Mix and Match - tankers and box boats

One of the appeals of Halifax harbour to ship watchers is the several types of ships that call in the port. Container ships of various sizes from a variety of shipping lines are the most predominant form of shipping to be seen. There are regular callers - some of which will be calling in the port for their entire working lives of twenty-five years or more - but there are also short term and one-time ships that add variety. 

There are also bulk carriers and tankers on a steady basis with some general cargo ships from time to time, and a regular parade of auto carriers on about a weekly basis.  

There is also a substantial number of support vessels such as tugs, workboats and various marine construction and dredging "floating plant" that work around the harbour.

On the non-commercial side the Royal Canadian Navy has its Atlantic base in Halifax and there are often comings and goings of RCN ships and some NATO visitors. The Canadian Coast Guard and Canadian government research ships, operated the Coast Guard, form a colourful back drop with their red hulls. 

Halifax Regional Municipality operates harbour ferries on two routes across the lower harbour with plans under way for a longer run from Bedford. Halifax Fire and Emergency Services operates a fireboat which can be seen regularly, but is seldom needed to fight a fire.

Adding to all that activity are pleasure craft and tour boats, which operate seasonally, as do their larger passenger carrying kin - cruise ships.

All of the above leads up to the variety of shipping that can be seen on just one day - such as today - January 21.

At the PSA Fairview Cove container terminal ZIM Integrated Shipping Services operates two weekly services. One operates between the west coast of South America to the East Coast of North America, and Halifax is the nothernmost port. Called the ZCX, Colibri Express, it also serves as a feeder to ZIM's hub port of Kingston, Jamaica. 

ZIM also operates the ZCA (ZIM Container Service Atlantic) service from the Mediterranean to the North American east coast. Today's caller on that service is the chartered ship Spyros V on its return visit to Halifax. It was last here November 17, 2024.

The ZCA service makes 13 calls in its long loop from Ashdod to Haifa, Izmir (Aliaga), Piraeus, Genoa, Barcelona and Valencia to Halifax. It is next scheduled to call in New York, then to Norfolk and Savannah before heading back across the Atlantic to Valencia and Barcelona. 

The Spyros V dates from 2011 when it was delivered by Jiangsu New Yangzijiang Shipyard in Jingjiang, China, as theBella Schulte. In 2017 it was acquired by current owner Technomar Shipping Inc of Athens. The 40,542 gt, 49,891 dwt ship has a capacity of 4250 TEU.

(Note the larger number of Hapag-Lloyd containers on deck on this trip. Perhaps a sign of things to come as Hapag-Lloyd amd Maersk re-align their services under a new joint venture called the Gemini Cooperation.)

At PSA Halifax Atlantic Hub in the south end of the port, the Mediterranean Shipping company's MSC Tamara was at Pier 42 - a regular caller it is serving MSC's Med Canadian route from  Halifax and Montreal. 

At Pier 41 it was a "two chairs - no waiting" situation as the departing ONE Cygnus was soon replaced by the arriving sister ship ONE Falcon.

The outbound ONE Cygnus is accompanied by two tugs, as tethered escorts.

 

Ships of this class are regular callers now on THE alliance's Asia - North America service, arriving from Colombo, via the Cape of Good Hope. But that may change next month as Hapag-Lloyd withdraws from THE Alliance. (Another ship with a large number of Hapag-Lloyd and UASC boxes on deck.) The ship measures 146,694 gt, 138,611 dwt and has a capacity of 14,026 TEU, and was built by Japan Marine United in 2019.

There are tankers in and out of Halifax on a nearly daily basis as both Imperial Oil and Irving Oil have large storage and distribution depots. Today at Irving Oil it was the East Coast while at Imperial Oil the PS Augusta was still discharging after its arrival Sunday January 19 from Antwerp, Belgium.

