Two Grachts, etc.,

The Amsterdam based Spliethoff Group, which includes Big Lift Shipping and Forestwave, operates about 145 ships. The company has found several niches for trade that can take their ships to the four corners of the earth. Even so it is rare to have two of their ships in the Port of Halifax on the same day (but not at the same time.)

Today, November 11 was such a day, and despite it being a national day of remembrance, there was some activity in the port. The truck gates at the two container terminals were closed, but the two ships at PSA Fairview Cove sailed in the morning.

The first to sail was the Jamaica followed a bit later by the Muntgracht [see yesterday's post.]

The Jamaica ex ZIM Luanda outbound in the Narrows this morning has cleared the A. Murray MacKay bridge and is passing Pier 9 (left background).

The Muntgracht with a deck load of unusual objects sailed from Fairview Cove and is headed for Matane, QC. Number one hatch has been left clear for future load or unload. That port handles a variety of cargoes including export of paper pulp, import of wind turbine components and due to a train and car ferry services to Baie Comeau and Sept-Iles, can also transship other products.

The second "Gracht" (Dutch for 'canal') arrived this afternoon From Belfast and docked at Pier 9C.  

One of Spliethoff's niche trades is yacht transport, and on this trip, it is carrying new boats representing several models from the same builder. 

Since visiting the Great Lakes in early September, the ship has been to Naples September 30 to October 3, Gdansk October 10-18, then Belfast October 28 -29. On sailing today the ship gave Palm Beach as its destination. (Despite having been to the Lakes, the ship does not appear to have suffered the same case of "lock rash" as its fleet mate.)

On arrival the ship made a neat turn off the dock, assisted by the Atlantic Oak and came alongside starboard side to. 

 

Predictably, the ship off loaded a large aircraft component package (loaded in Belfast), which was landed directly on a trombone (extendible) truck trailer and whisked away.

The Floretgracht is a member of Spliethoff's "F"class and is similar to the "M" class, and was also built in 2012, but by Jiangsu Yangzi Changbo Shipyard Co Ltd. The 8620 gt, 12,500 dwt ship is a multi-purpose type with box shaped holds and full width hatches. It has three cranes rated at 80 tonnes SWL, which can combine and can carry 658 TEU.

 Etc.,

There was also activity at the Irving Oil terminal in Woodside with the Algoma East Coast arriving with product from Saint John.

 And at Autoport it was the Morning Cornelia on an interesting rotation. 

 

The ship sailed from Nagoya September 5 and Toyohashi September 7 and was next reported in Sagunto (Valencia) Spain October 13. That would indicate a Suez passage, but was not reported as such in my usual sources. It then called in Portbury, UK October 18, Zeebrugge October 20-24 and Goteborg October 26 to 28. 

Built by Imabari Zosen in Japan in 2010 it is a 60,002 gt, 22,530 dwt ship with a capacity of 6,458 cars. In addition to the usual stern ramp, it has a small starboard side ramp as well.

As a bit of an update, the asphalt tanker ATB Leo A. McArthur, John J. Carrick was still unloading at the McAsphalt dock, and the orange buoy in the photo above marks the mooring point for the tanker's stern line. (seen from a different view point in the photo below). The sun was behind heavy cloud cover this morning, so there was no glare to spoil a picture.

 

Not to be left out, there was another arrival in Halifax today, the Atlantic Star made its way inbound from Liverpool and berthed at PSA Fairview Cove and then another coincidence occurred.

Later in the afternoon the big stern trawler Mersey Venture moved from its berth at COVE to an anchorage in Bedford Basin.

 It is a 2337 gt freezer trawler built in 1988. Construction was started by Tangen Verft, and completed by Langsten Slip, Tomrefjord. It fishes predominantly in the Greenland area for shrimp and cod but during seasonal layup it is often hired by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans for research work. It is likely doing some calibrations or other preparations for another research trip.

