Hoegh Xiamen, Florida fire

 

Hoegh Xiamen, seen above arriving in Halifax 2015-11-02 is on fire in Jacksonville, FL.  Built in 2010 by Xiamen Shipbuilding Industry Co in Xiamen, China, it is a relatively small ship by current auto carrier standards. At 47,232 gt, 12,250 dwt it nevertheless has a capacity of 4900 CEU [car equivalent units].

On June 3, as it was preparing to get underway from the Blount Terminal in Jacksonville, there was an explosion on deck 7 and subsequently fire broke out. Fortunately the ship was in port, and a massive firefighting operation was mounted with 150 firefighters on scene. Nine firefighters were hospitalised with serious burn injuries but all 21 crew were safely evacuated.

Despite best efforts the fire spread within the ship with temperatures exceeding 500 degrees F. However the hull is being kept cool - never exceeding 175 degrees F - to prevent buckling or fracture. The firefighters are allowing the fire to burn itself out as it is too dangerous to board the ship. It is therefore likely that the ship will be a total loss as will all 2,000 cars on board.

This is the second serious incident involving a car carrier in the past year. The Hyundai Glovis ship Golden Ray capsized off Brunswick, Georgia in September 2019. With 4,000 cars on board it has been declared a total loss and is being cut up into large sections which will be moved ashore and scrapped.

Another notable incident involved the auto carrier Cougar Ace which nearly capsized in the North Pacific in 2006. It was salvaged and rebuilt and visited Halifax. See: http://shipfax.blogspot.com/search?q=cougar+ace. It has now been reported that the ship has gone for scrap. Getting the ship into port so that it could be saved to work for another 16 years was a remarkable achievement. Unfortunately there was one loss of life among the salvage crew.

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Nirint

Nirint Shipping B.V. maintains a regular service from Europe to Cuba, returning via Halifax. There are five ships on the run at present, but only four of then are scheduled for Halifax. Three of them are similar ships: Augusta Luna, Augusta Unity, and Augusta Sun. Mostly they arrive and sail under cover of darkness, so this mornings arrival of the latter ship for 10:00 at the pilot station allowed for a photo. They dock at pier 31 to unload nickel sulfides, making for difficult viewing.

The tug Atlantic Willow has made fast alongside to assist the ship to berth at pier 31.

The ship was built in 2003 by New Century Shipyard in Jingjiang, China as Atlantic Progress. It has since carried the names 03: BBC Russia, 08: Federal Patriot, 10: HAL Patriot, 13: Atlantic Patriot, 17: Augusta Sun. It has called in Halifax under several of those names.

The ship measures 12,993 gt, 17,531 dwt and has a nominal TEU capacity of 1118. That figure reduces to 787 TEU at 14 tonnes. The ship was built with two 60 tonne cranes, but a third crane was added flush to the deck (not on a pedestal) on the starboard side, but has been removed. 

Augusta Sun at pier 31 in January.

Nirint has an excellent web site, with pdf spec sheets for each ship: 

https://www.nirint.com/en/fleet

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No submarines on the horizon

It came as a surprise to some to hear that the Royal Canadian Navy's four submarines did not spend a single day at sea in all of 2019.  The subs are all are in various states of refit or repair and may not even sail in 2020 depending on how work can be accomplished under COVID-19 requirements for distancing. Distancing for workers inside submarines will be difficult at best, not to mention for crews.

A recent opinion piece by a respected navy observer made some salient points about the current state of affairs and the future of submarines in the RCN. There is  a  necessity for subs as they can perform work no other naval vessels can do. He did not state, but I am sure it is the case, that NATO allies (one in particular) would be very critical if the RCN ditched subs completely as Denmark did. Canada's very long coast line and arctic sovereignty issues warrant submarines, as do political realities in the Pacific and Mediterranean.

He also reckoned that nuclear subs are still politically unpalatable. I would say the practicality is also an issue as we would have to be beholden to another country in a big way if we went nuke, and would require at least one new naval base away from populated areas.

So let's say we need subs, and they would be conventional (i.e. non-nuclear) and they would need to be crewed (as opposed to autonomous or remotely operated or the equivalent of drones.) It takes 15 years to deliver new naval craft in his opinion, so planning should be underway now, as no "used" subs are likely to come on the market. Once bitten the RCN would be unlikely to go for used anyway in light of their experience with the current Victoria class. (Buying them was not a bad idea at first, but they were allowed to deteriorate before we got our hands on them.)

Major refits will be needed again on the current subs in the mid 2020s to extend their lives to 2035 and at a cost of $2.5 billion. Four new subs would come in at $3 to $5 billion. So it is not too soon to begin planning.

HMCS Windsor inbound to Halifax.

Policy decisions are needed now on new subs in order to maintain consistent work flow for our naval shipbuilding industries. However in light of the current crisis, I wonder how it is possible to have a public debate about any topic, let alone a political or parliamentary one. One of the candidates for head of an opposition party is a former minister of defense in a previous government. Who better to raise the issue, but a leadership campaign is an unlikely forum for such a discussion.

