March - in like a lamb

Today, March 1, was a very bright, very spring-like day with temperatures edging above zero Celsius. A brisk sea breeze brought a light mist and a healthy dose of ozone. With lots of shipping activity, the only frustration was the glare from the sun.

An early morning arrival (before daylight) was the Orinoco for Melfi Lines The ship made its debut here November 24, 2024 from Mariel, Cuba and is bound for Europe. By the time I caught the ship at PSA Halifax Pier 42 it had its hatches open and cranes were digging deep for cargo.

Built in 2010 by Fujian Shipbuilding Co in Fuzhou, the 9994 gt, 12,306 dwt ship has a capacity of 880 TEU and carries two cranes of unknown capacity. The ship was launched as E.R. Helsinki but completed as Friesdijk. It was renamed X-press Tajumulco in 2013 and became the Orinoco in 2020. 

There were several morning departures which meant some skilful coordination so that ships could meet in convenient places.

The self-unloading bulker CSL Tarantau sailed from Gold Bond Gypsum for Portsmouth, NH. 

 

Falling in behind was the auto carier Themis which had arrived yesterday at Autoport and moved to Pier 9C last evening. It completed unloading RoRo cargo this morning.

 

As it was lifting its stern ramp to prepare for sea I noted the crew deploying a small gangway (bottom right in the photo). This was perhaps to be used to board the pilot instead of the usual gangway closer to midships.

Built in 2016 by Hyundai Samho, it is a 75,283 gt, 23,786 dwt ship with a capacity for 8,000 RT43 size cars and has a 320 tonne capacity stern ramp. As with many newer autocarriers, it has no side ramp. It is also fitted with an exhaust gas scrubber, and is emitting water vapour from its scrubber vent.

 Themis took the main channel outbound, leaving the western deep water channel for the next arrival, the much larger APL Sentosa inbound for Pier 41 at PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway.

APL Sentosa is a 151,015 gt, 150,936 dwt (or 150,166 dwt from other sources) vessel. At 13,892 TEU. It falls well shy of the current Halifax record for container capacity which is 16,020 TEU by my reckoning.

There was other activity in the harbour with several comings and goings, but the next ship of interest was the Smoke a large bulk carrier.

The ship arrived off Halifax February 25 from Sept-Iles, QC and took up a position in the outer anchorages. Early this afternoon it embarked two pilots (due to its size and an unidentified malfunction) and moved in to #1 anchorage in the lower harbour.

 

The impressive ship was built in 2001 by IHI Kure (Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries, now Japan United) and measures 84,448 gt and 170,085 dwt. The largest size of dry cargo ship, it is classed as 'Capesize' meaning that it is too large for the Panama and Suez Canals and must travel via the Cape of Good Hope of Cape Horn to carry iron ore from the Atlantic to Asia. Its dimensions are 289.6m x 45.0m (950 ft x 147.6 ft) [In journalese parlance that is more thsn three footsball fields long and a half a football field from bridge wing to bridge wing.]

Once secure at anchor Dominion Diving's Dominion Rumbler came alongside, likely with a technician or a diver.

Its next port appears to be Las Palmas, but that is a waypoint either for orders, or further repairs, but not a destination for its iron ore cargo.

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CSL Convention

 It looked like a convention of CSL ships in Halifax today (December 4) with three ships in port at the same time. 

At anchor in the lower harbour it was Baie St.Paul a member of the Canada Steamship Lines domestic fleet. Flying the Canadian flag, it normally trades between Canadian ports. Built to the long slender dimensions of the St.Lawrence Seaway locks, it rarely ventures far out to sea, and only in relatively good conditions.

 With Chebucto Head, the entrance to Halifax Harbour, in the background the ship awaits better conditions before leaving port.

The Trillium class self-unloader arrived on Friday, December 2 and loaded at Gold Bond Gypsum. It then moved to anchor December 3 to wait out the high winds overnight last night. It is expected to sail this evening for Côte-Ste-Catherine, QC, located on the South Shore Canal of the St.Lawrence Seaway. 