The coincidence is that it is also based in Liverpool, but not the same Liverpool. Liverpool, Nova Scotia is a small port on the southeast shore of Nova Scotia, predictably situated at the mouth of the Mersey River. (The original British settlers had a cruel sense of humour). It is home to Mersey Seafoods, owners of the trawler pictured above. 

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East Meets West and All Around the Circle

 The variety of traffic in Halifax Harbour today (November 28) was not unusual, and so is a reminder of how vital the port is to a number of aspects of the Canadian economy. The amount of traffic was due in part to yesterday's stormy weather which caused the suspension of pilotage operations until early this morning when traffic began to arrive in a ,bunch.

HMCS Fredericton was outbound this morning and met the inbound CSL Tacoma in the Middle Ground area off Point Pleasant. The Canadian frigate is named for the capital city of New Brunswick and was built in Saint John, New Brunswick by Saint John Shipbuilding Ltd. It was commissioned in 1994 and is based in Halifax.

CSL Tacoma operates for CSL Americas and was named for the sister city to Seattle, WA, which occupies the southernmost reaches of Puget Sound. CSL operates ships on the Pacific coast also, often carrying aggregates from Canadian quarries to US cities such as Tacoma. Oddly there is a Tacoma Drive in Dartmouth, NS. How it acquired that name is not known to me, but it is in the Westphal area, which in itself is named for a pair of brother Royal Navy admirals, originally from Nova Scotia. One of the brothers, Sir George Augustus Alexander Westphal, served with Nelson (and was also wounded) on HMS Victory, and was the last surviving RN officer from the batle of Trafalgar when he died at age 90 in 1875.)

CSL Tacoma is a Trillium class self-unloading ocean bulker of 43,691 gt, 71,552 dwt, built in 2013 by Chengxi Shipyard in Jiangyin, China. It will load a cargo of gypsum at the Gold Bond Gypsum facility in Bedford Basin.

Also arriving to load gypsum was Algoma Integrity, also a self-unloader, built in 2009 by EISA-Ilha in Rio de Janeiro. It was built for the United States Gypsum Company's Gypsum Transportation Ltd, and named Gypsum Integrity, Designed to serve their Hantsport and Little Narrows, Nova Scotia export facilities, it measured 33,047 gt, 47,761 dwt. When USG's Canadian subsidury Canadian Gypsum Corp (CGC) closed the Hantsport facility in 2011 the ship was chartered out and in 2015 was sold to Algoma and renamed Algoma Integrity. CGC closed the Little Narrows mine in 2016, but earlier this year announced the re-opening, although it will be some time before they ship any product.

Algoma Integrity will remain at anchor in Bedford Basin until the CSL Tacoma sails.

Lingering waves from yesterday's storm brought out some hardy surfers off Point Pleasant as ship traffic made its way inbound.

Another of those early arrivals was the container ship BF Fortaleza for the first time for Melfi Shipping of Cuba. The ship stood by off Halifax most of yesterday and boarded its pilot for 0700 hrs AST this morning.

It tied up at Pier 42 and so had a view of a lobster boat working just off the pier. The lobster season in this region opened a day early, on Sunday November 26, in view of the predicted weather for the usual opening day - the last Monday in November. I was surprised to see the boat however as there is a newly imposed ban this year on lobstering in many areas of Halifax harbour close to industrial and port facilities.

BF Fortaleza was built by the famed, but now defunct, J.J.Sietas shipyard in Nuenfeld, Germany in 1996. It was launched as Partnership but renamed Yvette on delivery. It became Partnership again from 2003 to 2004 then City of Lisbon until 2005, Carla until 2009 and WEC Rubens until 2011.  The 6362 gt, 7202 dwt ship has a capacity of 700 TEU, and unusual for Melfi, it is gearless.

Another ship that spent yesterday standing by off Halifax arrived this morning for Imperial Oil. The oddly named Silver Ginny is an otherwise typical Mid-Range tanker of 29,460 gt, 49,746 dwt, built in 2014 by Hyundai Mipo, Ulsan.

