Perils of the North - News and Update

 Following up on my September 12 post entitled Another Grounding :

With diminishing ice in the far north there has been a dramatic increase the amount of shipping activity in the Canadian arctic. All this activity is not without risk and this year there have been at least four instances of ships in trouble in the far north.

The first that I became aware of was the Dutch ship Tiberborg which went adrift in Baffin Bay in mid-August. A 14,695 gt, 21,303 dwt multi-purpose ship, rated Finnish / Swedish Ice Class 1A, it carries four 50 tonne SWL cranes to serve two box shaped holds with full width hatches. Built by Hudong Zhonghua in 2013, it is one of four sister ships in the Royal Wagenborg fleet. It has made several Northwest Passages, and this time had sailed from Baie-Comeau, QC August 4 and Matane, QC, August 8. (Those ports suggest it was carrying paper.)

The ship was taken in tow by the tug Beverly M 1 and towed back to Baie-Comeau, QC, arriving September 9, where presumably the problem was rectified. The ship then sailed from Baie-Comeau September 22, this time by a more southern route, transiting the Panama Canal October 4. It is now due in Osnan, South Korea on November 7. 

The sister ship Thamesborg as reported in the previous post, went aground September 6 (or 7th) off Tasmania Island in Franklin Strait, not a usual route, and seemingly poorly charted.  After lightering off some 5,000 tonnes of cargo to the Silver Copenhagen and the Canadian ship Nunalik it was refloated October 10 using the Estonian flag icebreaker Botnica and the Canadian tug Beverly M 1. Some dewatering of ballast tanks was also carried out. After survey in Pond Inlet, it was reported underway, taking the Bellot Strait, Gulf of Boothia / Brentford Bay route to avoid newly forming ice.

The ship was en route from China to Baie-Comeau, QC with a cargo of carbon blocks, some of which is still aboard. It is now due in Baie-Comeau October 24.

Meanwhile the ship Nunalik which had been on northern supply, and was to return to Bécancour, QC, stopped off in Baie-Comeau to discharge the lightered cargo and was on its way again Ocotober 15. Silver Copenhagen meanwhile (a refrigerated cargo ship, normally serving Greenland, and which may not have appropriate cargo handling gear) is also en route for Baie-Comeau and is due there October 24. The Beverly M 1 is accompanying and is also due October 24.

The Thamesborg sailing under its own power is making its way toward Baie-Comeau at 10.5 knots. On arrival, also October 24, it will presumably use its cargo cranes to off load the Silver Copenhagen. The Botnica is heading for St.John's (the Port of Entry for its Custom's clearance.) The ship had previously been granted a coasting license to assist late season shipping from the Baffinland / Mary River iron ore mine port of Milne Inlet. It will likely be heading back in that direction once cleared.

It is surprising how many other ships were in the vicinity and stood by or offered aid if needed.  Canadian Coast Guard ships that did assist were CCGS Jean Goodwill (which has since returned to Halifax October 3) and CCGS Des Groseilliers. Another Wagenborg fleetmate the Atlanticborg also en route from China (and presumably loaded with cargo), stood by for a time, and arrived without incident in Baie-Comeau October 14.

Also mentioned in the September 12 post was the Canadian flag Rosaire A. Desgagnés which took the ground in Pelly Bay August 23. It refloated at high tide and was given clearance to sail to Las Palmas, Canary Islands, arriving there September 25. Las Palmas is a favourite repair spot for Canadian ships for a variety of reasons.

The latest incident - although not apparently related to northern conditions, was a "mechanical failure" with the tanker Kivalliq W. while delivering fuel to Baker Lake on October 15. A fuel tank was damaged and the ship must go to drydock for repairs. Another tanker has been engaged to pick up fuel product in Lewisporte, NL and complete deliveries to northern communities before ice conditions close in. There was no pollution reported, and it is not clear yet where the ship will go for repairs.

 All this brings up the hazards of shipping in the north, and the pressure to provide better charts. more resources in case of more serious accidents, and oil spills.There have been no incidents involving cruise ships this year, but the number of those ships in the north is also increasing. Then there is the recent announcement of rehabilitation of the port of Churchill, MB for grain export to Asia via northern waters. But that is a topic for another day.

