Back to Work

 After the Christmas break things begin to get back to normal. Ships put out  to sea, terminals open up and before long there is a return to routine, perhaps even to clear an accumulated backlog.

That has certainly been the case in the Port of Halifax with considerable activity yesterday and today (December 27 and 28)

Two of the three ships anchored in Bedford Basin sailed today - heading in opposite directions. The Boskalis fleet mates Forte and Triumph, in port since December 15 and 16 respectively, ordered pilots for 0830hrs and 0915 hrs AST. That meant the pilot boat only had to make one trip out to Bedford Basin - a one half hour round trip at best.

The Foundation Pilot is the newest pilot boat in service in Halifax, completed this year by the Armon Shipyard in Puerto de Vega, Spain. The 60.54 gt boat arrived in Halifax May 25, 2024 as deck cargo on the Acadia Desgagnés. [see post of that date.]

First away was the Forte heading for Newport News in ballast. The ship shows very little freeboard, even as light ship, and must sometimes see its deck awash at sea.

Triumph followed soon after, heading for St.George's Bay, Newfoundland, (not St.George's Bermuda as AIS would have it.)[The crew member who programmed the AIS will be in for a shock when they arrive in wintery Newfoundland!] The large bay on the southwest coast of the island of Newfoundland is the location of the Port of Stephenville (formerly Port Harmon) where the former military port has become a staging area for offshore wind projects.

The Triumph's deck cargo of wind turbine towers, will be unloaded and stored in Stephenville for transfer to an installation vessel. Work has resumed on the Vineyard Wind project off Massachusetts after a five month shutdown when one of the (Canadian made) wind blades shattered and fell (in pieces) into the sea. The blade failure was traced to faulty adhesive which was not picked up by QA at GE's factory in Gaspé, QC. Existing blades may have been replaced and new testing procedures have been instituted.

Also in Bedford Basin in was the second ship in two days to load at Gold Bond Gypsum. CSL Spirit loaded and sailed for Tampa December 26 and fleet mate CSL Tacoma arrived this morning.

CSL Tacoma is a regular in Halifax and since its last call November 1 delivered its gypsum cargo to Wilmington, North Carolina, November 9 then proceeded to Puerto Drummond, Colombia to load coal November 14 to 15. I'm not sure why it stopped in Baltimore Decmber 11-12, but it then sailed to Belledune, NB where it unloaded the coal.

The CSL Tacoma, 43,691 gt, 71,405 dwt was built in 2013 by Changxi Shipyard in Jiangyin, China and is a Trillium class self-unloader. It can discharge at 4,250 tonnes per hour of coal, 4,500 tph of gypsum, 5,000 tph aggregates and 6,000 tph iron ore.

The oil terminals in Halifax usually work right through holidays and that was certainly yhe case with Imperial Oil this year. The Canadian tanker Qikiqtaaluk W arrived December 24 with product from Sarnia and sailed early December 27 (sorry no photo). Its place at number 3 dock was almost immediately taken by the Malta flagged Aegea from anchorage off Halifax with product cargo from Antwerp.

SLS Shipbuilding Co in Tongyeong, South Korea built the ship as the Mare Di Venezia in 2008. The 29,683 gt, 51,371 dwt Medium Range tanker was renamed in 2018 when it changed hands from Gestioni Armatoriali SRL to Chandris Hellas.

There was also container ship activity, but that may be for another post.

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US Navy visitor and other foggy arrivals plus news

 The USNS Robert E. Peary T-AKE-5 arrived in Halifax this afternoon, June 7 for a courtesy visit.

 Robert E. Peary emerges out of the fog inside Maugher's Beach, still sounding its fog signal, a surprisingly soft low tone.

Although not a fighting ship per se, (it is armed) it was built to support fighting ships by carrying vital supplies such as ammunition, dry stores, including provisions, and repair materials. A unit of the Lewis and Clark class of dry cargo ships, it was built by NASSCO, the National Steel Shipbuilding Corp in San Diego and entered service in 2008. It displaces 23,852 long tons light, 40,298 long tons loaded, and has a cargo capacity of 5,910 long tons. It is also equipped with replenishment at sea cargo handling gear. It also carries a pair of Kighthawk helicopters and decoy launchers.

 

The tugs Atlantic Willow and Atlantic Bear assist the ship to its berth at Navy Jetty Bravo.

USNS Robert E. Peary is owned by the United States Navy but is operated by the United States Military Sealift Command and thus is not a commissioned ship of the United States Navy. It carries the USNS (United States Navy Ship) prefix to its name and has a civilian crew of up to 143 with a military contingent of 49 for specific duties.
It is interesting that the ship arrived one day after the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landing in Normandy during the Second World War. There was a large commemorative event held in France, but there seemed to be very little notice paid in Halifax, despite the ports strategic role in World War II and preparations for the invasion.

It is also of interest that the ship was named after the arctic explorer Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary whose many achievements in the north have been overshadowed by his now discredited claim to have reached the North Pole in 1909. 

Also  emerging from the fog and sounding its much louder fog signal earlier in the day was the feeder container ship Contship Art, sailing for ZIM's CFX service. The "reverb time" of its signal echoing off buildings on the Dartmouth side of the harbour was worthy of any cathedral.

