On Monday July 15, 2024 my aged computer began to show distressing behaviour and had to go to the repair shop. After a week in "drydock" and a new hard drive it is back in operation, but with almost a week's worth of Halifax shipping activity to catch up on.
I have therefore summarized the high points of the past several days:
Tuesday July 16, 2024
The United States flag tug Stephen Dann arrived from New York with the 2,652 gt, 4,850 dwt barge J.G.Burke in tow.
The barge has been here before. The first time it was in 2008 under the name Weeks 246 as a flat deck barge. It was back again in 2017 after being rebuilt as a semi-submersible caisson launch barge. It was then used as a build platform for the cells for the new NJ Jetty for the Arctic and Offshore Patrol Vessels at HMC Dockyard. The units were built on the barge's deck, then floated off and sunk in position at the Dockyard.
The barge's owner, Weeks Marine, is the parent of McNally Construction Inc, now part of the Kiewit organization. As a US flag vessel it required a coasting license for the 2017 work, but I do not see any application for it this time round, when it will be used to build and launch cells for the new Halifax Shipyard fitting out berth.
The tug Stephen Dann works for Dann Ocean Towing Inc of Tampa, FL and is well known along the east coast of the United States.
Built in 1999 by Bollinger Shipyards in Lockeport, LA as Crosby Knight it is a twin screw 3600 bhp vessel, acquired in 2016 by Dann and renamed. They may also have added the "bird house" elevated wheelhouse. The tug sailed again the same day for New York (area).
Also in port at the same time, and always a joy to see, was Nova Scotia's own Bluenose II. The much rebuilt replica lives up to the saying "if you own an old wooden boat, you will eventually own a new wooden boat."
Wednesday July 17, 2024
The cruise ship Silver Shadow arrived at Pier 23 and was greeted by Coast Guard boats and a truck carrying a large (and apparently brand new) oil boom, which was soon deployed.
I think this was an exercise, as there was no sign of a sheen on the water, and no absorbent material or pumper trucks in evidence.
Thursday July 18, 2024
The USCGC Eagle moved from anchorage (it arrived July 17) to Pier 20 on departure of the cruise ship Volendam (fleet mate Zuilderdam sailed from Pier 22 right afterwards.)
It was assisted to its berth by the two navy "pup" tugs Granville and Listerville both suitably bearded with white duck to preserve Eagle's paint.
Eagle sailed on Sunday, July 21.
Friday July 19, 2024
There was a newcomer on MSC's Canada Express 2 service, arriving from Montreal en route to the UK. The MSC Mia Summer II is quite a small ship by current standards, and elderly - even for MSC.
Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft of Kiel turned out the ship in 1999 as ADCL Scarlett [ADCL = Abu Dhabi Container Line] but it was renamed Buckinghamshire in 2000 and became MSC Mia Summer II in 2005. A 25,719 gt, 18,779 dwt ship it has a capacity of 1658 TEU, well below the 2,000 mark implied by the "II" in its name.
Of note: it is an "open top" type ship, with no hatch covers required. The hold area is sheltered to a degree by the raised freeboard. Numerous restrictions as to stability, firefighting snd carriage of dangerous goods apply to this type of ship and at least so far, the safety record had been good.
Saturday July 20, 2024
Not to be outdone ZIM had a really new ship on their ZCA service from the Med. ZIM Condor was delivered in April of this year by Zhoushan Changhong International Shipyard Co Ltd in Zhoushan. It is a 49,877 gt, 62,999 dwt ship with a capacity of 5315 TEU [nominal; 3845 TEU at 14 tonnes] with 1,000 reefer points.
The new tug Atlantic Maple took up an unusual forward escort position, operating in reverse mode, as the ship returned to sea in the Narrows later in the day. Nevertheless the ship still had to send warning whistles to a heedless sail boat in its path.
The second tug Atlantic Cedar provided the stern tethered escort.
Sunday July 21, 2024 - see Monday
Monday July 22, 2024
Among the several morning arrivals was the unusually named DreAMBoat. The capitalized letters in the middle of the name represent the initials of the owner, Arthur Morris Blank, co-founder of the Home Depot big box store chain. (Compare to the July post of another store owner's boat.) Mr. Blank also owns the Atlanta Falcons football team, and a soccer team.
At a reported cost of $180 million Oceanco of Alblasserdam, Netherlands built the 2946 gt ship to accommodate 14 guests and up to 27 crew along with "hangars" for a 10.8m limo tender and 10.5m sport tender.
Moving within the harbour, from Imperial Oil (where it arrived Sunday from Antwerp) was the tanker Eli Knutsen.
It is one of two sister tankers purchased by Algoma Tankers, and announced in January of this year. Both were to be chartered back to Knutsen OAS Shipping of Sweden until later in the year. The "intermediate epoxy" chemical and product tanker was built in 2010 by Jiangnan Shipyard Group in Shanghai and measures 11,889 gt,m 16,544 dwt. The ship is still flying the Malta flag, but is carrying the Algoma "bear" funnel mark and is likely to be registered in Canada soon.
Its sister ship Liv Knutsen is still trading in western Europe, but is also expected in Canada this year. No new names have been announced yet, and for the meantime the Eli Knutsen is at anchor in Bedford Basin. (Fleet mate Algoluna, the former Birgit Knutsen, took its place at ImperialOil.)
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