BBC ships to Canada

 Two ships from the large German heavy lift operator BBC Chartering will be working in the Canadian far north this summer with new names and flying the Canadian flag.

1.   Sivumut

A ship that was in Halifax in mid-May has become the latest addition to the Canadian northern supply company NEAS. BBC Arizona arrived in Halifax May 14 from Belfast, Northern Ireland with aircraft components and other oversize cargo, which it unloaded at Pier 9C using its own lifting gear. It has now been renamed Sivumut and was registered in Montreal on June 2. The word "sivumut" means "looking forward" in the Inuktitut language.

The Sivumut is a multi-purpose, heavy lift, heavy load ship of 9618 gt, 12,747 dwt, fitted with two 150 tonne SWL cranes that can lift up to 300 tonnes in tandem. It has a container capacity of 665 TEU (528 at 14 tonnes) and has 50 reefer plugs. It carries its own spreaders for overize loads.

Built in 2010 by Jiangdong Shipyard in Wuhu, China, it was originally named BBC Arizona. It was renamed Industrial Sailor in 2014, Arizona in 2015 and reverted to BBC Arizona in 2015.

After sailing from Halifax on May 16 it went to Argentia, Newfoundland May 17-20, then Portland, Maine May 22-25. It arrived in Montreal on May 30.

The NEAS Group owns Nunavut Eastern Arctic Shipping Inc and Nunavik Eastern Arctic Shipping Inc and provides sea lift to a range of communities in the Canadian far north. The NEAS Group is owned by the Makivik Corporation, Nunavik’s Inuit Birthright Corporation, and Transport Nanuk Inc., whose shareholders are Logistec Corporation and The North West Company. 

The current fleet of six ships has been built up over the years, generally from older Spliethoff ships, which are chartered back to Spliethoff in the off season and trade internationally under foreign flag. Their summer work includes carrying supplies for northern communities, some containerized, and also vehicles and heavy equipment for the several mining operations in the region. Generally ships of the fleet carry their own lighterage barges and tugs for offloading in shallow draft or unserviced ports. The heavy lift deck cranes are needed to handle the variety of loads including the tugs and barges. Some ports have larger tugs and barges stationed nearby for the summer.

Sivumut is scheduled to load at Bécancour June 15 to 20 and sailing to Rankin Inlet and Whale Cove, then reloading at Churchill for Whale Cove, Chesterfield Inlet, Baker Lake and Coral Harbour, then returning to Bécancour to load again. It wiLl make a seond and possibly a third northern trip.

2.   Marcellin Desgagnés

The other major player in the northern supply operations is Transport Desgagnés. They have acquired a number of ships with heavy lift / oversize capability, some of which were built for Beluga Shipping. They have also been chartered out for the winter, also usually to BBC Chartering. The current fleet consists of six ships and will soon include a seventh - the former BBC Parana built in 2012 by Tianjin Xingang, in Tianjin, China. A 12,980 gt, 16,953 dwt ship, it has one 80 tonne SWL capacity crane and two 250 tonne SWL capacity cranes that can work in combination for a 500 tonne load. The ship has recently been in Canadian waters, calling in Grande Anse, QC Jun 1-2, then sailing for New London, CT. It has not been registered in Canada yet, nor renamed officially, but is shown on Desgagnés Transarctik's schedule as sailing from Bécancour July 11. 

. 

Third Bird and Silver Birds (to be)

Magenta Bird (not pink)

The "Bird" class ship ONE Eagle arrived this afternoon, May 15, on  the EC5 service of THE Alliance.  It is the third ship of its class to be introduced to the line which is operated by Hapag-Lloyd, HMM, Ocean Network Express (ONE) and Yang Ming.

The ONE Eagle was built in 2016 as the NYK Eagle a 145, 251 gt, 139,335 dwt vessel with a capacity of 14,026 TEU. The ship was renamed in 2019 when it was chartered by NYK to ONE. It was built at the Kure Shipyard in Japan, which at the time was operated by Japan Marine United Corp (a result of the 2013 merger of Universal Shipbuilding Corp and IHI Marine United. Further mergers in the Japanese Shipbuilding industry saw JMU (49%) merge with Imabari (51%) in 2021 to form Nihon Shipyard.)

The ship docked at PSA Halifax, Atlantic Gateway. Its magenta colour was adopted by ONE and signifies the colour of cherry blossoms, one of the national symbols of Japan. Sister ship ONE Stork which was here April 26 [qv] was the first ship to be painted in the magenta colour scheme in 2018.

People have asked why one tug is "going backwards"? The tug near the bow (Atlantic Bear) is in position to push or pull  as it is made fast to the flat side of the ship as far forward as possible. The tug Atlantic Oak has a line up to the ship's stern to act as a brake to slow the ship, and will shift around to the side to push on the ship when it turns round to back in to the pier. The third tug, alongside, near the stern, the Atlantic Fir, is made up with a line as close to the stern as possible to get maximum leverage when pulling or pushing. However if it got too close to the ship's stern it could be caught under the overhang, so it positions itself with its bow at the farthest aft flat portion of the hull. In the meantime it can assist in braking (as can the forward tug) by pulling on its line. The tugs have almost equal power whether going ahead or going astern, and they always work their lines over the bow while doing ship assist work such as this. The lines are fed from a large winch which is mounted just forward of the deck house.

People also ask why do they turn the ships on arrival so that they almost invariably dock starboard (right hand) side alongside? This has to do with the directional rotation of ships' propellors, which makes it difficult, if not impossible for a single screw ship to back up in a straight line and makes the ship want to vear to port when going ahead and to starboard when going astern. Also, ship's rudders are quite ineffective at slow speed (one reason why they need tugs to dock), and so they cannot correct the ship's tendency to wander with the rudder alone. Therefore if the ship is moored "starboard side to", it is much easier for the ship to work its way off the pier when it is time to sail. Even with tug assist it makes sense to lessen the degree of difficulty if possible.

Silver Birds

At Pier 9C the ship BBC Arizona which arrived last night, May 14, unloaded oversize cargo, including several aircraft components, loaded in Belfast. 

Cargo on the dock includes two tail components, fuselages, and some non-aircraft items. The huge spreader is being lowered into the hold to offload another fuselage. (There is also other cargo on the dock from a previous ship.)

 The BBC Arizona is a multi-purpose, heavy lift, heavy load ship of 9618 gt, 12,747 dwt, fitted with two 150 tonne SWL cranes that can lift up to 300 tonnes in tandem. It has a container capacity of 665 TEU (528 at 14 tonnes) and has 50 reefer plugs.

Built in 2010 by Jiangdong Shipyard in Wuhu, China, it was originally named BBC Arizona. It was renamed Industrial Sailor in 2014, Arizona in 2015 and reverted to BBC Arizona in 2015.

.