The ship was built by Jangsu Yangzijiang Shipyard in Jiangyin in 2014 as Taipei Trader. It was renamed Cap Avatele on delivery and renamed Taipei Trader in 2016. It is a 9932 gt, 13,063 dwt vessel with a capacity of 1102 TEU including 220 reefers and carries two 45 tonne SWL cranes. As Taiepi Trader it called in Halifax for the CFX service in 2020 -2021. It was renamed Contship Art in 2022.

By the time the ship made it to Bedford Basin the fog had become a light mist so there was a clear view as it approached the PSA Fairview Cove terminal.

A late afternoon arrival also appeared through the fog, which had thinned out a bit offshore. The oddly named Hellas Revenger was in the clear while the anchored ONE Falcon had become faintly visible well offshore.

The Hellas Revenger inbound from Antwerp for Imperial Oil took the main channel, and did not use tethered escort tugs. The outbound Oceanex Sanderling gave the tanker lots of room by taking the western channel which involved making the big dogleg off Point Pleasant, thus appearing in broadside.

The Hellas Revenger built in 2016 by Hyundai, Mipo is a 29,410 gt, 49,975 dwt Long Range 1 size tanker. Owner Latsco Shipping Ltd of Athens, was founded by John L. Latsis in the 1940s and carries the letter "L" (instead of the Greek Lambda Λ) on its ships' funnels. Now strictly a tanker owner, it has a fleet of more than 36 tankers of all types.

Of note in the harbour was the arrival of the Fundy Monarch a herring seiner scouting for fish. The June arrival of herring seiners has diminshed from up to a dozen boats to only a handful or sometimes none at all in recent years. If the scout boat finds the migrating mass of herring it will call in other boats. (There is a moratorium on herring fishing in the Gulf of St.Lawrence, in force since 2022, and qutoas have been cut elsewhere.)

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.

Also at work in the harbour was the new pilot boat Foundation Pilot. After arriving in Halifax on May 25 aboard the Acadia Desgagnés the boat completed trials and has been working a regular shift all this week.

The brand new aluminum hulled boat was built by Astilleros Armon in Puerto de Vegas, Spain and is registered at 60.54 gross tons. It is of conventional twin screw configuration with engines totaling 735 bhp.

On the other hand, although far from new, the tug Mister Joe (built in 1964!) continues to work hard for McNally Construction Ltd. Its current assignment is to shift mud scows from the dredging work at Halifax Shipyard to the settling beds at the IEL and Mobil docks in Woodside.

The Mister Joe takes the mud scow Pitts No.1 on the hip and departs from the Shipyard. The scow was  filled by the crane /barge Canadian Argosy as part of preparations for a pier extension project.

McNally Construction (the Canadian subsidiary of Weeks Marine - in turn owned by Kiewit Corporation since 2023) also added to its Halifax fleet this evening, June 7, with the arrival from the Great Lakes of the small tug / workboat W.A.Reid. The boat has been transferred from Weeks by inland waterways from New Jersey to Belleville, ON thence on down the St.Lawrence. With no sleeping accommodation on board, the tug has been leap frogging port to port since May 25. It will join sister tug D.D.Kaufman which has been working on the BIO pier extension since August 2023. More on these new tugs in companon blog Tugfax for December 21, 2023 and a future post.

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Newest pilot boat

 The newest pilot boat for the Atlantic Pilotage Authority arrived today, May25, from Aviles, Spain as deck cargo on the ship Acadia Desgagnés. The ship used its own cranes to lift the boat and place it in the water at Pier 9B. Much of this activity was not visible from shore, but I expect there will be photos taken from the ship on social media sometime soon.

 

Once safely in the water the boat was moved to the pilot dock in Dartmouth by another of the pilot boats, the Nova Pilot.

 The Nova Pilot (ex SC Lynx) and its near sister boat Scotia Pilot (ex SC Cheetah) were acquired in 2017 from the Netherlands, and are "fair weather" boats. The new boat is expected to operate in all conditions. The APA has only been operating one all weather boat in Halifax, the Capt E.T.Rogers. A second all weather boat is expected to reduce the number of cancellations and provide a back-up.

The new boat is named Foundation Pilot and unlike the two fleet mates, does not appear to be water jet propelled as far as I can tell. I have no more details at present, but will post when available.

(The name "Foundation" seems to  commemorate the company Foundation Maritime which took over harbour tug operations in Halifax harbour in 1935 and achieved fame as a leading marine salvage operator with their legendary tug Foundation Franklin. The parent company Foundation Company of Canada was also a large engineering and construction firm. They sold the tug operations in 1973.)

Transport Desgagnés, ownersof the Acadia Desgagnés is a Quebec based company that operates tankers and dry cargo vessels. Many of its dry cargo ships are used for northern supply in the summer and are flagged out to operate internationally for the rest of the year often working for BBC Chartering.

The Acadia Desgagnés was launched as the Montelema by Shandong Balbuting, Rongcheng and completed as BBT Ocean in 2013. It was soon renamed Sider Tis and was acquired and renamed by Desgagnés in 2017. It is a 7875 gt, 11,353 dwt vessel with two 30 tonne capacity cranes. Each year it carries the Canadian flag for six to eight months then swithches to Barbados flag. I expect it will reflag back to Canada while in Halifax.

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