The ship is arriving from Good Hope -Norco, Louisiana, an area upstream of New Orelans on the Mississippi River, and home to two large refineries. Shell Oil's Norco refinery produces 250,000 bbl per day and Valero's St. Charles refinery produces 340,000 bbl per day. Both also produce a variety of chemicals. Since Shell and Valero are competitors of Imperial (Exxon Mobil) today's cargo is likely part of an elaborate trade off mechanism to meet a specific need.

The ship is owned by Sinokor Petrochemical Co Ltd which has several ships named "silver + woman's name".

Rounding off the arrivals was the westbound Atlantic Sky from Liverpool, UK.

Once again the weakness of Transatlantic trade is evident with the very light deck load. Most Atlantic ports are showing a decline in traffic after a few years of dependably steady traffic or slight growth. Halifax and Montreal are no excepetions to this trend. The Port of Halifax saw a 12.9% decline in container traffic in the third quarter of 2023 over last year. That gives a year to date total of 409,000 TEU versus the 2022 YTD of 448,000 TEU. The year 2022 saw a record 601,700 TEU throughput (import + export). This year's projection may be be in the range of an 8% to 10% decline.

There were some small craft at work in the harbour too. The Halifax Port Corporation's own workboat Maintainer I was spotted at Pier 23 working on the removal of inflatable fenders for the winter. The fenders, commonly called Yokohama fenders (which is a trade name of the Yokohma Rubber Co) are deployed at cruise ship berths to protect visiting ships from impact with the piers. The resilient surfaces sometimes attract marine growth which is removed before they are set out again in the spring.

Built by A.F.Theriualt + Sons Ltd in Meteghan River, NS in 1995 it is a 12 gt vessel with a 210 bhp engine driving a single screw. It is equipped with a substantial Palfinger knuckle boom crane with a lifting capacity of up to 3.3 tonnes.

Nearby was the Canadian Coast Guard boat Point Caveau a 31.9 gt aluminum hulled work boat built in 2003 by ABCO in Lunenburg, NS. The 14.6m (47.9 ft) vessel has reputed top speed of 30 knots.

I think the Pointe Caveau was displaced from its usual inside berth at the Bedford Institute by construction of the new section of dock. Also displaced from BIO was CCGS Jean Goodwill which has been tied up at Pier 9C for the last couple of days. (November 27 photo)

The ship took on stores today and sailed on SAR patrol as CCGS Sir William Alexander arrived.

With lobster season now underway from in Areas 33 and 34, from Halifax down the southwest shore and around the western end of the province to Digby, Coast Guard SAR patrols are stepped up due to the hundreds of small craft in coastal waters.

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Lee update

 Although there was coastal flooding and shore erosion due to the storm surge, Post Tropical storm Lee did not create the widespread damage to boats and harbours that last year's Hurrucane Fiona did. That is not to belittle the impact of the storm - it was severe - but perhaps it was as much due to wise precautions as to the somewhat less powerful distrurbance.

As previously noted ships vacated Halifax harbour and went well offshore to the east as the storm tracked across mainland Nova Scotia on Septmber 16. For instance the container ship ZIM Iberia which cleared Halifax on Friday September 15 and was destined for New York, instead headed northeasterly and was spotted on AIS well offshore. Similarly the cruise ship Zaandam which sailed on the 15th got ahead of the storm and made for CornerBrook, NL after a day or more at sea.

The heavy load ship GPO Sapphire, which had been anchored off Halifax made for the shelter of Chedabucto Bay. It likely did not anchor because with its Dynamic Positioning capability, it was able to keep station. The huge windage of its deck load of six wind turbine tower components could have put unbearable strain on conventional anchors and chain.

GPO Sapphire anchored off Halifax on September 13.

Speaking of anchors however, the stress was too much for one of those red white and blue navy trot buoys off Macnab's Cove (on the right and left of the photo above.) It and a green navigation buoy were spotted adrift in the harbour, but were later coralled by tugs.

