ONE Minato - back again, ditto for H Mercury and NYK Rumina

 ONE Minato

 The ONE Minato was back in Halifax again today, December 18, after a month. The ship first called here on November 18 on THE Alliance's EC5 service. As reported here, the ship is the tenth and last of the Milau class built for K-Line and operating for the Japanese joint venture Ocean Network Express. 

When the ship was last here it was westbound from Asia. It sailed frrom Cai Mep, Vietnam October 1 and called at Singapore October 4 to 6 and Colombo October 14 to 15. It sailed directly for Halifax, via the Cape of Good Hope, arriving November 18 and sailing November 19. After calls in New York November 21 to 23, Norfolk November 27 to 30, it then visited Savannah December 2 to 3 and Charleston December 7  to 8. It arrived off Halifax about December 12 and was standing by offshore until yesterday, when it tied up at Pier 41.

It sailed today in bright sunshine. Unlike its last call on a dull day, its magenta hull colour stood out in bright contrast to the black rocks of Point Pleasant Park.

The 152,180 gt, 146,696 dwt ship has a capacity of 13,900 TEU. It was built by Imabari Zosen in Mihara, Japan and delivered in July 2018. Oddly on leaving port today it gave New York as its destination. This backtracking seems odd, but may be the result of schedule slippage, and as the ship is heading eastbound again it appears lightly loaded, so has capacity for more cargo. It may be picking up cargo for another ship that may have been delayed a week or two.

The Atlantic Maple and Atlantic Ash provide the required double tethered escort as the ship is outbound in ideal conditions.

H Mercury

ZIM 's ZCX service has been seeing some different ships recently, as the former feeder route has been extended to inclued the west coast of South America service. Larger ships have been introduced, but as with many ships, the arrivals and departures have been at night with little chance to see or photograph them. One of those different ships has been the H Mercury which first called here October 9 and was back November 13. The ship arrived again yesterday at PSA Fairview Cove and sailed this morning.

 As with previous calls the ship was well loaded with reefers. Built in 2022 by Jiangsu Yangzi Xinfu Shipbuilding in Jingjiang, China. At 28,848 gt, 24,468 dwt, it has a capacity of 1800 TEU and has 250 reefer plugs. Owners are listed as Yangze Mercury Shipping Pte incorporated in Singapore. (No idea what the H stands for).

NYK Rumina

Another regular caller and member of the Daedalus class, NYK Rumina took the vacated space at PSA Fairview Cove almost as soon as possible, with H Mercury taking a wide turn out into Bedford Basin to make room for the inbound NYK Rumina.

 The tug Atlantic Ash, having undocked the H Mercury, scoots past the inbound off Pier 9C on its way to its next assignment. It is rare to see such close quarters work in the Narrows.

 

The H Mercury turned way to the north in Bedford Basin making lots of room.

 Built in 2010 by Hyundai, Samho, NYK Rumina is a 55,534 gt, 66,171 dwt ship with capacity of around 4888 TEU (or 4922 by some accounts) including 330 reefer plugs.

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Two ACLs and Fairivew Festivities

 Atlantic Container Line is a pioneering company in the shipping container revolution and a prime customer of the Port of Haifax since 1969. It currently operates five Container and RoRo ships (CONROs) that call in Halifax weekly eastbound and westbound. This fourth generation of ships, termed G4s, are the world's largest of their type and use the PSA Fairview Cove terminal.

Because they are such common sights in the harbour they do not generate much interest. However they really are important and deserve more attention. They were built specifically for their current route, and are the largest ships to regularly sail through the Narrows to Bedford Basin.

Up to four times a week ACL's G4 ships transit the Narrows and pass beneath the harbour bridges - always an impressive sight.

Once or twice a year two of the ships are in Halifax at the same time. Todays arrival (above) the Atlantic Star is westbound from Liverpool. Already in port, the Atlantic Sun (below) was preparing to sail eastbound for Antwerp.

