Saturday etc.,

 Today, Saturday May 18, was a  bit of a mixed bag in the harbour, with ships of various types in  view. (That it is also the Victoria Day holiday weekend seems to have had little effect on ship movements.)

An early morning arrival was the auto carrier Morning Lucy for Pier 9C to offload RoRo cargo. The 68,701 gt, 28,080 dwt ship was built in 2009 by Hyundai Samho in Mokpo and can carry 8,011 CEU. 

Having turned in Bedford Basin, the Morning Lucy makes its way back under the A. Murray MacKay bridge into the Narrows, and alongside Pier 9C starboard side to the pier.

Although part of the Eukor fleet, the ship also operates on the parent company Wallenius Wilhelmsen's routes. Since early March the ship has called in Incheon and Ulsan, South Korea, then in April in Brunswick, Charleston, and Philadelphia. It crossed the Atlantic and called in Zeebrugge May 2-3, Bremerhaven May 4-7, Le Havre May 9 and finally in Southampton May 9-10. Once it discharged its RoRo cargo it moved to Autoport mid-afternoon to unload cars.

 With RoRo cargo unloaded, the ship has raised its stern ramp and is preparing to move to Autoport. The cargo consisted of the usual collection of road rollers, JCB front end loaders, airport runway sweepers, and mining and forestry vehicles.

There were also two ships at anchor in the lower Harbour. Thursday, May 16's arrival, Elka Delos remains at anchor and is due to move alongside Irving Oil's Woodside terminal this afternoon. (The retired chairman of Irving Oil, Arthur L. Irving died on May 13 at age 93 and funeral services were held this morning in Saint John, NB. Irving facilities may have been closed this morning in remembrance. Mr. Irving was a son of the founder of Irving Oil, K.C.Irving.)

The Elka Delos is carrying refined product from Amsterdam for Irving Oil.

 "Delos" is an island in the Aegean Sea near Mykonos, and is a tourist destination due to its ancient ruins. "Elka" is the abbreviated named for European Navigation Ltd, parent of European Product Carriers.  Founded by the Karnessis family, the company has been in the news due to disputes within the ownerships and the February 2024 shooting death of the CEO, two others and himself by a disgruntled employee at the company's Glyfada (Athens) headquarters.

Dominating number one anchorage this morning was the bulk carrier Cape Keystone.  The ship is en route to Port Cartier, QC to load iron ore and stopped in Halifax for Canadian Food Inspection Agency clearance. The ship must be certified free of the invasive species LDD moth before docking at a Canadian port. It is hatching season for the Asian moth which can devastate trees if allowed to get into the environment. Ships that have recently been in places where the moth is native, must be inspected to ensure they are not carrying egg masses. Regions such as the area around Port-Cartier are heavily dependant on forestry, and must protect the valuable resource.

Built in 2011 by Hyundai Ulsan, the Cape Keystone operates under the K-Line banner. A 93,227 gt, 179,250 dwt ship, it is an impressive sight when in ballast. (I am sure the pilot, who has to climb the combination pilot ladder / accommodation ladder to get on and off may not be as impressed.)

Recent ports of call for the ship include Dalrymple, Australia March 2 (load coal), Port Louis Mauritius March 24 (bunkers),  Musel Arnao - Gijon, Spain April 26-30 (offload coal, load?), Wilhelmshaven, Germany May 3 -5 (offload?)

There was the usual container traffic too, with Atlantic Sun at PSA Fairview Cove and Volga Maersk at PSA Atlantic Gateway. Both ships are expected to sail in the afternoon.

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Blue

 The colour "Maersk Blue", trademarked in Denmark and codified by various standards agencies (e.g. Pantone PMS 7702C) and widely identifiable around the world was originally a sky blue band on the funnels of A.P.Moller's ships. Coupled with the white seven pointed star, also showing on the company's houseflag, since 1904, it was adopted as the hull colour for ships in 1954.

I can say with (quiet authority and undue modesty) that I have been an admirer of Maersk blue since August 1957. That was when I saw my first Maersk ship, the brand new Luna Maersk in early evening, low angle sunshine, on the St.Lawrence River. I have been looking for opportunities to see that blue colour in direct sunshine ever since. 

Today's (November 25) departure of the Vistula Maersk from Pier 42, PSA Halifax Atlantic Hub was not quite so spectacular or memorable, but it did show off the colour quite nicely.

When the ship was still alongside, and reflected in the dead calm waters beside the breakwater, it was really the colour of the sky that I was seeing - but close enough.

