Post-Panamax at Halterm

1. Atlantic Larch scoots around the stern of the Tsing Ma Bridge, as the ship starts to back in to Halterm. Although the ship looks loaded, she is not down to her draft marks, indicating a large number of empty containers on board.

2. Atlantic Oak (port side) and Atlantic Larch (starboard) swing Tsing Ma Bridge off Halterm.

The latest post-Panamax container ship to arrive at Halterm is Tsing Ma Bridge, which put in this morning for the first time. K-Line continues to ramp up its ship sizes here, and so it is a good thing that Halterm plans to extend its berth to be able to work two post-Panamaxes at once.

Tsing Ma Bridge was built in 2002 at Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan, South Korea, with tonnages of 68,687 gross and 71, 310 deadweight. This gives her a capacity of 5610 TEU, 500 of which can be reefers.

For more on the structure after which the ship is named try: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsing_Ma_Bridge

CCGS Hudson makes the news

The research vessel CCGS Hudson has made the news recently thanks to some startling new discoveries on the ocean floor.

Hudson returned to port Wednesday and sailed again this morning on another research mission.

Despite the ship's age, she is loaded with the highest tech ROVs and other instrumentation that allows for ocean floor exploration, using high resolution images.

For more see: http://dalnews.dal.ca/2010/07/28/coral.html

If you wonder, as I did, what "ROPOS" means on those containers, check out this site:
http://www.ropos.com/


Hudson was built in 1963 in Saint John and has worked out of the Bedford Institute ever since. Her achievements are legion, and she shows no sign of quitting. Despite rumours of a replacement, no announcements have been made recently. When built, the ship had a white hull as befitting a hydrographic research vessel. Since 1997 she has been painted red as part of the Department of Fisheries & Oceans/ Canadian Coast Guard fleet.


This is what she looked like March 18, 1990:

Vacation Notice

I will be on vacation off and on again until September. Since I will be out of reach of a computer much of the time, this will mean very sporadic postings to this site.
Never fear I will be back.

Kometik to anchor in Bedford Basin

Kometik clearing the Narrows and making the approach to the MacKay bridge.

Having cleared the bridge, escort tug Svitzer Bedford begins to retrieve her line.

The tanker Kometik completed unloading her cargo of crude at Imperial Oil today and went to anchor in Bedford Basin.

The ship and sister Mattea were built in Korea in 1996 especially to shuttle crude oil from the Hibernia offshore field to the mainland. Both tankers measure 76,216 gross tons and 126,646 deadweight. As such they are the third and fourth largest tankers registered in Canada. (The Jasmine Knutsen and Heather Knutsen at 80,918 gross/ 148,644 deadweight are the largest.)

As a shuttle tanker she has several unusual features. These include the large bow loading structure that allows the ship to transfer oil from the Hibernia gravity base. The ship also has twin propellors and rudders, and the twin skegs over the rudders can be seen in the stern view.

The full width bridge is typical of ships that sail in northern waters, providing shelter and comfort in bad weather.

Algoma Guardian - new to the Canadian flag.

Algoma Guardian made it official on Friday and raised the Canadian flag, after registering in St. Catharines, Ontario.

The bulker will now operate with Canadian crew. Algoma Central Marine is based in Sault Ste. Marie, ON, but their operational headquarters is in St. Catharines, and they have entrusted the management of the ship to Seaway Marine Transport (a partnerships with Upper Lakes Group) which is also based in St.Catharines.

Goviken seen downbound on the St.Lawrence River June 21, 2001, from Jean Parisien

The ship was built as Omislaj by the "3 Maj." shipyard in Riyeka, Yugoslavia for Jugolinija. During the war in that country, she was reflagged to Malta in 1991 and then assumed the Croatian flag once the hostilities had ended. Her first call in Halifax was October 8, 1988 when she called for bunkers. She was a regular caller, with the large "Croatian Line" banner on her blue hull.

When she was sold in 1997, new owners Viken painted her hull green and renamed her Goviken. Instead of the banner named on the hull, they painted "Viken" in large letters on her funnel casing, facing aft.

Omisalj anchored off Beauharnois, QC September 1, 1998.

MSC Freedom cleans up at Fairview Cove

MSC Freedom arrived this morning, apparently in ballast and spent all day loading up on MSC containers left here or delivered here during the Montreal port lock-out.