 

The challenge to get both (huge) ships in one photo is a difficult one.

This time the outbound ship moved well out into the Basin to leave lots of room for the inbound. A view from the Africville Park was the best I could do.

Once the ship was securely alongside, the terminal's ship to shore cranes were moved into position and some of the Rubber Tired Gantires (RTGs) were fired up.

The terminal's older (yellow) Liebherr RTGS have recently (see previous posts) been supplemented with four orange coloured Kone RTGs from PSA's South End Container Terminal (SECT). At least one of which, surprisingly, still bears the obsolete "Halterm Limited" label. Halterm was the name of the SECT under its orginal management and was kept when Macquarie Infrastructure Partners took over in 2007. However PSA International dispensed with the name (which had acquired generic stature in many minds) when they became operators in 2019, and most were soon painted over.

A close inspection of the nearest RTG revealed a surprise visitor.

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Shipyard Find

 A CBC Radio interview today, December 17, reported that portions of the ill-fated French ship Mont Blanc were recovered during dredging operations at Halifax Shipyard. The "large" pieces were removed from the harbour bottom and landed but their location is not currently known. There are now calls for preserving the pieces as part of a larger Halifax Explosion Museum. 

 (The Maritime Musem of the Atlantic already devotes a large area to the explosion and is home to CSS Acadia, a ship that was actually present in Halifax at the time of the explosion.)

(They have also compiled a listing of all the ships involved in one way or another with the event. It can be found in this Wikipedia entry:

https://maritimemuseum.novascotia.ca/research/ships-halifax-harbour-explosion

 

On December 6, 1917 the outbound Norwegian owned ship IMO, in port to load relief supplies for Belgium, and the inbound Mont Blanc heavily laden with explosives, collided in the Narrows of Halifax harbour. The impact dislodged chemicals, triggering a fire on the Mont Blanc. Within minutes the ship exploded leveling the Richmond district in the north end of Halifax, The largest man-made explosion until the atomic blasts of the Second World War, resulted in the deaths of at least 1,782 people, injured 9,000 and left many thousands homeless.

Immediately following the explosion a pressure wave washed the IMO ashore in Dartmouth. However the burning Mont Blanc had been abandoned by its crew and drifted ashore on the Halifax side of the Narrows at Pier 6 (which was then a finger pier, extending out from shore) before the explosion. The force of the explosion had propelled some parts of the ship airborne, including an anchor fluke, which landed some miles away. The ship was essentially obliterated. (The Mont Blanc crew made it to the Dartmouth shore and tried to warn residents about the danger, but were not understood as they spoke only French.) 

The immediate area of the explosion, at Pier 6, now termed "Ground Zero" - has been built over several times, but that is not where the current dredging is going on. That work is at the area well to the south at the Machine Shop Wharf. That is the area where the interviewee believes that the remains of the Mont Blanc are resting. I suggest caution in making such an identification without more study. The Mont Blanc has been well documented, and it should be possible to confirm the identity of the recovered material. 

The area of current activity at the Shipyard, with Fort Needham and the Richmond area in the backgtound.

 In the months following the explosion, the shipyard was returned to operation as a vital asset for ship repair during wartime. I venture to say little time was spent documenting the explosion aftermath, but there were several other ship and boat losses in the general area, and all nearby buildings were flattened. Considerable debris no doubt ended up in the water, some of it at least must have been steel plate. 

In May 1918, only five months later, Prime Minister Robert Borden, expropriated the shipyard (which in those days was called the Halifax Graving Dock Company), at a fraction of its value, for his own political agenda, which included building a fleet of Canadian Government owned merchant ships to replace war losses. Facilites at the shipyard were then upgraded and rebuilt for shipbuilding. (Inicidentally the shipyard was handed over to Borden's cronies and it evolved into the Dominion Steel and Coal Company - at one time Canada's largest industrial enterprise. The Canadian Government Merchant Marine was a huge fiasco with the ships completed after the war was over, and sold off at a fraction of their building cost.)

