A bit of everything

As usual the Port of Halifax provides something for everybody, with a wide range of shipping activity. Today, March 10, had an unusual variety.

At PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway, Tropical Shipping's Tropic Lissette was alongside Pier 42. Its sister ship Tropic Hope did not call last Monday on the weekly service - perhaps avoiding bad weather on the US east coast by staying in Freeport, Bahamas, so there may be more cargo to work today. 

At Pier 41 it was the CMA CGM Paranagua on the joint Maerk CMA CGM service from Montreal. Again the ship is not on the usual Saturday call, so may have been delayed due to St.Lawrence ice or other factors. The Vistula Maersk, on the same service, was just here March 8-9.

 

Imperial Oil was taking a delivery of refined product from Antwerp on the unusually named CL Toni Morrison. A 30,259 gt, 49,352 dwt Long Range tanker, it was built in 2024 by New Times Shipbuilding Co Ltd and delivered to Chinese owners associated with the China Development Bank, just a year ago.

The ship is named for the Nobel prize winning American author, teacher and editor (1931-2019), but I do not know what "CL" stands for. Other ships in the fleet, managed by Synergy Denmark A/S, are also named for female authors and have the CI prefix.

The unusual angle for the preceeding photos was due to my outlook from the Shearwater Married Quarters park where I positioned myself to photograph the arrival of an unusual naval visitor.

 FS Tourville S637 is a Suffren class nuclear attack submarine of the French navy. It is also quite new, and was commissioned November 16, 2024. (Construction started in 2011).

The boat (subs are called boats) was met by an entourage of two Glen and two Ville class tugs and several small craft.  

The Royal Canadian Navy will be in the market for submarines soon, and let's hope they can avoid the controversy the Australians had when they cancelled plans to buy French subs and paid a monetary penalty. Canada already abandonded an earlier scheme to buy French non-nuclear subs.

The good news for the RCN, Irving Shipbuilding and Halifax in general, is the announcement that an $8 billion deal has been signed for the first six years of construction of the new RCN River class destroyers. Halifax Shipyard will build an initial tranche of three destroyers at an estimated cost of $22.2 billion (all in with taxes, equipment, and even ammunition), with the remaining ships to be delivered by 2039. (Total dollar numbers and even dates at this stage must be considered wildly optimistic at best in my opinion.)

Work is well under way on the new berth at the Shipyard. McNally Construction has been dredging, preparing seabottom and building caissons for the new pier and launch facility.

The Shipyard will employ more than 5,000 people, ensuring that Halifax's boom times continue as the remaining twelve ships (fifteen ships in total) are built at the yard. 

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