ACL

 The North Atlantic container business has fared well over the years - even when other container routes were suffering. From December 2022 until March 2023 people have noted Atlantic Container Line (ACL) ships with less than maximum deck loads. However today (April 8) the Atlantic Sea arrived from Liverpool with a healthy number of boxes on deck, and lots of rust streaks from heavy use.

I managed to wedge the ship in between the George's Island lighthouse (left) and the Maugher's Beach lighthouse (way in the right background) as it made its way inbound, passing west of George's Island (See recent posts on the subject of trade levels and of shipping channels in Halifax harbour.)

There was a bit better view of the deck load as the ship sailed under the A. Murray MacKay bridge.

Once clear in Bedford Basin, the tug Atlantic Fir went to work to turn the ship for docking at the PSA Fairview Cove terminal.

The five ACL Fourth Generation ConRos have a container capacity of 3800 TEUs. Containers are stowed on deck forward and aft, but below deck forward of the superstructure only. The below deck space from the superstructure to the stern consists of RoRo decks for 1300 autos (or other RoRo freight) and space for the engine room and exhaust uptakes.

The ships were built by Hudong-Zhongua in Shanghai in 2015-17, and come in at 100,430 gt, with dwt ranging from 55,547 to 56,700.

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