All Hands on Deck Part 2

 Continued from earlier today, April 5, 2023...

The next arrival was notable on several counts. Brooklyn Bridge arrived from Savannah and New York, but as an extra ship, not assigned to a particular Atlantic service for THE Alliance, but was designated as XAL.  Presumably X stands for extra. Arriving from Savannah and New York its next port may be Rotterdam.

One look at the ship, as it sailed up the Narrows, passing the Theben (see Part 1) at Pier 9C, told the story:

The ship was carrying hardly any containers on deck.(A rough count of 135 forty footers)

Built in 2010 by Hyundai, Ulsan it is a 44,459 gt, 52,055 dwt ship with a capacity of 4432 TEU. It must be carrying well below that capacity judging also from its draft. 

My records indicate that this is the ship's first call in Halifax. Although several K-Line ships with bridge names have been here on THE Alliance (and previous) services, none of its seven sister ships have ever been here either. It is quite a bit smaller than those other K-Liners that are regular callers.

Another arrival for Pier 9C was the general cargo ship BBC Challenger. It arrived in the late afternoon to take the place of the auto carrier Theben [see Part 1] which was moving to Autoport. A member of the BBC Chartering fleet, the BBC Challenger is a multi-purpose tween decker with box shaped holds. It was built in 2008 by Damen Yichang, but completed at Damen's home yard in Gorinchem, Netherlands. It is a 7878 gt, 11,121 dwt vessel fitted with a pair of 80 tonne SWL Liebherr cargo cranes. Built as Marina 1 it was renamed in 2008: Clipper Marina; 2009: Marina 1; 2010: Thorco Challenger and adopted its current name in 2017.

The ship is arriving from Montreal, having previously been in Chile, Ecuador and (via the Panama Canal) San Juan, Puerto Rico. Whatever cargo it had on board was apparently unloaded in Montreal. It had been anchored off Halifax since yesterday, awaiting the Theben to arrive and complerte its work. BBC Challenger also came along west of George's Island too - not the usual route for inbound ships (see post script)

At Pier 9C there are several Innovative Steam Technologies Inc package boilers, which arrived on heavy duty flat cars.

The portable steam recovery boilers are of various sizes and weights, but it seems likely that the ship will load them using its own cranes. A previous consignment of boilers was loaded on the BBC Fuji, using its own cranes on January 31. IST manufactures the boilers in Cambridge, ON.

[Background is the retired CCGS Hudson awaiting its date with the recyclers later this year at Sheet Harbour.]

Post Script

Ships sailing through the southern (seaward) portion of Halifax harbour have the option of sailing east or west of George's Island. The normal course is to sail to the east of the Island, as the waterway is wider but sailing west involves fewer course changes, and oddly the water is actually deeper even though the channel is much narower. The usual reason for ships to sail to the west of George's is that there is another ship involved. If a ship is anchored in number one anchorage, and thus partially blocking the easterly passage, a ship will sail west of George's. If one ship is inbound and another is outbound at about the same time, pilots often agree to avoid a close quarters meet by the inbound ship sailing east and the outbound ship sailing west of the Island, giving each ship a clear passage. Very large ships usually avoid sailing west, but there is no hard and fast rule. Even ACL ships, the largest regular callers to pass through that section of the harbour, are known to sail west from time to time. Cruise ships frequently sail round George's to give passengers a good view of the city.

Today's rarity of inbound ships sailing west of George's could have been due to some activity in the Middle Ground area between Ives Knoll and Maugher's Beach. I noted two Dominion Diving boats, the Halmar and Dominion Bearcat with a crane barge in the area, on the eastern side of the main channel. I am assuming that they requested a wide berth and low wake, resulting in the ships clinging to the western side of the channel, this naturally heading for a west of George's route, thus avoiding a major course change.

 

 I am assuming that the workboats and barge were involved in placing reef balls on the harbour bottom, possibly using divers to secure them in place. The reef balls, which are hollow spheres with numerous openings, are secured to the bottom and are used to encourage marine growth. This particular installation is to offset any harm to marine life that may be caused by infilling the space between piers in the Ocean Terminals area.

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