The large open area at Pier 9C is in use again for a special cargo. The Dutch ship Paleisgracht arrived October 17 from Gemlik, Turkey with a cargo of wind turbine tower components.
The sections were stowed on deck and in the ship's hold and are being offloaded with the ship's own cranes, then moved around the pier on self-propelled modular transporters (SPMTs).
The shipping company, Spliethoffs, specializes in moving unusual cargoes and has a fleet of about fifty ships, many to their own design, equipped with heavy lift cranes or other custom cargo handling gear. The Paleisgracht is a little unusual in that it was not originally built for Spliethoff's. It was in fact built in 2011 as Beluga Progression by Hudon Zhonghua in Shanghai. A 17,644 gt, 19,496 dwt ice class ship it carries two 700 tonne SWL cranes and one 180 tonne SWL crane, serving box shaped holds. The cranes can be operated in tandem for lifts up to 1400 tonnes.
When Beluga failed amid corruption charges, the ship was acquired by Hansa Heavy Lift and becane HHL Tokyo, but that venture failed too and Spliethoff (and its subsidiary BigLift) acquired a total of ten ships from HHL. The ship was renamed Paleisgracht in 2019.
The components with "Enercon" markings, are tubular shaped, of various lengths and some are tapered. They have been arranged on Pier 9C for eventual transport to the wind farm site. The German company Enercon has built most of the wind towers in Nova Scotia.
Unloading operations have used the ship's cranes in combination to lift, swing out and land the units, without taxing the capacity of the cranes. The ship may request that ships minimize their wakes while passing during off loading, but regular harbour trafiic in the Narrows has not been impeded despite the relatively close quarters.
A feshly painted NYK Remus passed by late this afternoon, October 19, with a tug alongside and one astern as it made its way through the Narrows and under the A. Murray MacKay bridge to Bedford Basin and to tie up PSA Fairvew Cove.
By this time all the deck cargo had been discharged, and the cranes were working the hold forward. Mobile cranes on shore moved the units off the the SPMTs and onto timber baulks.