Ships of this size, around 50,000 dwt are the most common type of tanker and are seen world wide. This one was built in 2011 by STX Shipbuilding Co in Jinhae, South Korea, and comes in at 29,717 gt, 51,063 dwt. It was built as Gold Point and was erenamed PS Augusta in 2020.

 

Another tanker was also in Halifax, but not at one of the fuel terminals. Instead the Sten Aurora was tied up at Pier 9C to take on fuel for its own use. Irving Oil delivered fuel to the ship by truck.

 

Largely concealed from view by a large number of wind turbine towers, the refueling trucks are not visible.

 

The ship was built in 2007 by the Jiangnan Shipbuilding Group at the Qiuxin shipyard in Shanghai. It is a 11,943 gt, 16,596 dwt ship, rated as Ice Class 1A with polymer lined tanks for chemicals. Its most recent routing is more specific to a chemical carrier. It was in Sarnia December 2 to 4 then called in Quebec City, New York, New Orleans and Houston December 31. It then returned to New Orleans and sailed January 2 directly to Port Alfred (La Baie), QC, arriving January 16. There is a demand for a variety of chemicals to support the aluminum and the biomaterials industries in the Saguenay region.

The ship is due to sail this evening for Taft, Louisiana, site of large Mosaic and Dow / Union Carbide chemical plants about 30 miles upstream of New Orleans..

 

The berth at Piet 9C was only vacated yesterday by the general cargo ship Nord Ling, which moved out to anchor in Bedford Basin to make room.

 

Since arriving January 6 [qv] the ship has been fitted with fiberoptic cable racks. If that work is complete, the ship may be anchored for a while waiting its turn to go the Portsmouth, NH to load the cable.
 

Adding to the colourful activity in the harbour the CCGS Sir William Alexander has been running in and out port on its winter buoy program, which involves removing buoys from ice prone areas. As a multi-tasked ship, it also provides icebreaking assistance, Search and Rescue standby and patrol.

 

On arrival January 20 the ship had a number of buoys on deck to be taken ashore for maintenance and storage until spring.

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Big and Small

 Halifax harbour can accommodate ships of all sizes.Today, May 21, there were ships at both ends of the scale and some in the middle. 

At PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway there were two container ships. One "ultra" size and one standard size. The "ultra" ship (with a capacity of more than 10,000 TEU) was the ONE Cygnus of 146,694 gt, 138,611 dwt built in 2019 by Japan Marine United, Kure its capacity is usually quoted at 14,026 TEU. It was working at Pier 41 under the largest cranes (and not really visible from shore), while the more standard sized MSC Leigh was at Pier 42.

Built by Daewoo, Mangalia, it is a 50,963 gt, 63,420 dwt ship with a capacity of 4884 TEU including 560 reefers. Although launched as the Buxtime it was completed as MSC Leigh. Working on the CANEX2 Mediterranean service, the ship is en route from Montreal to Sines, Portugal.

Another Ultra ship, the 15,536 TEU CMA CGM Zephyr was scheduled to arrive this morning, but is standing by offshore until the ONE Cygnus sails. It is now due tomorrow morning, May 22.

An even larger ship made a short visit to number one anchorage in the lower harbour this morning. The NYK Canary is the second K-Line bulk carrier in recent days to put in for Canadian Food Inspection Agency clearance. Once inspectors had determined that there was no invasive species of LDD moth on board, the ship was cleared to proceed to Sept-Iles, QC to load iron ore.

The Cape Canary was built in 2009 by Kawasaki, Sakaide and is a 93,378 gt, 192,577 dwt gearless bulker. It deployed a conventional combination ladder at about midships for pilot boarding but also rigged an accommodation ladder farther aft, that would normally only be used when alongside. In consideration of the CFIA inspectors, it would be a much better way to board and disembark. A rather generous safety net was also rigged, which may have been a requirement of CFIA.

I noted the ship appears to have been retrofitted with an exhasut gas scrubber system which was appended to the ship's original funnel structure, and carries Kawaski Kaisen Kaisha's letter "K".

