Thin on Top

 I don't pay close attention to Atlantic Container Lines ships - they come and go, usually twice weekly- one eastbound and one westbound - and are more or less a fixture of Halifax Harbour. Today however I took particular note of the Atlantic Sun  when it was alongside at PSA Fairview Cove. 

Through a rainy-streaked windshield (thanks to Post Tropical Storm Melissa, passing by well out to sea, there was no SUN) the ship appeared to have very few containers on deck.

Sister ship Atlantic Sky had less than a full deck load when I noticed it on September 11.  

After the rush of imports for late fall (US Thanksgiving and Christmas consumer goods), cargo volumes tend to tail off, so I should not be too surprised. East bound cargoes are always lighter than westbound too, and as today's arrival is eastbound from Norfolk I guess it is to be expected that it would be lightly loaded. 

Atlantic Container Line is owned by the Italian Grimaldi Group and is one of the longest standing customers of the port.

ACL runs five 100,430 gt. 49,600 dwt, ConRo ships Atlantic Star, Sail, Sea, Sky and Sun built in 2015-2016. In addition to a modest 3800 TEU container capacity, the have immense RoRo space of 6412 linear meters, served by a 420 tonne capacity stern ramp. 

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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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Double ConRo and big changes [with a correction]

 That elusive beast the ConRo (a ship that carries both containers and Roll-on/ Roll-off cargo at the same time) is a rare sight in the world's ports these days as ships are generally built for one purpose or the other. That is to say that ships are built as (pure) container ships or cargo ships with container capability. RoRo ships are built as Pure Car and Truck Carriers (PCTs) or RoRo only. Combination carrier ConRos are more expensive to build, and generally have less capacity for each type of cargo. The use of flat rack or closed containers to transport automobiles (both licit and not) is becoming more popular too, and for the latter RoRo is not needed. The extreme efficiency of container terminals also means that the cargo is processed out the gate more quickly and less labor intensively.

However some shipping lines have found a niche for ConRos and Halifax is one of  the ports where they can be seen regularly. Atlantic Container Line (ACL) was a pioneer in the ConRo concept starting in the 1960s with its first generation ships. 

 The Atlantic Cinderlla off loads a new Volvo at the Pier 36 ramp in 1970. (Even then hardy German tourists were accompanying their Volkswagen camper vans to North America as passengers on ACL ships - a service that ACL still provides.)

 An early MAFI trailer in the foreground was used to roll cargo onto and off RoRo ships.

 

The first Atlantic Star at the RoRo ramp, Pier 36.

In anticipation of more RoRo traffic, the port built RoRo ramps into the faces of Pier 30, Pier 34, and Pier 36 before the South End Container Terminal was completed.

 ACL is now on the fourth generation of ConRos, and its five transatlantic sister ships are the largest ConRos in the world. The line maintains a weekly service with ships calling in Halifax both east and westbound. ACL's present day parent company Grimaldi is a RoRo specialist and it operates RoRos and ConRos elsewhere in the world too.

Another ConRo operator, although on a smaller scale is Oceanex Inc. The St.John's, Newfoundland based company maintains two routes: the weekly Halifax / St.John's ConRo service using the Oceanex Sanderling and the Montreal / St.John's service using the ConRo Oceanex Connaigra and the open hatch container-only Oceanex Avalon, both sailing weekly.

[It should be noted that the Oceanex RoRo is for "drop trailers" where the truck driver and his tractor unit do not travel on the ship. The Marine Atlantic service from North Sydney to Newfoundland operates both a conventional ferry service for driver, tuck and trailer (called "live trailer") and a drop trailer service, as well as limited loose freight from terminal to terminal. They also carry livestock (in trailers).]

With rationalization of container terminal operators in Halifax both ACL and Oceanex now use the PSA Fairview Cove facility. Even so it is possible to see two ConRos working at the same time, when the schedules coincide. Today, October 11, the Atlantic Sun (east bound from Norfolk) and Oceanex Sanderling (arriving today from St.John's) were both alongside at Fairview Cove. (It is rare to see two ACL ships in at the same time, but it does happen if there are weather or other delays for one ship.)

The Atlantic Sun occupied the east berth, and since its fixed stern ramp is slewed to starboard, it could still work its RoRo cargo. Oceanex Sanderling was using the built in shore side ramp at the west berth. The ship was built with a stern ramp that can be slewed through about ninety  thity-five degrees to port or to starboard, but that feature may no longer be used in Halifax*.