As with many MSC ships she is not a new vessel! In fact she was built in 1980 for Sea-Land Service Inc,. as one of their revolutionary diesel powered D-9 class container ships, Sea-Land Freedom. With the rapid expansion of trans-Pacific container trade, the ship was lengthened 30 meters in 1985 and now measures 32,629 gross tons. Her bridge deck was also raised at the time to maintain the mandated view over the bow. This explains the unusual"gap" under the wheelhouse. With the lengthening, she became a D-9J (J for jumboized.) It is hard to imagine now that at the time she was among the biggest and fastest container ships in the world. Her single Sulzer engine propelled the ship at better than 22 knots. Her container capacity of 2472 TEU is now considered modest. This is further reduced on the St.Lawrence trade, due to draft restrictions.

Maersk acquired Sea-Land and ran the ship, with the name unchanged, until 2007 when it became MSC Freedom. It now sails under the Marshal Islands flag, but is owned in Greece.

Traces of Maersk blue paint can still be seen on her hull where the black top coat has worn off.

In the photo above she is seen emerging from the fog in the Narrows early this morning, with the tug Point Chebucto alongside. Atlantic Oak is out of the picture, but also assisted in the docking. On departure early this evening, Point Chebucto was bow tug and Atlantic Oak was stern tethered escort.

USCG Alder makes courtesy call

The US Coast Guard vessel Alder (WLB 216) arrived this afternoon for a brief stopover. The ship is based on the Great Lakes, but is reportedly en route to a Coast Guard base in Curtis Bay, MD for refit.

She tied up at HMC Dockyard. The navy extends the courtesy of free docking at the Dockyard to passing naval vessels, including the US Coast Guard.

Alder is a seagoing navigation aids tender, and icebreaker, based in Duluth, Minnesota. She is one of 16 Juniper class tenders in the USCG. All were built at Marinette Marine in Marinette, Wisconsin between 1996 and 2004. Most of them called in Halifax on their delivery trips.

Back to Normal - almost

1. Dresden Express emerges from the fog inbound for Fairview Cove.

2. Atlantic Companion and Dresden Express working at Fairview at dusk.

Fairview Cove was back to normal today working the usual scheduled ships, Atlantic Companion and Dresden Express. Also normal for time of year was the foggy conditions outside the harbour. Dresden Express sounded her fog signal until she was inside Meagher's Beach, and finally emerged from the grey stuff at Ives Knoll. MSC Freedom is due tomorrow to reload.

Meanwhile at Halterm they had no arrivals or departures today, but Maersk Patras is still in port, waiting to resume her normal scheduled voyage next week.

3. Maersk Patras (photo taken July 23) working at Halterm.

New Ship on St-Pierre service

A new ship is doing the weekly run from Halifax to St-Pierre. Svendborg, registered in Gibraltar, but owned by Bischoff Shiffs, of Germany has been on the run for three weeks. Today is the first chance I've had, thanks to foggy weather, to get a proper picture of the ship.

Built in 1993, she can carry 185 TEU of which 50 can be reefers. She has two 25 tonne cranes, but has no RoRo capability, as you will see from the cars sitting on deck.

She appears to have had the same owners for most of her career, but she has had a large collection of names: built as Svendborg Governor, she became 93: IAL Governor, 94 Svendborg Governor, 02 CEC Svendborg, 02 Vedr, 02 CEC Svendborg, 03 NDS Kuito, 04 CEC Svendborg, 08 BBC Columbia.

Her predecessor on the run, Dutch Runner, a Canadian flagged RoRo ship, has been chartered to Desgagnés for the summer for arctic supply and is expected to return to the run in the fall.

Yes it's over, but not completely.

1. OOCL Montreal, with her distinctive faded paint, now partly overpainted, sails late this afternoon.

The Montreal longshoremen's walkout was resolved this morning by vote, but the writing was on the wall last night when negotiators reached a tentative settlement between the CUPE union and the Maritime Employers Association.

The dock workers will be back on the job in Montreal on Saturday to start unloading rail cars and will be ready for the first ship Sunday.

Meanwhile in Halifax, there is still work to be done. A huge number of additional containers has moved out of Halifax, including one train tonight half loaded with MSC containers. But there is still a number to go out, and there are more coming in by train.