The first of seven ships of its class, the Vistula Maersk was built in 2018 by COSCO Zhoushan Shipyard Co, as an ice class ship for Baltic service to Russia. At 34,882 gt, 40,000 dwt, it has a capacity of 3600 TEU including 600 reeefers. In 2022, following the Russian boycott, along with two sister ships, it was transferred to the joint Maersk / CMA CGM St-Laurent 1 / Canada Atlantic Express service. It made its first call in Halifax June 23, 2022 and usually calls in Halifax outbound from Montreal for Bremerhaven on Saturdays in rotation with the Volga Maersk and EM Kea and CMA CGM Paranagua. (Vayenga Maersk has been reassigned.)

Once underway the colour really did shine.

It is quite remarkable how good the paint looks - although on close inspection there are the usual tug and pilot boat scuff marks and rust streaks. The effect of the bright sun seems to distract from those blemishes.

When the ship started calling here in 2022 it carried the words "Maersk Line" in black on the hull.

Vistula Maersk 2022-10-15

The ship was looking a bit rugged in October 2022, but was due for regulatory drydocking in December 2022. When it emerged, it had been completely repainted and the hull banner had been changed to "Maersk" only. The word "line" had been painted out, and the word "Maersk" repainted. On the port side it had been repainted, but not repositioned and appeared just forward of amidships. On the starboard side it may have been repositioned however, as the "S" is directly over the Plimsoll marks.

 Vistula Maersk 2023-05-05

Shortly after that repainting, Maersk changed their graphics and have gone with "Maersk" in white, and have added the seven point star, also in white, adjacent to the name. The sister ship Volga Maersk now has this pattern, but Vistula Maersk may have to wait until its next five year survey in late 2027 or early 2028 for a repaint.

Volga Maersk 2023-10-06 with the new hull banner.

 So how ubiquitous is the Maersk blue you might ask? I figure if LEGO blocks are available in Maersk blue (and they are) then there is nowhere else to go. (Of course LEGO is also Danish.)

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Business As Usual

 Most stores and many businesses were closed for November 11, Remembrance Day, but the port remained in operation with activity at several locations.

At the South End Container Terminal (PSA Atlantic Hub) ships worked at Pier 41-42, leaving the northern portion of Pier 41 for work on the new container cranes.

 Both new Post Panamax cranes have been off loaded now, and are in position at the extreme north end of Pier 41 (left inphoto above). The crane ship Zhen Hua 23 moved out to anchor briefly. As it did so the Volga Maersk arriving from Montreal, slid in to Pier 42.

The Zhen Hua 23 is still carrying the two green cranes destined for PSA Sines, Portugal, and made an unusual backdrop to the Volga Maersk after it tied up. (The two oldest and smallest cranes, at the extreme south of Pier 42, worked the ship.)

 

 The Zhen Hua 23 moved back along side Pier 41-42 (mid-berth) because it has one more chore to do before leaving Halifax. It will load the older and highest of the existing cranes and roll it off alongside the new cranes.

Autoport had the Morning Lady unloading autos from Europe. It had previously been at Pier 9C last evening delivering the usual array of machinery.

The 70,853 gt, 27,343 dwt ship was built by Hyundai, Ulsan in 2010 and has a capacity of 8100 cars. This is achieved within an overall length of 232.38 m (762.40 ft) and a width of 32.26 m (105.8399 ft). The ship is owned by Eukor Car Carriers Inc of South Korea and operates under the management of Wilhelmsen Ship Management Korea Ltd.

The "mystery" ship Jessica B sailed late this afternoon, with its deck load of TCCL* containers. (see yesterday's post.)

The ship is giving Argentia, NL as destination.

 Interestingly the ship's funnel mark is for Intersac, a Canadian chemical manufacturing and distribution company, based in suburban Montreal. 

*Among the things than TCCL might stand for I have eliminated Traumatic Cranio-Cerebral Lesions and the Tulsa City-County Library and have pretty much settled on Travencore Cochin Chemicals Ltd in view of the connection with Intersac. Among the industries Intersac serves is mining.

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Unusual preparations

 Hurricane Philippe, downgraded to a post tropical cyclone, inexoribly making its way toward Nova Scotia, and weakening as it does so, has shipping making various preparations for diversions, reroutings, and in the case of ferries, outright cancellations of some crossings.

For the cruise ship industry ships generally prefer to sail as far away from disturbances as possible, and do not like to be in port during major storms. Late this afternoon (October 7) however there was an exception for the small (by cruising standards) Star Pride (ex Seabourn Pride) arriving in Halifax from Eastport, ME.

