Tugela, pretty in pink

 The Wilhelmsen Lines Large Car and Truck Carrier Tugela paid a visit to Autoport today. Unlike many of its fleet mates it has yet to be repainted on the new colour scheme adopted by the combined Wallenius Wilhelmsen fleet. It is still carrying the original Wilhelmsen orange - or at least what is left of that colour. I have noted before that the last go round of paint on the Wilhelmsen ships was a disaster as the paint began to rust through and fade very quickly. I put it down to a combination of poor surface preparation and possibly low quality paint.

Even back in 2018 when I last took a photo of the ship its paint was looking pretty sad. However like most ships these days they are only repainted in drydock and then only on a regular docking schedule of at least five years or more. Gone are the days when the crew is overside painting ship when in port. That only occurs now when ships change name or port of registry, far away from any shipyard.

Tugela was built in 2011 by Hyundai Ulsan, so should be heading back to drydock this year or early next year. The 72,295 gt, 28,837 dwt ship has a capacity of 7,934 cars.

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Busy Friday

A number of ship movement are taking place Friday afternoon, and several at the same time, so only some will receive notice here. Some moves may have been due to the upcoming holiday Monday.

A late posted arrival this morning was MOL Partner. The 71,902 grt, 72,968 dwt ship arrived from Colombo, via the Suez Canal on THE Alliance EC5 service, again apparently replacing a regular ship in the rotation as part of the Japanese container line merger. Built in 2005 by Koyo Dockyard Co in Mihara, it has a capacity of 6350 TEU, including 500 reefers.

The ship anchored in Bedford Basin at first then is to move to Fairview Cove on departure of  Brevik Bridge. YM Modesty is also in at Fairview Cove - all for THE Alliance.

Later in the afternoon Algoma Integrity made its first arrival in Halifax. Built as Gypsum Integrity in 2008 by Estaleiro Ilha SA in Rio de Janiero, the self-unloader was built to the same spec as Gypsum Centennial. Both ship were operated by Gypsum Transportation, the cargo carrying division of Canadian Gypsum / United Sates Gypsum. When that company closed up its Canadian mines, first in Hantsport than in Grand Narrows, the ships were out of work. However Joint Venture partners in Beltship Management, Globe Master, found other work for the ships shuttling iron ore in Afrcia. At the end of that operation Algoma Transportation acquired the ship in 2015 originally as a two year stop gap until new ships were delivered. Registered as Algoma Integrity in Hamilton, ON on April 23, 2015 the ship was dedicated to running from Port Cartier to Contrecouer, QC. Last December the ship was laid up for the winter in  Montreal. On April 26, 2018 its Canadian registry was closed and it was transferred to Algoma's international fleet to work in the CSL pool of ocean self-unloaders under the Bahamas flag.
A 33,047 grt, 47,761 dwt ship it had many innovations when built including a telescoping self-unloading boom.

After a busy stretch at Autoport this week, the Wallenius Wilhelmsen Tugela sailed. Classed as a Large Car and Truck Carrier, the ship first berthed at pier 31 Wednesday and offloaded wheeled machinery. It moved to Autoport yesterday.

Hyundai Heavy built the ship in Ulsan in 2011 and it has a capacity of 7,934 RT43 type cars.

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