Backlog

 As noted in yesterday's post there was the usual backlog after a holiday weekend. Unusually, the catch up appears to have extended to today, May 21.

 

Containers

The big ship arrival that I missed yesterday, the CMA CGM Chile was still in port this morning, finally getting underway at noon time. As required by harbour regulations, due to its size, it employed two tethered escort tugs, made up astern. They worked the ship to starboard to use the western, deep water channel.

 

The CMA CGM Chile was built in 2019 by Hyundai Samho and is registered at 149,314 gt and 157,076 dwt, with a capacity of 15,072 TEU. It is operating on the Ocean Alliance Asia-North America service. 

Of interest - the ship does not display the CMA CGM funnel mark, nor the large banner letters on the hull that other CMA CGM ships do. This may be explained by the fact that the ship is not owned by CMA CGM, but is on charter from Seaspan Ship Management. Now the largest container ship charter company, Seaspan's 223 ships have a capacity of 2,300,000 TEU.They finance, arrange for build. charter back and manage ships for many container shipping lines.

 

Cars

Autoport was also playing catch up as it completed working the Wallenius Wilhelmsen ship Tijuca (see yesterday's post). As the ship was ready to sail at noon time another Wallenius Wilhelmsen ship, the Carmen, was inbound to take the berth. The "meet" of the two ships was arranged for the lower harbour where the Carmen proceeded west of George's Island and turned north and then proceed east of the island. This allowed the Tijuca to take the usual outbound course from Eastern Passage, tight to Ives Knoll, thus avoiding any close quarters passages. There eas a close up view as the ship made its way inbound, with the tug Atlantic Cedar made up aft for turning assistance.

 

Carmen dates from 2011 when it was delivered by Daewoo Shipbuilding + Marine Engineering in Geoje, South Korea. It is a 74,258 gt, 31,143 dwt ship with a capacity of 7934 CEU (or 7879 RT43 size cars, depending on the source.) It has twelve decks, five of which are hoistable for oversize loads, and reinforced for heavy loads. It has a stern ramp with a 320 tonne capacity and a single side ramp with unknown capacity.

 

Carmen turns around north of George's Island, to line up for Eastern Passage and Autoport. One of the Woodside ferries, in the background, was out of service today due to mechanical issues.

When built Carmen was painted in Wallenius' green and white colours. Wallenius Shipping and the Wilhelmsen Group merged in 2017 and adopted the current  colour scheme over time as ships underwent regular drydocking. This make the ship look very much like its fleet mate Tijuca which was by then outbound, passing a flotilla of disinterested eiders in summer plummage.

 

After completing work at Autoport in the later afternoon, the Carmen moved to Pier 9C to off load RoRo cargo and is due to sail later in the evening.

Among the other arrivals - briefly:

MSC Sagitta III arrived at Pier 42 from CornerBrook on what is termed the Halifax Feeder by the Halifax Port Authority. That service appears to be a new route joining Montral and Boston. In any event it is rare to see a ship with so few containers on deck - not to metion all four cranes at work.

General Cargo 

The Augusta Luna arrived this morning on the Nirint Shipping "nickel run" from Cuba. It will offload is usual cargo of bagged nickel sulfides at Pier 28.

Fish

The herring seiner Fundy Monarch arrived with a small catch that it unloaded to trucks at Pier 9C, then moved to Bishop's Landing. 

As I understand it, this boat is the "scout" and has been working for a few weeks off Nova Scotia, looking for migrating herring. If sufficent quantities are found other boats may arrive from southwestern Nova Scotia or New Brunswick to participate in the catch. 

Built in 2014 by Chantier Naval Forillon in Gaspé, the Fundy Monarch was originally called Dual Venture (the second seiner of that name) and was renamed when acquired by Connors Brothers of Blacks Harbour, NB.  See older post May 31, 2015 on these boats.

