Taking Turns

 Both Autoport and Pier 27 had two ships scheduled today, so, sensibly, they took turns.

Autoport

The early morning arrival at Autoport was the Palmela, eastbound from New York. As noted when it was here December 3, 2024 - December 4, 2024 it has a capacity of 5,080 CEU, as compared to most of the car boats we see here that are in the 6500 to 7500 CEU range.

 

 

Built in 2000 by Shin Kurushima Dock Yard Co Ltd in Onishi, Japan, it comes in at 55,926 gt, 20,581 dwt.  It is a fairly typical ship with a couple of exceptions. In addition to the usual stern ramp (rated at 80 tonnes capacity) the ship has two small side ramps - one on each side. The newest auto carrriers don't have side ramps anymore, and having two is most unusual.

The Palmela's counterclockwise routing had the ship sailing from Tsuneishi, Japan on February 4, then calling in Hitachinaka, Yokohama, then Kando February 14-15. It was next reported in Brunswick, GA March 14-15, Dundalk (Baltimore) March 18 - 19 and New York March 20.

Until recently there was high demand for auto carriers, and that may still be the case depending on origin and destination, so the occasional "oddball" caller can be expected. On completion of its stay at Autoport, the ship sailed for Cristobal, Panama the usual staging area for Panama Canal transits.

A more typical arrival was the next inbound, Wallenius Wilhelmsen's Tarifa on the usual transatlantic route from Bremerhaven, Goteborg and Zeebrugge March 14-15. In addition to automobiles, the ship also has RoRo cargo such as wheeled machinery for construction, mining and forestry. which will be off loaded first at Pier 9C.

The ship went first to Bedford Basin, where it turned, 

 

then came back to the Narrows, passing under the A. Murray MacKay bridge for the second time...

 

...to tie up starboard side to the pier.

Built in 2007 by Stocznia Gdynia in Poland, the ship was launched as Tarifa but renamed Morning Charisma on delivery for EUKOR, but was soon renamed Tarifa. The 57,692 gt, 21,120 dwt ship has a capacity of 6400 RT43 cars. Its stern ramp has a capacity of 150 tonnes and the small side ramp is rated for 22 tonnes. The ship has 13 decks, including four hoistable decks for larger RoRo cargo.

The ship was built orginally for charter to Eukor, but was delivered to Eukor's parent company Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean, and carries a traditional Wilhelmsen "T" name. The ship is under long term charter from a single ship company and the management of Stamco Ship Management of Piraeus, Greece.

On February 6 the ship was reported in Durban, South Africa, sailing February 7 for Luanda, Tema, Abidjan and Dakar, arriving in Vigo March 3 and Zeebrugge March 6 to 8 before slotting in to the Transatlantic route.  

Once it had completed the unloading of RoRo cargo it then moved to Autoport (which by then was vacated by the Palmela) to off load cars.

 

Pier 27

 
 At Pier 27 the Onego Glomma left off unloading steel rail and moved out to anchor to free up the berth.

The morning sun highlighted a feature of the ship, not previously noted here on Saturday  March 21. The ship's mid-body, with its box shape holds, is sponsoned out from the fore and aft sections. This is done to provide space for the cranes on the starboard side, and walkways on both sides, outside the hatch coamings. The hatches are the full width of the hold without overhang. (The hull is double skin.)

Several crew members were working on deck to secure the hatches, but I don't know what the forward crane was doing. They appeared to be moving some gear tubs possibly containing material for handling the rail cargo. The ship is due to move back to Pier 27 this evening, but will probably not resume unloading before tomorrow.

 The Onego Glooma moved to allow the visit of a ship from another Dutch company. Nirint Shipping's Ijsselborg, a ship with similar characteristics, but slightly larger.

The Ijsselborg has been a regular caller in Halifax with nickel concentrate from Cuba, but difficult to see at the Pier 27 berth. On sailing today at dusk it was more visible.

 

Built in 2010, its hull came from the Damen Yichang shipyard in China. It was completed and fitted out at Damen's home yard in Gorinchem, Netherlands to a Damen standard design "Combi Freighter 12000" of 8,999 gt, 12,016 dwt. A multi-purpose dry cargo ship with moveable 'tween decks it has two hatches and two box shaped holds. It is also rated as Finnish Swedish Ice Class 1A and carries two 80 tonne SWL cranes that can work in combination for 160 tonne lifts. It has a container capacity of 686 TEU with 80 reefer plugs.