MSC Freedom is due back on July 25 because some of its export containers are here already, but it is the only Montreal ship expected. (It will sail from here to Montreal, then to Caucedo, Dominican Republic, then to Freeport, Bahamas.)

Also in port is Maersk Patras, still unloading. Her outbound containers are en route here.

Valencia Express sailed early this morning and OOCL Montreal late this afternoon.

Is it over?

If the Montreal lock-out is not over, it soon will be. At least that must be the opinion of MSC Shipping. It had three ships anchored off Halifax today, but as of 9:30 tonight two of them had upped anchor and were heading for Montreal. MSC must figure that the strike will be over and the workers will be back on the job by the time the ships get to Montreal.
MSC Alyssa and MSC Aniello were both doing 12 knots or more according to AIS, which is not fast, but they are moving.
MSC Tuscany is still at anchor, so she will likely pick up the cargo that is currently en route to Halifax after unloading her boxes.
Canada Express is due tomorrow for Hapag-Lloyd, and it seems likely she will continue in.
Also at 9:30 Oceanex's Cabot got under way from Bedford Basin anchorage for Corner Brook. She will pick up her westbound cargo there and continue ot Montreal, aslo hoping that things will be closer to normal when she gets there.

Congestion looming (updated 2100)

1. Tucks line up at Halterm at 5 pm. At least fifty trucks still waiting to get in. At times during the day the line was twice this long.

2. OOCL Montreal and Valencia Express at Fairview Cove this evening. Both are diverted from Montreal

With diverted ships arriving daily and at least two "stacked" outside, there are now suggestions that the port will become jammed and congestion will further delay shipments.

Some in Halifax have resented the success of Montreal as a year round port. In the "good old days", i.e. before the mid 1960s, Montreal was strictly a summer port. It shut down for three to four months a year due to ice and shipping was diverted to Halifax, Saint John and US east coast ports.
With the advent of winter navigation that all changed, and Montreal has gone on to become the second largest container port in Canada after Vancouver.
In those "good old days" Halifax was only busy for a short winter season, and the rest of the year was a bit of a back water. Extra workers were brought in for the winter, including longshoremen, office clerks, rail workers, etc., But when Montreal went to year round work Halifax eventually benefited too and became a steady year round container port, but with about one third the volume of Montreal.
Now, with the port of Montreal shut down by a lock out, Halifax is all of a sudden inundated with extra cargo and some say it will soon become backlogged.

This could happen and this is why:
1. Halifax quite happily handles 500,000 TEU or so per year. Even so the road network strains to accommodate the trucks, especially downtown. A sudden spike in truck traffic will of course cause line ups and backlogging. New infrastructure cannot be built over night to handle added traffic.
The new main gate at Fairview Cove will be more efficient than the old one at Halterm (which is scheduled for expansion, but work has not started.) The road and street infrastructure will be taxed with what some say will be a doubling or tripling of port related truck traffic.
So although the port infrastructure can handle many more containers, the surrounding road infrastructure cannot.

2. The port itself can berth five container ships at one time. So add several extra ships a day to its ongoing business, and you will inevitably have delays. It will depend on train and truck service to get containers in and out of the two terminals promptly to prevent backlogs. There is sufficient labour and equipment to handle normal trade and extra trade, but there is a limit to how much overtime people are willing to work and how equipment will stand up to constant use.

3. CN Rail is the only rail line in Halifax. In order to handle increased traffic it will have to add more trains coming in and out, and it will have to do a lot more shunting. It can do this, and will. If it has the serviceable equipment and manpower, it should be able to handle whatever is thrown at it. However there will be delays simply because it takes time to accommodate extra trains on its tracks, and deal with "upstream" delays in Montreal and Toronto.

Another issue that will arise as part of the Montreal lock out is delays in Newfoundland traffic. Since Newfoundland is dependant on shipping, the Montreal lock out has caused major head aches. Oceanex Inc handles a good portion of that trade and Marine Atlantic handles the rest. With Montreal closed, Oceanex must re-deploy two of its ships to Halifax- that isn't a big problem in itself, but these ships must find berth space at container terminals that will now be very busy.
The bigger problem is that the container and RoRo cargo normally destined for or coming from Montreal must now be brought to Halifax, either by road or train. I have heard that Oceanex has contracted for one hundred trucks to carry container into and out of Halifax. Many of these boxes will be carrying perishables, which need to be moved quickly. And of course theses boxes originate from all over Canada, and were collected in Montreal for shipping.
Last night's container train out of Halifax was carrying an unprecedented number of Oceanex containers, but none of these were reefers.
Just the addition of the Newfoundland containers would be a significant boost to traffic in Halifax.

