Big Ships in the Big Harbour

 Halifax Harbour has been known as "the big harbour" since time immemorial. The original Mi'kmaq people called it that in their language, which modern orthography renders as Kjipuktuk. The name Kjipuktuk has been given to the Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency Services fireboat, which also has the unofficial call out name "Fireboat No.1".

 English colonizers corrupted Kjipuktuk to Chebucto, which continues as the name for an important road and countless other uses. Nevertheless Halifax remains the name of the Metropolitan area and the harbour.

The Big Harbour continues to live up to its name as it hosts ships of all sorts, some that might not be able to use other ports due to their size. Both the main harbour and the headwater Bedford Basin are in almost constant use.

In the Bedford Basin the tanker Ionic Anax has been at anchor since May 14 when it arrived in ballast from Canaport, off Saint John, NB, after unloading a cargo of Texas crude.

The diving tender Allen Clipper is alongside the ship - usually a sign of some underwater activity such as hull cleaning. (If the tender had been closer to the stern I would have suspected propellor trimming or removal of tangled rope.) 

Built in 2017 by Namura Shipbuilding in Imari, Japan, it is a 63,502 gt, 114,720 dwt Suezmax ship. As the name implies it is Greek owned and named for a mythical giant.

Arriving today, May 15, to anchor in the lower harbour is a former crude oil tanker, converted to a far different use. The Target is now a semi-submersible heavy load carrier.

Built in 1990 by Brodosplit in Croatia, as the Jahre Target it was renamed Nord-Jahre Target in 1993,  Crude Target in 2000, and was renamed Genmar Centaur in 2003 and Front Target in 2004. In 2007 it was rebuilt to its present configuration by Cosco Nantong Shipyard and renamed Target. It can now be ballasted down to submerge its main deck so that cargo can be floated over.

In the rebuild it was shortened about 10 meters, and its hull cut down and and a heavily reinforced deck installed, with resulting changes to its tonnages, from 77,931 gt to 42,515 gt and 142,031 dwt to 53,806 dwt. A secondary wheelhouse was installed forward for use if large loads block sightlines from the main bridge.

The ship is carrying cradles on deck which are used for transporting wind generator monopiles.

At PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway the large container ship ONE Wren sailed this morning after a 24 hour port call.

 The ship was built by Japan Marine United in Kure in 2018 as NYK Wren. When it was renamed in 2021 its gross tonnage was revised from 144,285 to 146,409 tons.  Deadweight tonnage remained the same at 139,335 tonnes as did container capacity of 14,026 TEU. 

The ONE Wren is on the EC3 service of the new Premier Alliance. It was previously a regular on the old THE Alliance service which has been renamed after the withdrawal of Hapag-Lloyd. Remaining members HMM, ONE and Yang Ming formed the Premier Alliance, maintaining many of the same routes and using the same designations. The EC3 runs to and from Asia and the US east coast. ONE Wren is currently east bound from New York and is due in Singapore June 18. It will likely be sailing non-stop via the Cape of Good Hope.

Not all ships using the harbour are big however. Some are realtively small, such as the multi-purpose general cargo ship Franbo Logic which sailed today after a shortish visit. It arrived May 12 from the Philppines via the Cape of Good Hope.

 Although the ship appears lightly loaded, it did take on steel racking to spool fibreoptic submarine cable. It also seems to have refueled at Pier 27 this morning. It has been here several times before going back to 2019, to take on the same "cargo". 

The ship was built by the Honda Heavy Industries Co Ltd in Saiki, Japan under the name Thorco Logic. It is a 13,110 gt, 16,969 dwt with movable pontoon tween decks and two 50 tonne cranes. It was renamed in 2021.

A sister ship the Franbo Lohas ex Thorco Lohas was port in April (see April 18) and also took on cable racking. It eventually sailed to Portsmouth, NH to load cable. However today's departure, the Franbo Logic, sailed for Avonmouth, UK.

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 A sister shipm Franbo Logic is

 
 

Small Craft Old and New

 Halifax harbour is not only host to a wide array of commercial ships, but it is also home to countless smaller craft. These boats include pleasure craft, based at one of the five yacht clubs scattered around Bedford Basin, Eastern Passage and the Northwest Arm, or the at countless private moorings. There are several dozen fishing boats in Eastern Passage and other inlets and coves all the way out past the harbour limits as far as Sambro.

At Sambro the CME shipyard specializes in repairing smaller vessels up to and including Halifax Harobur ferries and small Navy and Coast Guard boats.

