Damia Desgagnes - first dual fuel visitor

The first dual fuel ship to visit Halifax arrived Tuesday with a load of asphalt for McAsphalt Industries (Miller Paving). Damia Desgagnes  was built to burn conventional heavy fuel, MDO (Marine Diesel Oil) and LNG (Liquid Natural Gas). The principal of the system is that pollution is reduced by using gas when it is available. So far only the port of Montreal has the capability to refuel LNG, but other ports are expected to sign on as more LNG ships are built.

Damia Desgagnes is the first dual fuel bitumen/asphalt tanker in the world and is the first of four to be built for the Desgagnes fleet. Asphalt tankers have higher energy use than conventional tankers, since they must keep the cargo hot, and therefore are generally bigger air pollution contributors than other types of ships.

Delivered earlier this year by Besiktas Tersane AS, in Yalova, Turkey, the ship has been operating on the St.Lawrence River and Great Lakes since May. It is also a Polar Class 7 vessel, so will be trading all winter as well. The ship measures 11,978 gross tons, 15,100 dwt.
In case I don't get out to take a picture in Halifax, the above were taken during the annual Shipfax summer break in Quebec.

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Jebsens - long time no see

The long standing Norwegian shipping company Kristian Jebsens Rederi AS was founded in 1929. At some point in its history it adopted one of the most identifiable of funnel markings - a blue sawtooth pattern on a white band. Despite many upheavals in ownership following the death of its founder, the company still has a presence, but it is much reduced from its heyday.

Once frequent callers to the Great Lakes and eastern Canada, particularly carrying newsprint, they have now become solely a drybulk carrier as far as I can determine. They were early pioneers in small and short sea beltship type self-unloaders, but that division was sold in 2011 to CSL, forming CSL Europe.

Today's arrival of the Sharpnes was a bit of instant nostalgia for the days when their ships were common sights here. The distinctive funnel marking is still there, as well as the hull banner letters.

One other thing was apparent - the ship came form a Japanese drawing board. This seemed a bit odd until I looked it  up and found that it was built by Tsuneishi Heavy Industries Cebu in Balamban, Philippines. Jebsen has had a long standing relationship with the Philippines, and at one point even had several ships named for Philippine presidents, forsaking their traditional "nes" names.

The current ship is managed by Abojeb, a company originally established by Aboitz Group of the Philippines  and Jebsen., and based in Manila. It provides both crewing and vessel management services.

Obvious Japanese design influences include the stovepipe funnel and tree-like antenna array mounted starboard side well aft.

After bunkering Sharpnes sailed for Baie-Comeau to discharge its cargo of alumina loaded in Vila do Conde, Brazil.

Camellia for Maersk / CMA CGM

The replacement for the ill fated Maersk Pembroke [see September 26] arrived today on the eastbound leg of its first trip. Camellia is a comparable sized ship to the one it replaces on the Maersk / CMA CGM / NYK transatlantic service. [The service is called Canada Express by Maersk, St-Laurent 1 by CMA CGM and CAX by NYK.]

Camellia outbound, carries a plain white funnel with no visible owner identification.

Built in 2006 by Hyundai Mipo, Ulsan, it is a Hyundai 2800 type standard ship of 27,779 grt, 39,000 dwt with a cpacity of 2824 TEU. It was delivered as CMA CGM Camellia, renamed CAMELLIA in 2008 and CMA CGM Colibris in 2016. It became Camellia again August 1, 2017. It has apparently now been chartered by Maersk. Ownership identification is a tricky proposition with this charter, since the registered owner is a one ship company called Two Armania Shipping Ltd, registered in Hong Kong, but giving an address c/o of its managers in Limassol, Cyprus. Ship managers were Marlow Ship Management Deutschland of Hamburg, part of the large Marlow Group, also based in Limassol, but controlled from Germany. Earlier this month Marlow and Columbia Navigation were given permission to merge. The new Columbia Marlow is now the third largest ship management company in the world with about 500 ships under direct management and another 1,000 ships under crew management.

Camellia joins Maersk Palermo, Maersk Penang and  EM Kea on the four ship rotation with weekly eastbound calls in Halifax with Montreal as the Canadian terminal port.

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Changing Seasons

Now that is autumn-at least officially-the days are shorter, but we are still getting June like weather, with lots of sun and warm temperatures. Occasional fog and rain make it unpleasant for cruise ship visitors, but the old adage goes - if you if don't like the weather just wait an hour.


On Thursday however it was more like eight hours, but the weather changed dramatically from morning to evening.
Veendam  's passengers were treated to a genuine Halifax pea-souper when they arrived for 0900.

By late afternoon however the fog had gone, the skies were beginning to clear and the sun was blazing through at a low angle.


The Halifax side of the harbour was in shade as the bunkering tanker Algoma Dartmouth returned to her berth.

However the sun was still catching the tanker Hector N as it prepared to get underway after bunkering. The ferry Viola Desmond returning from Woodside was just entering the shadow from the Halifax side.

