Old amongst the New

 There was a mixed bag of shipping in the Port of Halifax today, Saturday, September 14. Some ships were new (or new to me) and others not so new.

The container ship APL Paris started the list of ships I saw when it departed PSA Halifax Pier 42. Built in 2012 by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering it is a 128,929 gt . 135,432 dwt ship with a capacity of 10,700 TEU.

"APL" for American President Lines LLC, is part of CMA CGM through its 2016 acquistion of the Singapore based Neptune Orent Line, which itself had acquired APL in 1997. APL LLC is incorporated in the US based and operates nine ships with some under US flag.

The ship used the two new tugs Atlantic Ash and Atlantic Maple as tethered stern escorts to swing the ship into the deep water, western channel, leaving the main eastern channel clear for inbounds.

 

The first of those inbounds was the familiar Norwegian Jade which did not waste time clearing the outbound.

Next inbound was the MSC Nahara.

 

Built in 2024 by Daewoo it is new to me (although it was here August 4) and is a thoroughly modern ship in appearance with its bluff bow, covered forepeak, and lashing frames for deck cargo (to secure against  loss overboard). It is a 45,387 gt, 45,209 dwt ship with a capacity of 7100 3700 TEU and with 700 reefer plugs. It is also equipped with an exhaust gas scrubber system.
 

 Next along was the regular caller for Eimskip, the Bakkafoss, a small gearless container vessel en route from Portland, Maine to Reykjavik, Iceland. The stern escort tugs had the outbound APL Paris well under control to maintain clearance between the two ships.

 

Built in 2009 by Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding Co in Fuzhou, the 11,550 gt, 14,669 dwt Bakkafoss has a capacity of 1025 TEU, including 231 reefers. Built as JMS Brisbane it was renamed JRS Pollux on delivery, becoming Pollux in 2013 and Elbsummer in 2020. It received the name Bakkafoss in March 2023 when it took up a charter from Ernst Russ to Eimskip.

Eimskip's latest schedule does not show this ship, but shows the EF Ava, Lagarfoss and Vivienne Sheri D on the Green line service, joining Reykjavik, Halifax, Portland, ME, Halifax, Argentia, NL, Reykjavik. (Halifax and Argentia are optional). 

An early morning arrival was the Seven Seas Grandeur, a ship I hadn't seen before. I did manage to catch it departing  in bright sun.

 

Built in 202 3 by Fincantieri Marghera it is smaller than it looks at 56,199 gt and with a passenger capacity of 750 (double occupancy) and crew of 542 on ten passenger decks. Operators are Regent Seven Seas Cruises of Miami, but the ship's owner is NCL Bahamas. 

Regent Seven Seas is #3 on the list of most luxurious cruise lines. Heading the list is Viking Ocean Cruises, followed by Seabourn Cruise Line at #2. All three have ships scheduled for Halifax this season.

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All the News

 There was so much action in Halifax harbour today (October 6) that no one title could summarize it adequately. This what I saw, in order of ship type.

I was particularly interested to see the first time caller SH Vega which is billed as a "five star, elegant, scandi-design boutique ship". With a promo like that it was bound to be underwhelming, but it was nevertheless an interesting "little" cruise ship.

Its small size was accentuated when it tied up at Pier 24 (able to accommodate only the smallest of ships) with the behemoth 4,266 passenger Norwegian Escape in the background.

The SH Vega was built in 2022 by Helsinki Shipyard, for Swan Hellenic Cruises and is a 10,617 gt, PC5 ice-strengthened ship that caters to 152 guests with 120 crew. It arrived from Nuuk and Sisimut, Greenland having previously called in Pond Inlet, NU September 10-11 after departing from Reykjavik, Iceland August 26.

The SH Vega is headed for Bridgetown, Barbados, but will be sailing into some inclement weather as the post tropical cyclone Philippe is bearing down on Bermuda. By the time it reaches Nova Scotia on Sunday it will be further downgraded to port tropical,  but will still bring high winds and heavy rain.

From new ship to veteran, the Fred.Olsen Cruise Lines Balmoral made an afternoon arrival. Built in 1988 by Meyerwerft, Papenburg as Crown Odyssey it was renamed Norwegian Crown in 1996, then reverted to Crown Odyssey in 2000 andNorwegian Crown again from 2003 to 2008. 

