Kopit Hopson 1752 makes a move

 The CCGS Kopit Hopson 1752 made a move today (December 28), but it was not without assistance - nor was it very far.

The buoy tender / light icebreaker was built by Marine Industries Ltd in Sorel, QC in 1981. A Vessel Life Extension project was awarded to Irving Shipbuilding Inc (ISI) in March 2020, with the work to carried out at the Shelburne Marine Shipyard. When ISI sold the Shelburne yard the ship was towed to Halifax in March 2022 and tied up at the Bedford Institute. Reports at the time indicated that the refit was nearly complete, but it was not until December 2022 that the ship carried out sea trials and was handed over to the Canadian Coast Guard. 

The ship conducted more trials in April 2023 but until today it has not moved from its berth. Even this move was conducted by RCN tugs Glenside, Granville and Merrickville as a "cold move" and only to an adjacent berth at BIO (the one recently vacated by the Alfred Needler).

 It appears that the CCG's resources in the Nova Scotia / New Brunswick region may be stretched a bit thin, as the research trawler Teleost (which was due for retirement), and which is based in Newfoundland, has been pressed into Search and Rescue Patrol duties in Nova Scotia. Certainly having the Kopit Hopson in service during buoy removal / winter replacement season would be helpful. Since all CCG ships are multi-tasked, it would also be available for SAR petrol during the busy southwest Nova Scotia lobster season.

As for the other Halifax based CCG ships, the CCGS Sir William Alexander and CCGS Jean Goodwill are currently assigned to SAR patrol and Navaids work in Nova Scotia while CCGS Earl Grey is doing buoy work in Prince Edward Island.

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Cans, Cars, Trials and a Sub - updated

Today December 2 was one of those days when the Port of Halifax was "firing on all cylinders" so to speak, with a wide variety of shipping activity.

In the container realm it was a return visit from CMA CGM A. Lincoln, a 141,950 gt, 148,992 dwt ship, built by Hyundai HI, Ulsan in 2017, with a capacity of 14,414 TEU. For a brief time in 2020 it held the record as largest ship to call in Halifax, but was later deposed by CMA CGM Marco Polo, the current title holder. Once again the ship eluded an underway photo due to its early morning arrival. It was still impressive however once it was alongside at Pier 41.

I did manage to capture it before it docked on June 29, 2021.

PSA Halifax also had the Eimskip charter Vivienne Sheri D at Pier 42 and Oceanex Sanderling at Pier 36.

At Autoport it was the Wallenius Wilhelmsen autocarrier Don Quijote [note the spelling] arriving from Zeebrugge.

 Built originally in 1998 by Daewoo HI, Okpo, it was lengthened 8.6 m (28.2 ft) in 2006 by Hyundai Vinashin in Vietnam, thus increasing its tonnages from 56,893 gt, 14,927 dwt to 67,141 gt, 28,142 dwt and its capacity of cars from 5,873 to 7,200 (RT43). It has a 125 tonne capacity stern ramp and 13 car decks.

After some evolutions off the IEL dock the CCGS Kopit Hopson 1752 put out to sea for trials.

The ship is nearing completion of a Vessel Life Extension refit which began at Irving Shipbuilding Inc's (ISI) Shelburne Ship Repair facility. When ISI sold the yard to Mersey Seafoods earlier this year, the ship was towed to Halifax for completion of the work alongside ISI's Woodside facility.

The most obvious aspect of the refit work was installation of a hydraulic crane replacing the original goal post mast and derrick from 1986 when the ship was built by Marine Industries Ltd in (Sorel) Tracy, QC. Sister ship Sir William Alexander was refitted with a crane early in its career when the derrick system malfunctioned. Although the cranes are different, the two ships will now appear similar, and will have similar capabilities.

 A significant aspect of the refit was the renaming of the ship to recognize the Peace and Friendship Treaty signed in 1752 by Kopit, the leader of the Mi'kmaq nation, and Governor Peregrine Hopson, governor of Nova Scotia. The new name replaces the orginal name Edward Cornwallis, the now discredited founder of Halifax and governor of Nova Scotia, and was selected in conusultation between the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and First Nations.