[As a footnote to the post of Saturday May 18 the other K-Line ship that called in Halifax for CFIA inpsection, the Cape Keystone, appears to have missed its scheduled slot to load at Port Cartier. That port is so busy there are usually several ships waiting at anchor to load, so missing a date may mean going to the end of the line. The ship is standing by off Sydney, NS in the Cabot Strait waiting for orders - it may be sent to another port to load.]

At the small end of the scale was today's arrival of the Royal Portuguese Navy submarine NRP Arpão measuring 1,700 tons surfaced displacement and 2,000 tons submerged, it is slightly smaller than the Royal Canadian Navy submarines which come in at 2,200 tons surfaced and 2,439 submerged.

It was met by two Ville class "pup" tugs from HMC Dockyard, Listerville (aft) and Granville (forward). Due to the sub's size, larger tugs were not needed, but also the commercial tugs of Atlantic Towing Ltd are not suited for working with submarines due to their underwater profile, and fendering. 

Arpão is a Tridente class atttack submarine built by Howaldswerke - Deutsche Werft and commissioned in 2010. As a "conventional" (i.e. non-nuclear) submarine it is preferred for use in naval exercises where finding the sub may be part of the task.

The sub's arrival was not the only naval activity in the harbour today as Canada's newest naval ship put out to sea.

HMCS William Hall AOPV 433 is the fourth ship of the Harry DeWolf class of Arctic Patrol Vessel built by Irving Shipbulding Inc at Halifax Shipyard. It was completed in August 2023 and has been undergoing trials and training, culminating in its official commissioning on Thursday, May 16.

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Partings

 Normally I avoid "going away" photos - particularly if I have decent photos of the ships already. However today, April 23, was a day for departures as far as my camera was concerned, and as there was something noteworthy about the ships, I clicked away. 

First off was the tanker CB Pacific which made a very brief call at Irving Oil's Woodside terminal. It arrived in the evening of April 22 and sailed at noon today, the 23rd, after a stay of just over twelve hours, giving the destination of Montreal.

 It was an unusually short stay in port, and as the ship sailed it appeared to be lightly loaded.

The ship was here previously March 21 to 22 unloading at Irving Oil, then went to anchor until March 25. I noted the ship has a "turtle back" over the fore deck, an unusual feature for a tanker. Since that visit the ship has been to Boston, New Haven, Albany and New York.

When the ship was here in March, its covered covered fore deck was noted.

Departing from Autoport the Wolfsburg is destined for Davisville, RI. This was the ship's second trip to Halifax since it was delivered in November 2023 by Guangzhou Shipyard International. The 69,470 gt, 19,203 dwt ship has capacity of 7,000 Car Equivalent Units on thirteen decks. Unusually for a newer auto carrier, it is fitted with a side ramp.

 On charter from SFL to Volkswagen it is a dual fuel ship, capable of burning LNG or conventional fuel. Unlike its sister ship Emden that was here last week, it did not emit plumes of black smoke. The ship arrived yesterday (April 22, photo below) from Volkswagen's export facility in Emden, Germany.

Also sailing today, April 23. from PSA Haifax Atlantic Hub, ONE Cygnus on THE Alliance's EC5 service, took two escort tugs, Atlantic Oak and Atlantic Bear.

ONE Cygnus was built by Japan Marine United in 2019 and is the last of the ten ships of the bird class. All but ONE Cygnus and ONE Wren were built with NYK prefixes, but they have now been renamed with "ONE", as they are all working for the Ocean Network Express, the joint venture of the principal Japanese container lines (NYK, K-Line and MOL). [As an aside it is interesting to note that there was already a "Swan" in the group - NYK Swan built in 2017 and renamed ONE Swan in 2020; cygnus being the Latinized Greek name for the swan: cygnus atratus.]

The 146,694 gt, 138,611 dwt ship is rated at 14,026 TEU. Its last port was Colombo, Sri Lanka, and it apparently sailed non-stop via the Cape of Good Hope.

