Haiti Relief Mission

Two Halifax warships set out for Haiti this afternoon as part of a relief mission. The Caribbean country, with many ties to Canada, suffered a devastating earthquake yesterday and the two ships were scrambled to lend assistance. The frigate Halifax was reportedly 200 miles out at sea when she was called back, and the destroyer Athabaskan was carrying out gunnery exercises off Halifax.

Halifax tied up yesterday afternoon alongside Protecteur, where aid was already being stockpiled. Athabaskan had to go to the Bedford magazine to de-store ammunition, and arrived in the Dockyard late this morning.

The ships sailed promptly at 3pm to rendez-vous with their Sea King helicopters in the Middle Ground area between Ives Knoll and Meagher's Beach.

Athabaskan is lead ship, with Halifax following in the photo above.

It was an interesting experience to watch the ships leave port. Athabaskan made no audible sound, despite the fact that her engines were obviously working hard. There was no engine noise from Halifax either, but as she accelerated extremely quickly the rush of water past her hull was quite loud, and she left a wake of two to three feet.

The ships are due in Haiti in five days or so.

The United States navy will also have a significant presence in Haiti. The aircraft carrier Carl Vinson was diverted to Haiti and the hospital ship Comfort and numerous other vessels will be providing immediate assistance.

Reecon Wolf

Nirint Shipping's Reecon Wolf sailed this afternoon - the first ship to sail in sunshine for a week! Built in Turkey in 2008, the 10,135 ton ship can carry 1024 TEUS of which 314 can be reefers.

Nirint serves Cuba, sailing from Holland and other European ports. It also makes return trip calls from Cuba, carrying nickle sulfides. When she sailed the ship gave Casablanca as her next port of call.

The ship is owned by Daimon Shipping and managed by Furtrans Ship Management- both companies are based in Hamburg.

Pier Extension

Work will soon start on the extension to pier 42. The Halterm container terminal will be extended southward (to the right in the picture) to allow two large ships to berth at the same time.
On Tuesday evening Beaver Marine's tug Mister Joe and the scow Beaver Kay arrived and on Wednesday morning they offloaded a crawler crane, a pile driver and several other pieces of equipment to begin the work.
The crane is visible in the photo, which I fear may be the closest we may be able to get to the best shipspotting, ship photographing spot on the waterfront until construction is completed.The extension will be quite wide, allowing for the extension of the container crane rails and a landing area for the boxes and room for trucks to turn. We live in hope that the Port Authority will include a viewing area at the end of the pier, as there is now.
Frequent progress reports will be posted here.

Background:

Last fall the Port Authority indicated that the pier would be extended 85 meters to the south (seaward) so that two post-Panamax ships could be berthed simultaneously. The extension would be 45 meters wide, allowing for crane rails and pick-up/drop off zone. The extension will be built using sheet piles (the original pier and its previous extension were built of concrete caissons.)

See upper image taken January 8, with my impression of the size of the extension.

Return to normal

It was a steady stream of ships leaving Halifax today. Three container ships were finally able to leave after last night's storm kept them in port. The last to go was the container ship OOCL California from Fairview Cove. The 66,046 ton ship, built in 1995, and owned by Orient Overseas Container Line of Hong Kong, left port with the assistance of the tug Atlantic Larch. The sky was very gloomy, but the rough seas had completely subsided inside the harbour, although there was still a swell running outside.

Clean up

Last night's storm was accompanied by a storm surge, which washed over several low docks at high tide. It also washed debris from the shore line into the harbour, causing numerous navigational hazards. The Port Authority's work boat Maintainer 1 has the chore of retrieving all such loose objects, and was hard at work this afternoon.

The boat was built by A.F. Theriault of Meteghan River especially for this kind of work and is equipped with a knuckle boom crane. When not cleaning up debris, her main job is maintaining the fenders at the various piers. These consist of large industrial tires fitted around timbers and slung from the pier faces by chain. They also carry away in storms, and need to be rounded up and re-secured.

Maintainer 1 is fitted with a towing bitt, so that she can tow large objects, including fenders and flotsam of all sorts.

Stormy Day

A major storm with high winds, snow and rain, has slowed Halifax shipping activity. Several ships are at anchor awaiting better conditions to berth or to take bunkers. Others will remain in port until they can sail safely.
Bedford Basin has three ships at anchor, the idled Georgia S, which was in port anyway, the coastal RoRo Dutch Runner on her weekly run from St-Pierre et Miquelon and the bulk /cargo ship Federal Schelde in for bunkers. The container ship OOCL California is idled at the Fairview Cove container terminal due to high winds.
In the lower harbour the tankers Bow Tone and Chemtrans Oste are at anchor, but will not berth at Imperial Oil until conditions improve. Container ship Astoria Bridge is idled at Halterm pier due to weather.
At the deepwater piers Vossborg is at pier 27 waiting to load wood pellets and Atlantic Huron is at pier 25 in winter layup. Saudi Diryah remains at pier 31, waiting to complete her loading. She has been in port since December 31.
Since a storm surge is also predicted, conditions on the waterfront are less than ideal for ship watching.

Abeille 30 from the shoebox

On January 1, 1980 the tug Abeille 30 sailed from Halifax with the Algerian cargo ship Biban in tow. [See previous post]

More info on the Abeille 30:

She was built in 1944 by Levingston Shipbuilding of Orange, Texas as LT 538 one of a large number of standard Large Tugs [LT] for the US Navy. These were ocean going, 2250 bhp vessels intended for towing anywhere in the world.

Following the war she was acquired by Moller Towage of Hong Kong and renamed Margaret Moller.

In 1951, the famous French towing outfit Société de Remorquage et Sauvetage "Les Abeilles" [the bees] bought her and she worked for them as Abeille No.10 until 1972. At that time she was completely rebuilt and repowered, with 5400 bhp, and renamed Abeille 30.

She was a single screw vessel with a Towmaster propulsion system and bow thruster.

Following her transatlantic tow with Biban, she remained with Les Abeilles (now known as Abeille International) until 1983 when they sold her to Spanish owners, Biscay Towing Inc. and she was renamed Biscay 30 under the Panamanian flag.

In early 1985 she was sent to the Mississippi River to tow the vessel Master Petros 22,391/69 , but something went wrong. She was towing the ship downbound on the Mississippi on January 14, 1985 when the tow overran the tug, sinking her, with the loss of one life.

Although she was raised, she was broken up in October of 1985.

A variation of this post will appear on my new blog Tugfax, which will from hereon cover tug events in Halifax. Shipfax will continue to cover shipping in general with some tug info from time to time.