Three Ts

 It was a return to busy days in the port today, Monday May 9. And there were three ships in port with names begining with the letter "T".

The Norwegian shipowner Wilh. Wilhelmsen is well known for giving all its ships names begining with the letter "T". However today's arrival at Autoport, the Titus, was a member of the partner company Wallenius Lines. The two companies combined their operations in 1999 and in 2017 formed Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean to operate a fleet or 123 or more autocarriers. Each company still owns ships, through subisidiaries and charters them to WWO. Wallenius still names its ships after operatic characters, and by coincidence their choice for this ship is the title character from Mozart's opera La Clemenza de Tito. Titus is loosely based on the Roman emperor Titus Vespasianus Augustus.

Built in 2018 by Tianjin Xingang in China, it is  a 73,358 gt, 23,889 dwt ship of the Hero class. It has a capacity of 7656 RT43 and is served by a 320 tonne capacity stern ramp.It has no side ramp. The ship was delivered in traditional Wallenius colours. It will be interesting to see if it receives WWO colours when it is drydocked next year. The current paint appears to be in good condition, so repainting may be considered an undue expense.

PSA Halifax's Atlantic Hub southend container pier had three ships alongside. Tropical Shipping's Atlantic Hope [see yesterday's post], Eimskip's Lagarfoss and MSC Tamara.

A regular caller on MSC's Canada Express 2 service, the Tamara tops up containers en route from Montreal to Italy and Spain. It will also call westbound to reduce draft for the St.Lawrence River. With a capacity of 4254 TEU including 500 reefers, it is a 41,225 gt, 50,446 dwt ship, built in 2007 by Zhejiang Yangfan Shipbuilding Co. It only required one crane to handle the loads.

Arriving at Pier 27 (now relocated from Pier 31 due to iminenent construction activity at Pier 30-31) Nirint Shipping's Trinitas is appropriately the third of today's trinity of T-ships.

The ship is on  its regular run from Moa, Cuba for Europe and is carrying a quantity of mixed nickel sulfides to off load. It was last here March 25 of this year, when the sun was on the right side (actually the port side) for a better picture. I gave more detail on the ship in that time.

The ship's hull was built by Damean Okean, Mikolayiv, Ukraine and completed by Damen Hoogezand, Foxhol. Mykolayiv is very much in the news lately and has been under Russian attacks.

.

The Regulars

 Shipfax usually makes note of new or different ships coming and going to Halifax, and tends to ignore the day to day regulars unless something unusual happens. To correct that imbalance, here are a few of the regulars, just going about their normal business:

Tropical Shipping

On Monday, March 21 the Tropical Lissette sailed on its regular run to the Caribbean for Tropical Shipping.

Tropical Shipping is one of the more visible shipping lines calling at PSA Halifax, thanks to its white reefer containers with large lettering. Tropic Lissette (new in 2019) is one of two ships, with sister Tropic Hope (new in 2018) serving the line with weekly calls in Halifax. The purpose built 15,215g, 20,313 dwt ships have a capacity of 1100 TEU with 200 reefer plugs.

Since 2014, Tropical Shipping has been part of the Saltchuck Family of companies which includes interests in logistics, air cargo, tugs (Foss, Cook Inlet, Young Bros), oil and the domestic US shipping company TOTE Services. The line moved its operations to Halifax from Saint John, NB in 2017.

Nirint Shipping BV

On Wednesday, March 23 the Trinitas arrived for Nirint Shipping BV, with a cargo of nickel sulfides and containers from Cuba.

Built as Trinitas in 2007, with the hull by Damen Okean, Mykolayiv and completed by Damen Hoogezand, Foxhol, the ship was delivered as Nirint Hollandia. It was renamed Hollandia in 2012, but remained on Nirint service. It started to call in Halifax in 2014 and was renamed Trinitas in 2019.

It is a 8,999 gt, 12,016 dwt vessel with a container capacity of 684 TEU, including 80 reefer plugs on deck. It uses a pair of 80 tonne SWL cranes to handle cargo, which in the case of the nickel concentrates is in bulk bags. It has movable tween decks and ventilated box shaped holds, so is an adaptable multi-purpose vessel capable of carrying bulk and general cargoes. Uusally it also has a number of tank containers on deck - which are rumoured to carry rum, molasses or sucrose.

 

Atlantic Container Line

Among the most regular of callers in Halifax are the five giant CONROs (the world's largest) of Atlantic Container Lines. In addition to the visible deck loads of containers, the ships also carry substantial quantities of RoRo, including new and used cars and trucks, machinery, and oversize loads.