Another rebuild took place in World War II when the shipyard again became vital in repairing war damaged ships, and late in the war, building warships.

In recent years Halifax Shipyard has been completely rebuilt again under the National Shipbuilding Strategy.  Work is currently underway to build a new pier face as part of the upgrades needed to build, fit out and maintain the new River class destroyers for the Royal Navy. That work is in the area where the shipyard once had floating drydocks and at the Machine Ship Wharf - at the farthest south end of the Shipyard (farthest away from Pier 6). The floating drydocks have long since been sold and removed. The sea bottom has now been dredged, graded and partly filled and new concrete caissons floated into place and submerged to form the new pier face, farther out from shore than the old shoreline. It is not surprising that material has been recovered from the bottom in that area but it is certainly hasty to identify it as from the Mont Blanc. The orginal Machine Shop was destroyed in the explosion and the four finger piers in the area were filled over and a single wharf, parallel to shore was built, becoming the present Machine Shop Wharf.

Whether there was any pre-construction archaelogy done or any guidelines for uncovered artefacts during the current dredging program is unknown. There was more concern related to the removal and safe disposal of hazardous materials from the sea bottom, such as heavy metals. All the dredge spoil was to be moved to Woodside where it was to be prepared for removal to a safe disposal site on shore.

When the area of Pier 6 (actually Piers 6, 7 and 8) was rebuilt in 2012-2013, tons of artefacts were uncovered and scrapped, or reburied, with little or no attention paid to any historic significance. They were far more likely to have been relevant to the explosion.

It is unfortunate that ill-informed opinion will detract from well meaning efforts to memorialize the Richmond area and the lives lost in 1917.

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More Boskalis, less MSC, plus one

1.  Boskalis 

 Today, December 16, saw the arrival of another Boskalis-owned semi-submersible, heavy load carrier - the Triumph. This is quite a different sub-species of the category however. Instead of a purpose-built ship (see yesterday's long story) this one is a conversion.

 The Triumph started out as the Suezmax crude oil tanker Marble, built by Brodosplit in Croatia in 1992. It was a 77,931 gt, 149,999 dwt ship. As it neared fifteen years of age its owners, the Norwegian company Frontline, opted to sell the ship and the Dutch company Dockwise snapped it up. They sent it to the COSCO Guangdong shipyard where the existing cargo section was removed and scrapped and a new 130m x 44.5m mid-body was inserted. The bow and stern sections were then heavily modified to make the ship semi-submersible. Also an auxiliary navigation bridge was installed on the forepeak for use when visibility from the main bridge is blocked by deck cargo. The "new" Triumph, completed in 2008, was reduced from 269.0m overall length to 216.86m , with revised tonnages of 42,525 gt and 53,818 dwt.

Chinese shipyards made similar conversions, using ships with good maintenance records and reliable engines. The Triumph has a 6 cylinder MAN / B&W Diesel main engine rated at 13,364 kW, built under license by Brododplit, which was likely a factor in its selection.

On arrival in Halifax today it headed for anchorage in Bedford Basin, quite near its fleetmate Forte. Unlike that ship, this one has a deck load consisting of wind turbine pylon components.

 Triumph heading north into Bedford Basin with the Forte in the distance.

The visible pylon section carried the designation AJ 06, which indictes it is likely headed for the Wineyard Wind project, where 62 wind turbines are to be installed offshore Massachusetts.

This is not the Triumph's first call in Halifax. On its previous visit January 8 to January 11, 2011, it showed its versatility by lifting the jack-up drilling rig Rowan Gorilla III.

2. MSC

The movement of containers left in Halifax during the Montreal port workers strike last month continued today with MSC Sagitta III taking another turn. The ship arived yesterday on its second call under a coasting license to carry stranded containers from Halifax to Montreal, and other empties to balance supply. It docked at PSA Fairview Cove where the majority of boxes seemed to have been stored. This morning it moved to PSA Atlantic Hub, but first it did a 360 turn in Bedford Basin, then went to anchor in the lower harbour until berth 41 was vacated.

