Some of Each

 It was a sort of smorgasbord of shipping in Halifax today, July 7, 2024, with representatives of most of the various types of ships that call here.

At PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway there were two container ships, ONE Hawk at Pier 41 and Tropic Hope at Pier 42.

The ONE Hawk is a regular on THE Alliance's Asia -North America EC5 service and is one of several "bird class" 14,056 TEU sister ships on the route. It is westbound from Colombo for New York via the Cape of Good Hope.

 

The Tropic Hope and sister Tropic Lissette operate the weekly service for Tropical Shipping. Tropic Hope arrived this morning from San Juan, Puerto Rico, but was not working cargo this afternoon. It has its cranes swung out ready to start work Monday morning, and is due to sail for Palm Beach, FL.

PSA Fairview Cove also had a regular caller, ZIM China, on the the ZIM Container Atlantic (ZCA) service.

ZIM also carries Hapag-Lloyd (and UASC) boxes in addition to its own cargo.

 ZIM China made it first call in Halifax December 27, 2022. Built in 2008 by Samsung Shipbuilding + Heavy Industry in Geoje, South Korea, it is a 40,487 gt, 51,733 dwt ship with a capacity of 4275 TEU. It carried the name Hanjin Kenya from 2008 to 2017 then after a brief spell as Seaspan Kenya it became ALS Fauna later in 2017. It became ZIM China as of April 1, 2022. The tug Atlantic Bear escorted the ship beneath the A. Murray MacKay bridge (pictured) and through the Narrows and the Angus L. Macdonald bridge outbound for sea.

Autoport hosted the familiar Wallenius Wilhelmsen Thermopylae from the usual western Europe ports, Zeebrugge, Bremerhaven and Southampton.

The Thermopylae, 75,283 gt, 23,786 dwt dates from 2015 when it was delivered to Wilhelmsen Lines by Hyundai Samho. It has a capacity of 8,000 RT43 cars and comes with a 320 tonne capacity stern ramp. Its famous namesake was a 991 grt extreme clipper and was once the fastest ship in the world. Built in Aberdeen in 1868 for the China tea trade, it outraced the Cutty Sark, and set a record day's run of 380 statute miles. It was Canadian owned for a time (1890-1895) and lasted until 1907 when it was sunk as a naval target.

There were four tankers in port today. Algoscotia returned Friday, July 5, from its refit in Portugal where it was drydocked and received a new ballast water system. Its return voyage was a little unusual. It went to Sewaren, NJ (also known as Cliffside Port Reading) and took on a cargo for Imperial Oil. Algoma tankers rarely make international voyages, and this may be a first.

Algoscotia docked bow south at Imperial Oil No.3 dock.

Irving Oil had their own ship East Coast (not pictured) arriving early this morning, and it berthed at the Woodside terminal on arrival. The foreign flag CB Pacific arrived yesterday and anchored until the East Coast sails.

The CB Pacific has become a more or less regular, calling in Halifax in February, March, and May as it made its way between Boston, New Haven, Albany (twice) , New York (twice) and Montreal. Although it has been carrying product for Irving Oil it has not called in Saint John, NB as far as I can tell. It appears to be in ballast. or very lightly loaded this time.

 The CB Pacific, built by Jiangsu New Hantong shipbuilding in Yangzhong, China, was delivered in 2020. The 27,250 gt, 37,787 dwt ship is equipped to handle crude oil, clean petroluem products or chemicals in twelve phenolic epoxy coated tanks (plus two slops tanks). The ship is also built to DNV Baltic Ice Class 1B and is fitted with a hybrid exhaust gas scrubber which can be run at zero emissions. As previously noted it has a covered fore deck - a feature rarely incorporated in tankers.

The fourth tanker is the heated asphalt carrier barge John J.Carrick with its integrated tug Leo A. McArthur, which arrived yesterday from the Great Lakes for McAsphalt.

 

McAsphalt ordered a 12,000 dwt tanker from China in 2021. It was launched in June 2023 and at last report it appears to have been delivered July 1, but is still in China, with no ETA for Canada.

I have taken better pictures of the cruise ship Island Princess on previous visits, such as this one in 2023: 

The best I could do today was a hazy "going away" shot - not its best aspect:

 

It is a rare day when I catch every ship arrival and departure. The only one I seem to have missed today was the 0130 hrs departure of the Oceanex Sanderling, making is rare second trip to St.John's during the past week.

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Another Box and Pax day

 May 31 was another day for containers (boxes) and passengers (pax) in the Port of Halifax.

The ultra size container ships ONE Blue Jay (see yesterday) sailed and its sister ship ONE Hawk arrived. Timing was such that both ships were not visible at the same time from my position on shore. Both ships used the main channel unexpectedly, since these large ships usually take the deeper western channel.

ONE Blue Jay outbound for New York.

 ONE Hawk inbound from Norfolk.

The ONE Hawk is returning eastbound on the EC5 service of THE Alliance.

