Florijngracht - perhpas the new Mitiq

1. Florijngracht outbound for Matane, QC after inspection.

One of the ubiquitous Spleithoff fleet showed up in Halifax today for a brief inspection by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for Asian Gypsy Moth larvae. Finding none, the ship was soon on its way again.
Built in 2010 it is a 8,620 gross ton, 12,500 deadweight general cargo ship equipped with three 80 tonne cranes. It can carry a variety of temperature and humidity sensitive cargoes or up to 658 TEU.  It was built in China by Jiangsu Changbo Shipyard Co. Some ships of this class are fitted for the St.Lawrence Seaway, but this one does not appear to be. It has no crew landing booms, nor omni-directional (Port Colborne type) fairleads.
The ship is one of the "F" type, similar in size and capacity to the "E" type, which has proven popular with Canadian owner Nunavut Eastern Arctic Shipping,. Spliethoff's policy is to build first class ships, sail them for no more than ten years then replace them with new. NEAS acquired all three of its former Spliethoff ships in this way, with Qamutik, an E-type ex Edisongracht, built in 1994 and acquired in 2008.
There is still speculation on NEAS's newest ship to be named Mitiq, but not yet arrived. Its first sailing for NEAS' s summer arctic supply work is scheduled for July 7 from Valleyfield, QC (on the St.Lawrence Seaway) so it better get here soon.
Will it be Florijngracht ??? which seems a little too new for Spliethoff to sell, but is also the only Spliethoff ship that I can see that is close enough to get here by July 7. Also, it is bound for Matane, QC, a loading port for NEAS for some of its ships, and where some of its landing barges and tugs may be stored.
The nearest E-type ships are Egelantiersgracht due Bilbao, Spain today and Erasmusgracht in the Baltic and due in Kiel, Germany June 23. The F-types (of which there are six) include Fagelgracht in Setubal for La Guaira, Fevogracht in Le Trait for Rouen, Floragracht in Panama, Fortunagrachrt due Philadelphia June 28 and Floretgracht in China. All these ships are newer, built 2011 and 2012- and too new to sell by my reckoning.
Stay tuned.

2. Florijngracht outbound in ballast, meets the inbound fully laden crude tanker Kometik. The latter will become a rare sight in Halifax - see previous post.