When Olsens acquired the ship in 2007 they sent it to Blohm and Voss in Hamburg where a new 30 meter section was inserted. The new portion, built by Schichau Seebeckwerft in Bremerhaven, was floated up the river Elbe to Hamburg. Consisting of 186 passenger cabins and 53 crew cabins, it increased the ship's gross tonnage from 34,242 to 43,357 and passenger capacity from 1230 to 1325. It was then renamed Balmoral after the Scottish residence of the British royal family.

 The "new" section, which matched the existing ship in terms of appearance, is still identifiable due to the awkward gap between lifeboat/tenders at midships. 

PSA Halifax Atlantic Hub was busy all day with three ships alongside for much of the time. In addition to the weekly St-Pierre et Miquelon and Argentia coastal container/RoRo  Nolhanava, there was Eimskip's Bakkafoss en route from Portland, ME to Argentia, NL.

The 1025 TEU (including 231 reefers) ship joined the Eimskip rota in June and is one of four ships that maintain the weekly Green Line service from/to Iceland. 

See details for Bakkafoss in the June 24, 2023 post. (N.B. it has also been lengthened - but by only 10.2 meters).

The Ultra sized ONE Owl took up the rest of the space at berths 41 and into 42 when it arrived yesterday afternoon and sailed late this afternoon. With two other ships at the pier using one crane each, it pointed out the need for more cranes - see yesterday's post.

Japan Marine United Shipyard in Kure built the ship in 2017 as NYK Owl. The 146,412 gt, 139,335 dwt vessel has a capacity of 14,026 TEU and is one of several sister ships on THE Alliance's EC5 service. The ship represents Ocean Network Express Holdings Ltd, the amalgam of the primary Japanese container lines: NYK, K-Line and MOL, formed in 2016. The ship was renamed ONE Owl in 2021 and adopted ONE's unique magenta colour scheme.

 As the ONE Owl makes its way outbound the tour boat Silva heads for the Northwest Arm on a regular tour. A tug is standing by off McNab's Cove for the next arrival.

Allowing the ONE Owl lots of room to get underway, and to use the main channel, the next Ultra size container ship CMA CGM Andromeda held off outside the pilot station for a time, before making its way inbound to the same berth.

With three tugs in attendance, the CMA CGM Andromeda slows before turing to back in alongside. Silva* has emerged from the Northwest Arm with sails set and is making its way back to its base.

Dating from 2009 when it was built by Hyundai Ulsan, the 131,332 gt, 131,263 dwt ship has a carrrying capacity of 11,200 TEU, and is a first time caller for the Ocean Alliance from Asia. Its last port was Colombo, Sri Lanka.

 * Caution Rant to follow:

 The three-masted schooner's official name is Silva of Halifax, in the Swedish manner, recognizing the country where it was built in 1939 as an auxiliary cargo vessel (motorized but still being rigged to use sail, and thus not totally reliant on an engine.) 

 It is now marketed in Halifax as the "Tall Ship Silva" which creates an unfortunate misaprehension. In my opinion it is far from being a tall ship. It is not fitted with topmasts, which might have given it a bit of a claim to the word. In my mind, a tall ship must have topmasts and some square sails. Why not call the Silva a schooner? - bald headed though it might be in sailor parlance, without topmasts - it really is a schooner. Aside from the fact that "tall ship" is a poetic term, not a nautical one, I think it should be reserved for somewhat more impressive vessels.

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Two Hours of Activity

 There was quite a bit of activity compressed into a short period of time this afternoon June 23. Between 1715 hrs and 1915 hrs (ADT) there were five ships underway in the harbour.

The first ship was an arrival, the tanker Quartz from Montreal. It is a peculiar arrival as most handysize tankers come to Halifax to deliver refined product to either Irving Oil or Imperial Oil (Exxon mobil). This ship however is in ballast.

Built in 2015 by SPP Shipbuilding Co in Sacheon, it is a 9,767 gt, 49,990 dwt ship, running for Sinokor Petrochemical Co Ltd. It had arrived in Montreal on June 18 from Milford Haven, Wales, site of a large storage and distribution terminal. (The refinery there closed in 2014), and sailed for Halifax June 20. Presumably it unloaded refined product in Montreal.

