NYK Delphinus - back on the AL5

 The NYK Delphinus made a return appearance in Halifax today, April 9, on THE Alliance's AL5 service, docking at PSA Fairview Cove.

The ship was a regular on the eleven ship AL5 rotation until May 2021 when it suffered a major engine room fire. The ship was en route from Vancouver's Fraser River to Oakland, CA and was awaiting a berth when the fire broke out 50 miles off Monterey on May 14.

An emergency team was landed on the ship by the USCG and five commercial tugs began hull cooling operations. The fire was extinguished without injury to the 24 crew or any oil spills. However the ship was left without power and was towed to Oakland by the tug Delta Deanna.

Then began a long drawn out process as the ship awaited a berth in the congested port (all west coast ports had huge backlogs at that time.) The owners declared general average, so all cargo owners had to post bonds to cover their contribution to the shared loss before they could retrieve their containers. However unloading did not begin until the first week of August, by which time all the temperature controlled cargo had been without power for close to three months.

When the cargo had been discharged the ship headed for Busan in tow of the Dutch tug ALP Seeker for repairs. It re-entered service in the early days of 2022, sailing from Tokyo March 6, 2022 and made its first return visit to Halifax just over a year ago on April 5, 2022.

The 55,4867 gt, 65,950 dwt ship was built by Hyundai, Ulsan in 2007 and is rated for 4888 TEU, including 660 reeefers.

The ship sailed late this afternoon (photos above) for Port Everglades, FL.

.

Comings and Goings

There were a good many arrivals and departures in the Port of Halifax today (March 9), particularly in the lower harbour and southend.

MOL Charisma (see yesterday's post) sailed from the PSA Halifax Gateway, where it had been accommodated instead of its usual berthing at PSA Fairview Cove.

The southend terminal remained busy however with Oceanex Sanderling alongside and with the arrival of MSC Nadriely on MSC's Canada Express 1 service from Montreal for the Mediterranean.

 The ship was built in 1998 by Kvaerner Warnow Werft in Warnemunde and is a 26,029 gt, 33,977 dwt vessel with a capacity of 2468 TEU including 320 reefers. It also carries three 45 tonne SWL cranes.
Laid down as Alicia and delivered as Charlotta it has since carried ten more names: 1998: CGM Gaugin; 2000: CMA CGM Gaugin; 2001: Lykes Traveller; 2001: Alianca Rotterdam; 2002: Columbus Chile; 2004: Alianca Hong Kong; 2006: CCNI Guayas; 2012: Helvetia; 2014: MSC Nadriely.

The ship arrived from Montreal to top up cargo to ocean draft, and interestingly also appears to have taken on bunkers. St.Lawrence draft restrictions are such that ships cannot load to maximum draft in Montreal, which restricts the amount of cargo (or fuel) that the ship can carry. The two fuel trucks that I saw were likely from Quebec (both GHL Transport and Contrans are part of TFI International, which has termainals all over North America, including Quebec) - certainly an unusual situation. It apparently made more sense to send several tonnes of fuel to Halifax by truck in order to maximize cargo out of Montreal.

 

Also arriving in the Ocean Terminals was the Nirint Shipping vessel Gotland with its usual consignment of nickel sulfides from Cuba.

 

 

Gotland is a general purpose / heavy lift ship, configured to carry containers, general and breakbulk. At 12,772 gt, 17,409 dwt the ship has a capacity of 834 TEU including 60 reefers. It also carries three cranes, two of 150 tonnes capacity (and combinable) and one of 80 tonnes capacity.

 

The ship was built in 2011 by the Xinshun Shipyard Group Co Ltd in Yueqing, China as Rickmers Tianjin, one of more than 100 ships in the venerable Rickmers fleet. Dating back to 1834 and the age of sail, the Hamburg based, family owned company failed rather spectacularly in 2017.  However this ship had been previously sold in 2015 to Gotland Schiffahrts GmbH and renamed Gotland.

After unloading in Halifax, the Gotland will sail for Barcelona and Rotterdam before beginning another cycle.

Autoport handled the familiar Siem Aristotle which sailed in the late afternoon, with the Morning Courier arriving shortly after. The latter ship will move to Pier 9C tomorrow to discharge RoRo cargo.

 PSA Fairview Cove was not idle either, with the weekly visitor Nohan Ava loading for Argentia and St-Pierre. Also arriving was the NYK Delphinus on THE Alliance's AL5 service.

 

The 55,487 grt, 65,950 dwt ship dates from 2007 when it was delivered by Hyundai, Ulsan. It has a capacity of 4922 TEU. 

Owners NYK Line are partners in ONE (Ocean Network Express) with MOL and K-Line, but have no plans to rename the ship or to re-paint it in ONE magenta.

.

 

NYK Constellation

 NYK Line has a total of twelve sister ships of the same class, all named for constellations except this one, NYK Constellation which summarizes all the names. Most of the ships are Halifax callers  on The Alliance's AL5 service including NYK Delphinus which has been in Oakland, California since May 17 after a fire on board May 14 after sailing from Vancouver.

NYK Constellation was built by Hyundai, Ulsan in 2007, with a capacity of 4922 TEU including 330 reefers. Its tonnages are registered at 55,534 gt, 65919 dwt.

June is notoriously Fog Month in Halifax and this year there have been several "invisible" arrivals and departures. Fortunately in my quest to collect photos of the whole set of Constellation sister ships, the fog held off around the shoreline of Bedford Basin for the June 22 departure. And there was the incidental benefit of reduced background clutter.

.

NYK Delphinus - fire off California

Another container ship scheduled to call in Halifax has experienced a fire - but this one is a bit more remote. Unlike the January 3, 2019 fire on the Yantian Express northeast of Bermuda, this fire was not in the ship's cargo, but in its engine room. Also it occurred in the Pacific Ocean, six weeks or more before the ship was due in Halifax.

The ship in question is the NYK Delphinus recently assigned to THE Alliance's AL5 service. [See yesterday's post on sister ship NYK Remus and :

http://shipfax.blogspot.com/2016/10/nyk-line-collect-whole-set-and-classic.html

 

                                         NYK Delphinus (left) at Fairview Cove April 17, 2016.

The fire broke out on May 14, 2021, when the ship was 50 miles west of Monterey, California. It had sailed from Vancouver May 6 and was waiting for a berth in Oakland, California. (There is monumental port congestion in US west coast ports, and some ships are waiting a month or more to dock.) The crew isolated the engine room and shore based assistance was dispatched by the US Coast Guard and Resolve Marine, the designated salvors. Firefighting tugs from Foss and Baydelta also responded and cooled the ship's hull from the outside.

The fire was declared extinguished May 16 and the ship arrived under tow in Oakland on May 18.

According to THE Alliance's published AL5 schedule the ship was due in Halifax  July 6 after returning to Europe via the Panama Canal. Based on my interpretation of press reports it is likely that the ship will be out of service for some time and will likely not he calling here July 6. This may mean a blanked sailing if no substitute ship can be found to take up the slot.

.