Large Day at Halterm

An old expression in the Maritime Provinces to describe fine weather "it's a large day" applied twofold today at Halterm. Bright sun and above normal temperatures coupled with two ships kept the terminal busy.
The morning arrival was Camellia the newest ship on the CMA CGM / Maersk transatlantic service on its second call after permanently replacing the burned out Maersk Pembroke.  It used the two slightly smaller cranes at pier 42.

Parents, kids and dogs enjoy Point Pleasant Park as Camellia works at Pier 42.

 

The mid-morning arrival was APL Houston for the Columbus JAX service. One of four APL ships and 13 CMA CGM ships currently on the service, it is a 109,712 grt, 108,000 dwt vessel built in 2014 by Daewoo, Okpo. As the line upgrades its ships from 8200 to 9200 TEU range, this is one of the latter. It still wears its APL (American President Line) markings more than a year after CMA CGM took over parent NOL (Neptune Orient Line) of Singapore. CMA CGM recently unveiled a new logo and is slowly re-branding its ships and new containers. There is no word on how long APL will retain its identity in CMA CGM.

CMA CGM was formed in 1996 with the merger of Compagnie maritime d'affrètement and Compagnie générale maritime, and has grown to have a fleet of 445 vessels.

Atlantic Fir on the stern and Atlantic Oak on the bow turn the ship off Halterm.

With both tugs now on the port side, the ship backs in toward Pier 41.

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As soon as Camellia was loaded, the two cranes it was using  moved to pier 41 to assist the two large cranes working on APL Houston.

Workers in a basket from one mobile crane assist rigging the second crane to lift off a boom section of the decommisioned container crane. The third crane awaits is fate.

Meanwhile Halterm continues to dismantle obsolete container cranes. Work has started on removing the second crane of three old units. The crane at Pier 36 may be next - it has not been working for months.
Halterm has announced some new equipment recently, such as five high straddle loaders, but so far has not announced new container cranes. Speculation abounds that the operation is due for another expansion since moving container activity to Dartmouth is not feasible. A third 1000+ foot berth with at least two cranes would seem to be the absolute minimum they need to handle future traffic.However they would need to serve any ship with at least four cranes. Adding a contiguous 1100 foot berth to the existing Pier 41 and 42 (each 1,093 feet) would be, to say the least, quite challenging.

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Don't forget the big picture

An on-line dictionary defines 'the big picture' with an example:




"He's so involved with the minutiae that he misses the big picture"




As the cruise ship Disney Magic arrived in Halifax this morning it was hard to miss the impressive sunrise as a big picture backdrop.

However for those of us interested in more detail, the ship is also impressive in its own right.



Although only one of the funnels is for the propulsion system, the two funnel arrangement is distinctive and balances the ship's massive profile. It was very windy this morning and the ship used a tug to reach its berth at pier 22.

Although I could do without some of the whimsical décor, the Disney people got it right with the ship's lines and classic colour scheme.


Built in 1998 (and refit in 2013) with a passenger capacity of 2700 (but only 875 cabins) the ship is not a big one by current standards at 83,338 grt. It has called here a few times each year as a break from its usual Caribbean operations.

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Sunrise on Neah Bay

No I am not travelling - I am still in Halifax - not in Neah Bay. It is a small port in the northwest corner of Washington State, on the Olympic Peninsula, overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It is just about as far away from Halifax as you can get on the mainland of North America.

The United States Coast Guard named one of its Bay class icebreaking tugs Neah Bay WTGB-105, after the area where it maintains a base. Although the cutter is based in Cleveland, OH its leaves the Great Lakes periodically for refits, and returns in time for the winter and spring icebreaking season.


It arrived yesterday for a brief stopover on the return leg of its latest trip.

At sunrise this morning, the cruise ship AIDAviva had just tied up at Pier 20 and the George's Island light was cutting through the deep shadows.