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Still Green - Always Magenta

 Still Green

The combined fleets of Wallenius Lines and Wilh. Wilhelmsen have been operating their auto carriers jointly as Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean (WWO) since 2019. (They began to work co-operatively as early as 1999). Both companies maintain many other independent businesses such as logistics and ship managment and invest in non-shipping industries and did not merge. 

Although WWO acts as a single company, its 123 autocarriers are owned by either by Wallenius or Wilhelmsen. Ships used to maintain the traditional paint schemes of the two lines, depending on the owner: white superstructure over red hull of Wilhelmsen and white over green of Wallenius. Since 2019 the line has been repainting its ships in a new scheme of teal green over grey hull and white superstructure with a grey over teal funnel.

The only way to tell which line owns which ships was by the name. Wallenius ships are named for operatic characters and Wilhelmsen ships' names begin with the letter "T".

It was a bit of a surprise today (December 27) to see the Traviata appear at Pier 9C to unload RoRo machinery, while still wearing the white over green Wallenius colours. (The "T" name may or may not be significant as there are numerous operatic characters without "T" names, so why this one was chosen is unknown.)

The ship was built in 2019 by Tianjin Xingang, to the HERO class design used by both Wallenius and Wilhelmsen. It must have beeen one of the last - or indeed the last - ship to use the old Wallenius colour scheme. 

The 73,358 gt, 23,889 dwt ship, has a capacity of 7656 RT43 autos, and mounts a 320 tonne SWL stern ramp. As with most modern autocarriers it has no side ramp.

The ship will be five years of in 2024 and is thus will be due for an important classification survey and drydocking in late 2024 or early 2025. I expect the green paint to disappear at that time.

Always Magenta

Another combination of companies is ONE (Ocean Network Express) founded in 2016 by the three main Japanese container lines: NYK Line, MOL and K-Line. The joint venture operates ships, which are chartered in from the parent companies. Starting in 2018 new ships have been painted in the (startling) magenta hull colour. Some ships were ordered and delivered before the merger, and were renamed with ONE names and some existing ships have been repainted in the new scheme.

Most of the fifteen ships of the "Bird" class, built by Japan Marine United in Kure, starting in 2015,  were delivered with NYK prefixes and later renamed with ONE. However today's arrival, delivered in July 2019 was the last in the series and has always carried the ONE prefix, and the magenta hull paint.

The ship measures 146,694 gt, 138,611 dwt and is rated for 14,026 TEU. It was good to see the ship loaded to near capacity today [photo above] as it arrived from Colombo on THE Alliance's EC5 service. On its first arrival on June 6, 2023 [photo below] it carried boxes only three high. Today it was six to eight high.

The Traviata moved to Autoport at noon time to offload automobiles and will sail this evening. The ONE Cygnus is expected to sail over night for New York. 

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ONE Cygnus

 Another of the ONE bird class ships arrived today, June 7, on THE Alliance's EC5 service. ONE Cygnus was built by Japan Marine United in 2019 is the last of the ten ships of the bird class. All but ONE Cygnus and ONE Wren were built with NYK prefixes, but they have now been renamed with "ONE", as they are all working for the Ocean Network Express, the joint venture of the principal Japanese container lines (NYK, K-Line and MOL). [As an aside it is interesting to note that there was already a "Swan" in the group - NYK Swan built in 2017 and renamed ONE Swan in 2020; cygnus being the Latinized Greek name for the swan: cygnus atratus.]

The ship made an interesting sight as it made its way inbound. Because its deck load was only four boxes high instead of the usual six boxes, more of the bridge superstructure was visible, including the supports for the bridge wings. 

As with its sisters, the 146,694 gt, 138,611 dwt ship is rated at 14,026 TEU. Its last port was Colombo, Sri Lanka, and it transited the Suez Canal on May 24-25.

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