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CMA CGM Chile

 This week's caller on the Asia-North America service operated by the Ocean Alliance (CMA CGM, COSCO, Evergreen, OOCL) was CMA CGM Chile, one of 22 ships in CMA CGM's Argentina class. Built in 2019 by Hyundai Samho it was the fourth ship in the series (not all the ships have been built yet).

 

The CMA CGM Chile got underway from Pier 41, PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway in a light drizzle at mid-day December 10. Due to its size the ship is required to use two tethered stern escorts, in this case Atlantic Ash (nearest camera) and Atlantic Maple. A third tug, Atlantic Fir, assisted in getting off the dock.

 

 

The ship is registered at 149,314 gt, 157,076 dwt with a container capacity of 15,052 TEU. The first five ships in the class are use conventional fuel and the subsequent ships use LNG fuel.

Presumably the conventionally powered ship are capable of burning low sulfur fuel or are fitted with exhaust gas scrubbers. Unfortunately this ship did not get the message, as there was a huge eruption of black smoke as it powered up on departure.

If there are "No Smoking" rules in the Port of Halifax, this ship would certainly be a violator. The purpose of scrubbers is to remove noxious chemicals and "particulate" from ships' exhaust. Clearly (and I use the term advisably) this ship's scrubber had the day off.

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Friday Action

 Fridays are often busy in the port of Halifax with ships arriving and sailing at the end of the work week. (The container terminals accept truck arrivals Monday to Friday only).  Today, June 14, was no exception with four container ship arrivals and four container ship departures,

The first arrival was the CMA CGM Chile an Argentina class 149,314 gt, 157,076 dwt ship with a capacity of 15,072 TEU. It was built by Hyundai Samho in 2019 and has been calling for the OCEAN Alliance since new. On this trip it departed Colombo on May 14 and sailed via the Cape of Good Hope to Tanger Med, Morocco arriving June 6 and sailing June 7. Most container ships continue to avoid the Red Sea and Suez Canal due to risk of attack.

CMA CGM Chile beneath the mountain of containers at Pier 41.

Also at PSA Atlantic Gateway was the Silver Arctic, a ship at the other end of the size scale, berthed at Pier 42. A short term charter for TSMI, it is filling in while the regular ship, the Nolhan Ava has been in refit in Setubal, Portugal. That ship is now on its way back to North America and is due in Argentia June 18 to resume its weekly Halifax / St-Pierre / Argentia container and RoRo service.

The Silver Arctic is operated for the Silver Line of Bergen, Norway under the Norwegian International registry by Fjord Shipping AS of Mäloy. It was launched in 2010, but was not completed in 2012 when the builders Shipyard P+S Werften went bankrupt. Construction was transferred to Remontowa Shipbuilding in Gdansk, Poland in 2013 but there was further delay in 2018 when the original owners, Royal Arctic Line, refused acceptance. It was then sold to Fjord and completed in 2021. It is a 3162 gt, 2700 dwt ship with a capacity of 111 TEU (59 on deck) including 80 reefers (28 on deck) and carries one 25 tonne and one 45 tonne SWL crane. (It has no RoRo capability however.) 

Its first sailing from Halifax for TSMI was April 5 and was expected to cover the route for six to eight weeks. The ship operates regularly to Antarctica and Greenland, so will likely be headed home at the end of the charter in time for arctic work.

Not long after Silver Arctic sailed, the MSC Lisa arrived from Montreal on the CANEX2 route, and took up the vacated berth 42.

 

 Hanjin Heavy Industry and Construction Co built the MSC Lisa in Busan in 2004. The 54,304 gt, 68,578 dwt ship has a capacity of 5059 TEU. It arrived loaded to St.Lawrence River draft, and will top up cargo to ocean draft.

The ship's arrival was coordinated with the departure of the ZIM Atlantic from PSA Fairview Cove so that the two ships met just off the Southend Container Terminal after the MSC Lisa had completed its turn and backed in to Pier 42 leaving the main channel clear.