This is the Neah Bay's second call here in two years - for info on its last call see: Shipfax May 14, 2016

Lots of Length

There was lots of length at pier 20-22 today - that is if you count part of the Tall Ships Quay. Two years ago the Port installed an extra bollard at the TSQ to use when there are two large cruise ships in at the same time. It has seen frequent use as the ships get bigger and bigger.

The Seawall, as it is called, is just over 610m (2000 feet) long and was built to take two of the largest passenger ships then afloat. At the time however even the largest ships barely exceeded 900 feet, Such ships as Cunard's Aquitania (902 feet) and White Star's Olympic (883 feet) were among the biggest ships, with only the German giants Bismarck (956 feet) and Vaterland (950 feet) closing on triple digits.  

Today is was Crown Princess 290m (951 feet) and Celebrity Summit 294m (965 feet) with the bow of the former extending well north of pier 20. With three headlines out to the TSQ bollard the ship was well secured.

 
Crystal Symphony sailed first, backing out into the stream from pier 20-22. It was then the turn of Celebrity Summit which called in the tug Atlantic Willow to lend a hand pulling it off the pier and lining it up for its north about run around George's Island.

With shorter days there may be very few evening photos for a while.

Unless it is with the smart phone.

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Crystal Serenity

Crystal Serenity, a 1,000 person capacity cruise ship that called in Halifax October 9 returned again this evening but only briefly and put back out to sea in an hour. Normally such a short visit means a medical emergency evacuation.

The ship is well known for its two Northwest Passages, starting in 2016. This year's 32 day cruise from Alaska to Greenland,  when it was accompanied by the ice escort vessel Ernest Shackleton, the on to New York via Halifax, was apparently not sold out and will not be repeated.

A new ship, Crystal Endeavour , a 200 passenger polar-code megayacht is due for delivery next year, but may be working a different itinerary. The impact of huge numbers of passengers on tiny arctic communities will certainly be more manageable with a smaller ship.

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Early Arrival

Taking ship photos in the early morning from Halifax is much easier when there is a bit of cloud cover as there was this morning.

That meant that Zuiderdam's port side, while in shadow was reasonably visible without the blaring sun directly behind it.

One of four Holland America ships regularly calling in Halifax during the cruise season, Zuiderdam was built originally in  2002 by Fincantieri Breda in Marghera, Italy. It is a Vista class ship, one of four, each named for the directions on a compass (Oosterdam = east, Westerdam = west, Noordam = north and Zuiderdam = south).

The ship received a major refurbishment in 2015 boosting its gross tonnage from 81,769 to 82,820. With this the ships has a maximum capacity of 2272 passengers, although the normal load is 1916 with 842 crew.

The ship has an unusual propulsion system, consisting of five diesel engines (three of 16 cylinders and two of 12 cylinders) and a gas turbine driving electric azipod thrusters.

Grain from the Lakes

Another load from the Lakes arrived yesterday on the Algoma Mariner. The amount of grain (could be feed grain, corn or wheat) coming from the Lakes is much reduced from days gone by, when there was an almost monthly arrival. Now it is only a few times a year. Grain continues to arrive by rail however.

The ship looks a bit like a shark lunging out of the water. 

Its hull paint has eroded at the bow wave line.

Ships now unload directly to a hopper that leads to the conveyor system running to the storage elevator. Before self-unloaders were common in the grain trades, ships used a system of buckets on an endless belt that was lowered into the ship. The ship had to move back and forth along the pier so that the "grain leg" could reach all the holds.

The Eastcliffe Hall under the grain leg in July 1970.

On its return to the Lakes Eastcliffe Hall loaded a cargo of pig iron in Sorel, QC and on July 14, 1970 struck a shoal and sank near Cornwall, ON. Nine persons were lost and twelve survived.
The ship was built in 1954 by Canadian Vickers in Montreal to the maximum size of the old St.Lawrence Canals, 253.4' x 43.8' x 17.0'. When the St.Lawrence Seaway opened it was lengthed 92' and deepened 3'-9". 

The grain leg is still there, housed in the tower, but has not been used in many years, since all grain ships that call here are now self-unloaders.

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