 Halifax is also home to a third ConRo service, operated by TSMI (Transport St-Pierre et Miquelon International). As part of the aforementoned PSA rationalization, TSMI has moved its operations from PSA Fairview Cove to PSA Atlantic Hub - the Southend Container Terminal. I am assuming this was done to prevent congestion at the Fairview Ramp. The TSMI ship Nolhan Ava, which only has a fixed. non-slewed stern ramp uses the shore side ramp at Pier 41. The original ramp at Pier 36 is no longer available as the camber area is being filled in for container pier expansion and the area is stacked high with containers.

The Pier 36 ramp is now blocked by a couple of jersey dividers.

As part of that terminal expansion, demolition began this week on the transit shed at Pier 33-34, starting with the westerly end at Pier 34.

A week or so ago the original container stuffing shed was also demolished.

 Steel for the new maintenance shed appears to be almost complete at Pier 29 and work is well advanced on the new inspection shed at Fairview Cove.

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All the sheds in the 1974 photo below are gone or going:

Part of the shed at the left (Shed 34) was demolished many years ago, and the remainder (Shed 33 -34) is being demolished now.  Sheds at pier 36-37 and Pier 39-40 on the right) have also been gone for many years. The area between Pier A-1 (at the left) and B (at the right) comprising berths 33-37 is currently being filled in, using pyritic slate rock from building excavations in Halifax.

The time frame for the infill of that camber was reported to be five years, but that seems excessively long to me. If the current building boom in Halifax continues, there may well be more than that amount of excavated slate generated in the time frame, but I think demand for at least some of the space may outpace the generatiotn of fill. (As it stands now excavation contractors pay the Port to dump the pyritic slate which must be neutralized in water.)

 

* Correction: I meant to say 45 degrees to port or starboard for a total of 90 degrees, but I have since recieved information from a reader that the slew is 35 degrees to port or starboard,

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Variety

 Monday June 19 was a busy day in Halifax Harbour. Two auto carriers, four ships carrying containers and one tanker made for an interesting variety. 

The first autocarrier was Wallenius Wilhelmsen's Don Pasquale which went directly to Pier 9C to offload the usual variety of forestry, farming snd construction machinery. There f=were also a few shrink wrapped boats and other unidentified material.

Its last port was Southampton, and predictably JCB backhoes were among the vehicles. Built in 1997 by Daewoo, Okpo, the Don Pasquale was lengthened 8.6 meters in 2007 and now measures 67,141 gt, 28,142 dwt, with a capacity of 7,194 cars.

The second auto carrier was the SIEM Cicero which went to Autoport to offload. Its last port was Emden, so no doubt the initials VW were prominent.

SIEM Cicero dates from 2017 and the Uljanik Shipyard in Pula, Croatia. A 56,677 gt, 17,416 dwt ship, it has a capacity of 7000 cars. It is equipped with a 100 tonne SWL capacity stern ramp and a 15 tonne SWL capacity starboard side ramp.

 

The container ship Tropic Lissette arrived yesterday afternoon and was due to sail at 1700 today, and was still unloading at Pier 42 mid-afternoon. As usual it is contributing lots of temperature controlled containers to the mix of boxes on the pier.

 

This morning's arrival was MSC Apollo a first time caller on its way from the US East Coast ports of Savannah (June 11-12), Baltimore (June 8-9), Norfolk (June 6-7), New York (June 3-5) and prior to that Caucedo, Dominican Republic (May 27). It is serving MSC's Indusa route and will be sailing for India via the Suez Canal.

The MSC Apollo was built by IHI, Kure in 2002 as NYK Apollo. The 75,484 gt, 81,171 dwt ship has a capacity of 6492 TEU including 450 reefers. It was renamed in 2019. 

In the afternoon it was the Atlantic Sun inbound for PSA Fairview Cove and ONE Blue Jay for PSA Atlantic Hub.

 The Atlantic Sun is westbound from Liverpool and has container and RoRo cargo.

 

ONE Blue Jay is on the eastbound leg of its voyage. It called in Halifax west bound on THE Alliance's EC5 service on May 29. It was the third ONE "bird" class ship to call here. Over night last night the fourth ship of the class, ONE Crane made a call - arriving and sailing in the dark.

 There was an interesting tanker at Irving Oil. The Alkea arrived yesterday from Amsterdam with a cargo of refined products. The ship's distinctive colour scheme of black hull and burnt orange superstructure is a carry over from its original owners Torm A/S. The ship was built as Torm Gyda in 2009 by Hyundai Mipo in Ulsan. 

A 23,332 gt, 36,207 dwt ship, it was acquired by current owners Chandris Hellas and renamed in 2022. They have repainted the funnel with the well known Chandris "X" (the Greek letter "Chi"), but the orange house would be  much more difficult to cover with one coat of paint, so may have to wait a while.

