Metro Transit

Metro Transit, the transit authority for the Halifax Regional Muncipality has recommended to HRM council the addition of two new ferries to the Halifax-Dartmouth route. This would allow expanded hours for the Woodside ferry route, which now only operates during commuter hours.

Having a spare ferry would presumably allow repairs and upgrades to the 1978 vintage Halifax III and Dartmouth III. Halifax III has just returned to service after a lengthy refit, which, according to press reports was mandated by Transport Canada. The third ferry, Woodside I is somewhat newer, built in 1986.

With five ferries, it should be possible to schedule serious upgrades without disrputing service and to bring the original trio up to modern standards.

The new third Seabus, which has just gone into service in Vancouver in preparation for added traffic during the Olympics, was supposed to provide this benefit also. However it now transpires that one of the orginal two vessels will be laid up after the Olympics, due to lack of funds, and will not be rebuilt.

Therefore some caution should be expressed in Halifax, where two new ferries may mean retirement of two old ones and no improvements in regular service.

While the current ferry docks imply a certain bow form for new ferries there is still some lattitude in the rest of the design to allow for speedier loading and unloading of passengers. Unfortunately the double sided Vancouver Seabus would not work in Halifax due to the design of the terminals with a common ramp.

Spending money on new ferries for the Halifax-Dartmouth and Halifax-Woodside routes makes much better sense than the various proposals for high speed craft running to the Bedford Basin.

The photo shows Dartmouth III decked out for the Tall Ships Parade of Sail in July, with Woodside I in the background. The three identical ferries were built by the now defunct Ferguson Industries shipyard in Pictou. They are fitted with Voith Schneider propulsors, fitted forward and aft, allowing them to sail in either direction and to move sideways as required, into their docks.

Another word of caution - the transit authority's master plan called for the two new ferries to be in service by 2012. In view of the shortage of shipyard space and late delivery of some recent vessels, that does not leave much time for a decision.

For more information on Metro Transit see the excellent Wikipedia entry.

Queen Mary 2

The glorious Queen Mary 2 eased in this morning for her last visit of the season. Is she a worthy replacement for QE2? Aesthetically- yes!

Standard Time again

The change back to Standard Time is much later in the year now (thanks Mr. Bush), but even so, it means a change in photography habits. Late afternoon photos become a lot more dodgy, so these shots of Atlantic Conveyor may be the last for a while. Sunday afternoon ship departures are generally at 4pm or later and it will soon enough be dark by then.

Atlantic Conveyor is one of five ships operated by Atlantic Container Lines on a constant transatlantic shuttle. We usually have two of these ships a week, one westbound and one eastbound.

Atlantic Conveyor was built by Swan Hunter on the Tyne and launched July 12, 1984. She arrived in Halifax on her maiden voyage February 1, 1985, and was lengthened in 1987. They are the largest ships of their class in the world, but they are getting quite old. There has been talk of replacements, but the Grimaldi Group (current owners of ACL) have been quiet about that recently.

Antonis G. Pappadakis

The Maltese flag bulk carrier Antonis G. Pappadakis exAtlantica-07, Atlantic Crown-00, launched as Atlantic Rose, 39017/95 Hyundai, Ulsan anchored in Bedford Basin on Thursday Ocotber 29.

The ship was en route Baltimore to Rotterdam when she diverted to Halifax for repairs. The tug Point Chebucto escorted her in from the pilot station. At 73,538 tonnes deadweight, and over 13 meters draft she is certainly one of the largest loaded (non-container) ships to anchor in the Basin.

With this draft, and a mechanical problem that forced her to steam at reduced speed, the tug, tethered to the stern to provide steering and braking assistance, was certainly a wise precaution.

Update: Because of high winds the tug Point Valiant was called in to stand by the ship all night Saturday/ Sunday, while engine repairs were completed. The ship sailed late Monday afternoon, November 2.

From the Shoebox........Drift

Back in October 1969 there were still several working fish plants in Halifax. They and their lingering aromas are long gone. (Although on a foggy night I can still conjure up the unique delights they contributed to Halifax.)

One plant, the 40Fathom division of National Sea Products was located at pier 29. Although new stern trawlers had come into service, side draggers were still operating there. Two of my favouties were the twins Calm and Drift dating from 1941.

They were built by American Shipbuilding at Lorain, Ohio and served the US Navy during World War II. Drift was YP416 until 1945 when she was picked up by National Sea Products. She fished out of Halifax until the end of 1975. Atlantic Salvage purchased her intending to convert her to a salvage vessel, to be named Atsal Five, but the work was never completed. She languished at the Cable Wharf, until eventually expended as a naval gunnery target.

In the background a German trawler lies at pier 28. She is Fritz Homan BX-689.

Senator Greene ...

Senator Greene has dropped his personal bombshell on the port of Hailfax. Promoting Point Melford and Sydney as replacements for Halifax's container piers in order to improve downtown street traffic in Halifax makes as much sense as his support for converting the present railway cut into a truck corridor.
If the container piers are gone, who would need a truck corridor? The port of Halifax would not have enough non-container traffic to warrant such a hugely disruptive project.
Senator Green, a minor cog in the defeated former Tory provincial government, has been named to the Senate. Predictably his agenda is muddled, his facts askew and and his credibility is zero.
He has apparently concluded that a large increase in Halifax container traffic would result in traffic grid-lock in Halifax. Does he think that all those additional containers would be loaded onto trucks? Apparently so, but that would require a massive increase in locally generated traffic. Traditionally the vast majority of Halifax container traffic is sent on by rail to central Canada or the US mid-west. So a big increase in container traffic in Halifax might well result in some increase in truck traffic, but there are other solutions to Halifax traffic problems.
Railways in the US are now carrying containers on realtively short hauls, keeping more trucks off the highways. Who is to say that this would not happen in Halifax?
Short-sea shipping has been promoted for container transfers. Such services would transship containers right at the container terminal, without clogging city streets.
As for Point Melford or Sydney, they should be allowed to sink or swim as container hubs on a purely business basis, all on their own, without his or any other government's interference.
My advice to Sentor Greene is to take the big pay cheque, wait for the big pension and keep quiet. Nobody actually expects him to do anything to earn either.

From the shoebox... Douglas Reid

Another oldie.

The tug Douglas Reid pictured on Octber 2, 1969 during construction of the Halterm container pier. The tug was built in 1914 at Cleveland, Ohio, as Racine for Great Lakes Towing. In 1940 A.B.MacLean & Sons of Sault Ste.Marie, Ontario bought her. They in turn sold her to McNamara Construction Ltd of Whitby, Ontario in 1950.

McNamara rebuilt the tug, converting it from steam to diesel power and giving it the name Douglas Reid.

McNamara were contracted for the marine construction portion of the Halterm pier, and in this photo workers are doing some repairs on a day off.

The tug was removed from the register in 1978, by which time she had been broken up.

For more on the A.B.MacLean companies, see the new book "A.B. MacLean & Sons Ltd" by Buck Longhurst and Skip Gillham, published by Glenaden Press, 3750 King St, Vineland, ON, L0R 2C0 (ISBN# 978-1-926744-01-8)

If you were wondering why there is no pier 40 in Halifax (berth numbers skip from 39 to 41) this photo is part of the answer. The tug's bow is pointed at berth 40, which was filled in during the Halterm construction.