Coastal tankers sought shelter too with Acadian off Lismore and Big Island to the eastern of the Northumberland Strait. (It was bound for Charlottetown.)

Algoscotia and Mia Desgagnés were in St.Ann's Bay (northeast coast of Cape Breton) and not far away the cruise ship Norwegian Joy (which had been due in Halifax September 17) stood by off Wreck Cove (an inauspicious name under the circumstances.)

That made today (Monday, September 18) a double header Norwegian day in Halifax with both Norwegian Joy and Norwegian Pearl in at the same time. They were joined by the Pearl Mist which must have had a rough time of it en route from Portland, ME.

 Wind gusts of 117 kph (72 miles per hour) were recorded at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport (well inland) and there were power outages all over NovA Scotia and New Brunswick. Ship Centreal Eastern (- the home of Shipfax) was without electricity for 28 hours from roughly 0715 hrs ADT Saturday, September 16 to 1100 hrs Sunday, September 17.

The storm was well passed by Sunday, Septemeber 17, but the only commercial activity in the harbour was the arrival and departure of the EM Kea on the Maersk / CMA CGM St-Laurent 1 service. It would normally have been here on Saturday en route from Montreal to Bremerhavem but can quite likely make up the time on the long transatlantic leg.

By today harbour activity had returned to normal (ferry service had been suspended on Saturday for example) with comings and goings at both container terminals. 

CMA CGM Mexico (15,000 plus TEU) made its call (westbound from Tanger Med) at PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway, along with Tropic Hope...

 ... and Atlantic Sky at PSA Fairview Cove (west bound en route for New York).

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Meet starboard to starboard

 When ships "meet" they usually do so "port to port" following the rules of the road agreed upon by seafarers for centuries. However they may also meet starboard to starboard by mutual agreement. That is much easier when the two ships can communicate verbally, and in a common language.

Such was the case today March 4, when the inbound MSC Melissa met the outbound Atlantic Sky just off the south end of PSA Halifax's Pier C. The pilots on the two ships had agreed on the meet by VHF radio and carefully adjusted their speeds to coordinate the passing.

The Atlantic Sky is eastbound for Liverpool, UK and has hardly any containers on deck - a sure sign of a sagging economy. 

MSC Melissa is not new to Halifax - it was here previously on July 13, 2021 for Canadian Food Inspection Agency clearance en route from New York to Montreal. This time it is eastbound on MSC's Indusa service from US East Coast ports to Saudi Arabia, India and Sri Lanka.

Built for MSC in 2002  by Hyundai, Ulsan, the 73,819 gt, 85,786 dwt vessel has a capacity of 6730 TEU including 400 reefers. 

 With the tugs Atlantic Fir forward and Altantic Beaver aft the MSC Melissa made its way in to Pier 42. Heavy snow fall (about 30 cm, close to a foot) March 2-3 has been cleared away at the terminal, so should not cause delays.

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Still at full steam and "Why This"

PSA Halifax's Atlantic Gateway is still processing a quite steady stream of ships. They continue to arrive, some from offshore anchorage where they have been waiting their turn.

Today's arrivals (October 3) started (in the dark) with Tropic Lissette for Tropical Shipping. The next arrivals were in full daylight this afternoon. 

Lagarfoss is westbound from Reykjavik and is en route to Portland , ME.

 The Lagarfoss has been a regular since 2014 when it was built by Rongcheng Shenfei Shipbuilding Co Ltd in Rongcheng, China. Measuring 10,119 gt, 11,811 dwt it has a capacity for 880 TEU (875 according to Eimskip) and carries a pair of 45 tonne SWL cranes. It likely has a good many reefer  plugs, but I can't find a reference to the number.

Also arriving this afternoon was MSC Aniello en route from Italy, via Sines, Portugal for Montreal for MSC's Canada Express 1.