It is not often that three container ships can be captured in one photo, but that was possible in the mid-afternoon as the MSC Apollo was outbound and Atlantic Sun and ONE Blue Jay were inbound.

The carefully orchestrated timing also involved several tugs. One was escorting the outbound then joined the others to assist the inbounds.

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Initials and more initials

 It seems that the proliferation of initials or abbreviations is well entrenched among shipping companies, with a few notable exceptions. Today, March 21, saw six representatives of seven "initial companies", one hold out, and one anonymous.

PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway saw two "initial ships". The CMA CGM Nerval arrived from Bremerhaven on an unscheduled call. In other words, the ship is not on any of CMA CGM's regular routes through Halifax, and appears to be a "sweeper" dropping off or picking up boxes that have not been accommodated on the other CMA CGM services.

Built in 2010 by the Sungdong Shipbuilding + Marine Engineering Co Ltd in Tongyeong, it is a 72,884 gt, 83,318 dwt ship with a capacity of 6540 (or 6570 depending on sources) TEU including 500 reefers. It is an odd sized vessel for Halifax as we usually see larger or smaller ships.

The ship was carrying boxes from all the Ocean Alliance lines (APL, OOCL, Evergreen, and COSCO).

It sailed in the early afternoon for Charleston.

Its place was soon taken by the MSC Sena from Italy and Sines, Portugal on the CANEX 1 service to Montreal - here to off load some containers to reduce draft for the St.Lawrence River.

The ship has been renamed six times since built as ZIM Sydney by Halla Engineering +Heavy Industry, starting in their Inchon yard, and completed at Samho. The 30,280 gt, 35,966 dwt ship has a capacity of 2825 TEU including 214 reefers.

The ship was renamed in 2000: Rhein, 2002: E.R.Albany, 2004: CMA CGM Egypt, 2006: MacAndrews America, 2007: E.R.Albany and 2013: MSC Sena. [The MacAndrews name comes from the old time British MacAndrew Line, taken over by CMA CGM in 2002 and operated as a "niche service". Founded in 1770, it was was eliminated in 2019.]

Also at PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway was the Tropic Hope, No initials in use by Tropical Shipping, as the name says it all in terms of its routes.

A hold out in today's initial parade, the ship shares Tropical's weekly service with sister ship Tropic  Lissette. Its company containers also spellout "Tropical" in huge letters.

Due to sail late this evening the ship will head for West Palm Beach, FL then take in several Caribbean ports in cluding San Juan, St Thomas, Philipsburg and Sint Eustatius.

There was a triple "initial" meet in Bedford Basin late this afternoon as two ACL and one CSL ship were visible at one time.

Atlantic Container Line  (ACL) usually has two ships in Halifax each week - one eastbound and one westbound. They rarely meet here, but it does happen once or twice a year when schedules get disturbed - usually by weather. It is always tricky to get both ships in the same frame.

Atlantic Sun arrived this morning on the eastbound leg of this voyage, and (right in picture) sailed for Hamburg.

As the Atlantic Sun was preparing to depart, with the tug Atlantic Beaver in attendance, the bulk carrier CSL Tacoma was gliding past the Bedford Insitute of Oceanography, heading for sea.

The initials CSL are used for the international operations of Canada Steamship Lines, but its domestic Canadian flag ships, use the full name, spelled out in full on the ship's hulls. The Bahamas flag CSL Tacoma has a load of gypsum bound for Baltimore.

ACL was founded by a consortium of traditional shipping lines, but now carry the letter "G" on the funnel recognizing the present owners, the Grimaldi Group.

The other ACL ship, the Atlantic Star, arriving from Liverpool on the westbound leg, held off until the berth was clear, but was already backing in as the Atlantic Sun was clear.

 A ship going the anonymous route - resisting the trend to emblazon the owner's initials on the hull - arrived at Autoport this morning and disgorged a quantity of new automobiles, loaded at the European ports of Bremerhaven March 1-3, Zeebrugge March 4-6 and Goteborg March 9. It is on the Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean transatlantic route.

A small fraction of the myriad new cars at Autoport inclues hundreds of Audis, probably offloaded yesterday by the Violet Ace.There is also some machinery and other RoRo cargo on the dock.
 

The Grand Pavo dates from 2005 and was built by Shin Kurushima Toyohashi, and at 59,217 gt, 18,376 dwt has a capacity of 6400 cars. The ship's operators are Cido Shipping of Korea and Hong Kong. They seem to be in the business of chartering ships out to others on various term lengths.