When the ship last loaded here on November 19-20, it also sailed for Côte-Ste-Catherine, where it unloaded part of its gypsum cargo November 26, then called in Trois-Rivières, QC November 27 before returning to Halifax.

Two members of the CSL Americas fleet arrived today, also to load gypsum. The Rt. Hon. Paul E. Martin arrived first and went directly to to the Gold Bond dock in lower Burnside, Bedford Basin.

The Rt. Hon. Paul E. Martin loads gypsum from Gold Bond's large stockpile.

The ship is expected to sail over night, for a US east coast port.

Arriving an hour later the CSL  Taranatau took up an anchorage position nearby.

It is scheduled to move alongside Gold Bond when its fleet mate sails.

 The ship still carries orange paint on its self-unloading gear applied by original owners Oldendorff Carriers, when it sailed as their Balto. Oldendorff left the CSL pool in 2016 and distributed its ships to remaining partners Algoma Central and CSL Americas.

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A Tale of Two Cities

 Maybe a better title would have been Two Tales of One City. 

Over the years many ships have carried the name of Canada's largest city, Toronto. These have included naval vessels, passenger ships and bulk carriers. Today April 30 saw the current HMCS Toronto FFH 333 put out to sea. It has been noted for the past several days operating in local areas. 

 Built by Saint John Shipbuilding, it was launched December 19, 1990 and commissioned July 29, 1993. It is the second HMCS Toronto. The first, K538 was built by Davie Shipbuilding and Repair in Lauzon, QC in 1943 and was commissioned in 1944. It saw active duty in World War II, was upgraded and recommissioned in the 1950. In 1956 it was loaned, then sold in 1959 to the Royal Norwegian Navy as HMNoS Garm. Renamed HMNoS Valkyrien in 1965 it was broken up for scrap in 1977.

Arriving not long after was CSL Tarantau, a self-unloading bulk carrier, which uses an archaic form of the city's spelling. It is also the second CSL ship to use this spelling in its name - the first was a "Laker",  named simply Tarantau. Built by Collingwood Shipbuilding in 1964 it was a self-unloader, measuring 712' x75', and had its wheelhouse forward and was steam turbine driven. It was laid up in 1966 and broken up in 2000.

 

The current holder of the name was built by Chengxi Shipyard in Jiangyin, China as one of five Panamax Trillium class self-unloaders. Three were built for CSL and two for Torvald Klaveness, and all were for operation in the CSL International Pool. When Klaveness decided to leave the pool in 2016 they sold Balchen to Algoma as Algoma Vision, and this ship, which was built as the Balto went to CSL where it became CSL Tarantau. Both ships continue to work in the CSL pool. It is a 43,691 gt, 71,279 dwt ship which carries aggregates, coal, and gypsum. The orange paint on the self-unloading gear is a carryover from the Klaveness colour scheme, which used the same colour for the hull paint. This is a 2015 view:

 

 Footnote:

The name "Toronto" may be derived from the Mohawk "Tkaronto" meaning "where there are trees near the water" or the Wyandot word for plenty, or perhaps even "Taranto" - meaning "narrows". It is also thought that "Tarantou" or "Tarantau" originally applied to the area betweenLake Simcoe, and Lake Ontario which was a traditional meeting place. The City took the name to replace the previous name of York or Fort York, applied by British colonists. It has also had numerous nicknames, most of which were not flattering and do not need to be repated here.

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NS Stream and CSL Tarantau

 It took a telephoto lens and a wide angle lens to get pictures of two ships in Halifax today. 

NS Stream at Imperial Oil #3 dock was unloading some petroleum product from Port Arthur, TX. 

The ship is slightly unusual for a MidRange type tanker, in that it was not built by one of the well known Korean shipyards. Instead it came from Brodotrogir (the Trogir Shipyard in Trogir, Croatia) in 2006. The 27,357 gt, 47,197 dwt ship is owned and operated by SCF Novoship JSC of Russia. That company is one of the many tentacles of the joint-stock company [JSC] Sovcomflot [SCF], namely Novorossiysk Shipping Co [NSC]. The parent company owns 117 tankers, with more under construction and chartered. It also manages its fleet through various subsidiaries around the world - this ship from Dubai, UAE according to some sources.