 A 40,631 gt, 56,903 dwt ship with a capacity of 4056 TEU, including 150 reefers, it was built in 2000 by Hanjin Heavy Industry + Construction Co Ltd, Busan. On arrival it took the centre berth at Pier C, between Tropic Lissette at Pier 41 and Lagarfoss at Pier 42.

The brand new cruise ship Norwegian Prima arrived in Halifax for the first time this morning. I was mystified as to why it was assigned to Pier 31 when there were no ships scheduled for the usual berths at Piers 20, 21 and 22.

The ship was delivered by Fincantieri Marghera on July 29 of this year and entered service in August - the first of a projected six ships in the Prima class. At 143,535 gt it is a huge ship with a capacity of 3,215 passengers (lower berths).
 

Once alongside it was apparent why the ship went to Pier 31. It has what appear to be pairs of spiral waterslides projecting out from the ship's sides. These overhang the dock to such an extent that they would interfere with the port's gangway structures, and the buildings at Piers 20 to 22. To eliminate any such risk, the ship docked at the open pier - which is hardly welcoming to cruise ship passengers. (Due to port industrial activity there, pedestrain access is not permitted - passengers are bused to the Pier 22 terminal.)

Of course I consider these apppendages to be ridiculous, but the Norwegian Cruise Line (incorporated in Bermuda and headquartered in Miami) apparently knows what sells, and (quite obviously) are not concerned about traditional ship's lines. The ship is due again on October 8.

Another arrival this afternoon was Atlantic Sky from Antwerp for Atlantic Container Line, docking at PSA Fairview Cove.

As mentioned in a previous post, dockworkers in Liverpool, UK initiated job action eleven days ago, but have now returned to work and entered negotiations with the employer. They may walk out again October 11 to 17 if there is no agreement on demands. Atlantic Sky last called in Liverpool September 16-18, but has skipped the port westbound, calling instead at Antwerp (eastbound September 20-21), Hamburg (September 22-23) and Antwerp (westbound, September 24-26).

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Some New Names, Some Familiar

 There were some "new to Halifax" arrivals today, July 18 and some familiar returns.

 New 1

An early morning arrival was the IT Infinity, an offshore support vessel re-purposed for cable work for IT International Telecom. It tied up at the company's marine base at Pier 9A where workers were at the ready with a crane and other gear to fit the ship out.

It was built in 2008 by Aker Tulcea in Turkey (and likely completed at Brattvaag, Norway) to a ST-216L CD platform supplier design. The diesel electric vessel is ice strengthened. Named Volstad Princess it operated under Tidewater Management until 2017 when it became Standard Princess, managed  by Fletcher Supply Vessels Ltd of Aberdeen, Scotland. IT International Telecom seems to have acquired and renamed the ship late last year. However on arrival this morning it was still wearing a "Fletcher" logo.

At some point since 2019, when it was working out of Aberdeen, posssibly for Equinor, it acquired a 75 tonne SWL deck crane, mounted well aft.

It reportedly sailed from Aberdeen May 29, arriving in Cape Canaveral June 15. It left there June 19, but was back in port July 10 to 13 when it sailed for Halifax. The ship is currently flying the flag of Barbados.

New 2

Another arrival for Canadian Food Inpection Agency (CFIA) inspection put in this evening and anchored in the short term anchorage #1 in the lower harbour. The Liberian flag Marianna is en route from Itaqui (Sao Louis), Brazil with a cargo of bauxite or alumina for a port in Quebec. The ship must be declared clear of LDA moth larva by the CFIA before it is allowed to proceed to a Canadian port where the invasive species of moth could harm the coniferous forests. 

 

Built in 2010 by IHI Marine, Yokohama, it is a 31,532 gt, 55,753 dwt ship fitted with four 35 tonne SWL cranes and is equipped with four grabs.

Familiar 1

With Marianna occupying anchorage #1 the following inbound vessel passed west of George's Island, giving spectators a closeup treat. Perhaps many did not realize that the Atlantic Sky is one of five sister ships maintaining a weekly container and RoRo service for Atlantic Container Line (ACL).