 

MSC applied to use both MSC Sagitta III and MSC Baltic III for an estimated three trips each between Halifax and Montreal under the coasting license by the completion date of December 31.

The berth at Pier 41 was occupied by the CMA CGM Lapérouse, but it sailed at noon time, and MSC Sagitta III moved in shortly after.

 

 3. Plus One

The Shipfax TMU (terrestrial mobile unit) was kept scurrying today to catch all the action, which also included an Autoport caller. The Traviata appeared in Wallenius Wilhelmsen colours, which have been applied within the last year. 

 The Dominion Rumbler scurries ahead to handle the ship's head lines to the mooting buoy off Autoport.

When the ship was here December 27, 2023 it was still wearing the Wallenius Lines white over green hull colour.

The ship was built in 2019 by Tianjin Xingang, to the HERO class design used by both Wallenius and Wilhelmsen. It must have beeen one of the last - or indeed the last - ship to use the old Wallenius colour scheme. Since it was due for a five year survey in 2023 it was probably repainted during the drydocking.

The 73,358 gt, 23,889 dwt ship, has a capacity of 7656 RT43 autos, and mounts a 320 tonne SWL stern ramp. As with most modern autocarriers it has no side ramp.

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Sub sandwich

 Today's photo "catch of the day" was the container ship NYK Meteor, but the picture was sandwiched between two semi-submersibles.

The semi-submersible Forte arrived mid-morning from Rotterdam and went directly to anchor deep in Bedford Basin.

A heavy load carrier, built in 2012 by Guangzhou International, it is measured at 36,653 gt and 48,312 dwt. It is semi-submersible to a draft of 26 meters, allowing it to float on and float off large cargoes.

The ship is a fleet mate, but smaller version, of the White Marlin which arrived in Halifax October 25 carrying a topside structure for Vineyard Wind. It sailed November 3 for Sydney, NS arriving there November 7 (and it is still there.)

 White Marlin in Halifax, October 25.

The ships were once at the centre of a major legal proceeding. In 2012 the company Fairstar Heavy Transport had taken delivery of two new semi-submersible heavy load carriers, Fjord and Fjell, with options for two more of the same class on order: Forte, Finesse. Another company, Dockwise, commenced a hostile takeover but some managers of Fairstar had ordered a fifth ship, to be called Fathom, "off book" (that is without financing in place and without the knowledge of the corporate Board of Directors and thus of Dockwise) as a poison pill to saddle Dockwise with more debt. Dockwise upgraded the order for the 'Fathom' and it was completed as the White Marlin. Dockwise took legal action against the four Fairstar managers. (They had also made adjustments in their compensation without the knowledge of the Board of Directors.) In 2013 Royal Bos Kalis Westminster took over Dockwise and continued the legal action. Eventually, in 2019, the Fairstar directors were found jointly and severally responsible and ordered to pay compensation. In 2011 the "Fathom" was valued at $110 million.

The container ship referred to above, the NYK Mercury, is another of the Daedalus class that are regular callers on THE Alliance's AL5 route from North Europe. Built by Hyundai Ulsan in 2007. The 55,534 gt, 65,935 dwt ship has a capacity of as much as 4922 TEU (some sources report 4888) and 330 reefers. 

 The ship kept its escort tug Atlantic Cedar as it made its way through the Narrows outbound for Port Everglades, FL.

The other "semi" in the sandwich was the Boabarge 37. Fresh from its transfer of AOPV 435 to Bedford Basin and its float off. (see previous post, December 9).

The barge left Halifax this afternoon for Sydney, NS in tow of the Atlantic Fir. All the AOPV's cradles and other gear have been removed, and the barge is sailing light.