The ship was in Halifax September 30 and was covered in this blog. The difference this time is that the ship did not tie up at a pier, but instead headed directly for Bedford Basin and went to anchor. 

The unusual sight of a cruise ship in the Narrows and passing beneath the harbour bridges is only possible because the ship is small, and thus has a relatively low air draft.

Some passengers took in the unique experience by crowding onto the open observation bridge above the navigation bridge.

 While the ship was entering the Bedford Basin, the container ship ZIM Virginia was getting underway from PSA Fairview Cove, and held up long enough for the Star Pride to clear.

Hyundai Heavy Industries built the ZIM Virginia in the Ulsan shipyard in 2002. The 53,453 gt, 66,686 dwt ship has a capacity of 4839 TEU, and it flies the Israeli flag.The ship is bound for New York, so may be able to skirt the storm's path by sailing south and keeping to the east.

Bedford Basin is not exceptionallly good holding ground for ships with high windage to anchor, but is is a sufficiently large body of water (8 km x 5 km) that a little dragging in high winds can be tolerated. It does mean that a ship may have to steam ahead on its anchor during sustained winds. Constant monitoring is necessary while at anchor. Both the ship's bridge watch and Halifax VTS have auto alrms as well as human radar monitoring to detect dragging.

Likely due to the downgrade for Philippe another cruise ship, the Seabourn Quest elected to stay in port, tied up at Pier 23. The camber is relatively sheltered, but I would not be surprised to see some waves sloshing in if there is any storm surge. Again the ship will heve to remain vigilant during the night when the highest winds are expected.

The cargo ship Augusta Luna (centre in photo below) in port from Cuba for Nirint Shipping also opted to remain in port, tied up at Pier 27.

The Articulated Tug / Barge (ATB) Leo A. McArthur / John J.Carrick arriving from the Great Lakes with a cargo asphalt (leftmost in photo above) will remain at the McAsphalt jetty in Eastern Passage over night. It will likely have to suspend unloading operations when the wind picks up, because the mooring is partially secured to buoys.

Eastern Passage is relativeley well sheltered, so sea conditions will likely not be too severe, but there will still be high winds and strong gusts.

The heavy load ship GPO Emerald is due to move back out to anchor this evening. It has been berthed alongside the crane ship Orion (with the barge Atlantic Swordfish between them). 

It is due to move back alongside tomorrow to continue the transfer of six monopiles (in sections) and other gear for the Vineyard wind project offshore Massachusetts. Once loaded the Orion will return to the Vineyard project site and use its 5,000 tonne capacity crane to install the monopiles.

Two other ships that remained in port over night last night sailed today, having given the storm time to move away from their tracks. (Both ships were covered here yesterday)

Balmoral may be able to skirt the storm to the east and south on its way to Portland, ME but there may still be rough seas to contend with.

  CMA CGM Andromeda will likely be following a similar route, but heading farther south for New York.

The Volga Maersk, which arrived from Montreal this morning sailed early this evening for Bremerhaven, so will probably be ahead or well to the east of the storm.

Permanent residents of the port are accustomed to rough weahter by now, so are likely well buttoned down for the night, and will wait to see what the morning llight reveals.

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Containers in, containers out...

 It was a busy day today, July 9, at PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway, with three ships.

 MSC Esthi, which arrived yesterday, departed mid-morning, eastbound on the Indusa service. Next stop: Port Said, ETA July 19. It was last here March 9 - a four month rotation to the day.

Despite heat warnings for some of the region, there was a definite chill in the air as fog was still lingering in the harbour approaches as the ship sailed just after 1000 hrs ADT.

The MSC Esthi was built by Samsung, Geoje in 2006 and is a 108,930 gt, 117,310 dwt ship with a capacity of 9178 TEU including 700 reefers. The ship has been retrofitted with an exhaust gas scrubber which seems to have been installed without the loss of any container capacity.

A couple of crew members are enjoying the view on a walkway just above the lifeboat. It is hard to tell where superstructure ends and scrubber housing begins.

 Volga Maersk arrived late in the morning from Montreal on the return (eastbound) leg of its St-Laurent 1 voyage. Unusually it stopped here westbound on July 1. It is due to sail for Bremerhaven this evening.

 The afternoon arrival was ONE Crane the eighth "Bird" class ONE ship to call in Halifax on the EC5 Europe - North America route for THE Alliance.

