Mystery Ships

 Most ships that come and go in the Port of Hailfax are on schedules, such as container ships, or are here for obvious purposes, such as tankers or gypsum carriers. Most ships do not usually hang around for long either as they need to get to the next port to discharge and or load cargo. The odd ship shows up for no evident reason and sometimes a ship may be idle in the port for a period of time, but to have three ships in port at one time,with no schedued departure times is indeed rare.

Established in number 12 anchorage in Bedford Basin is the container ship MSC Houston V. It arrived from New York on October 22 and went directly to anchor.

The ship was built in 2010 by Hyundai, Ulsan as Baltimore Bridge. It became Baltic South in 2019, then MSC Houston in 2022. It added "V" (Roman number for five) to its name in 2024. The 44,768 gt, 58,321 dwt ship has a capacity of 4432 TEU (just under the 5,000 maxiumum signified by the "V".)

The ship appears to be loaded to near capacity in terms of the number of containers on deck, but it is not drawing a deep draft. (AIS indicates a figure of 11.3 meters). It also does not show up on any MSC schedules. To me that suggests that the ship is a "sweeper" which has been sent around to various ports to pick up surplus or stranded containers. (Recent labour issues in the US resulted in drop offs in Halifax and other ports and an accumulation of empties after the strike was over.)

Also at anchor nearby is the Frisian Octa a general purpose cargo ship. It arrived in Halifax October 22 from Moerdijk, Netherlands, and docked briefly at PSA Fairview Cove. I assume it off- loaded some project cargo, which was not visible from shore.

 

Construction of the ship started at Zaliv in Kerch, Ukraine, and was completed by Damen Bergum, in Friesland in 2010. The Ice Class 1 ship has ventilated box shaped holds with pontoon type tween decks. It carries two 40 tonne SWL cranes. The 5425 gt, 8284 dwt ship was built as Beauforce and took its present name in 2021.

Anchored in the lower harbour at number 3 anchorage is the semi-submersible heavy load carrier White Marlin with an offshore module on deck. It sailed from Singapore August 19 (!) and arrived this morning.

 

With a forest of container cranes, the cruise ship Norwegian Breakway in the background along with Halifax waterfront buildings, it was hard to get a clear view of the ship or its cargo. It was built in 2015 by Guangzhou Shipyard International with Ice Class 1D at 51,065 gt, 72,148 dwt.

 

Some more information may come to light before the ships leave - if so I will post an update.

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