 The barge was built in 2015 by Nanjing Wujiazu and comes in at 15,185 gt, 29,500 dwt, and is capable of taking a load of 30,000 tons. It is on long term charter to Irving Shipbuilding Inc, but still retains Norwegian registry. Each time it is to be used ISI applies for a coasting license. It has been used to transfer ships components, such as bow and signal mast, from Woodside to the Halifax Shipyard, and has been used as a launch platform for all six Arctic and Offshore Partrol Vessels. 

So far no application has been made to use the barge elsewhere in Canada, but since it is heading for Sydney, I expect it will have something to do with Vineyard Wind. Sydney is the staging area for the construction of that project. (The same may apply to the Forte also).

Footnote:

Another semi-submersible heavy cargo carrier is arriving tomorrow, December 16. There will be more about the Triumph when it hoves into view.

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Where the Action is - Part 2

 It was turnabout today, December 14 as most of the harbour action shifted to the south end of the port.

Arriving at Pier 42, PSA Atlantic Hub (South End Container Terminal) was the MSC Kim from Sines, Portugal on MSC's Med Canada run. The ship is en route to Montreal and will be dropping off a few boxes here to reduce draft to meet St. Lawrence River restrictions.

Built in 2008 by Zhejiang Yangfan in Ningbo, it is a 41,225 gt, 56,395 dwt ship with a container capacity of 4254 TEU with 500 reefer slots. It is also a speedster, rated at 23.5 knots, and is especially impressive while underway doing 20 knots at light draft.

Next along was the Eagle II from Cuba for Nirint Shipping. It berthed at Pier 27 where it will use its own gear to unload.

The odd configuration of the deck load is to allow access to the hold where the cargo of nickel sulfides, in bulk cargo bags, can be accessed without having to move any containers.

The Eagle II was built in 2006 by Shandong Weihai Shipyard in Weihai, China. It measures 15,633 gt, 16,986 dwt and can carry 1306 TEU including 258 reefers, but can also carry general cargo and break bulk. It is fitted with a pair of 45 tonne SWL cranes. It sailed orginally as Hooge for Briese Schiffsharts. It was renamed Eagle II in 2022 by obscure Liberian owners and operates under charter to the Dutch company Nirint Lines.

Vacating the berth at Pier 41 the MSC Pamela sailed for Norfolk on the Indus Express route, a fairly recent addition to MSC's Halifax calls.

The ship dates from 2005 when it was handed over by Samsung Shipbuilding, Geoje, South Korea. The 108,930 gt, 132,035 dwt ship has a capacity of 9300 TEU and at the time had the largest container capacity of any ship. 

[How times have changed: MSC has just confirmed an order for ten ships of 24,000 TEU. In September they ordered ten 21,000 TEU ships bringing their total order book to 2 million TEU. All the ships are to be alternate or dual fuel / LNG.]

As the MSC Pamela was outbound the next ship for berth 41 was inbound, also on the Indus Express, direct from Colombo. The Karlskrona has a longer and more varied history, and does not carry a traditional MSC name. 

The Karlskrona had been standing by off Halilfax for a couple of days during periods of high winds, along with several other ships, including the ONE Cygnus which was silhouetted in its position in an outer anchorage.

Odense Staalskibs in Lindø, Denmark built the ship for its parent company AP Moller-Maersk in 1996. Named Karen Maersk until 2008 it became Maersk Karlskrona until 2016 then MSC Karlskrona to 2018 when it was renamed Karl, briefly, in 2018 and then Maersk Karlskrona. In 2023 it took its present name. The 81,488 gt, 96,103 dwt ship has a capacity of 7403 TEU with 703 reefer plugs.

There was another transfer of rubber tired gantries (RTGs) this afternoon, as the two units (numbers 79  and  80) were moved aboard the barge Atlantic Swordfish at Pier 39. The tug Atlantic Larch then took the barge on the hip and headed for PSA Fairvwiew Cove, with the Atlantic Beaver. [A previous transfer took place on December 11 - see post.]

These RTGs are relatively new, having arrived in Halifax from Kone cranes on February 6, 2020 aboard the ship Spuigracht. With eight new electric RTGs now in service at the SECT, these units can see continued service at Fairview Cove, replacing some older units.

