Tenders and regular business

 With five cruise ships in port at one time, there were an estimated 11,000 passengers visiting Halifax today, October 21. Unlike Venice, Barcelona and ports in Alaska, Halifax welcomed the ships and the people without any serious hiccups. 

With limited berthing space and only a very small  cruise terminal it meant that two ships anchored out in the harbour and ferried the passengers (and crew members with shore leave) ashore using their own tenders.

 The lineup in order of arrival was the Norwegian Getaway at Pier 22, Brilliance of the Seas at Pier 20, Silver Shadow at Pier 23, Norwegian Gem at number one anchorage south and Azamara Quest at number one anchorage north.

Both anchored ships were close to the landing stage at Pier 24, where there was a constant shuttle of tenders, with a maximum of three alongside at any one time.

Tenders from the Norwegian Gem are catamarans with side loading doors.

 Although the day started off with rain, the sun came out by mid-morning. There was a breeze, but conditions were quite calm for tendering operations.

 The landing stage has two ramps leading from the floating pontoons to the tented reception area on Pier 24.

Even with the Silver Shadow at Pier 23 doing waste disposal work, there was lots of room for the tenders to come and go.
 

  

The two anchored ships operated their tenders from their starboard /lee sides, although conditions were quite calm.

 Other parts of the port were operating as usual. unhindered by the cruise ships.

Autoport had the Traviata in from the usual western Europe ports.

 Imperial Oil's number 3 berth was not idle for long. When the Algoberta sailed for Quebec, the TORM Dagmar was arriving from Antwerp to take its place.

TORM Dagmar, in the unique colour scheme of the Danish TORM A/S is carrying refined product, which will be stored, then distributed throughout the region by coastal tankers or trucks.

Built in 2015 by Hyundai Mipo Co Ltd in Ulsan as the Jane S the Torm Dagmar was acquired by TORM A/S and renamed in 2023. It is a Mid Range chemical /product tanker of 29,225 gt, 49,999 dwt. Its extra large funnel casing also houses an exhaust gas scrubber system to meet International emission requirements. New tankers (see yesterday) are being built for LNG / dual fuel as a more effective interim measure until alternative fuels become widely available.

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Four ship day, and Update

Today September 29, was a four cruise ship day in the Port of Halifax. This meant of course that one ship anchored and used its tenders to ferry passengers ashore to the Pier 24 landing stage, and back again. The "fourth man out" was the Azamara Quest which found its spot in the northeast end of number one anchorage - not far off the Irving and Esso oil docks.  The other three ships took up the customary berths at Piers 20 to 23. 

In the photo above, from left to right (north to south), the Viking Polaris has berth 23, the Enchanted Princess at Pier 22 and in the background the Silver Shadow at Pier 20 with the Azamara Quest partially blocking the view.

 From a different angle, the Silver Shadow (at right) has the refuse scow alongside (actually sectional pontoons made into a barge) with the tug Mighty Edge. 

I don't usually edit photos on this blog, except to crop and level the horizon, but this time I attempted to erase several container cranes that projected above the profile of the Azamara Quest. Some traces remain however. I opted to leave the foreground fence that divides the Imperial Oil (Esso) and Irving Oil terminals.

The Azamara Quest has a long history going back to 2000 when it was delivered by Chantier de l'Atlantique, Saint-Nazaire as the R-Seven. In 2003 it became the Delphin Renaissance and in 2006 the Blue Moon before taking its present name in 2007. The 30,277 gt ship can carry 686 passengers and 408 crew.

The Viking Polaris was built by Fincantieri in 2022, with the hull constructed in Romania and fitting out by VARD in Norway. The 30,150 gt ship can carry 378 passengers in 189 staterooms. There are 15 crew cabins for a maximum of 646 persons on board. The ship is returning from the Great Lakes.