The ship used three tugs on its arrival with both Atlantic Fir and Atlantic Oak as tethered escorts astern and Atlantic Bear with a line forward. The stern tugs were called upon to really "put on the brakes" as the ship made its approach.

Built in 2016 by Japan Marine United in Kure, the 144,285 gt, 139,335 dwt ship has a capacity of 14,026 TEU. It was named NYK Crane on delivery, and was renamed ONE Crane and repainted in the Ocean Network Express magenta hull colour in 2019.

There are still three "Bird" class ships that we have not seen yet in Halifax. Sister ship ONE Falcon is due tomorrow. ONE Ibis and ONE Grus are due in the next few weeks.

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Maersk news and double header - in the fog

There were two Maersk container ships in Halifax today, July 1 (Canada's national holiday) but very few people got to see them because of a real old fashioned pea soup fog. With visibility at near zero there were audible fog signals, but the only visual signs for ship watchers were the electronic images on AIS and for other boat and ship operators, the radar blips.

(The fog was so thick than an air show by the RCAF Snowbirds was cancelled, and the evening fireworks were also in question.)

The first arrival was somewhat unusual, in that it was a westbound ship on Maersk / CMA CGM's St-Laurent-1 service. Volga Maersk, sailing from Antwerp June 22, would normally have proceeded directly to Montreal, but put in to Halifax at 0600 at the pilot station and sailed at 1300. It docked at Pier 31, a berth that has no container cranes, so the visit was not to lighten off cargo as far as I could tell (with zero visibility).

Volga Maersk showing off its new white lettering on June 10, eastbound.

 The second arrival (at time ofwriting) is Vistula Maersk on its eastbound St-Laurent-1 voyage from Montreal en route to Bremerhaven. There is nothing unusual about its visit, except that it is due at the pilot station at 1800. APL Sentosa (Columbus Jax) and Vivienne Sheri D (Eimskip) already occupy the berth 41 and 42 at PSA Halifax, so the Maersk ship will hold off until there is room to dock. Both of the other ships are schedueld for 1730 departures.

 

Vistula Maersk in the old black lettering, May 5, 2023.

Maersk, long the world's largest container line, gave up that title to MSC earlier this year as it decided to concentrate on being a logistics provider. Last month MSC also became the first shipping line to exceed 5 million TEU capacity. In the very next short while MSC will also have the largest owned fleet (most lines have many chartered ships). Currently only 66,000 TEU behind Maersk in the "owned" category, that gap will be erased as MSC takes delivery of three new megamax ships.

MSC is still buying older ships (although it is also sending some of its oldies to scrap) and has 122 new ships of 1,556,631 TEU on order or building. Maersk has "only" 28 ships on order for 366,600 TEU. As an aside, MSC also claims to be the world's largest privately owned cruise line in terms of revenue at $22.86 billion from 1.4 million passengers on 21 ships. Carnival Corporation has more than 100 ships however, but less revenue at $12.2 billion from 5.8 million passengers.)

In the container capacity contest MSC now rates at 5,073,462 TEU and Maersk at 4,127,158. Coming up in the outside lane however is CMA CGM, now in third place with 3,497,566 TEU. With 112 ships on order for an added 998,073 TEU CMA CGM is set to overtake Maersk.

The container lines are flush with cash after the boom last year, and so have ordered ships willly nilly. But with rates collapsing to below pre-COVID rates on Pacific routes, the building boom will have to be followed by a major scrapping program in order to maintain the supply / demand balance.

Maersk may be the wise ones, but only time will tell. In the interim there will likely be many changes in the lineups as the shipping lines try to make a profit by rastionalizing services. Mergers and reorganizaitons are not out of the question either.

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Bluer than Blue at PSA Halifax

 PSA Halifax welcomed two blue ships today, June 10, at its South End terminal, Atlantic Gateway. First in was the Ultra size CMA CGM Adonis. At 154,839 gt, 155,502 dwt, it has a capacity of 15,536 TEU including reefer plugs for 1800. The giant was built at Shanghai Jiangnan Chanxing Shipbuilding and was delivered in March of last year.

Although its capacity is about 1,000 TEU less than the largest ships to call in Halifax, it nevertheless made an impressive sight, occupying a large swath of Pier 41-42.

 It also used the three largest cranes leaving the two small cranes unused at the south end of the pier due to clearance issues.

The ship's dark blue hull looked dull in overcast conditions, but when the sun broke out for a few minutes it took on quite a glow.