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MSC Cagliari IV for Montreal and other Chinese built ships

 The MSC Cagliari IV on MSC's Canada Express service called today, April 19, at PSA Halifax Atlantic Hub, Pier 42. The ship's last port was Antwerp and it is en route to en route to Montreal.

 

The ship may have been here before under a previous name. It was built in 2007 as ZIM Genova and became Genova in 2018 and MSC Genova IV in 2022. It is a 40,372 gt, 52,943 dwt ship with a capacity of 4253 TEU including 400 reefers. The Roman numeral "IV" in its name indicates the ship's capacity range. It is therefore an aid to classifying the ship in the bewildering array of ships in the Mediterranean Shipping Company fleet.

That fleet has just reached the (almost) unheard of number of 900 ships. Aside from Helen of Troy's reputed flotilla, no other shipping fleet has reached that size. (MSC owns several separate companies which are included to make up the 900 ship total.) The fleet consists of 609 owned and 291 chartered vessels with a capacity of 6.7 million TEU (that's a million TEU larger than Maersk). A further 132 ships are on firm order with various shipyards. 

This one was built at the Dalian Ship Industry Co in Dalian, China, and as such may soon be facing  a Trump tax on Chinese built ships.

Another ship that will be facing that punishing tax also called in Halifax today. The auto carrier Lake Tazawa docked first at Pier 9C with RoRo cargo then moved to Autoport to discharge cars.

The 71,631 gt, 19,213 dwt ship has a capacity of 7,000 CEU on 12 decks with a 150 tonne capacity stern ramp and a 20 tonne starboard side ramp.The ship is dual fuel to Tier III standard and carries two 2,000 cubic meter LNG tanks. It also has shaft generators and lithium battery storage and can connect to shore power.

It was built in 2024 by China Merchants Jinling Shipyard Co Ltd, and is one of series of ships to be operated by Eukor. It and its sister ship Lake Shirasagi are now regular callers on the Wallenius Wilhemsen transatlantic service - at least for now. The addition of punishing tarifs on imported cars may well change that.

Another familiar caller is back again and will not be facing any similar taxes. As one the few US built cruise ships Victory I resumes its usual itinerary of cruises to the Great Lakes. 

Docked at Pier 23, its heavy fendering shows up well. The combination of standoffs and a full length rub rail protect the ship's hull while transiting the Seaway locks. With sister ship Victory II they have had checkered careers since delivered by Atlantic Marine of Jacksonville, FL in 2001and 2004 as Cape May  Light and Cape Cod Light respectively. After several renamings and ownership changes, the 200 paasnger ships remain popular.

Coming from the direction of the Great Lakes is the Canadian tanker Kivalliq W. of Coastal Shipping Ltd. It anchored in the lower harbour waiting its turn at Imperial Oil with cargo from Sarnia, ON.

The ship's owner, part of the Woodward Group, is headquartered in Goose Bay, NL, but the ship operates out of Lewisporte, NL and in the summer season serves the far north. In the off season, as it was this past winter, it is flagged out to operate overseas. Its registration was shifted to the Marshall Islands December 1, 2024 and it returned to Canadian flag April 7.

Built in 2004 by Jiangyang Shipyard, Shanghai it is listed at 8882 gt, 13,670 dwt. Initially named Falcon it was renamed Sten Fjord in 2009 and renamed again when acquired by Coastal Shipping in 2018. It rarely trades to the United States so will likely escape the tax on Chinese built ships.

 

Algoberta at Imperial dock number 3, April 18.

Algoma's thanker Algoberta also working for Imperial Oil sailed back to Nanticoke this morning after unloading and Algoscotia, which has been waiting at Pier 27, moved over to Imperial Oil on departure. Algoscotia most commonly runs between Halifax and Sydney, NS.

 While Algoscotia was at Pier 27 April 8, there was a tank truck on the dock (not visible in the photo) possibly for refueling or possibly to take off tank washings.

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Pier 9C - a useful spot

 The Port of Halifax accomodates ships for reasons in addition to the usual loading and unloading of cargo. Today January 8 there were two ships at Pier 9C that fitted that miscellaneous category.