 

Atlantic Sun arrived Thursday, March 24 on its regular run from Hamburg / Antwerp / Liverpool.
 
Delivered in 2017 by Hudong-Zhonghua, Shanghai, the ships have an immense gross tonnage of 100,430 gt and 55,547 dwt. ACL (owned by the Grimaldi Group) has been calling in Halifax since the late 1960s and had the ships built to clear the Halifax bridges to make their berth at Fairview Cove. They are the largest ships (by volume) to transit the Narrows of Halifax harbour. They have a capacity of 3800 TEU and 1300 plus autos in about 18,500 square meters of RoRo space.

Canada Steamship Lines

 

As an update to previous posts, I can report that Baie St.Paul sailed yesterday, March 24, for Hamilton, ON with a cargo of Gold Bond gypsum. (Compare the ship's draft in this picture to previous posts.)

 

 

After a brief "winter layup" (since Febraury 15) the ship returned to service as the St.Lawrence Seaway opened for the season. CSL ships, both domestic and international (through the CSL Americas pool), are regular gypsum haulers, but also deliver the occasional grain cargoes from the Lakehead during the Seaway season.  CSL will also be taking delivery of a new ship in the coming days - stay tuned.

 

.

 

 

 

 

Two departures and updates

 Two ships sailed this afternoon, September 14,  in near perfect lighting conditions, allowing for better photos than when they arrived.

Trinitas completed unloading its cargo of nickel sulfides from Cuba on Nirint Shipping's regular route and departed for Bilbao, Spain.

The ship arrived yesterday, September 13, and due to the sun's position, the ship was in shadow.

See yesterday's post.

The other departure was the bulk carrier Manzanillo. As previously reported it arrived September 8 from Sorel, QC.

Now with a cargo of wood pellets it is headed for the River Tyne, England. This time I was able to get a photo without tugs alongside.

.

New Name Times Two

 Two ships arrived in Halifax September 13 wearing new names. Both ships have been calling in Halifax for some time under their previous names, so they are familiar to the port.

First to arrive was the Netherlands flag Trinitas arriving from Cuba for Nirint Shipping BV. The ship was a regular in Halifax under the name Hollandia with cargoes of nickel sulfide from Moa, Cuba as back haul cargo on Nirint's Netherlands and Spain to Cuba container and generals service.

Built as Trinitas in 2007, with the hull by Damen Okean, Mykolayiv and completed by Damen Hoogezand, Foxhol, the ship was delivered as Nirint Hollandia. It was renamed Hollandia in 2012, but remained on Nirint service. It started to call in Halifax in 2014.

It is a 8,999 gt, 12,016 dwt vessel with a container capacity of 684 TEU, including 80 reefer plugs on deck. It uses a pair of 80 tonne SWL cranes to handle cargo, which in the case of the nickel concentrates is in bulk bags. It has movable tween decks and ventilated box shaped holds, so is an adaptable multi-purpose vessel capable of carrying bulk cargoes.

The ship was renamed Trinitas again in 2019, but had not called in Halifax under that name until now. Normally a name change while under charter indicates a change of owners, but this ship is still owned by a single ship company called JW Danser + PJ Danser of Delfzijl, Netherlands and managed by Wagenborg. The ship is not shown on future Nirint schedules so may be reassigned soon.

The second renamed ship is now called Vivienne Sheri D. While still carrying the Antigua and Barbuda flag, it has reportedly been sold to the Doornekamp Shipping of Odessa, ON. They have just started a container service from Europe to the Great Lakes and will include a feeder service out of Halifax. Their first ship Peyton Lynn C is currently on the Great Lakes after inaugurating a service with Spliethoff's Cleveland-Europe Express. The ship will also call at Doornekamp's home port of Picton, ON. Its calls here in Halifax will more likely be in the winter when the Seaway is closed to traffic.

Vivienne Sheri D has been so recently renamed that it has no name on the bows yet (too difficult to reach I guess) but only on the stern. A 10,905 gt vessel built in 2009 by Naval Gijon, Spain, it measures 12,640 dwt with a container capacity of 925 TEU including 200 reefers. Classed as a container feeder it has no cargo cranes.

Better known as Pictor J until 2020 and Pictor since earlier this year, it has been working on Eimskip's Green Line from Reykjavik, Argentia, Halifax, Portland, Maine and return since 2019. Eimskip also operates the ship as a New England feeder for such lines as CMA CGM. That may be supplemented by Doornekamp's feeder service.

According to media reports Doornekamp will keep the ship on the Eimskip charter for up to two years, but plan to place it on the Cleveland-Europe Express eventually.

.