boats. Here Westport Ferry has already set the head lines on a buoy and now takes springs for the pier.

3. Men wait on the end of the pier to take the springs.

4. The ship is alongside the Autoport pier.

Nippon Yushen Kaisa, better known for its initials NYK Line, is a major container line (140+ ships) a major bulk shipper (145+ bulk carriers) has cruise ships (3), tankers, and is the world's largest player in the auto carrier business (110+ ships). Among its fleet are a number of ships named for constellations, Capricornus Leader being today's arrival in Halifax.

Built in 2004, and measuring 61,854 gross tons, it is registered in Panama and managed by Wallem Ship Management of Hong Kong. Although Toyota is its largest customer, the line carries autos for other manufacturers too as its ships work their way around the world, back and forth to Japan.

Acting as line boat for mooring at Autoport is Dominion Diving's dive tender/workboat Westport Ferry. The wooden hulled vessel, built in 1965, retains its original name. It was built to push a ferry scow across Grande Passage between Freeport (on Long Island) and Westport (on Brier Island) at the tip of Digby Neck. That service is now provided by self-propelled ferry.

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