At any time one may see government small craft from the Atlantic Pilotage Authority, the Canadian Coast Guard, Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Royal Canadian Navy, training, exercising, researching or going about who knows what business in the harbour.

Then there are the commercial small craft, classed generally as work boats, but sometimes with specific duties such as line handling at Autoport or Irving Oil's Woodside Terminal. They may also be tending diving operations or carrying out small towing jobs. 

I generally cover workboats in the companion blog Tugfax but a couple of recent arrivals and some seldom seen boats have attracted my attention recently and deserve wider notice.

APA

On July 11 of this year the heavy lift ship BBC Virginia arrived in Halifax with a pair of British built pilot boats named St. Brides and St. Govans. Built in 2016 by Mainstay Marine in Pembroke, Wales to a CAMARC design, the 19m boats operated for a time at Milford Haven, Wales. It has been reported that they were unsuitable for the severe sea conditions there and were laid up for sale - at a good price with low usage hours.

After unloading at Pier 9C the boats whistled off to the Canadian Maritime Engineering (CME) shipyard in Sambro where they are nearing completion of a "Canadianization" process. (That generally means suitable fittings for operation in winter, such as heated hand rails, decks and windows.) Yesterday (November 20) I noted an AIS signal from one of the boats, so I went to investigate.

Both boats are still on the cradles at CME, but have now been painted in the usual yellow colour for Atlantic Pilotage Authority boats and have been renamed and registered in Canada effective October 20, 2023.

Signal Pilot has been assigned Official Number 847091, registered in St.John's, and is now showing on AIS. The former St.Brides ? will be based in St. John's and is obviously named for Signal Hill, the promontory marking the entrance to St.John's harbour and site of the Cabot Tower. It is now a National Historic Site recognizing the first transatlantic wireless transmission received there (in Morse code) from Guglielmo Marconi in Poldhu, Cornwall in 1901.

Workers board the Signal Pilot at the CME shipyard in Sambro. The rectangular yellow object on the wheelhouse is a weather tight housing in the open position, see also next photo for the closed position.

The second boat, now named Muir Pilot, is to be based in North Sydney and was registered in Halifax, Official Number 847092. also on October 20. The significance of the name is less obvious, but may recognize the late union leader and politician Robert Muir, who represented the North Sydney area of Cape Breton in Parliament and the Senate.I am not aware that he had any connection with marine matters or pilotage, so I await further clarification.

 

Dominion Diving

Dominion Diving Ltd operates a fleet of workboats and barges for miscellaneous duties in the harbour and along the coast. They operate as diving tenders, work boats, lines boats, tugs and perform pilot transfers when the regular pilot boats are not available. 

Their colourful fleet has its base in Dartmouth Cove, but can be seen at work in many areas around the harbour.

The company's newest fleet member is an aluminium hulled vessel propelled by a pair of powerful diesel outboards, giving a top speed of 18 knots. Acquired from St-Pierre et Miquelon, the boat carried the name K-Bio and the Official Number SP934638L.  

 Even though the boat operated under the French flag, it was built in Glovertown, NL by FabTech Industries to their Silver Dolphin 31 design (10m long x 3m wide). Dominion Diving has its own boatyard for refits and repairs and will be "re-doing" the boat for miscellaneous duties in the harbour, particularly pilot transfers, where its speed will be welcome, and lines work.

 The new boat will likely reappear in the spring with a new colour, and may replace the venerable Halmar which sees almost daily service somewhere in the harbour. Built in 1960 by Halifax Shipyard apprentices, and based at the old Dartmouth Marine Slips, it was rebuilt by Dominion Diving in 2009.

 HRM

The Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) was formed in 1996 with the amalgamation of all the municipalities surrounding Halifax harbour ( Halifax, Dartmouth, Bedford and Halifax County). With a population nearing 500,000, it operates a large transit system, including harbour ferries, a police force and a fire department. Both public safety organizations operate rigid inflatible craft in the harbour and on the many lakes in the municipality. Recently both have upgraded to larger vessels.

Halifax Fire and Emergency Services operates Fire Boat 1, the Kjipuktuk (a version of the Mi'kmaq First Nations name for Halifax harbour, often anglicized as Chebucto). It was built by Metalcraft Marine Inc in Kingston, ON in 2021.

 

 It patrols the harbour regularly, where combustible timber pile structures are close to residential properties.

