It's off to work we go

1. Pilot boat A.P.A. No.1 heads out.

2. The sail training vessel Roald Amundsen departs after a summer in Canada. She is bound for Ponta Delgada in the Azores.

3. Vietnam Express, outbound from Fairview Cove. The ship carries a Hapag-Lloyd name, but continues to wear OOCL colours. Her next port is Cagliari, Italy.

The pilot boat A.P.A. No.1 leaves the dock with the outbound Vietnam Express, and Roald Amundsen. Halifax's two pilot boats A.P.A. No.1 and A.P.A. No.18 are smart looking boats, always well kept, and ready for work. They take pilots out to meet incoming ships and remove pilots from outbound ships. It takes about 45 minutes to get from the pilot dock to the pilot boarding station off Chebucto Head, and another 45 minutes to get back to the dock.

Once pilots have disembarked from outbound ships they are often landed in Herring Cove so that they can get to the next assignment more quickly.

Dating from 1976 and 1974 respectively, the boats are due for replacement in the next few years with more modern craft. Atlantic Pilotage Authority (APA) operates pilotage services in numerous ports in all four Atlantic provinces, and has upgraded pilot boats in Saint John and Placentia Bay recently. See more on their web site at: http://www.atlanticpilotage.com/

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Roald Amundsen returns

The sail training vessel Roald Amundsen is back in Halifax after a summer on the Great Lakes.

Due to security regulations for foreign vessels, part of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic pier is fenced off, with a security guard in place. However, the vessel can be inspected from the opposite site of the camber.

For a better view, see the June 8 posting.

Norwegian Navy Visitors

1. The small size of Utvaer is apparent as her deck party prepares for sea.

2. Fridtjof Nansen moves alongside number 3 oil dock for bunkers.

Two ships from the Royal Norwegian Navy are to leave today after a short visit.

First to arrive, on Saturday September 18 was HMNoS Utvaer, a submarine of the unique Ula class of six vessels. These small diesel subs were commissioned between 1989 and 1992, and have been steadily upgraded. Among these include modifications to allow them to work in the Mediterranean and other warm waters. They have been found to be extremely useful in training. Because they are so small, they are difficult to detect. Although built in Germany, the subs are the product of multi-national cooperation.

The second visitor arrived yesterday, and is HMNoS Fridtjof Nansen. It was due to sail at noon today, but instead moved to Imperoyal for bunkers and will sail sometime tonight. It is unusual for merchant ships to take bunkers directly from the refinery, but government vessels often do so. Room in the Dockyard is at a premium and it is not always possible for the bunkering tanker to get in alongside. Also the unusual shape of naval vessels, and the Nansen may be one, makes it more convenient to go to the source. She is name vessel of the class and was commissioned in 2006. All ships of the class are named for notable Norwegians: Roald Amundsen (which visited earliler this year), Otto Sverdrup, Helge Ingstad and Thor Heyerdal.

Roald Amundsen

1. German sail training vessel Roald Amundsen leaving Halifax June 7. She is flying the flags of Canada and Nova Scotia as a courtesy, the German flag and the flag of Fednav a Canadian owned shipping company, that must be sponsoring some of its activities. She should be flying a pilot flag, since there was a pilot abard. High atop her foremast is another as yet unidentified flag.

2. Roald Amundsen at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic on June 7.

3. HNoMS Roald Amundsen leaving Halifax April 1, 2009.

Roald Amundsen was one of the world's greatest explorers. Not satisfied with being the first to get through the Northwest Passage by ship, on the Gjoa in 1903-1906, he then beat Scott to the South Pole in 1912 and continued exploring the north.

He was the first person to reach both poles, granted his North Pole visit was by airship in 1926. (Disputes about the three previous North Pole visitors may mean he was the first to reach it!)

No wonder then that many ships have been named after this great Norwegian. The German sail training vessel Roald Amundsen sailed yesterday for Quebec City and the Great Lakes.

Last year the Norwegian warship HNoMS Roald Amundsen visited Halifax.

Not to be outdone Canada has a large icebreaker/ research ship named Amundsen, which has visited Halifax too.