 

There is a lot more room between the two ships than it appears in this photo, so a pleasure craft could speed though in relative safety.

ZIM Atlantic is running on the ZIM Container Atlantic (ZCA) service from the Mediterranean. Its hull paint still has a glossy appearance, indicating that its recent survey and drydocking in May included new paint. 

When the ship arrived in Halifax the first time September 23, 2023 it still carried the blue hull paint of its previous owners.

 The ship was launched in 2009 by Hyundai Heavy Industry Co Ltd in Ulsan as the CPO Richmond for the Claus-Peter Offen company of Hamburg, however it was delivered with the name Cap Harvey for charter to Hamburg-Süd and carried that company's traditional red hull paint.

In 2017 the ship moved to CMB NV ownership (Cie Maritime Belge) and was managed by their wholly owned subsidiary Bocimar.  It then acquired blue hull paint and was renamed Heron Hunter. In late 2021 the ship was sold again this time to direct ownership by ZIM with Hammonia Reederei of Hamburg, as managers. (Hammonia manages several other ZIM ships too.) The renaming to ZIM Atlantic was effective January 1, 2022, but the hull was not repainted at once. 

Other container ship activity not detailed above was the early morning departure of the ZIM feeder Pacific Trader and the weekly Oceanex Sanderling container  / RoRo to St. John's.Boh are familiar sights in Halifax and have been covered here before.

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Famous Fog

 Halifax certainly lays no claim to be the foggiest port in eastern Canada (two other ports, which shall remain nameless here, may fight it out between them for the title*.) Never mind, there is often fog in Halifax in June, and if it is not within the port, it is lingering not far offshore and creeps in and out with the tide or the breezes.

Today, June 17, there were lingering traces for most of the day, but they held off enough so that arriving and departing ships were visible.

Among the arrivals was the auto carrier Supreme Ace. When it docked at Autoport the fog had pretty well lifted, but the undergrowth has sprung up to partly block the view.

By comparison. last August 8 when the ship was here, the undergrowth was shorter (and there was no fog).

    The ship was built in 2011 by Minami Nippon in Shitanoe, Japan. It is a 59,022 gt, 18,384 dwt vessel with a capacity quoted at 6,183 small cars, 5,063 medium cars or 4,425 large cars. As it was on its last visit the Supreme Ace is not following the usual trajectory for imports, but is eastbound from Houston, Veracruz, and Davisville, Rhode Island heading for Emden, Germany. Most of the major auto manufacturers build cars in Canada, and although most are exported to the United States, some are presumably exported to Europe.

Another arrival was the familiar MSC Tamara arriving from Sines, Portugal on the CANEX1 service from Italy for Montreal. The ship was delivered by Zhejiang Shipbuilding Co, Ningbo, China in 2008. With tonnages of 41,125 gt and 50,446 dwt, it has a capacity of 4254 TEU including 550 reefers.

The ship was in the clear by the time it reached the PSA Halifax Gateway terminal and tied up at Pier 42 to reduce draft for the St.Lawrence River. The ship certainly looked well laden. (Draft was reported as 12.3 meters / 40 feet 4 1/2 inches).

The early morning arrival at Pier 41 was still in port when the MSC Tamara arrived, but there was lots of room for the two ships, even though the other ship was the Ultra size CMA CGM Chile. Its 149,314 gt, 157,076 dwt size and capacity of 15,072 TEU made it the largest container ship to call in Halifax when it began calling here in 2020. It has since been surpassed by the CMA CGM Marco Polo at 176,546 gt, 187,625 dwt and 16,020 TEU capacity.

On departure the ship was quickly swallowed up in the evening fog.

Cruise ship passengers on the Seven Seas Navigator may be in for an unpleasant night of it as high winds are predicted.  