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Where the Action Is

 Once again today, Friday December 13, much of the activity was in the far north end of Halifax Harbour at Pier 9C and in Bedford  Basin.

In chronological order: it was the movement of the offshore installation vessel Symphony from Pier 9C to Pier 9A. The ship has been idle (with some fitting out) in Halifax for months, with fleet mate Connector, awaiting the call to work on an undisclosed project, likely the Vineyard Wind project in the United States. Yesterday it moved from Pier 9A to Pier 9C to make room for the cable ship IT Integrity. In order to make the move the Symphony went out into Bedford Basin, turned, then when the traffic cleared (see below) it came back in alongside Pier 9A.

 The impressive ship belongs to the Dredging + Maritime Management division of the Jan De Nul Group of Belgium. The ship is registered in Luxembourg.

It was built in 2011 as the Fugro Symphony and was renamed Global Symphony in 2017, then becoming Symphony in 2022. The 11,324 gt, 6500 dwt ship is equipped for trenching work, with an onboard ROV, a 150 tonne crane, and can accommodate 105 persons.

Next along in the Narrows was the auto carrier Mignon a familiar caller on the Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean transatlantic service. It went to Bedford Basin to turn before coming alongside at Pier 9C while the Symphony stood by well north in the anchorages.

Mignon is owned by Wallenius Lines AB of Sweden and was built in 1999 by Daewoo Heavy Industres, Okpo, South Korea. Originally it measured 57,018 grt, 14,841 dwt. In 2005 it was taken in hand by Hyundai-Vinashin Shipyard Co Ltd in Ninh Hoa, Vietnam and lengthened 29 meters by inserting a new section amidships. This 12 deck structure increased tonnages to 67,264 grt, 28,126 dwt and the car carrying capacity from about 3,000 to 7,194 units (Lane length increased from 5700m to 6840m). The ship's stern ramp is rated at 120 tonne capacity. There is also a small side ramp.

Ships of Wallenius Line and Wilhelmsen have been given a common colour scheme, but they are still owned and managed by the individual component companies. There are still traces of the old colour schemes, such as this ship's name board in the gold and green of the old Wallenius funnel colours.

The ship is flying the flag of Canada as a courtesy, the flag of Sweden, where the ship is registered, and, barely visible, the Wallenius flag -  green with a gold W. Normally ships fly the red and white "Hotel" flag when they have a pilot aboard, but I could not see one this time.

When the Mignon was safely alongside the Symphony came back from the Basin to Pier 9C, which had by this time been vacated by the IT Integrity.

 Built in 2001, its hull came from Aker Tulcea and it was completed by Soviknes Verft, Sovik. The 2244 gt, 3200 dwt supplier was named Highland Fortress and worked for several Tidewater operations in Europe until 2020 when IT International Telecom acquired the ship and converted it for cable work (including laying, repair, plough burying and ROV splicing). It is based in Halifax but spends extended periods away from port depending on cable work. It is now headed for Rose Blanche, NL according to AIS.

 If all of this was not enough activity, the container ship MSC Baltic III departed PSA Fairview Cove, headed for Montreal. 

 The ship is working between Halifax and Montreal on a coasting license in order to move the large number of containers stranded in Halifax from the port workers strike in Montreal. With fleet mate MSC Sagitta III, also with a coasting license, they have until December 31 to move the boxes. Both ships were taken off MSC's Canada Gulf Bridge service but the MSC Baltic III is scheduled to sail from Montreal December 24 on that service, so this may be its last call in Halifax.

There are still lots of MSC containers in Halifax, but they are mostly regular traffic by now.

 Once the MSC Baltic had cleared the west berth at Fairview Cove, the Oceanex Sanderling moved in from anchorage #7 to finish loading for Newfoundland. The ship usually anchors over night after working cargo at Autoport.

It is due to sail for St. John's early this evening.

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