Partnering with another country on a design is likely since building a home grown design seems unlikely. Why re-invent the wheel*. Partnering adds a layer of complexity to the whole issue, so the sooner we get on with the project the better. Perhaps a co-operative process within NATO or with another ally would result in interchangeability and other sensible efficiencies.

(* This blog format does not like question marks so I don't use them.)

As a tribute to the Canadian Forces Day

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APL Dublin

Another 10,000 TEU plus container ship arrived at PSA Halifax today - APL Dublin flies the Singapore flag. Unfortunately it was raining and foggy when it arrived, and it is due to sail in the middle of the night, so the only photo I managed was a "through the windshield" view from the road.

Built by Daewoo, Okpo in 2012 it is a 128,929 gt, 131,204 dwt ship with a reported capacity of 10,960 TEU (The classification Society DNV GL however calls it 10,700.]

Of note about the ship is the huge fully enclosed bridge. Open bridge wings, and their exposure to weather were apparently considered undesirable. Although built originally for APL's parent company NOL, it was re-financed in 2019 and is now owned by a Seaspan International company. It is now managed by CMA CGM International Shipping Pte Ltd, part of APL'S current parent CMA CGM.

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We have lift off

The wind farm installation vessel Vole au Vent moved into position alongside Bigroll Beaufort again yesterday, and once spudded down elevated its hull out of the water.

Today it was at work lifting wind turbine components aboard.

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Primary Colours Day

It was an ideal day for colours, with bright sun in a cloudless sky. Ships seemed to take advantage of this with a display of most of the primary colours (or shades thereof). Instead of the drab black and sometimes white of yesteryear, today there were ships with Red, Orange,Yellow, Green and Blue and perhaps shades of Indigo and Violet

Red was well displayed by the Canadian Coast Guard as both CCGS Earl Grey and CCGC G.Peddle S.C. sailed this afternoon.

G.Peddle displays a 'Fisheries Patrol' banner on its bridge rail. 

They sailed past Bigroll Beaufort which had shifted positions end for end at Woodside to off load another wind turbine.

An unusual mint green kayak on the right!

At the adjacent Exxon Mobil dock the supplier   Atlantic Osprey was just in from Sable Island, moving into the orange shade.

Arriving from St-Pierre et Miquelon (by way of Argentia, NL eastbound) Nolhan Ava exhibits both green and yellow to help fill the spectrum.

There were choices for blue:

Vole au Vent has returned to Halifax to load another wind turbine, and was refueling at the Irving Oil terminal in Woodside. Its blue hull can barely be seen, until it is jacked up on its spuds, then it is entirely visible.

Another blue ship, the Pola Imabari arrived this afternoon for Asian Gypsy Moth inspection. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency requires ships that have been in the far east recently to be inspected and cleared before going to ports where the invasive species could hatch and populate Canadian forests.

 The port anchor has been readied for lowering when the ship reaches number 1 anchorage.

The ship was built by Imabari Zosen  in 2016 as Glorious Sunrise, 23,232 gt, 37,718 dwt and fitted with four cranes. I could not see any bucket grabs for handling bulk cargo. However it does carry stanchions to permit deck loads of timber, and is considered to be a general cargo ship as opposed to a bulk carrier.

The ship begins to swing round in a very light wind, but the crew seems to be having trouble deploying the pilot ladder.

Oceanex Sanderling is in the background at Autoport, taking on its weekly consignment of cars for Newfoundland, and providing a bit of red/blue contrast.

Its last port was Vila do Conde, Brazil, so the ship is likely carrying bauxite or alumina, bound for one of the Quebec ports such as La Baie, Sept-Iles or Baie Comeau. The ship is registered in Panama, but is owned by GTLK Asia Ltd, a large international leasing company, based in Russia, usually associated with aircraft. Mangers are INOK NV, also a large Russian concern, based in St.Petersburg.
The significance of the letter P (Cyrillic for "R") on the funnel is a mystery.

For the remaining blue range of colours the sky and water will have to do in providing those hues.

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Ships that pass in the Basin

Cerescorp's terminal at Fairview Cove was host to two ships today, one after the other. First in was Atlantic Container Line's Atlantic Sail, berthing at the west berth to discharge RoRo cargo. When it completed work the inbound MOL Emissary was inbound to take its place.

Atlantic Sail made a very wide loop out into Bedford Basin to give the inbound ship lots of room. Once MOL Emissary was clear of the MacKay Bridge, Atlantic Sail had a clear shot at the Narrows.

Once into the Basin the stern escort tug Atlantic Beaver was able to brake and begin to turn the ship.
MOL Emissary, 54,940 gt, 67,170 dwt, 5087 TEU (including 330 reefers), was built in 2009 by Hyundai, Ulsan.

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