 Completion of the VLE project will be timely as the Sir William Alexander has been sent to Newfoundland and Labrador to fill in for the CCGS George A. Pearkes which has gone to its own VLE at Heddle Marine in Hamilton, ON. This leaves Nova Scotia well short of full strenght as CCGS Earl Grey has been in refit in St.John's since September. CCGS Jean Goodwill was the only large, all-weather ship available for SAR standby for the opening of the lobster season this week.

While all this activity was taking place a United States Navy submarine arrived and docked at Navy Jetty Alpha, at Shearwater. As usual with such arrivals, the boat's name was not given*. Two Canadian Navy ships, HMCS Moncton and HMCS Glace Bay arrived at the same time.

RCN tugs and small craft shepherded the "United States Navy Unit" to its berth.

A large party of sailors eventually appeared on deck - probably happy to breath some fresh air.

* Update: Later report - the name of the sub was reported to be USS Delaware.

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Battening down the hatches

 Now mostly just a figure of speech, "battening down the hatches" no longer describes the process of making hatch openings ready for sea. At one time it was necessary to seal a ship's hatches with boards, and canvas tarps held in place by laths (battens) and wedges. Modern day ships have all sorts of steel hatch covers and seals that generally keep the cargo safe and prevent the hull from filling with water. Some ships are even designed to be "hatchless", such as the Oceanex Avalon (see many previous Shipfax references.)

Battens removed, tarps rolled back and hatch boards lifted to gain access to the hold.

(The goélette Rivière-Verte at St-Laurent, Ile d'Orleans, in 1959.)

 Nowadays "battening down the hatches" means preparing for a tempest (either a real weather event or some other kind of crisis). So today September 23, in Halifax, there was evidence of such preparations in advance of the arrival tonight of Fiona. Currently a hurricane, it may be down graded to a post tropical storm (but still a dangerous northern hemisphere cyclone) when it makes landfall in our area, then tracks across the province and Gulf of St.Lawrence to the west coast of Newfoundland.

Workers from Develop Nova Scotia, the government agency responsible for waterfront amenities, were busy moving floating docks to safe storage at the Centre for Ocean Ventures and Entrepreneurship (C.O.V.E.) dock in Dartmouth (the former Coast Guard base). High winds and a predicted storm surge would certainly damage these structures and potentially cast them adrift. Develop Nova Scotia closed off most of  the waterfront boardwalk to pedestrian access too.

The visiting Irish Navy patrol vessel LÉ James Joyce P62  was tied up at the Tall Ships Quay, a timber pile wharf adjacent to Pier 20. It was decided to move the ship to HMC Dockyard where it will be safer during the storm, and would not risk damage to the dock.

 

The Samuel Beckett class vessel was built by Babcock Marine in Appledore, England and commissioned September 1, 2015. It carries a compliment of 55, which includes 10 trainees. 

The James Joyce arrived on September 21 and was open to public tours for a time. The tugs Atlantic Willow and Listerville stood by while the ship let go from the pier, which it did by "springing off" - a bit of seamanship rarely seen in these days of bow thrusters and twin screws.

As Listerville makes its way to the Tall Ships Quay, Develop Nova Scotia's work boat moves some floats and the supplier Atlantic Condor is visible in the background at the C.O.V..E dock.

 The number of commercial ships in port was at a minimum (see yesterday's post). The last container ship to sail, Conti Crystal got under way around noon time. That left the Oceanex Sanderling and Nolhan Ava anchored in Bedford Basin as the only sizeable commercial vessels remaining in port. The Canadian Coast Guard deployed CCGS Sir William Alexander to the Shelburne area of the south coast and CCGS Jean Goodwill to Sydney in Cape Breton, where they are on standby for Search and Rescue.

CCGS Sir William Alexander, September 13, 2022.