 

Policing in the HRM may be carried out by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or the HRM force, depending on the area, and both have boats in Halifax harbour as needed. The HRM force appears to have taken delivery of a new boat in recent weeks, having sold their previous boat last year. The so far unnamed new craft was built by the local builder Rosborough Boats. It showed up at Pier 25 last week, perhaps to be hauled out for the winter, although boats of this class can be spec'd for year round service.

 

Miscellaneous

 

Rosborough Boats are popular with several government departments and private concerns. I spotted another unnamed boat doing soundings off the Mill Cove jetty in Bedford Basin. It is also a rigid hull vessel with a buoyancy collar, this one a type RF-246.

As a 4.99 gt small craft it is registerd by number and has no official name, but is known as Sea Quest and is owned by CSR Geo Surveys Ltd of Porter's Lake, NS (a semi-rural community within the HRM).

To conclude this post, I spotted RMI Marine's Tidal Runner on November 15. It was moving a barge from Mill Cove, Bedford Basin to RMI's base in Eastern Passage.

 

 Built by Eastern Equipment Canada Ltd in LaSalle, QC, it is an aluminium hulled boat with a bow door. Eastern Equipment built boats for the Canadian government in the 1970s. This one also has no official name, but its numerical registration is from New Brunswick, where I assume it once worked for the Canadian Coast Guard. It is listed as inboard/outboard powered, but is now driven by outboards.

There are several other boat operators in Halifax, including Eagle Beach Contractors Ltd, which will be covered in a later post, but for now see my Tugfax post of August 23, 2023.

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RCN

 It was a busy morning (July 15) for the Royal Canadian Navy. Two frigates returned from NATO assignments, accompanied on the last leg of the trip by a supply ship.

The first movement however was the departure of HMCS Moncton MM 708, displaying its Battle of the Atlantic disruptive (camouflage) paint scheme. It met the inbound ships outside of the Maugher's Beach lighthouse.

 

The frigates emerged from the fog and were greeted in the Middle Ground and escorted into the harbour by the Halifax Fire and Emergency Services Fireboat 1, Kjipuktuk, with an impressive water display.

The first ship in line was HMCS Montreal FFH 336, which has been away since January 19.

 It was followed by HMCS Halifax FFH 330 which left its home port March 19.

The ships sailed in west of George's Island, allowing close up views, and meant that the ships were within vocal range of shore. Spectators at Pier 20 could see and hear (and be heard by) those on the ships. As usual, all available hands were on deck.

 

Following the frigates was the supply ship Asterix [not pictured] which sailed from Halifax July 6. It met the frigates off Newfoundland and accompanied them for a port call in St.John's last weekend.

Although Montreal and Halifax have returned from Operation Reassurance, two RCN coastal defence vessels, HMCS Kingston and HMCS Summerside sailed from Halifax June 26 for the Baltic to join the same operation. 

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Arrivals, Departures and Moves

 Most days in Halifax harbour there are several ship arrivals and departures and often some moves within the harbour. The arrivals and departures often coincide with the normal hours of the longshore workers, so tend to be early in the morning for the arrivals and late in the afternoon for the departures. Moves are usually unpredictable.

However there are times when the ship movements are at odd hours, more conducive for photos.Today June 20 was such a day, with several mid morning arrivals.

The container ship NYK Romulus was due at the pilot station at 1000 hrs, followed by the auto carrier Grande California at 1030 hrs.

Built in 2009 by Hyundai, Samho, the NYK Romulus is a 55,487 gt, 65,883 dwt vessel with a capacity of 4922 TEU including 330 reefers. It is sailing on THE Alliance's AL5 service (North Europe - North America).

Heading for Autoport, Grimaldi's Grande California may be making its first call in Halifax.

Just a year old, the Grande America was delivered by the Yangfan Group, Zhoushan in early June 2021. It is a 65,148 gt, 15,853 dwt ship with a capacity of 7700 cars in 5,000 lane meters of deck space. It is arriving from Salerno and Gioia Tauro, Italy and Valencia, Spain.

While these two big ships were arriving, two smaller vessels were putting in an appearance.

 

Lady Melissa, built by Ferguson Industries in Pictou in 1990 and owned by Comeau's, Saulnierville, NS. Morning Star was built by Caraquet Marine Ltd in 1991 and is owned by Scotia Pelagic of Yarmouth.

 

Both are herring seiners, and have not been seen in Halifax for some time. The commercial herring and mackerel fisheries were closed by government order in April, so these boats must be operating for research or for a limited bait fishery. The collapse of the herring stock on both Atlantic and Pacific coasts is worrisome, but has happened before.