I have made links to the Wikipedia entries for the other ships:

Silver Shadow ; Enchanted Princes ; and 

Update

In my June 6, 2025 post I showed the Auto Carrier Way Forward docked at Autoport, but I declined to wade through tall grass to get a clear photo. For its call today, I was able to get a better view because the grass seems to have died back due to our on going drought - or perhaps it has been trampled down by hoards of ship watchers. In any event the ship looks the same.

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Catching Up and an Explanation

On Monday July 15, 2024 my aged computer began to show distressing behaviour and had to go to the repair shop. After a week in "drydock" and a new hard drive it is back in operation, but with almost a week's worth of Halifax shipping activity to catch up on.

I have therefore summarized the high points of the past several days:

Tuesday July 16, 2024

The United States flag tug Stephen Dann arrived from New York with the 2,652 gt, 4,850 dwt barge J.G.Burke in tow.

The barge has been here before. The first time it was in 2008 under the name Weeks 246 as a flat deck barge. It was back again in 2017 after being rebuilt as a semi-submersible caisson launch barge. It was then used as a build platform for the cells for the new NJ Jetty for the Arctic and Offshore Patrol Vessels at HMC Dockyard. The units were built on the barge's deck, then floated off and sunk in position at the Dockyard.

The barge's owner, Weeks Marine, is the parent of McNally Construction Inc, now part of the Kiewit organization. As a US flag vessel it required a coasting license for the 2017 work, but I do not see any application for it this time round, when it will be used to build and launch cells for the new Halifax Shipyard fitting out berth.

The tug Stephen Dann works for Dann Ocean Towing Inc of Tampa, FL and is well known along the east coast of the United States.

Built in 1999 by Bollinger Shipyards in Lockeport, LA as Crosby Knight it is a twin screw 3600 bhp vessel, acquired in 2016 by Dann and renamed. They may also have added the "bird house" elevated wheelhouse. The tug sailed again the same day for New York (area).

Also in port at the same time, and always a joy to see, was Nova Scotia's own Bluenose II. The much rebuilt replica lives up to the saying "if you own an old wooden boat, you will eventually own a new wooden boat."

    Wednesday July 17, 2024

 The cruise ship Silver Shadow arrived at Pier 23 and was greeted by Coast Guard boats and a truck carrying a large (and apparently brand new) oil boom, which was soon deployed.

I think this was an exercise, as there was no sign of a sheen on the water, and no absorbent material or pumper trucks in evidence.

Thursday July 18, 2024

The USCGC Eagle moved from anchorage (it arrived July 17) to Pier 20 on departure of the cruise ship Volendam (fleet mate Zuilderdam sailed from Pier 22 right afterwards.)

It was assisted to its berth by the two navy "pup" tugs Granville and Listerville both suitably bearded with white duck to preserve Eagle's paint.

Eagle sailed on Sunday, July 21.

Friday July 19, 2024

 There was a newcomer on MSC's Canada Express 2 service, arriving from Montreal en route to the UK. The MSC Mia Summer II is quite a small ship by current standards, and elderly - even for MSC.

Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft of Kiel turned out the ship in 1999 as ADCL Scarlett [ADCL = Abu Dhabi Container Line] but it was renamed Buckinghamshire in 2000 and became MSC Mia Summer II in 2005. A 25,719 gt, 18,779 dwt ship it has a capacity of 1658 TEU, well below the 2,000 mark implied by the "II" in its name.

Of note: it is an "open top" type ship, with no hatch covers required. The hold area is sheltered to a degree by the raised freeboard. Numerous restrictions as to stability, firefighting snd carriage of dangerous goods apply to this type of ship and at least so far, the safety record had been good.

Saturday July 20, 2024

Not to be outdone ZIM had a really new ship on their ZCA service from the Med. ZIM Condor  was delivered in April of this year by Zhoushan Changhong International Shipyard Co Ltd in Zhoushan. It is a 49,877 gt, 62,999 dwt ship with a capacity of 5315 TEU [nominal; 3845 TEU at 14 tonnes] with 1,000 reefer points.