Inbound soon after was HMCS Glace Bay returning from the Titanic wreck site where it was involved in the search for the submersible "Titan". Glace Bay was carrying a decompression chamber and medical personnel.

The Quartz went to anchor in the lower harbour in the same position as the Eimskip vessel Bakkafoss which got underway as the Glace Bay was passing.

 The Bakkafoss is new to Eimskip, and is on its first trip in a new charter arragement with Ernst Russ. As reported here in March, Eimskip is reducing the number of ships on its transatlantic service from four to three, but by increasing the size of ships will keep its container capacity the same. See: March News

Built in 2009 by Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding Co in Fuzhou, the 11,550 gt, 14,669 dwt ship has a capacity of 1025 TEU, including 231 reefers. Built as JMS Brisbane it was renamed JRSPollux on delivery, becoming Pollux in 2013 and Elbsummer in 2020. It received the name Bakkafoss in May.

It joins Lagarfoss and Vivienne Sheri D on the Green line service, joining Reykjavik, Halifax, Portland, ME, Halifax, Argentia, NL, Reykjavik. (Halifax and Argentia are optional).

 

Bakkafoss headed for PSA Halifax Atlantic Hub to dock at Pier 42 as soon as the EM Kea cleared. One of the St-Laurent 1 service regulars (operated by CMA CGM and Maersk) EM Kea arrived early in the morning and sailed for Bremerhaven.

The final ship was CMA CGM Hermes sailing from Pier 41 for New York on the Columbus JAX service from Singapore and Malaysia via Suez and Tanger Med.

 The CMA CGM Hermes was built in 2021 by Shanghai Jiangnan Changxing Shipuilding. It is registered at 154,995 gt, 156,055 dwt with a capacity of 15,000 TEU.

There will be some departures over night, with arrival activity resuming early at daybreak tomorrow morning.

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Eimskip - changes coming

 On about March 14 Eimskip, the Icelandic shipping company, announced that a Joint Venture with Ernst Russ has acquired an unidentified container ship to be delivered in the second quarter of this year. The 1025 TEU ship will be chartered to Eimskip for up to three years and renamed Bakkafoss. It will be placed on the line's North American Green Line route which runs from Reykjavik to Halifax and Portland Maine (acting as a New England feeder for CMA CGM from Halifax) and return via Halifax and Argentia, NL. 

Due to the added ship's size, Eimskip expects to reduce the number of ships on the Green route from  the current four to three while still maintaining what they call "system capacity" [I'm not sure I understand their arithmetic, nor how they hope to maintain a schedule]. This will mean the redeployment of two ships currently on the route. Almost certainly one of those will be the Canadian owned Vivienne Sheri D - which sailed from Halifax this morning, March 15, after waiting out weather. The gearless 10,965 gt, 12,640 dwt vessel was built by Naval Gijon SA in Spain in 2009. It has a capacity of 925 TEU including 200 reefer plugs. Intially named Pictor J it became Pictor in 2020.

Vivienne Sheri D at anchor March 14.

Of the other ships on the Green route, Lagarfoss 880 TEU and Selfoss 724 TEU are owned ships and will likely remain on the run, while the Skogafoss 698 TEU will likely be reassigned by another branch of  the Eimskip/Russ JV- Feederstar.

When the Picton, ON based Doornekamp Shipping Ltd acquired the Vivienne Sheri D in 2021, it was already chartered by Eimskip as the Pictor and  Doornekamp reportedly stated they would keep the ship with Eimskip for up to two years or so then transfer it to their own Transatlantic shipping operation. That operation, in coordination with Spliethoff, so far has only one ship, the Peyton Lynn C which runs into the Great Lakes seasonally.

So far Eimskip's published schedules are not showing any revision, but the second quarter of 2023 will soon be upon us and we will see how the Bakkafoss is slotted in.

Knowlegeable sources speculate that the Bakkafoss is currently sailing as the Elbsummer, built in 2009 and lengthened in 2014, now rated at 11,550 gt, 14,669 dwt. More on this ship later, if it appears in Halifax. 

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