The self-unloading bulk carrier Shiela Ann arrived initially at the Gold Bond dock on January 6 and took on a load of gypsum. That process would normally have taken 24 hours or less, but the ship remained alongside until this morning when it moved to Pier 9C.

 On arriving at the Pier there were at least three trucks with semi-trailers loaded with crates, and a crane set up on the brow. The contents of the crates were unknowable, however there were reels, which may be replacement conveyor belting. 

The Shiela Ann was built by Jingnan, Shanghai in 1999 for CSL International and assigned to their self-unloader pool. Two other ships of the same design, the Sophie Oldendorff and CSL Spirit were built by the same yard also for use in the pool in 2000 and 2001 respectively. (When Oldendorff Carriers withdrew from the CSL pool, Algoma purchased the Sophie Oldendorff and renamed it Algoma Vistory in 2019.)

Most of the ports where the Shiela Ann calls are long jetties without truck access or are relatively remote from the source of parts and supplies. Recent ports for the ship include Puerto Drummond in Colombia where it loaded coal November 2-7 for Rio Haina, Dominican Republic (November 11-13) then again loading at Puerto Drummond November 15-17 for Puerto Quetzal Guatemala December 10-11, reached via the Panama Canal December 5-7.  It then returned to Panama December 14, presumably in ballast, and queued up for the Canal, finally locking through December 28 en route for Halifax.

The Shiela Ann is expected to sail early this evening for Tampa, FL.

Just to the south, at the same long pier was the coastal tanker Kivalliq W. It arrived January 6 from Nanticoke, ON and after discharging petroleum product at Imperial Oil, moved to Pier 9C last night. As mentioned in the previous post, the ship normally flags out for the winter. If it will be doing that during its current stay at Pier 9C it will not be difficult to obscure the ship's current port of registry (St.John's) - it has the smallest size lettering I have ever seen! [Barely visible between the ship's name and its IMO number].

 There was also a truck alongside with a refuse skip, which suggests that the ship may be in for a period of maintenance before resuming work under its foreign flag. Since 2017 the flag of choice has been the Marshall Islands, but from December 2022 to June 2023 it was the Portuguese offshore flag of Madeira.

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The last of the summer fuel and make way for nickel

 1. Last of the Summer Fuel

 The Imperial Oil Dock #3 is the busiest spot in the harbour as the last shipments of fuel arrive from the Great Lakes. With the St.Lawrence Seaway now closed for the winter, Imperial will no longer have tanker access to its refineries in Sarnia and Nanticoke, ON, so has been stockpiling product. Three last tankers arriving in quick succesion are:

The Qikiqtaaluk W. which sailed from Nanticoke December 30 and made its way downbound in the St.Lawrence Seaway January 1, arriving in Halifax yesterday afternoon (January 5). Built in 2011 by Icdas, Bigas, Turkey it operated as Icdas 11 and carried that name until acquired by Coastal Shipping Ltd of Happy Valley - Goose Bay, NL in 2018. It is a 13,097 gt, 19,198 dwt. chemical and product tanker. (The ship was named for the huge eastern portion of Nunavut, formerly known as the Baffin region of Canada's Arctic.)

It was in port for less than 24 hours and sailed late this afternoon (January 6) in ballast for St.John's.

Every year since 2018 and from roughly January 1 the ship has been flagged out to operate internationally. Depending on contracts for delivering fuel to the arctic, the ship has returned to Canadian flag from as early as April 1 to as late as July 1 the following year. At the end of the northern shipping season it has participated in the stockpiling of fuel here in Halifax, and I expect it to flag out again this year.

While outbound this afternoon the Qikiqtaaluk W. met its fleetmate Kivalliq W. inbound also with product from Nanticoke. It sailed from that port January 1 and was downbound in the Seaway the next day. It was followed closely later the same day by the Algoberta, also bound for Halifax, and which will anchor when it arrives tonight.

The Kivalliq W. usually flags out for the winter too, so was likely given prioity at the dock. Algoberta will join fleetmate Algoscotia distributing product around the region this winter.