That left two ships tied up at piers, namely Atlantic Condor at C.O.V.E and the CCGS Kopit Hopson 1752 at the IEL dock. The latter is the former CCGS Edward Cornwallis currently rebuilding by Irving Shipbuilding Inc.  I assume that extra lines have been run to secure these craft during the storm. The barge Scotia Tide is alongside Pier 9  (despite the Harbour Master's requirement that all barges were to be removed moved from Halifax Port Authority berths by noon September 23.)

The yacht clubs and others with waterfront facilities such as the Atlantic Pilotage Authority and Dominion Diving have also "battened down the hatches" in various ways.

Halifax Harbour has experienced several hurricanes during my time, the most severe being Hurricane Juan September 29, 2003 which was a Category 2 when it tracked through the harbour with 150 kph winds (and a gust of 176 kph). Lessons learned by that event, and subsequent ones such as Dorian in 2019, have no doubt guided the preparations for this event.

There were two container ships that remained in port during Juan, and  one of the them, the Albert Oldendorff (ex Hoegh Dyke) parted its lines and ran down on the Saudi Tabuk causing damage to both ships and their cargoes. Numerous other vessels sank or were blown aground, at least partly due to inadequate preparations or the impossibility of emergency response during the storm.

 Albert Oldendorff ripped into containers on the adjacent Saudi Tabuk and dropped at least one of its own containers on the other ship's deck. Adding to the confusion - both ships were carrying National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (NSCSA) containers.

Let's hope that this time around Fiona will not be as brutal as its predecessors. However, Shipfax may not be able to publish due to power outages for the next few days. A summary of events will be provided when posssible.

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Kopit Hopson 1752 arrives in Halifax

 The CCGS Kopit Hopson 1752 arrived in Halifax this morning, March 10, in tow of the tug Atlantic Spruce.  The ship had nearly completed a Vessel Life Extension process at Shelburne Shipyard, however the work will now be finished in Halifax. Irving Shipbuilding Inc (ISI) was awarded the contract for the refit and assigned the project to its Shelburne yard, but today ISI announced that they will be selling the Shelburne operation to Mersey Seafoods of Liverpool, NS.

CCGS Kopit Hopson 1752 arrives in tow of the Atlantic Spruce (left) and is met by another tug (likely Atlantic Bear). They shepherded the dead ship to the IEL dock in Dartmouth.

The extensive refit of the ship, which included replacement of its cargo derrick with a crane, was accompanied by a renaming. The ship was built by Marine Industries Ltd of Sorel-Tracy, QC in 1981 as Edward Cornwallis. It was the second CCG ship to carry the name of the founder of Halifax. However in recent years the namesake has been brought into disrepute (to put it politely) for his treatment of the first nations population of Nova Scotia. Political pressure forced the CCG to rename the ship, in consultation with the Mi'kmaq people. I have written extensively on this in prior posts: Kopit Hopson 1762 and here

It was not possible to get a close look at the ship on its arrival, but the new crane changes the ship's profile considerably.

 The original derrick has been removed and replaced by a crane, radically changing the ship's profile. Cranes have proven to be quite capable of handling the buoys that the CCG ships tend in this region.

The Kopit Hopson 1752 will look more like its fleet mate the CCGS Sir William Alexander, but the cranes are different. Along with several other similar CCG ships it is considered to be a member of the Martha L. Black class of light icebreaker / navaids ships.

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Kopit Hopson 1752

 Thanks to the blog Halifax Shipping News we have learned that the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans has quietly renamed CCGS Edward Cornwallis. As per yesterday's post the ship is still in refit at Shelburne, but the new name shows up on line on Transport Canada's Vessel Registration Query System.

No official announcement has been made - perhaps that will await redelivery of the ship following its Vessel Life Extension refit - but the new name is listed as Kopit Hopson 1752.

As explained on Halifax Shipping News the name commemorates two signatories to the November 1752 Peace and Friendship Treaty signed by Chief Kopit of the Mi'kmaq nation and Peregrine Thomas Hopson, Governor of Nova Scotia.

As noted here yesterday the Minister stated that the new name would be chosen in consultation with First Nations.

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