One ship arrived this morning and will sail again this evening - Irving Oil's tanker East Coast

Built in 2005 by Hyundai, Mipo for long term charter to Irving Oil, it was orginallly named Nor'Easter and sailed internationally out of Saint John, NB. It was brought under Canadain flag and renamed in 2014.It is a handysize vessel of 23,552 gt, 37,515 dwt.

Most of today's departures are echeduled for early evening (after this is posted) but one late afternoon sailing was the Royal Canadian Navy's chartered supply ship Asterix.

As usual with naval vessel movements, its destination was not given.

Movements within the harbour were limited to small craft as far as I could tell. Among these "craft" was the "Harbour Hopper 6", giving its cargo of tourists a cold and damp ride.

The Halifax Fire and Emergency Services "Fire Boat 1" was exercising its sealegs in the harbour too:

The boat is also named Kjipuktuk , the first nation's word for Halifax Harbour, which the early English settler-colonizers corrupted to "Chebucto". [I have "defaced" one of the crew men to avoid identification.]

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Another fire boat

Halifax has taken delivery of its new fireboat.

One of the on again off again discussions at the City Council of Halifax since the early days of the 20th century has been the topic of fireboats. The responsibility for fighting fires on ships in the harbour or on shoreline structures such as piers and buildings has been debated periodically, and various entities have taken on duties in one way or another from time to time.

If that sounds rather wishy washy and vague, it's because there has never been a definition of responsibility, but there has been a lot of cooperation and some controversy over the years.

The Royal Canadian Navy has its own fire department in HMC Dockyard, with trucks and land based apparatus. They respond to alarms in all military properties in the area. CFB Shearwater on the Dartmouth side of the harbour also has specialized firefighting apparatus for its airbase.

There is also a Canadian military fire training school in suburban Halifax that specializes in training for shipboard fires.

The HMC Dockyard has three large and three small tugs fitted for fire fighting ,with new more capable tugs under construction in Quebec. (A dedicated fireboat was decommissioned in 2014.) Crews have specialist fire fighting training for shipboard fires, aimed more at military type vessels than civilian.

The military has always been willing and able to assist in "civilian" fires, and with shipboard fire expertise available, has perhaps "taken the heat" off civilian authorities.

Atlantic Towing Ltd, the operators of harbour tugs in Halifax, has up to four tugs in service at all times, with firefighting capability. They are classed as FiFi1, the most basic  level of capability, but have very powerful water pumping capability, and foam generation. Their crews, while very capable are not trained firefighters.

When there was an offshore oil and gas industry off Nova Scotia, many of the supply vessels had fire fighting capability too, and some special training for rig and offshore installation fires. However with the demise of that industry, those vessels are now gone from the harbour and surrounding waters.  A fire out at sea could not expect any significant fire fighting assistance from Halifax.(There is ample search and rescue capability however.)

The Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency Service  (HRMFES) was formed in 1996 when the fire departments of Halifax, Dartmouth, Bedford and Halifax County were joined into one administrative unit. However the force traces its roots in Halifax to 1754 and is the oldest fire service in Canada.  

Since the time of the Halifax Region merger the force has had some rescue boats, but had no marine division and no "on the water" fire fighting capability. The Halifax Regional Police has boats that provide policing and some rescue capability.

The Halifax Port Authority, a federal crown corporation, which has responsibility for all the waters within the Port has no firefighting force, but relies on the HRMFES for fire fighting on its lands.

Similarly the Canadian Coast Guard, provides Search and Rescue services in the area, but its ships are only equipped for limited external fire fighting. They have no emergency towing capability (unlike Canada's west coast), nor salvage capability. They operate seasonal Search and Rescue in the harbour, and a year round seagoing lifeboat based outside the harbour in Sambro.

Following the disastrous Halifax Explosion of 1917, there was still debate over who was responsible for fire protection and firefighting in the harbour. During World War II the City of Halifax chartered its own fireboat, the famous Rouille from 1941 to August 1945.

The National Harbours Board (predecessor by several generations of the Halifax Port Authority) also chartered its own fire tug in 1943, the legendary ex Chicago fire boat James Battle. 

Both were well used in ship and pier fires during the war and were on hand to fight the Bedford Magazine fire in 1945, that could have resulted in an explosion to rival that of 1917.  See: Bedford Magazine Fire

Near the  end of World War II, the RCN could justify construction of some dedicated fire tugs, after emergency temporary conversions had been used in naval facilities during hostilities. After 1945 at least one fireboat was then on duty in Halifax. In 1978 a new boat, the Firebird, was delivered, and it was operational 24/7 until budget cutbacks in 2014.