It was a good time to test a new pocket camera, which explains the low resolution of the photos.

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Maersk Pembroke sold for scrap (with some updates)

In a rush to get this posted this morning I made some errors- updates in bold italics:


One of the four ships that originated the Maersk / CMA CGM transatlantic service calling in Halifax eastbound has come to the end of its working life and has been sold for scrap to Indian Turkish ship breakers. Maersk Pembroke has had a troubled history, and it does not come as a surprise that the ship is done for. In today's shipping market where there is an over supply of ships, and a nineteen year old ship is seen as more of a liability than an asset.



Built in 1998 by the Kvaerner Warnow Werft Nordic Yards in Travemunde, the 31,333 grt, 37,842 dwt ship has a capacity of 2890 TEU (including 400 reefers). Originally called P+O Nedlloyd Sydney the ship joined the Maersk fleet following the P+O Nedlloyd takeover and was renamed Maersk Pembroke in 2006.

When Maersk, with CMA CGM started the transatlantic service running Rotterdam / Antwerp/ Le Havre / Montreal / Bremerhaven, Maersk Pembroke was NOT one of the original quartet of Maersk ships, but was added in 2010 when Halifax was added to the port rotation. Maersk Patras was re-assigned in May 2014 and replaced by a CMA CGM ship.(It suffered a fire off the Azores in November 2016 ). Maersk Palermo and Maersk Penang remain on the service, with  EM Kea and whatever ship will replace Maersk Pembroke (currently that ship is Angeles (see September 15)  was a one trip charter, and Camellia has now been added.



Maersk Pembroke has had a number of propulsion related issues since 2015, when it arrived off Halifax January 26 two days late and required three tugs to reach its berth. Earlier this year it suffered a broken cam shaft and was out of service until June.



Then on August 21 a fire in the engine room caused severe damage while the ship was in the Celitc Sea en route to Montreal. It was towed back to Rotterdam where it was decided that it was not worth repairing.

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Arcadia sails after extended stay -[ see update]

The P+O Cruises Arcadia sailed late this afternoon after an extended stay in Halifax. The ship arrived Friday morning September 22 and was due to sail that afternoon. However the departure was put off until this morning then extended to early this afternoon and finally to late this afternoon.

There was lots of activity on deck yesterday afternoon when the ship was originally scheduled to sail.
 

Finally sailing this afternoon in summer-like conditions.

Ordered in 2003 by Holland America line as a Vista class, it was allocated to Cunard and was to be "Queen Victoria". Shortly before launch, June 26, 2004, it was transferred to P+O Cruises and completed by Fincantieri Marghera as Arcadia.  (All these lines are part of Carnival) The 84,342 grt ship has a capacity of 2358 max passengers and 976 crew and is propelled by electric azipod drives.

Fleet mate Aurora, which was here September 3 had a fire in the engine room September 20 while en route from Bermuda to the Azores and was drifting without power for about an hour.

The 76,152 grt ships, built in 2000 by Jos. L. Meyer, Papenburg, has a capacity for 1878 passengers and 850 crew. The ship apparently reached the Azores safely.

Both ships cater to British cruisers and have subdued graphics compared to some of the exuberant floating bill boards we see, such as another ship that was in port today, AIDAdiva (see September 14) or its fleet mate AIDAluna on September 4.

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I prefer the plain vanilla ships such as another of today's visitors- Silver Whisper.

Built in 2000 by Mariotti, Genoa it has the understated elegance that is appropriate to an exclusive yacht-like ships. At 28,258 grt it carries only 382 passengers. When I checked two years ago it had the most space per passenger of any cruise ship with 74 gross tons per passenger and with 295 crew it also had the highest passenger to crew ratio of 1.3 to 1.


Update: Arcadia's long stay was due to rope entanglements in its prop(s). These were finally cleared, but not until the ship had missed three port calls. So it is not only whales that are suffering from phantom / abandoned fishing gear.

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Halterm cranes (+ update)

As mentioned the other day, three of Halterm's old container cranes have been out of service for some time and apparently were not worth reconditioning.


Now we see that demolition has started on the first of the three. Two giant construction cranes have been set up at the end of pier 37-39 and crews have started to rig lifting gear to remove the boom on the first crane.

Two of the old cranes were moved farther east to accommodate the work. The remaining crane at pier36 (right) has also out of service for a time.

Workers at the top of the boom were lifted into place by basket.

There is still a question about the fourth crane, at pier 36, which has been out of service for a time. It was originally a typical crane but some years ago was fitted with special bogies allowing it to move from pier 36 to pier 41-42 on curved track. However that function is no longer possible with the four new wider track super-post-panamax cranes at pier 41-42.


Leaving Halterm with only four working cranes must be a major service issue for the operator, and some new cranes are obviously needed. There was talk of a new rudder tired crane, but nothing has been seen of that yet.


Fairview Cove already dismantled its oldest crane a couple of years ago, but also has smaller cranes that can't serve large ships fully due to limited height and reach.

By late this afternoon the first section of the boom was on the ground.

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