Unfortunately the sun did not stay out long enough to light up the inbound Volga Maersk all the way in to Pier 41. Too bad because there are few more impressive sights than the (trade marked) Maersk Blue in bright sunshine,

This is the first time to see Maersk Lines' new white lettering and seven point star motif on the ship's hull. The A.P. Moller-Maersk company has used the seven point star on a sky blue background since 1886. It has appeared on their house flag since 1904 and on their funnels and more recently on their containers. They began to paint their ship's hulls in sky blue starting in 1955. At that time the ship's full name was painted on the side in black letters. Many Scandinavian ships, going back to the pre World War II  era, carried their full names in a similar fashion.

 The Halterm container terminal was operational, but they were still building one crane in January 1971 when I caught the Clifford Maersk at Pier 36.

In the late 70s the hull lettering was changed to "Maersk Line".

Maersk continued to use conventional cargo ships for several years because many of the ports they served could not handle containers. The Chastine Maersk was typical in that sense, but untypical in how scruffy it looked. Later that year it was rebuilt as a container ship with a new longer and wider forebody so maybe the neglect was intended as the old forebody was scrapped.(Note the word "Line" was added and the name "Chastine" was painted over, giving an unbalanced look to the billboard.)

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Volga Maersk was fresh from drydock when it joined the St-Laurent 1 service in April of this year, and still looks very neat on arrival today.

Volga Maersk dates from 2018 when it was built by COSCO Zhoushan Shipyard Co. It is a 34,882 gt, 40,079 dwt ship with a capacity of 3600 TEU. It is one of several (seven by may count) ships built to ice class for Maersk's Baltic service. When sanctions were imposed on Russia in 2022, two of the ships of this class were transferred to the St-Laurent 1 service operated by Maersk and CMA CGM. 

Sister ship Vistula Maersk remains on the St-Laurent 1 service and Vayenga Maersk has been in Setubal, Portugal since May 9, presumably in drydock where it is likely receiving the new white bill board. 

On its previous trip to Montreal in mid-May Volga Maersk returned directly to Bremerhaven and did not call in Halifax. It then called in Rotterdam and Antwerp on its way back to Montreal.

Sister Vayenga Maersk June 6, 2022 in the "old" livery.

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Blue and Black

The blue hulls were confined to the south end, as PSA Fairview Cove handled the more usual black hulled NYK Nebula for THE Alliance's AL5 route.

Another member of the large Constellation class and built in 2007 by Hyundai, Ulsan, the 55,534 gt, 65,600 dwt ship has a capacity of 4922 TEU. NYK is one of the partners in Ocean Network Express (ONE) along with MOL and K-Line. The lines new ships are painted in ONE's magenta and given ONE names, but the existing ships retain their individual line identities.

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St-Laurent 1 service

 The St-Laurent 1 service is jointly operated by CMA CGM and Maersk and uses four ships to maintain a 28 day North Atlantic rotation. Sailing from Bremerhaven (Day 0) the service calls in Rotterdam (Day 1), Antwerp (Day 2), Montreal (Day 12), Halifax (Day 18), Bremerhaven (Day 27) . A recent addition to the service, which called here first on March 15, called again today April 21. (It certainly seems to be out of sequence if it is to call every four weeks.)

CMA CGM Louga was built by Jinhai Heavy Industry Co in Daishan, China in 2018. It is a 29,316 gt, 34,694 dwt ship with a capacity variously quoted as 2462 TEU or 2487 TEU including 747 reefer plugs. It is a Baltic 1A ice class vessel.

The CMA CGM Louga is the smallest of the four ships on the run. On departure today it gave an ETA of May 2 for Bremerhaven.

The other CMA CGM ship is the EM Kea, rated at 3091 TEU including 500 reefers. As of today it is en route from Antwerp (April 16) for Montreal with an ETA of April 24.

Maersk contributes two ships, each with a capacity of 3600 TEU, including 600 reefers. The Vayenga Maersk sailed from Montreal April 19, by passing Halfax, with an ETA Rotterdam April 30. Vistula Maersk sailed from Antwerp (today) April 21 and is showing an ETA Montreal of May 1. 

CMA CGM's published schedule shows the Volga Maersk (also 3600 TEU) replacing Vayenga Maersk. It is currently shown at anchor since April 11 at Lindoe, Denmark, with no ETD. As with the other "V" class ships it has been displaced from Russian services due to the international boycott.

 Vayenga Maersk arriving Halifax June 6, 2022.

The eastbound Halifax call is sometimes dropped, presumably to make up time or for want of cargo, with ships sailing directly from Montreal to Bremerhaven. 

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