On the much smaller size range Melfi Marine's X-Press Irazu arrived from Genoa, Barcelona, Valencia and Lisbon en route to Mariel, Cuba.

 The X-Press Irazu at Pier 42 with two of PSA's cranes at work.

The ship dates from 2007 when it was built by Guangzhou Wenchang Shipyard Co Ltd. At 18,480 gt, 23,716 dwt, it has a capacity of 1732 TEU including 379 reefers. It also carries a pair of 45 tonne capacity cranes. It has been on the Melfi service since January 2021 and has been the only ship on that run since May of that year.

 Not to be left out, PSA Fairview Cove had the NYK Demeter in from Antwerp on THE Alliance's AL5 service. It is another of the Daedalus class of 4922 TEU ships favoured on the route.

The ship sailed late this afternoon for Port Everglades.

Autoport had a ship today too, SIEM Cicero. With its swooping white upper hull paint over red lower hull, the ship looks very odd from astern. The graphic designer seems to have achieved the disruptive effect of wartime ship camouflage by making the bow look like the stern:

Siem Cicero outbound.(It is traveling left to right, and away from the camera)

SIEM Cicero took the western channnel outbound, leaving the main channel to the inbound ONE Hawk with its attendant tugs.

Siem Cicero is a regular since first arriving in Halifax July 21, 2017 on its maiden voyage. Built by Uljanik in Pula, Croatia, the 56,677 gt, 17,416 dwt ship has a capacity of about 7,000 RT. It has a 100 tonne capacity stern ramp and a 15 tonne capacity side ramp.

On the passenger side it was the Island Princess back again for its only scheduled visit of the 2023 season.

The ship is en route from Alaska to England via Iceland. It sailed from Port Everglades May 26 and is due in Reykjavik June 5 then Falmouth June 11 and Southampton June 12. The ship is offering cruises in northern Europe for the rest of the year.
 

Chantier de l'Atlantique, St-Nazaire, France, delivered the ship to Princess Cruise Line in 2003. It is a 92,822 gt ship with a capacity for 2214 passengers (double occupancy) with 900 crew.
 

Explanation

If today's photos appear a bit hazy, there is a reason.

 The duty pilot boat Capt E.T.Rogers outbound passing Pier 20 with a hazy looking Dartmouth waterfront in the background.

A large and out of control forest fire in suburban Halifax is responsible for thin smoke over the city. About 16,000 people have been evacuated and more than 200 houses have been damaged or destroyed by the fire. The wind along the waterfront was onshore for most of the day today, so the air was relatively fresh, but that could change.

A second larger fire between Shelburne and Yarmouth, which is also out of control, could also effect air quality over a large area depending on wind direction. As no significant rain is forecast for several days, there is no relief in sight.

Depending on wind direction in the coming days, I may be staying indoors as recommended. 

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ONE Blue Jay

 The third of the Ocean Network Express "Bird" class ships arrived today, May 29, on THE Alliance's EC5 service. ONE Blue Jay is sailing directly from Colombo via Suez.

It is an NYK Line ship, built as NYK Blue Jay and renamed in 2019. Like its sister ships ONE Stork (in Halifax April 26) and ONE Hawk (May 10) it docked at Pier 41, PSA Halifax Atlantic Hub. All three ships were built by Japan Marine United at the Kure shipyard, and have a capacity of 14,026 TEU. Tonnages may vary slightly between ships of this class, but are usually 145,251 gt, 139,335 dwt,

ONE Blue Jay is the first ship in the series of fifteen ships and it was built in 2016 (the last was built in 2019).

As expected the ship employed three tugs: Atlantic Bear with a line astern, Atlantic Oak forward and Atlantic Fir aft, and used the western, deep water, channel on its way in.

In the coming weeks four more of the ships of this class are expected and some may be calling on the eastbound return leg, such as ONE Hawk due again tomorrow.

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ONE Hawk

 The second of the Ocean Network Express Bird class ships arrived at PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway this morning, May 10. The ONE Hawk is on the Atlantic Loop, EC5 service for THE Alliance ( Hapag-Lloyd, HMM, ONE and Yang Ming].

Built by Japan Marine United, Kure, in 2017 as NYK Hawk, it was renamed in 2020 and adopted the full ONE colour scheme. It is a 145,407 gt, 138,907 dwt ship with a capacity of 14,026 TEU. That makes it slightly larger than the first Bird class ship to call here. The ONE Stork came in at 145,252 gt, 139,335 dwt, but with the same hull dimensions (364.15 x 50.6 meters) and container capacity. (There are nine sister ships in the Bird class.)

The ONE Stork was here April 26, then proceeded to New York, Savannah, and Jacksonville. It was declared the largest ship to call in Jacksonville on May 9.

After calling in Norfolk, ships on the EC5 service have the option of calling Halifax again on the eastbound leg back to Asia via the Mediterranean. 

The EC5 service has increased the size of ships in the nine ship rotation by 60%, introducing six ships of 14,000 TEU and three ships of 13,000 TEU capacity.

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