Update:

Just as a point of interest, CN has put on extra container trains. Starting yesterday an additional container train has been added, making two trains arriving and two trains departing per day. Each train may be up to 12,000 feet long.

Also of interest MSC (Mediterranean Shipping) is not using the train. All their containers are being trucked into and out of Halifax. This must be using hundreds of trucks per day. They seem to have signed up any available vehicle they could find, because some of the trucks I saw today were old and beat up. At least one broke down just after leaving the Fairview Cove terminal.

Oceanex seems to have had better luck with the trucks they have hired. I saw dozens of them today and most looked to be in good condition.

Ramping up for a busy time

1.MSC Freedom berthed at Fairview Cove container terminal.

A stream of container ships is heading for Halifax because of the Montreal port lock-out.
Arrivals for today will include:
Maersk Patras- at Halterm. She would normally be calling Halifax next week, after going to Montreal.
MSC Freedom - docking Fairview Cove at noon time
MSC Aniello-anchored off Halifax, awaiting a berth
MSC Alyssa - will anchor off
Cabot - will move from Halterm to anchorage in Bedford Basin, awaiting cargo. She will likely be sailing later this week. Oceanex Sanderling is due tomorrow and Oceanex Avalon is discharging in St.John's, and will sail to Halifax.
Several more ships are due over the next few days.

Algoma Guardian - first call

No sooner had Vinland sailed from pier 25 [see below] than Algoma Guardian moved in.

The ship is calling in Halifax for the first time under that name.

Built in 1987 in Yugoslavia, the ship sailed as Goviken until last year when she and two sisters were purchased by Algoma Central Corp. She remains registered in the Bahamas, and is still fulfilling the balance of a long term charter to Fednav, but is mostly in the grain and ore trades.

Since her acquisition by Algoma her deck cranes have been removed, making it easier for her to handle bulk cargoes.

Built to transit the St.Lawrence Seaway, she will continue to trade internationally until the expiry of the charter. It is then expected that she will transfer to Canadian registry, replacing older tonnage.

The tugs Svitzer Bedford and Atlantic Oak were tasked with moving her from anchorage to pier 25.

Vinland in and out

The tanker Vinland made a brief stop in Halifax and sailed this evening. The ship arrived yesterday at noon time at pier 25. She had some tank cleaning and perhaps some other maintenance done, but did not linger. She is to anchor off Halifax for a time before resuming her shuttle service from offshore Newfoundland.

The tugs Svitzer Bedford and Point Valiant assisted in her departure.

First Diversion from Montreal

The first ship to arrive in Halifax due the Montreal port shut-down is shown entering port this morning - less than 24 hours after the Port of Montreal locked out its longshoremen.

The ship is the familiar Cabot - the same ship shown in the Shipfax masthead. Cabot normally operates between Montreal and St.John's NL, for Oceanex Inc. The ship sailed from St.John's, but was re-routed to Halifax when the lock-out was announced and will unload here. She will then be forced to wait for outbound cargo, until it arrives by road or rail from Montreal.

Oceanex operates three ships to Newfoundland. Ocean Sanderling, running from Halifax to St. John's, Corner Brook and back to Halifax, Cabot, and Oceanex Avalon also running from Montreal.

Cabot is a familiar sight in Halifax nonetheless, because she used to be the Halifax ship before Oceanex Sanderling was acquired. She has also filled in for Sanderling during refits and has been diverted here due to ice.

Built as Cavallo in 1979 by Smith's Dock in Middlesbrough, England, she was rebuilt and lengthened in 1995.

More Boxes for Halifax?

News that the Port of Montreal has locked out its longshoremen as of 8 o'clock this morning has created some buzz in Halifax.
Since the Montreal workers belong to CUPE and not the ILA it is unlikely that Halifax workers will respect the Montreal workers position, so Halifax would probably work diverted ships.
Press reports indicate that container lines serving Montreal are diverting their ships to New York and Norfolk - no mention was made of Halifax.
It seems likely that several lines will indeed go to US ports, to further distance themselves from union sympathy, but Halifax would make sense for a couple of the lines including Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd that have a presence here already.
Montreal longshoremen have been compensated whether they work or not - giving a guaranteed wage and job. The Montreal employers association wants to change the system to a pay for hours work arrangement.
This may be a long dispute, and Halifax may benefit, directly or indirectly.