The ship got away from Pier 20 and headed north about George's Island, which was still visible (the fog was still well offshore - that is MSC Tamara docking in the backgound.)

The story of the Seven Seas Navigator may be well known, but is worth repeating. Laid down in 1988 by the Admiralty Shipyard in St.Petersburg, USSR, it was to be the satellite tracking ship named Akademik Nikolay Pilyugin. It was launched in 1991 but not completed, and Radisson Seven Seas Cruises bought the ship as an unfinished hull. Mariotti Shipyard in Italy built a new superstructure and fitted it out as a cruise ship in 1999. It has a capacity of 490 passengers and a crew of 340.

The converison process also included fitting sponsons on the stern to improve the ships behaviour at sea. 

The ship is en route from Montreal, Quebec City, Port Alfred and Sydney to Hamilton, Bermuda. Its four planned calls in CornerBrook, NL in May and June have been cancelled due to lingering ice off the west coast of Newfoundland. 

 * Famous Fog

The Fourchu fog signal in Yarmouth set a record in July 1938 when it blew for a total of 498 1/2 hours out of the 744 total hours in 31 days (it blew 180 hours in 1936 and 457 hours in 1937). At one point it blew 121 hours straight (= 5 days 1 hour). The resident light keeper and others living in the immediate area must have had a ringing in their ears well into August.

I don't know what records are kept these days, but as most signlas are automated perhaps some computer somewhere logs the hours.

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CMA CGM Chile arrives

 The third 15,000 plus TEU ship to call at PSA Halifax made its arrival at midday today. CMA CGM Chile follows two ships of the same class that called in September: CMA CGM Brazil on September 10 and CMA CGM Panama on September 21.

It was a gloomy arrival for the ship, which appears to be loaded to near capacity in terms of number of boxes. There is currently a dire shortage of containers in Asia, so ships are trying to pick up as many boxes as they can at way points, however this ship is westbound and has made no port calls since Sri Lanka. Container traffic is apparently booming right now, so perhaps it is mostly payload.

As expected the three ships of this Argentina class are all showing the same or similar numbers: 149,314 gt, 157,076 dwt, and 15,072 TEU. Built by Hyundai Samho, CMA CGM Chile entered service in December 2019, so is barely a year old. There are eleven ships in the class, with the first five already delivered ( CMA Argentina and CMA CGM Mexico have not called in Halifax yet). Six more ships, of which one has been delivered are revolutionary dual fuel vessels with the capability of using LNG - if and where available. It is expected that they will use the conventional fuel and exhaust gas scrubbers much of the time.

The Port of Halifax is noting that these ships are the largest container ships to call at any Canadian port, and that Halifax has the infrastructure to handle them, particularly with the newly extended berth at PSA Halifax, and its long reach, super post panamax cranes.

I have often noted that the size of ships is deceptive, particularly with these Ultra class vessels. Yes they are big a 360m long and 51m wide, but they are still smaller than the largest ship to dock at any Canadian terminal. As far as I know, that record is still held by Point Tupper, NS on the Strait of Canso. 

On August 9, 1998 the Ultra Large Crude Carrier (ULCC*) Hellespont Capitol docked at the Nustar Energy terminal there. A tanker of 173,086 gt, 388,118 dwt, it measured 373.5m long overall, by 64 meters breadth with a draft of 22.92m, it was built in 1976 and scrapped in 2002. Originally the Esso Madrid it was built by Nippon Kokan, Tsu, Japan, in response the "energy crisis" of the early 70s. In 1986 it was renamed Capitol and in 1990 Hellespont Capitol when it was acquired by the Greek / Canadian Papachristidis company Hellespont Steamships.

Ships of its colossal size could only be handled at Point Tupper which has the deepest, ice free terminal in North America.

 * The ULCC is the largest class of tanker, starting at 320,000 dwt and ranging up to 549,999 dwt. The next smaller class, the Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC),  is sized is from 160,000 to 319,999 dwt. 

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