I photographed the ship at the same berth but from a different angle July 23, 2015.

At that time there was still most of Imperial's refinery in the background. Glad the ship got some paint.

CSL Tarantau was the subject of the super wide angle (18 mm equivalent) at Pier 9C.

The ship arrived January 13 for maintenance [see previous post]  which is winding up today, with the ship scheduled to sail this evening. I don't have a destination yet, but will add it in later when AIS picks it up. (The ship took tug assistance out into Bedford Basin to turn around before setting course outbound.)

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CSL Tarantau: the new look

CSL Tarantau arrived this morning for National Gypsum. The ship is sporting a fairly recent hull paint job, improving greatly on its look the last time it was here.

The ship was built as Balto in 2013 for Klaveness Selfunloaders AS of Norway, then members of the CSL self-unloader pool with Algoma and Oldendorff, to a standard CSL Trillium class design. The 43,691 grt, 71,405 dwt ship was fitted with an 80m boom and can unload at speeds ranging from 4200 tonnes per hour for coal up to 6,000 tph for iron ore. Gypsum goes at 4,500 tph.
Builders Chengxi Shipyard in Jiangjin certainly skimped on the paint which deteriorated rapidly once the ship was in service. In 2015 Klaveness opted to leave the CSL pool and their ships were taken over by Algoma and CSL. CSLAmericas took Balto and renamed it in 2016. When the ship arrived in Halifax October 14, 2016 under the new name, Shipfax noted the newly painted CSL funnel colours, but that the Klaveness orange hull paint would likely have to wait for a scheduled 5 year drydocking to be redone.
 Shipfax/2016/10/14, csl-tarantua-ex-balto.html
That appears to have happened in March this year, so the ship looks quite respectable now. The deck, fittings and self-unloader apparatus will be left for the crew to paint, but the orange actually looks quite good, though not typical for CSL.

CSL continues to expand its international self-unloader fleet. They announced just this week that they are partnering with the German company Hartmann to build a 40,000 dwt self-unloader at Chengxi Shipyard in China.The ship will have a forward mounted self-unloader, a feature of smaller ships of the type, and will work under charter to Mibau Stema Group (Hartmann and Heidelberg Cement AG)  delivering aggregates in Europe.
 

Image from CSL Hartmann press release

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CSL Tarantau ex Balto

It has been some time since a ship loaded at National Gypsum. Despite an improving US economy, demand for gypsum is still low and ships have been few and far between.

Today's arrival is perhaps encouraging. CSL Tarantau arrived in ballast from Baltimore, indicating a demand, rather than just a backhaul cargo.

 

CSL Tarantau arriving in Halifax today.

This is the first time I have seen the ship since it was renamed in January 2016. It had sailed as Balto for  Klaveness Self-unloaders, a partner in the CSL self-unloader pool with CSL, Algoma and Oldendorff. Late in 2015 Klaveness divested its five ships to pool partners CSL and Algoma, and all have since been renamed.

The ship first called in Halifax as Balto.

Balto was built by Chengxi Shipyard in Jiangyin, China in 2013 to the ocean version of CSL's Trillium class design, so it was a natural fit in the CSL Americas roster.  At 43,691 grt, 71,405 dwt it is too large to take a complete load at National Gypsum due to draft restrictions at the Bedford Basin pier. However ships of this class take full loads of stone at Auld's Cove and bring in full cargoes of coal also.

The ship's upper works look fine, but the hull paint is decidedly inferior.

CSL's takeover involved repainting the funnel to CSL colours, and a hasty repainting of the name and clumsy paint over of the Klaveness bow banner. Nothing has yet been done to correct the terrible paint job the ship received at the shipyard. (Its starboard side is much worse). I guess that will have to wait until a scheduled drydocking a few years off into the future. At that time of course it will adopt the CSL black hull to match the rest of the fleet.

The ship's name recalls a Great Lakes self-unloader, built in 1964 and sold for scrap in 1999. That Tarantau also used the unusual spelling and pronunciation TARE'-AN-TOE.

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