Are those the same scaups I saw ship watching at Black Rock Beach yesterday?

Rounding up the "Initial ships" was the after dark arrival of the bulker UBC Santos for Pier 28 to load wood pellets. "UBC"  stands for United Bulk Carriers and I expect to see  "UBC" emblazoned on the ship's hull - but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

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Where are they now, WinStar and others

 Part 1

  The "Where Are They Now" department was awakened from its slumbers by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation this morning (October 17) when a report came in from Baddeck, NS, the well known resort village on the Bras d'Or Lakes.

The venerable schooner Amoeba, which had been providing scenic tours from Baddeck for many years, has been dismantled and was not in service this year. However the owners, Bryson Holdings Ltd,  have acquired another vessel (which the reporter likened to a London double decker bus) which will be fitted out for service next summer, using some fittings from the Amoeba. 

I don't recall ever seeing the Amoeba, but there are numerous photos online, that show a nicely proportioned vessel, built along classic lines. It was built by Roy Bryson (father of the current owner) in 1978 using ferro cement technology and was about 50 feet (hull length) and 31.9 gross tons.

There are also many photos of London double decker buses online, and frankly - well, you be the judge. (There is a large feet of classic Routemaster buses in Halifax, still in service, providing tours during tourist and cruise ship season, so comparisons are easy.)

 An iconic Routemaster British bus in Halifax.

 The vessel that Bryson Holdings has acquired is a very interesting one with a long and varied career to date (none of it in London). It did operate in Halifax as a dinner cruise boat in 2018 and 2019.

Carrying the official name Winstar Cruise it came to Halifax in 2018 and catered to Asian tourists with authentic seafood cuisine and Chinese language service. Although it did see some service in 2019 it was not very active as I recall. I do not know here it was after 2019.

The 132.6 gt vessel was built of aluminum in 1972 by Paasch Marine Services of Erie, PA as American Adonis II for International Boat Tours Inc of Clayton, NY. It then became Island Princess and continued Thousand Islands tours. It was located in Florida in 2015 when bought by Jacques Normand of Quebec. At the time it carried the name Cabaret.com (a name Normand decided to keep) and it was a 75 day trip from Stuart, FL to bring the ship to Baie St-Paul, QC where it was refurbished for Canadian service.

It operated from Baie-St-Paul, QC (photo above) in 2016 and Pointe-au-Pic, QC in 2017, still carrying the awkward name Cabaret.com but was not well patronized.  It was sold and moved to Halifax in 2018 as the WinStar Cruise operated by an Ontario company.

Thanks to its aluminum construction, the boat appears to be in good condition. We wish the new owners success in Baddeck. 

Part 2

It may be a bit of a stretch, but the "where are they now" question might have been asked at various times in Halifax today as the legendary pea soup fog drifted in and out of the harbour with the tides.

The cruise ship Norwegian Joy was sounding its fog horn all the way in to Pier 22 early in the morning. By late afternoon, there was a solid wall of fog outside the harbour as the Atlantic Sun arrived from offshore anchorage.

Atlantic Sun arrrives, bringing a few wisps of fog with it, as Norwegian Joy prepares to sail.

Earlier in the day the ZIM feeder ship AS Felicia completed working cargo in bright sunshine at Pier 42, as fog lurked offshore in the background.

Only a few minutes later as the ship cleared for Kingston Jamaica, it was entering the leading edge of the fog, just off the end of the pier. Macnab's Island, normally visible, had "vanished."

 Also sailing off into the gloom was the tanker Elka Delos (see previous post). It completed delivering some refined petroleum products to Irving Oil and departed for Saint John, NB with the rest of its cargo from Amsterdam.

The very rugged tanks in the background belong to Imperial Oil. Irving Oil's tanks - not visible in the photo - are much better looking.

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Something Different

 With the same container ships arriving again and again - sometimes for years on end - it is difficult to find something new to say or to show in the way of photos. 

The typical ship photo enthusiast tries to minimize background or foreground interference, to get perfect exposure, and to have the sun from the proper angle to minimize shadows, and most importantly the "forward 3/4" ( or 10 o'clock / two o'clock) view of the ship approaching (much preferrable to the ship viewed from the stern, departing.) Eventually it is possible to capture these repeat callers in the more or less perfect conditions - but then what? 

Today's bright sunshine provided good lighting conditions, but the two ship photo candidates have made countless calls on Halifax, so what was the point of trying for another photo, with so many already on file? The old adage that you can always get a better picture was a bit of a stretch, but the true enthusiast never quits.

