This and That

 As I have said many times, one of the great things about Halifax harbour is the variety of shipping that can be seen on any given day. Today, December 8, was therefore fairly typical. At the South End container terminal operated by PSA Halifax, the Ultra class container ship CMA CGM A. Lincoln put in another apppearance.

The massive ship, measuring 140,872 gt, 148,992 dwt, has a capacity of 14,414 TEU. When it visited Halifax for the first time April 14, 2020 it was the largest container ship to call here, but that record has since been broken by several other ships. (The current record holder seems to be CMA CGM Marco Polo at 16,020 TEU. These ships also set the record for largest ship to call in any Canadian port, and any east coast North American port.)

The ship was built in 2007 by Hyundai Ulsan for APL (American President Lines) which was owned by NOL (Neptune Orient Lines) which in turn was acquired by CMA CGM. 

PSA Halifax used its largest cranes to work the ship, which tied up at berth 41. Although there was room at Pier 42, for some reason the MSC Weser, which was also due this morning, did not enter port, but sailed on to Montreal after some hours at anchor. That ship is on the Canada Gulf Bridge service which usually only calls in Montreal, Corner Brook and Saint John. Its visit here was planned but not as a regularly scheduled call.

Arriving at Imperial Oil's number three dock, the Canadian coastal tanker Qikiqtaaluk W. made its second appearance in less than a month. 

 

On its last visit November 21 to 24, it also unloaded at Imperial Oil. It then sailed for Sarnia, ON, for another cargo of refined petroleum products, passing up through the St.Lawrence Seaway November 28 and down again December 4.

Built as Icdas-11 by Icdas, Biga, Turkey it is a 13,097 gt, 19,998 dwt vessel. It was acquired by the Woodward group company Coastal Shipping Ltd in 2018 and normally serves arctic ports in the summer season. After unloading this time, the ship is likely to be reflagged to the Marshall Islands, as its sister ships Kitikmeot W. did last week, for winter work internationally.

Not all traffic in the harbour is commercial or civilian. There has been a fair amount of naval activity lately, particularly with the coastal defence vessels. This morning HMCS Summerside looked quite trim as it made its way inbound to Bedford Basin.

 Summerside MM711 is the twelfth and last of the Kingston class Maritime Coastal Defence Vessels. It was built by Halifax Shipyards Ltd in 1998 and commissioned in 1999.

With a winter storm passing through over night December 8 - 9 and with significant snow accumulation possible, I do not expect much harbour activity (or Shipfax coverage) tomorrrow.

.

 

MSC Weser - here for a time

 The Mediterranean Shipping Company has four scheduled routes that call at eastern Canadian ports, and I hear there will be a fifth added soon. The four present routes all have Montreal as the terminal port, and only the Canada Express 1 and Canada Express 2 service have scheduled calls in Halifax. Those calls were initially lightering/top off calls because of St.Lawrence River draft restrictions, but now have become "paying" as local cargo is handled as well as train/truck express cargo.

Today's arrival of MSC Weser is not a regular call since MSC's Canada Gulf Bridge service from Montreal to the Gulf of Mexico normally calls in Corner Brook and Saint John, NB southbound, but not Halifax. Instead MSC Weser is northbound, after sailing from Altamira (August 19), Progresso (August 24), Freeport (August 29) and Philadelphia (September 2).

After working cargo today the ship will move to a layup pier. Its scheduled arrival in Montreal has been changed from September 13 to October 9 for some reason  (likely a blanked sailing due to the Labour Day holiday weekend), so the ship will be here for a while.

Built in 2001 by Kvaerner Warnow Werft in Warnemunde to a CV2500 standard design, it is a 26,106 gt, 33,691 dwt vessel with a capacity of 2524 TEU including 400 reefers. It also carries three 40 tonne capacity cranes. Although it was launched as Wehr Weser it was delivered as Libra New York and carried that name until 2009 when it became Weher Weser again. It became MSC Weser in 2016.

The fifth MSC service, is believed to be the Indus 2, running from northwest India with calls in Italy and Portugal to the US east coast. Details have not been announced officially, but is expected to bring a significant amount of cargo to Halifax. MSC also operates the Indus Express and Indusa services all from Mundra with various ports of call en route to the USA. The three services are also known as the IPAK US services.

.