Cross Border Plan

News Release
Date: July 16, 2010
Coast Guards sign pollution agreement
DARTMOUTH, Nova Scotia – The United States and Canadian Coast Guards signed an annex to the Canadian/United States Atlantic (CANUSLANT) Joint Marine Pollution Contingency Plan June 29, 2010.
The Atlantic Geographic Annex covers the Atlantic marine boundary between Canada and the United States, defines the CANUSLANT Joint Response Team, and is regularly tested and improved in an ongoing series of CANUSLANT exercises. Its purpose is to augment and link the pollution response systems and plans in each nation to facilitate an efficient joint response to a cross-border spill.
Rear Admiral Daniel Neptun, commander First Coast Guard District, and Ms. Nancy Hurlburt, assistant commissioner maritimes region, Canadian Coast Guard, signed the annex which allows both nations to work seamlessly in the event of the pollution incident in the boundary waters of Canada and the United States.

Canadian Coast Guard Lifeboats

The Canadian Coast Guard maintains dozens of rescue lifeboats in various locations around the country. The high endurance versions are called the Arun class, and are based on a British design.
CCGC Sambro is based in the port of the same name near Halifax, and has participated in numerous rescues since it was built in 1996 by Hike Metals Products of Wheatley, ON.

Other boats in the class come to Halifax for repairs and refits and are often based in Sambro during that time. So it was today that the Louisbourg, NS based CCGC Spindrift was tied up at the government wharf. It was built in 1992 at East Isle Shipyard in Georgetown, PE. Both boats are 52 footers, powered by two Caterpillar engines totalling 798 bhp.

The smaller class of medium endurance cutters, based on a US design, are typified by CCGC Cap Tourmente, spotted in Quebec City on July 2, having a refit at Groupe Ocean. She was built in 2005 by Victoria Shipyard in Victoria BC.

CFAV Quest

The Canadian navy's research vessel Quest AGOR 172 is tied up at Jetty November Lima, with a reported malfunction. The ship was supposed to participate in the activities and exercises associated with NATO and the International Fleet Review, but at the last minute something broke down, and she was unable to sail.

Instead she sits forlornly at NL along with the decommissioned Fraser and the remaining Oberon class submarines - not a good sign!

Quest was built way back in 1968 by Burrard DD in Vancouver and commissioned in 1969 for the Defense Research to do hydrographic, oceanographic and acoustical work. She had a major refit in 1997-1999 and another last year. Powered by four Fairbanks Morse diesel engines and two GE electric drives, she is one of the quietest ships afloat.

Interestingly she was the reviewing vessel when the last fleet review was held in Halifax in 1985.

There has been talk of a replacement for several years.

Announcing ........what?

Today in Halifax the defence minister announced $2.6 bn in funding for two RCN supply ships to be built in Canada. This is down from the $2.9bn estimated price in 2008, which caused the project to be cancelled.
So it took 2 years and they have shaved a whopping 11% off the budget!
Can you believe that the price tag will not rise to $2.9 bn before it is done?
It will be another two years before we hear from shipyards on what they think the price will be, and then what happens? Do we go back to square one again?
Sorry, but colour me totally cynical on this one.
It is obvious that the navy has not pared back their requirements very much. (It is easy to lop 10% off any contract without giving up very much.)
It is obvious that the navy has convinced the government that more money was needed. (Their wish list is therefore pretty much intact, when a total rethink was necessary.)
It is obvious that the shipyards have not been involved yet, and so the $2.6bn is only a hoped for price. (Governments have a terrible record in predicting real world costs.)
It is obvious that this was no real announcement at all - just more politics.
It is obvious that no decision has been finally made on whether both ships will be built on this coast or by whom. (Yes the announcement was made here and yes the industry minister thinks Atlantic Canadians will be employed in the project, but who and where really needs to be decided, and two years is a long time to wait.)
The ships will take at least 5 years to build, and the present ships will be 45 or 46 years old by then and tens of millions will be spent keeping them pasted together in the meantime.