For more on this topic see Shipfax  February 21, 2019

There were some notable fires on the old creosoted timber piers in Halifax in the 1950s, but since the mid 1960s there has not been a significant fire along the shore. There have also been very few shipboard fires. Both waterfront oil refineries (which had some in house firefighting) have been closed and dismantled but there are still six shoreside petroleum and fuel storage facilities.

In an early precursor to the current rash of fires on container ships, the container ship Kitano en route from New York to Halifax March 22, 2001, reported fire in a deck container as the ship was approaching Halifax. Due to unknown risks, it was not allowed to enter port, there were no resources capable of assisting the ship offshore due to severe weather, so it was left to the ship's crew to fight the fire. The salvage tug Ryan Leet, hired by the owners, had modest fire fighting capability, was able to do very little while the ship was at sea.

Eventually a harbour pilot boarded the ship, and it was declared safe enough to enter port where trained military firefighters got the situation under control. Even so, after the ship was moved to Fairview Cove to unload, with the fire seemingly extinguished, the HRMFES discovered deep seated fire in one container.

Activated charcoal pellets were implicated in the fire as they have been in so many subsequent container ship fires.

A Canadian Transportation Safety Board report on the incident makes for scary reading M01M0017 

Since 2001 there has been no significant improvement in response capability. Aside from the civilian tugs built since then, there has been the loss of the dedicated navy fireboat and seagoing salvage tugs.

The world's shipping industry has been largely wringing its hands over more and more severe container ship fires. (If you haven't yet heard of the X-press Pearl, its potentially criminally liable captain, agent and owner - make a quick Google news search). Little has been done to make shipping practices and ship design safe, let alone find a way to fight fires on container ships.

We had our own near brush with a container ship fire when Yantian Express caught fire en route to Halifax in January 2019. It would likely have been a carbon copy of the 2001 incident had the ship been a little closer to port, and not in dead of winter. Instead it was diverted to Freeport, Bahamas..

As mentioned in the 2019 article the Halifax Fire and Emergency Service identified the need for a dedicated boat. How they did so and what risks they identified are unknown, but they were certainly not based on Halifax waterfront firefighting history since the 1960s. The number of creosoted piers and unprotected buildings have diminished dramatically since then, nor have there been small boat or ship fires of any significant number. The main risk as I have identified it is container fires aboard ship, involving hazardous materials with environmental implications. However the new boat will provide year round search and rescue capabilities in the harbour, which have been lacking.

Now the HRMFES has acquired its own fireboat carrying the service designation /call sign "Fireboat 1".  However it has been named Kjipuktuk (Halifax) a very strange (and to my mind unnecessary) amalgamation of words. The Halifax Regional Municipality occupies unceded territory of the Mi'kmaw, and their word for a large body of water is K'jipuktuk. The word was corrupted by English speakers as "Chebucto" (a similar corruption "Chebacco" is in use in New England) and has been widely used to identify this harbour. It is certainly time that the original word was recovered, and as it is not difficult to pronounce should enter common use. Why "Halifax" has to be added - even parenthetically - is a mystery, although it does specify which large body of water is cited. The name Halifax was borrowed from George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax (England) and President of the Board of Trade at the time Halifax was founded in 1749. He was not responsible for the atrocities committed by the founding military lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia, but appending the name Halifax seems an unnecessary reminder of colonialism and potentially tone deaf at a time when reconciliation with original populations is at the forefront.

Built at Metalcraft Marine of Kingston, the boat appears to be a standard Firestorm 36 model, with a pumping capability of 3,000 gpm. Fitted with two monitors and two discharge ports, it is waterjet propelled and capable of 39 knots. It has towing bits and push knees, and is fitted for rescue work, and will be confined to the harbour. It apparently will not have a full time crew, but will be staffed from Station#13 King Street, Dartmouth, and Station#5, Woodside, so fast response should not be expected. The boat may enter service in late August after crew training. How suited it is for large shipboard fires is unknown, but external hull cooling is often required, so high pumping capacity is useful.

Unfortunately this is not the HRMFES's first try at operating a fireboat. A misguided first attempt ended in disaster and near tragedy. Another Transportation Safety Board report makes scary reading. See M08M0062

Despite is name and mission, I wish the new boat well and hope it finds a useful occupation in Halifax harbour and does not just become another budget drain.

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