Norway - coming and going

 Despite its relatively small size (2023 population: 5.2 million) Norway is a major maritime nation. This may be due in part to its long indented coastline, where it is shorter, and usually faster, to go by sea than detouring around the famous fjords by land. The seagoing skills, and business acumen of many ship owners and shipyards, allowed the country to capitalize on North Sea oil. Its long coast also extends into the arctic, and the country has also developed expertise in northern shipping.

Today, June 15, two ship departures had Norwegian connectons.

Although it was the first to get away from the dock (pilot ordered for 1600 hrs ADT) , the cable ship IT Infinity stood off for a short time as the faster cruise ship Viking Sky sailed from Pier 20 (pilot ordered for 1615 hrs ADT),

Viking Sky was first to pass my position in Point Pleasant Park, and had put on some speed.

 The Viking Ocean Cruises ship was delivered in 2017 by Fincantieri, Arcona and rings in at 47,842 gt, with a passenger capacity of 930 in 465 cabins, a crew of 550. It flies the the Norwegian flag and is enrolled in the Norwegian International Registry.

On this trip it sailed from Norway in late May, circumnavigated Iceland, with four port calls, then carried on to Nuuk Greenland for June 11. It arrived in Halifax this morning.

 It is now sailing for New York where it will start a new cruise, returning to Halifax June 19, then calling at l'Anse aux Meadows, making two stops in Greenland and seven in Iceland and seven in Norway, ending in Bergen July 15.

The ship is noted for a nail-biting episode in 2019 when a lube oil system failure (due to ship's movement in 30 foot high seas) caused the automatic shut down of its main engines, while near shore in Norway. Helicopters were mobilized from near and far and made 30 trips to evacuate 436 passengers (458 crew reamained on board). First attempts to tow the ship away from land failed, but the crew were able to regain some power, toe lines re-established and the ship was towed to port. Reports indicate the ship was as close as 100 meters from running aground. It was later determined that there was a fault in the lube oil system, and that the ship should not have sailed in the predicted weather conditions.

Sailing for Norway, International Telecom's IT Infinity will be returning to its orginal home.  

 

IT Infinity, a 4277 gt, 4867 dwt former supplier, was built in 2008, by Aker Tulcea and completed by Brattvag. Orginally Volstad Princess it became Standard Princess in 2017. It was acquired by IT International Telecom and renamed IT Infinity in 2021.

In February 2024 the Vard shipyard in Brattvaag, Norway was awarded a  contract to refit the ship to a higher standard and to modernize existing systems. The work was completed with sea trials in November and the ship sailed from Rognan, Norway, December 18, and arrived in Halifax January 3, 2025.

Since then it has been working in the Gulf of Mexico, out of Port Fourchon, LA and arrived back in Halifax June 9.

Also depearting today, fleet mate IT Integrity is headed for the Panama Canal. It also has Norwegain roots: Built in 2001, its hull came from Aker Tulcea and it was completed by Soviknes Verft, Sovik. The 2244 gt, 3200 dwt supplier was named Highland Fortress and worked for several Tidewater operations in Europe until 2020 when IT acquired the ship and converted it for cable work (including laying, repair, plough burying and ROV splicing). 

IT Integrity file photo from 2022.

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Viking Sky - cruise of a lifetime

The Viking Ocean Cruises ship Viking Sky gave its 915 passengers and 458 crew the scare of a lifetime last week-end off the Norwegian coast. The ship, which called in Halifax three times in 2017 (but was never photo'd by Shipfax) lost power March 22-23 on all four engines in 38 knot winds and 8 meter seas.

 Sails might have come in handy for Viking Sky.  

This is the funnel of sister ship Viking Sea that called in Halifax in 2018.

 
It was perilously close to shore and drifting in severe conditions. The ship was also rolling heavily and uncontrollably, several windows were broken , water was sloshing about and some passengers had been injured.

The decision was made that the passengers had to be evacuated, and the only way to do it was by helicopter. The Norwegian Coast Guard had five helos available and Denmark contributed some more, and the hair raising process began.

Meanwhile tugs were on the way and finally managed to get the ship under control and headed for the port of Molde. By the time the ship was out of danger 416 passengers had been transferred to shore.

The painful process of lifting them from the rolling ship, in dangerous conditions, usually one at a time, over several hours, did not manage to retrieve even half the passengers and some of them were injured in the process.

Vking Sky, a new ship in 2017 supposedly had complete propulsion redundancy, with two separate engine rooms with two engines in each. In theory if one bank of engines failed the others would surely still be operational.

Reports indicate that due to high seas, cooling water intakes, which are submerged well below the water line in normal conditions, were sucking air and as engine temperatures rose, they shut down automatically.
Once that happened things only got worse. As the ship began to roll out of control, it was not possible to restart the engines since there was no consistent supply of cooling water. It is also possible that severe damage had already been incurred by the engines if the engineers had tried to overide the cooling alarms.

One can only imagine the response to such an incident in our own waters in hurricane season. Do we have five helicopters available on short notice, and Emergency Towing Vessels available to bring the ship into port? Answer: no. How close to land would the ship have to be in order to evacuate even half of the passengers in an emergency?


It may soon be forgotten, but a small cargo ship, that was near the Viking Sky tried to make its way to the scene to be of assistance. Unfortunately its cargo shifted and it began to sink. All nine crew members had to be rescued too, some with serious injuries. While this took some of the resources away from the cruise ship, it was still in the best traditions of the sea, to take risks to assist others.

In a similar situation off Nova Scotia, the proximity of other resources whether official or not, would the critical factor in potentialy saving lives or at the very least getting injured people ashore for treatment.

Emergency Towing Vessels are needed not just for broken down tankers, but for any kind of ship that is in difficulty.

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