By my reckoning Atlantic Container Lines' five G4 ships, after five to six years service, have made close to fifty round trips each (that is nearly one hundred transatlantic crossings), usually calling in Halifax east and west bound. Therefore I have seen the Atlantic Sun numerous times and and I have probably taken more than enough photos. So there was nothing unique about today (August 21) except that it was a warm day, and there were many pleasure craft in the harbour, and conditions were ideal.

Another familiar caller arrived yesterday and sailed today on THE Alliance's AL5 service. NYK Rumina is a modest sized vessel by today's measure. At 55,487 gt, 66,171 dwt, it has a capacity of 4922 TEU including 330 reefers. It was built in 2010 by Hyundai Samho.

There was also lots of pleasure craft traffic in the area when it sailed, but everyone remained clear (after a warning hoot).

The pilot boat Capt. E.T.Rogers was picking up speed off Pier 20 to get ahead of the ship as a small sail boat needed  to cross the boat's wake at right angles to avoid a severe roll. (There was ideal wind for sailboats today too.)

The boater executed the move perfectly and met the wake bow on, with a predictable splash. Not that this spoiled my "going away" photo - it just made it more interesting than it might have been.

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The Regulars

 Shipfax usually makes note of new or different ships coming and going to Halifax, and tends to ignore the day to day regulars unless something unusual happens. To correct that imbalance, here are a few of the regulars, just going about their normal business:

Tropical Shipping

On Monday, March 21 the Tropical Lissette sailed on its regular run to the Caribbean for Tropical Shipping.

Tropical Shipping is one of the more visible shipping lines calling at PSA Halifax, thanks to its white reefer containers with large lettering. Tropic Lissette (new in 2019) is one of two ships, with sister Tropic Hope (new in 2018) serving the line with weekly calls in Halifax. The purpose built 15,215g, 20,313 dwt ships have a capacity of 1100 TEU with 200 reefer plugs.

Since 2014, Tropical Shipping has been part of the Saltchuck Family of companies which includes interests in logistics, air cargo, tugs (Foss, Cook Inlet, Young Bros), oil and the domestic US shipping company TOTE Services. The line moved its operations to Halifax from Saint John, NB in 2017.

Nirint Shipping BV

On Wednesday, March 23 the Trinitas arrived for Nirint Shipping BV, with a cargo of nickel sulfides and containers from Cuba.

Built as Trinitas in 2007, with the hull by Damen Okean, Mykolayiv and completed by Damen Hoogezand, Foxhol, the ship was delivered as Nirint Hollandia. It was renamed Hollandia in 2012, but remained on Nirint service. It started to call in Halifax in 2014 and was renamed Trinitas in 2019.

It is a 8,999 gt, 12,016 dwt vessel with a container capacity of 684 TEU, including 80 reefer plugs on deck. It uses a pair of 80 tonne SWL cranes to handle cargo, which in the case of the nickel concentrates is in bulk bags. It has movable tween decks and ventilated box shaped holds, so is an adaptable multi-purpose vessel capable of carrying bulk and general cargoes. Uusally it also has a number of tank containers on deck - which are rumoured to carry rum, molasses or sucrose.

 

Atlantic Container Line

Among the most regular of callers in Halifax are the five giant CONROs (the world's largest) of Atlantic Container Lines. In addition to the visible deck loads of containers, the ships also carry substantial quantities of RoRo, including new and used cars and trucks, machinery, and oversize loads.

 

Atlantic Sun arrived Thursday, March 24 on its regular run from Hamburg / Antwerp / Liverpool.
 
Delivered in 2017 by Hudong-Zhonghua, Shanghai, the ships have an immense gross tonnage of 100,430 gt and 55,547 dwt. ACL (owned by the Grimaldi Group) has been calling in Halifax since the late 1960s and had the ships built to clear the Halifax bridges to make their berth at Fairview Cove. They are the largest ships (by volume) to transit the Narrows of Halifax harbour. They have a capacity of 3800 TEU and 1300 plus autos in about 18,500 square meters of RoRo space.

Canada Steamship Lines

 

As an update to previous posts, I can report that Baie St.Paul sailed yesterday, March 24, for Hamilton, ON with a cargo of Gold Bond gypsum. (Compare the ship's draft in this picture to previous posts.)

 

 

After a brief "winter layup" (since Febraury 15) the ship returned to service as the St.Lawrence Seaway opened for the season. CSL ships, both domestic and international (through the CSL Americas pool), are regular gypsum haulers, but also deliver the occasional grain cargoes from the Lakehead during the Seaway season.  CSL will also be taking delivery of a new ship in the coming days - stay tuned.

 

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