Close Calls in the harbour

The French naval patrol vessel Fulmar elected to leave her berth without a pilot this morning to assist in the start of the St-Pierre sailing race.
She, and the assembling yachts, generated several tense moments with arriving ships. The sailing vessels kept to the western side of the harbour before the race start , but the Fulmar was not as cooperative and insisted on sailing out, sans pilot, and without anyone on the bridge who spoke fluent English. Functional English was not adequate for the situation.
Her very close pass with the inbound Essen Express will surely be the subject of an investigation of some sort.
After the race start the boats soon got into fog and started wandering around in various places they shouldn't have been, giving a bit of a scare to some of the local tour boats.
The next incident is said to have occurred when the inbound gypsum boat Ambassador tried to arrange passing with Fulmar. Again English comprehension was an issue and a close call was narrowly averted.
The Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron was also not much help in this situation either. Its race committee boat, Enos Collins, was reportedly incommunicado for several periods of time, and allowed the participants to wander at will all over the traffic lanes.
When the outbound Algonova (seen in the background of the race start) had disembarked her pilot, he was transferred to Fulmar. By this time however she had passed all outbound traffic and the crisis was over.

1. A puzzled cormorant gets birds eye view of an uncomfortably close pass between Essen Express and Fulmar.

2. Victim or villain? Fulmar was given clearance to proceed to sea without a pilot, at a time of busy traffic and limited visibility.

3. The race start, with the usual milling about. The RNSYS race boat Enos Collins is at the far right and the outbound tanker Algonova is in the background.

Some serious questions arise from this incident. First, how could Halifax Traffic give clearance to this vessel when she had no pilot aboard? Second, when Halifax Traffic finally came to and realized that the vessel needed a pilot, why did they not order it back to its berth or to anchor?

And third, when will Halifax Traffic get over its snit about pilotage? This "turf war" or whatever it is between the two organizations could have resulted in a serious incident. I think it's time to grow up and behave professionally.

For the record foreign flag vessels (other than small craft) require pilots. Outbound vessels are required to give 12 hours notice of intent to depart port. They are required to confirm the intent again at 5 hours from sailing and again at 2 hours from sailing time. All this is to ensure that a pilot will be available when the ship wishes to leave.

Foreign naval vessels are not immune from this requirement, but this is not the first time that a foreign naval vessel has done this in the past year.

Plastic Peril is back

APA No.3 has made a reappearance in Halifax after several years absence. The 1981 built fibreglass vessel has been kept by the Atlantic Pilotage Authority as a backup boat and moves around when needed. It has been in Halifax since late June.

Big and Little

The tanker Algoscotia arrived early this morning and tied up at pier 9c. While there she will take on stores and do some repair work before moving to Imperial Oil this evening. Also she will be re-fueled by fleet mate Algoma Dartmouth. The smaller sister tanker is dedicated to bunkering in Halifax and carries two inflated fenders of the Yokohma type, on her starboard side. These remain in the water at all times and are used as cushions during refueling operations.

Celebrity Summit

Sailing this evening after its first call in Halifax, Celebrity Summit was bathed in warm sunshine. However dark billows of fog are blowing in from the sea, and it won't be long before the ship will be socked in.

After pulling off pier 22 the ship headed "north about", going north she would circle round George's Island to head southbound for sea.

A sail boat was in her way and, stupidly, would not alter course until the ship repeatedly blew her whistle in blasts of 5. She had to do it three times before getting clear. There was some sort of malfunction in the whistle that gave it a very hoarse sound - but it was still audible!

Celebrity Summit is registered in Malta, and was built in 2001. It measures 90,280 gross tons and has a capacity of 1990 passengers.

Glen Canyon Bridge

K-Line is gradually increasing the size of ships calling on its Halifax service. This morning was the first time that Glen Canyon Bridge has been here. The ship was built by Hyundai Heavy Industries of Korea in 2006 and measures 68,570 gross tons. It is rated at 5624 TEU, and appears to be close to capacity. However judging by its draft, it does not appear fully laden.

With the start of the pre-Christmas shipping season when North American and Europe are building up inventory for the late fall shopping boom, empty containers are being re-positioned to Asia. It is therefore possible that this ship is carrying a good many empties.

The tug Atlantic Oak is coming alongside to assist the ship into pier 41, Halterm.