The ship was built as Ijsselborg, but renamed Onego Houston for a short time in 2011 then reverted to Ijsselborg. In 2012 it was renamed Clipper Alba then in 2015 became Nordana Saran, finally settling on Ijsselborg again in 2015. Wearing the colours and name style of the large Dutch company Royal Wagenborg it is actually owned by Rederij Smith BV with commercial managment in the hands of Royal Wagenborg and in turn chartered to Nirint.

The ship's recent movements remain something of a mystery, After calling in Halifax January 6 to 8 it arrived in Rotterdam January 17 and sailed January 18. It visited Villagarcia, Spain January 21-22 and Mariel Cuba February 7 to 10. It called in Halifax again February 21-22. It then departed from the regular route by arriving in Kingston, Jamaica March 2, sailing the next day for Halifax and arriving March 11. Its  movements between March 12 and today (March 24) are not available on any of the regular ship movement web sites. 

Its destination is again given as Moa, Cuba, and what it loaded or unloaded in Haifax is also not known. It does have two containers on deck, but it would not have taken all day to load them.

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Ijsselborg for Nirint

 Nirint Shipping, a Dutch company, trades between Europe and the Caribbean, with a link in Halifax. One service sails from Rotterdam to the Dutch Caribbean and another called the Europe-Cuba-Canada service sails from Bilbao and Rotterdam to Mariel and Moa, returning to Europe via Halifax. 

Nirint does not own its own ships, but charters ships for multi-year periods. It used to rename the ships with a "Nirint" prefix, but has not done so in recent years.

The latter of Nirint's two services carries bagged nickel sulfides from Cuba. The cargo is off loaded in Halifax and sent by rail to Fort Saskatchewan, AB for initial processing. The ore is then sent to Belgium for refining.

Today's arrival of the Dutch flagged ship Ijsselborg is unusual because the ship is normally dedicated to the Dutch Caribbean route, and thus has not called in Halifax before. However it docked at Pier 27 and appears set to offload nickel. High winds and heavy rains have apparently delayed cargo operations.

Built in 2010, its hull came from the Damen Yichang shipyard in China. It was completed and fitted out at Damen's home yard in Gorinchem, Netherlands to a Damen standard design "Combi Freighter 12000" of 8,999 gt, 12,016 dwt. A multi-purpose dry cargo ship with moveable 'tween decks it has two hatches and two box shaped holds. It is also rated as Finnish Swedish Ice Class 1A and carries two 80 tonne SWL cranes that can work in combination for 160 tonne lifts. It has a container capacity of 686 TEU with 80 reefer plugs.

The ship was built as Ijsselborg, but renamed Onego Houston for a short time in 2011 then reverted to Ijsselborg. In 2012 it was renamed Clipper Alba then in 2015 became Nordana Saran, finally settling on Ijsselborg again in 2015. Wearing the colours and name style of the large Dutch company Royal Wagenborg it is actually owned by Rederij Smith BV with commercial managment in the hands of Royal Wagenborg and in turn chartered to Nirint.

Due to inclement conditions I could not see if the ship is carrying any containers, but it does not seem likely as the nickel cargo is stowed below deck and access is needed through both hatches. According to Nirint's published schedule it is due to sail from here for Rotterdam on completion of cargo work.

Wagenborg ships are frequent callers on the Great Lakes / St.Lawrence in the forestry trade with clay for paper making and finished paper products and bulk cargoes. Their gray hulls with red stripes make them easily identifiable.

Wagenborg ships such as the Albanyborg and Amstelborg load paper at my summertime haunt of Pointe-au-Pic, QC for export to Europe.

The Albanyborg is passing Halifax tonight en route to Baie Comeau, QC, another of its favourite loading ports for paper. The Amstelborg is at anchor near Belem, Brazil.
 

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A Touch of Winter Weather

 A major storm passing through the region over the last two days (November 22-23) caused many delays to arrivals, departures and work in the harbour. Extreme high winds, with gusts up to 90 kph and wave measurements in excess of 5 meters in the harbour approaches caused the Atlantic Pilotage Authority to suspend pilotage services November 23 until this morning November 24. Driving rain reduced visibility and dropping temperatures resulted in thin crust of snow and ice to form on cold surfaces.

  The Canadian tanker Qikiqtaaluk W, which arrived at Imperial Oil from Montreal on November 21, opted to go to anchor in Bedford Basin instead of putting out to sea on November 22.

After a summer spent supplying fuel to arctic outposts, the ship, operated by Coastal Shipping (Woodward Group) of Goose Bay, had company as the new Arctic Offshore Patrol Vessel Margaret Brooke carried out trials in the relative shelter of the Basin. Mist, in advance of the driving rain reduced visibility.

 The tanker finally sailed this morning, November 24, for Sarnia, ON for another cargo.