2. Make Way for Nickel 

The big bulker Athina III (see January 4 post) has been loading soybeans at Pier 27 since January 5 but halted operations at midnight last night and moved out to anchorage number 1 in the lower harbour. This was to make way for the Augusta Luna with the latest load of nickel sulfides from Cuba. Sailing for Nirint Shipping BV, it is on a regular run between European ports and Cuba. [See December 25, 2022 ]. On the return leg it unloads bagged nickel sulfides directly to rail cars or to storage at Pier 28. There is not room enough for both ships at Pier 27-28 at the same time, and no other pier is available for the nickel cargo or for bulk grains. Expansion of the South End Container Terminal (operated by PSA) displaced the nickel operation from Pier 31 where there was open pier space, a rail siding and a transit shed. The shed has been demolished and the open pier space is now devoted to container storage and construction activity. There is now only one trasit shed in the deepwater piers area of the port. The Richmond Terminal in the north end has transit sheds but they are all occupied with other business, and in any event rail access is not as convenient.

 The Athina III is due to move back to Pier 28 tonight when the Augusta Luna sails. It appears to be about half loaded, so will be in port for a few more days.

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Kivalliq W. fire and Yantian Express update

Shipboard fires, like fires on land, are a fact of life, but some are far more serious than others. A recent fire aboard a gas tanker in the Crimea which resulted in an explosion involving two ships and resulted in the loss of scores of lives is fortunately a very rare event.

Some fires are minor, often because they are extinguished quickly. Such appears to have been the case aboard the tanker Kivalliq W. on Sunday morning at Imperial Oil dock 4. By 0600 hrs when the ship's crew were unable to control a fire in a generator compartment they called in Halifax Regional Fire and Emergencies Services, which in turn called upon the expertise of the Department of National Defence Fire Department. The latter have special training in shipboard fires, and thanks to these combined efforts the fire was extinguished by 0800.

Most engine room and compartment fires on ships are fought using CO2, which smothers the fire, but only works when the compartment is completely sealed so that no oxygen can get in to fuel the fire. Ships carry a large supply of CO2, but that can be used up quickly if the fire area cannot be sealed off. There is also a substantial waiting period before the compartment can be re-opened and cleanup operations can start.

Modern ships have a variety of generators, used to provide electricity separately from the propulsion engines. These are sometimes in the engine room itself, but others are mounted high on the ship outside the engine room to ensure that power is available in an emergency. Tankers also have additional generator capacity to power cargo pumps. It is not clear which generators were effected in the Kivalliq W.
The ship will be moving later today to pier 9C for repairs.

Kivalliq W. arriving from Quebec in December.

Kivalliq W. has been working a shuttle service from the Valero refinery in Lévis, QC to Imperial Oil. As an ice class vessel it is well suited to this kind of winter work. Its first arrival here December 1, 2018
is covered in a previous post.


Imperial has other sources of refined product, so will unlikely run short of supplies, but the ship may be out of service for some time.


It has been mentioned in some accounts that Imperial Oil no longer has its own fire service, as it once did when it operated a refinery. I am not sure if that team was equipped to handle shipboard fires. It seemed to me to equipped to fight fires on land within the refinery complex.

As to what other resources might be available in Halifax to fight a shipboard fire, that is a topic that had been the subject of debate ever since the Halifax in 1917. Over the years a variety of fireboats have been operated by the former City of Halifax, and the Royal Canadian Navy.  Nowadays harbour tugs are fitted with firefighting capability, and there is no dedicated fireboat in the harbour.

Obviously a fire of any sort on a tanker, if not extinguished quickly, could result in ignition of the cargo. When the ship has been carrying gasoline and other refined products, and is tied up to a fuel storage facility, the consequences could be serious. Perhaps we dodged a bullet this time.
 
Meanwhile that other shipboard fire - this one of a very different nature - on the Yantian Express - is apparently under sufficient control that the ship is able to head for a convenient port, under its own power. The fire was confined to the cargo area in the forward portion of the ship, and the engines and accommodations were not effected. The ship's officers returned to the ship, but they must have been supplemented by a new crew to help run the engines, provide catering, etc., 

At this point the ship is headed for Freeport, Bahamas, with the tugs Maersk Mobilizer and Sovereign working as escorts, but also standing by in case of a new outbreak of fire.