Mixed Bag

 It was a little bit of everything in the Port of Halifax today, February 8, including containers, automobiles, tankers and a Dockyard visitor.

The container sector was represented by NYK Daedalus arriving from Antwerp on THE Alliance's AL5 service. The 55,534 gt, 65,967 dwt ship is the "name ship" of class of eight with a capacity of 4922 TEU built by Hyundai, Ulsan in 2007. Most of its sister ships have called in Halifax with this one a regular since its first visit July 21, 2014.

The NYK Daedalus prepares to make its turn to back in alongside the PSA Fairview Cove container terminal. Tugs Atlantic Oak and Atlantic Beaver are on the ship's port side.

 The autocarrier Don Carlos, another regular, arrived mid-afternoon on the Wallenius Wilhelmsen transatlantic route. The ship has made the usual round of Zeebrugge, Bremerhaven Goteborg and Southampton. After discharging cars at Autoport it will move to Pier 9C tomorrow to offload RoRo cargo.

 Tugs Atlantic Larch. forward, and Atlantic Beaver, aft, met the ship in the Middle Ground area to steer it aroiund Macnab's Island and into Eastern Passage and Autoport.

As per a previous report: "Don Carlos was built in 1997 by Daewoo, Okpo and lengthened 8.6 meters in 2006 by Hyundai Vinashin in Vietnam and is now 62,141 gt, 28,147 dwt with a capacity of 7194 CEU. When the ship was lengthened the large billboard lettering on the sides of the ship was not re-centered, giving a slightly unbalanced look."

HMC Dockyard said goodbye to a long term visitor, SD Victoria, the British ship that gives world wide support to the Royal Navy. This is the second time that the ship has spent more than a month in Halifax. In 2022 it arrived on February 10 and sailed March 30. Its most recent arrival was December 27, 2023,and it has been alongside the whole time. There was a military exercise in Halifax yesterday, but if it was a participant in some way it never left the dock

On departure today the ship gave the US Guard base in Baltimore for a destination, but it came back in to Halifax in the early evening.

The tanker Navig8 Constellation (see yesterday's post) sailed at dusk for Houston. Its place was to be taken by Algoberta which arrived from the Kildair (Sprague) terminal, St-Victoire-de-Sorel, QC this morning and has been waiting at Pier 9B.

.

Directing traffic - Comings and Goings

 Ships arrive and depart regularly from Halifax harbour, but due to the tight channels and restricted space in some parts of the main harbour careful orchestration is sometimes needed to keep ships safely apart. With all the comings and goings today, March 30, the harbour pilots had to do something that is rarely seen. With two ships wanting to be in the same place at about the same time, one of the ships took an unusual route.

The arriving ship was the MSC Antigua on MSC's Indus 2 route from the mid-east and Indian sub continent. At this time of the year ships coming from that region must be inspected for the larva of a particular invasive species, namely Lymantria dispar asiatica, the LDA moth, formerly known as the Asian gypsy moth. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) conducts the inspection while the ship is at anchor and before it berths. [The word "gypsy" was considered to be demeaning and was eliminated.]

 

Due to its size, MSC Antigua was directed to anchorage number one, which is usually reserved for large ships and for short duration stays. It is also immediately off the PSA terminal, the ultimate destination of the ship once it has been cleared by the CFIA, and the berth is clear tomorrow morning. (PSA Halifax was all out today handling MSC Tamara and Tropic Hope).

MSC Antigua was built in 2013 by Hyundai Samho, and is registred at 94,453 gt, 112,516 dwt with a capacity of 8900 TEUs including 1,000 reefer plugs.

While the MSC Antigua was arriving the autocarrier Lake Wanaka was getting underway from Autoport. Its usual route would take it directly through number one anchoraage. To avoid any risk of close quarters, the ship continued from Eastern Passage east of George's Island, then turning north of the island passed outbound to the west of George's.

It is unusual to see an autocarrier in this part of the harbour, passing the George's Island jetty, with its gangways stowed for the winter.

 

It is also rare to get a close up view of an autocarrier from the Halifax side of the harbour.

Built in 2008 by Xiamen Shipbuilding Industry Co in Xiamen,as the Triumph, it was renamed (for a New Zealand lake) in 2019. The 46,800 gt, 12,272 dwt ship has a capacity for 4,902 autos, making it one of the smaller "car boats" and not a regular. Its last ports were in Spain, Morocco and Germany and its next port is given as Veracruz, Mexico, also not a usual destination.

As the ship passed Pier 20, MSC Antigua was just coming to anchor. It is worth noting that both ships have been retrofitted with exhaust gas scrubbers, contained in huge boxes, much large than a normal funnel.

 MSC Antigua's scrubber is located on the starboard side of the bridge, whereas the original funnel is located on the traditional midship line.

Later in the afternoon it was clear going for two other departures. SD Victoria, the Royal Navy support ship, has been in port since February 10. It destination was given as its home port of Portsmouth, UK. See previous post: February 10

The last departure that I observed was that of the Ruby Confidence. It arrived from Baltimore March 25, and loaded wood pellets at Pier 28 [ see previous post March 26]. It departed for Sudstrup, Denmark, the location of a large power plant fueled by biomass.

The stanchions to secure deck cargoes of timber are easier to see in this photo.

.

 

 

SD Victoria

 The British naval support ship SD Victoria arrived this morning February 10 at HMC Dockyard. The 3522 gt ship dates from 2010 when it was built by Damen Galati in Romania.

The ship is owned by Serco Marine Services a division of the Serco Group, a publicly traded company that provides services to the British government. Serco Marine Services operates "fleet support" at the Royal Navy's primary bases, replacing the Royal Marine Auxiliary, which was thus disbanded in 2008. Ships bear the initials "SD" for Serco Denholm, the previous name of the company. Denholm was a ship management company and partner in Serco Marine Services that Serco bought out in 2009.

Serco Group is a huge organization,. For more information I suggest the Wikipedia entry under: Serco Group

SD Victoria provides "world wide support" to ships of the Royal Navy and apparently ranges far afield. The ship was reported in Portsmouth, UK in mid-January, and in recent days it was hove to off Yarmouth, NS during a period of high winds.

.