The new tug Atlantic Maple took up an unusual forward escort position, operating in reverse mode, as the ship returned to sea in the Narrows later in the day. Nevertheless the ship still had to send warning whistles to a heedless sail boat in its path.

The second tug Atlantic Cedar provided the stern tethered escort.

Sunday July 21, 2024 - see Monday

Monday July 22, 2024

Among the several morning arrivals was the unusually named DreAMBoat. The capitalized letters in the middle of the name represent the initials of the owner, Arthur Morris Blank, co-founder of the Home Depot big box store chain. (Compare to the July post of another store owner's boat.) Mr. Blank also owns the Atlanta Falcons football team, and a soccer team.

At a reported cost of $180 million Oceanco of Alblasserdam, Netherlands built the 2946 gt ship to accommodate 14 guests and up to 27 crew along with "hangars" for a 10.8m limo tender and 10.5m sport tender.  

Moving within the harbour, from Imperial Oil (where it arrived Sunday from Antwerp) was the tanker Eli Knutsen.

It is one of two sister tankers purchased by Algoma Tankers, and announced in January of this year. Both were to be chartered back to Knutsen OAS Shipping of Sweden until later in the year. The "intermediate epoxy" chemical and product tanker was built in 2010 by Jiangnan Shipyard Group in Shanghai and measures 11,889 gt,m 16,544 dwt. The ship is still flying the Malta flag, but is carrying the Algoma "bear" funnel mark and is likely to be registered in Canada soon.

 Its sister ship Liv Knutsen is still trading in western Europe, but is also expected in Canada this year. No new names have been announced yet, and for the meantime the Eli Knutsen is at anchor in Bedford Basin. (Fleet mate Algoluna, the former Birgit Knutsen, took its place at ImperialOil.)

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Parting is such sweet sorrow

 In his play Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare wrote "Parting is such sweet sorrow that I shall say goodnight till it be morrow." I seem to have noted several partings from the port today, November 9. Although there were also arrivals, it was only the partings that I caught on camera.

Among those was the sailing of the Silver Shadow, the last cruise ship of the 2023 season.

Built in 2000 by T.Mariotti in Genoa, the 28,258 gt ship carries 388 passengers and 295 crew and with 194 outside suites is reputed to have the most space per passenger of any cruise ship. The ratio of gross tonnage to passenger is 74. Since gross tonnage is now a calculated number (it is no longer measured laboriously at 100 cubic feet to a ton) I am not sure how much actual space each person gets, but it does seem like a lot.

"Till it be morrow" is more like "till next year" in this case as no more cruise ships are anticipated until April or May of 2024. 

A more mundane, but more colourful departure was the bulk carrier Maryam D sailing for Aarhus, Denmark with a cargo of wood pellets for power generaiotn.

The ship arrived off Halifax from Boston on October 28 and anchored until October 30 when it came in and tied up at Pier 28. It took on the cargo which is stored in the grain elevator using the facillity's conveyor system. Some loading time was lost to rain as tarps are not used as shelter for the hatches.

The ship was built in 2016 by Jiangdong Shipyard, Wuhu, China, as Grand Marais, and was renamed in 2019 by current owners, Maryam D BV, and placed under Norbulk Shipping UK Ltd management. A 24,185 gt, 35,093 dwt ship, it is equipped with four cranes.

There was a departure and arrival of sister ships today, but it took place offshore, and was not visible from land. The arriving ship was the ONE Apus, but it did not reach the inner harbour until nearly dusk. The departing ship however did sail in broad daylight. ONE Swan is one of the several ships if its class that are regulars on THE Alliance's EC5 service.

The 145,403 gt, 138,907 dwt ship was built as the NYK Swan in 2017 by Japan Marine United in Kure, and has a capacity of 14,026 TEU. It was renamed in 2020 as part of the consolidation of Japanese container lines into Ocean Network Express.  The ship is eastbound, giving an ETA for the Suez Canal of November 20.

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