 Peaking out from astern of the ship was its tethered escort, the tug Atlantic Oak, ready to provide braking and steering assistance as the ship made its way toward the PSA Fairview Cove terminal in Bedford Basin.

(The use of the pre-fix name "Atlantic" for the two vessels is coincidental - there is no connection between the Grimaldi owned Atlantic Container Line and the Irving owned Atlantic Towing Ltd.)

Familiar 2 (3,  and 4)

Tied up for the night at the Bishop's Landing area docks, were the three herring seiners that have been fishing out of Halifax for the past few weeks. They fish at night, unload their catch in the morning and rest up during the day,before putting out to sea again in the evening. However this evening they appear to be staying in port.

The largest of the three, Lady Melissa, arrived this morning (and despite appearances did not have a naval escort) and off loaded its catch at Pier 9.

 The Morning Star arrived a little later and also unloaded at Pier 9, pumping its catch into a waiting tank truck. 

It then launched its bug boat (seine skiff) and moved along the pier to land its seine net for repair.

The third boat, Fundy Monarch (the former Dual Venture of 2014), seems to have tied up without unloading, so presumably had no catch. It also eluded my lens.

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THE Alliance for the Atlantic Hub

 With Halifax's two container terminals under the common management of PSA, ships are docking at whichever terminal can handle them best. The Fairview Cove terminal is limited to ships that have air draft less than about 46 meters (plus 1.35m air gap clearance). Recently also the Fairview facility has been congested and reached its limit for landed containers. On June 14 the ACL ship Atlantic Sea was diverted to the Southend terminal for this reason. The latter terminal has no air draft or water draft restrictions and can handle the largest container ships currently calling on the east coast of North America.

That congestion has apparently been eased with additional trains running to points west. This morning, June 25, the Atlantic Sky sailed from an overnight call at Fairview Cove.

 As it was passing the southend terminal outbound for Hamburg, it passed the next inbound, which was a ship on THE Alliance's EC5 service.   Ships on this route have normally called at Fairview Cove, but this one docked at the Southend terminal - the PSA Atlantic Hub..

The Conti Crystal is a 90,449 gt, 106,930 dwt ship built by Samsung SB+HI, Koje in 2006. Delivered as Hatsu Crystal it was renamed in 2018. It has a capacity of 8084 TEU including 700 reefers.

Once it was secured at berth #41the MSC Hong Kong sailed from berth #42.

 

Although it has only recently begun to call here on MSC's CANEX1 service from the Mediterranean to Montreal, the ship used to call here under a previous name. Built in 2002 by Hyundai, Ulsan, the 53,453 gt, 66, 686 dwt ship, with a capacity of 4839 TEU, was originally named ZIM New York. It carried the name China Sea from 2004 to 2006 and then reverted to ZIM New York. During that period it called in Halifax on ZIM's ZCA service. In 2021 Costamare sold the ship, and it its now under the direct management and operation of MSC as MSC Hong Kong.

Its call in Halifax was to top up its containers to ocean going draft. It is now headed for Naples. 

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Sunday Report

 I have been spending a lot of time on posts in the last few days, so I am abbreviating this one somewhat so that I can get on with other things [i.e. I do have a life.]

 

This morning's arrival was USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul LCS 21, the latest in the ill-starred series of Littoral Combat Ships built by Fincantieri's Marinette Marine in Marinette, Wisconsin. The ship's delivery was delayed by a year in order to correct a propulsion system problem. It was commissioned May 21 in Duluth, MN - as close as they could get to its namesake twin cities - and made its way down through the Lakes and St.Lawrence Seaway with a few stops on the way including Quebec City. 

 The ship will spend the weekend at HMC Dockyard before heading off to its new homebase of Naval Station Mayport, FL.