Ships heading for Halifax had to remain at sea and were tracked steaming up and down the coast as far southwest as the Yarmouth area.

MSC Meline arrived off Halifax November 18 and anchored November 20, but as conditions worsened it put out to sea again. It steamed south and hove to possibly avoiding the worst of the weather, finally boarding a pilot this afternoon (November 24). Last night it was south of Cape Sable Island, almost in the Gulf of Maine.

The ship is an unscheduled "Extra Vessel" and is arriving from Le Havre and Rotterdam, appearing to be fully loaded, but not on one of MSC's regularly scheduled routes.

Built in 2015 by Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co it is a 95,497 gt, 110,029 dwt ship with a capacity of 8800 TEU.

Once conditions improved this morning Algoma Verity was the first to arrive, tying up at Gold Bond Gypsum. Other scheduled ships will be arriving over the next few days including MSC Silvana on the Indus 2 service. Ships that have been in port, and delayed departing due to weather will be sailing over night. The Hapag-Lloyd ship Molly Schulte will be sailing from Fairview Cove this evening. And later tonight the cargo ship Ijsselborg is due to sail after unloading a cargo of rail from Poland.

The Netherlands flag ship was built in 2010 by Damen Yichang in China. It is a multi-purpose vessel with moveable tween decks and measures 8999 gt, 12,016 dwt. It used its own gear to unload the rail at Pier 27. Built as Ijseelborg it was renamed 2011: Onego Houston, 2011: Isselborg, 2012: Clipper Alba, 2015: Nordana Sarah and 2015: Ijsselborg. It carries the distinctive Royal Wagenborg paint scheme of grey with a broad red stripe. it is unfortunate that a better view was not possible from the land side.

An even worse view (if possible) does show the ship unloading the rail, and some dock workers arranging it in stacks. The rail is stored on the pier and sent out on special rail cars as CN Rail requires it. I understand the rail goes to Winnipeg where it is prepared for installation.

Main line rail is continuous welded, so the forty foot sections which arrive by ship are joined in the Winnipeg shop.

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Dutch General Cargo

Halifax general cargo stats were down last year, but they are getting off to a better start this year thanks to a pair of Dutch general cargo ships in port today, both carrying steel.

Ijsselborg arrived on February 12 with a cargo of rails for CN. The rails are manufactured in Poland and CN seems to have an inexhaustible demand. There is a more or less constant flow of rails into the port. They are stockpiled on pier 27-28 and shipped out on special railway cars. Once the stockpile begins to get low, another ship arrives.

Ijsselborg dates from 2010 when it was built by Damen's Yichang yard in China. It measures 8,999 grt, 12,016 dwt (also quoted as 11,000) and carries a pair of 80 tonne cranes that can work in tandem. The ship is currently operated by Royal Wagenborg, but has previously worked as Nordana Sarah (in 2015), Clipper Alba (2012-2015) Ijsselborg (2011-2012) and Onego Houston (2011) and was built as Ijsselborg.

Meanwhile at the opposite end of the port BBC Challenger was at pier 9C unloading drill pipe loaded in Louisiana. A similar vessel, it was built in 2008 by Damen Yichang and measures 7878 grt, 11,121 dwt, and also carries a pair of 80 tonne cranes.

It was built as Marina I and was renamed Clipper Marina (2008-2009), Marina I (2009-2010) and Thorco Challenger (2010-2017).
The drill pipe cargo is likely intended for the BP drilling program due to start later this spring.

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Ijsselborg sails and Toreador arrives

The Dutch multi-purpose, ice class, general cargo ship Ijsselborg sailed this evening after discharging a cargo rails for CN. It arrived in Halifax April 25 and  unloaded at pier 27.

Built in 2010 by the Dutch-owned Damen Yichang Shipyard in Yichang, China the 8999 grt, 12,016 dwt ship carries a pair of cranes that were used to unload the rails. It was built as Ijsselborg for Reederij Smit BV but was renamed 2011: Onego Houston, 2011: Ijsselborg, 2012: Clipper Alba, 2015: Nordana Sarah, 2015: Ijsselborg. It wears the colours of Royal Wagenborg who manage a number of ships for smaller Dutch owners and often sub-charter them to other companies.

At pier 31 just opposite, Wilhelmsen's Pure Truck and Car Carrier Toreador arrived late this afternoon. It will be unloading machinery, and will be moving to Autoport before it sails tomorrow.

It is a 61,328 grt, 22,098 dwt ship with a capacity of 6350 CEU. Built in 2008 by Mitsubishi, Nagasaki it is one of a class of ten ships distinguished by a full width navigation bridge. Not visible in the photo is an array of solar panels atop the accommodation providing 10kW for interior lighting.

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