Ships of this Freedom class have had numerous performance issues of the ships themselves, and the towed array sonar that they were supposed to tow. Now the Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) role has been assigned to another class of ships. The nine Freedom class ships currently in service are scheduled to be decommissioned next year. The oldest one is barely ten years old. Most of those ships called in Halifax on their delivery trips from the Lakes.

Another one of those carefully orchestrated "meets" between arriving and departing ships took place this afternoon as the outbound auto carrier Don Carlos [see yesterday's post] encountered the inbound Atlantic Sky.

Don Carlos took the western channel leaving the eastern channel clear for the ACL ship.

The Atlantic Sky was showing some large rust streaks, evidence of the hard service these ships maintain on the North Atlantic.

Reports that the Fairview Cove terminal is stuffed full of containers, and that there are long lines of rail cars with ACL and other containers waiting to leave Halifax has apparenely caused a backlog of ships, with Atlantic Sky forced to wait off Halifax for a time, along with NYK Rigel.

PSA Halifax's Atlantic Hub terminal in the southend is also filling up, however it has more overflow space, particularly for RoRo trailers in the Pier 29 area. Its arrival today was on the Maersk and CMA CGM's CAE / St-Laurent 1 service, arriving from Montreal.  

Three older Maersk ships have recently been replaced on the service by two newer Maersks - Maersk Vayenga [see June 6 ] and Maersk Vistula and one newer CMA CGM ship CMA CGM Montreal [see June 1 ] . The question remained about the fourth ship, and that may have been answered today with arrival of the EM Kea, the ship that has been on the run for some time, but is newer (although 2007 is not exactly new.)

The stylish EM Kea appeared to be at quite a light draft as it made its way inbound today, even though it seemed to have a large deckload. It will take on some more cargo here before heading for Europe.

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Up Close, and Up Ended

 It is always a pleasant surprise when a big ship comes in west of George's Island. The west channel, opposite the seawall of Pier 20-22, is not usually the first choice for ships whether arriving or departing, but is available if the roomier east channel is occupied. The water is actually deeper on the west side, but it is quite narrow and for larger ships, often involves a tethered stern escort tug.

Today's (May 3) calm weather was perhaps also a factor as Atlantic Sky made its way inbound with the tug Atlantic Bear in the escort role. The pair filled a 28mm wide angle lens as it cleared the corner of Pier 20.

The tug accompanied the ship through the Narrows as required. However once in Bedford Basin, the ship was able to berth without tug assistance. I am always amazed when these huge ships handle so well. The ship's tonnages are 100,430 gt, 55,828 dwt and it measures 296 m length x 37.6m breadth.

Not long after the above photo was the arrival of the Maersk Penang on the joint CAE service operated by Maersk and CMA CGM. The ships usually call in Halifax on Saturdays en route from Montreal to Bremerhavcn, Rotterdam and Antwerp (15 days). If the schedule is disrupted due to weather or ice, the ships often skip the Halifax call and sail directly from Montreal to Bremerhaven. However there must have been sufficient cargo inducement in Halifax on this trip despite a late arrival on a Tuesday.

It was also notable that the ship was piled high aft with empty containers. Two major issues facing shipping lines these days are therefore summarized here: schedule reliability and equipment availability. The huge shortage of containers in Asia can only be allieviated by ships loading as many empties as possible (even though there is no revenue from carrying them). 

Maersk Penang has a capacity of 2890 TEU with 400 reefer plugs. A rough count would give 140 to 150 or so forty foot empties perched on the afterdeck. Many appear to be reefers, but are obviously not using the reefer plugs to power them.

No one knows how many containers there are in the world, since there is no central registry or record. Estimates vary from 17 million to 55 million. (Others say bewteen 40 million and 72 million). So called 'international' or sea-going boxes are built to a different specification from land-bound intermodal types, so are not interchangeable. Most deep sea ships cannot carry the 53 footers favoured by North American truckers and shippers and can only carry 20 foot and 40 foot "sea cans". However these do vary in height at 8 ft, 8.5 ft and 9.5 ft, which explains the variation in stack heights in the photo.

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