Red sky in the morning

 
Sailors are supposed to take warning from a red sky in the morning, but certainly nothing ominous occurred in Halifax today. Ships were able to arrive and depart in relatively calm conditions and bright sunshine.
There was still a swell running outside the harbour, with stiff winds (see Tugfax).

The container ship NYK Artemis arrived with tug escort as it made its way to Fairview Cove. It is a 75,484 grt, 81,171 dwt ship with a capacity of 6492 TEU (including 450 reefers). On the EC5 service of THE Alliance, it works with ten other ships from partners HAPAG-Lloyd, K-Line, and Yang Ming.

As expected for a Japanese ship owner, the ship was built by IHI, Kure in 2003. Following the lead of shipping industry takeovers and consolidations, NYK, K-line and MOL have received final approval from the last of the trading nations, to merge their container carrying into Ocean Network Express (to be known as ONE), effective in April. Early publicity showed a ship painted in an eye searing "cherry blossom magenta" hull colour, with containerS of a similar hue on deck. the amalgamation should have been rejected on aesthetic grounds alone! If the entire fleet, that will have a capacity of 1.44mn TEU, gets the new hull colour, it will be a windfall for magenta suppliers. ONE will be a memeber of THE Alliance, so I guess we should be prepared.

At the south end of the harbour Bomar Rebecca arrived for Tropical Shipping. The 1118 TEU ship, built in 2008 by Jingling Shipyard in Nanjing first called in Halifax a year ago on January 16, 2017, but carried the name AHS Hamburg. It changed names here July 3 when it was sold by Carston Rehder Shiffs to Bernard Schulte. When built it was as Pacific Hawk, a name it carried for Bocksteigel Reederei until sold in 2012.

There was more naval activity today as HMCS Montréal arrived from sea.

Although distinctive, the Halifax class frigates could not be callled terribly attractive.

It was probably involved in the same exercises recently completed by the new naval suppl,y vessel Asterix. During the past week HMCS St.John's sailed for the middle east and HMCS Charlottetown returned from its six month deployment to the Baltic and Mediterranean.

Also last week the government announced that Marine Recycling Inc had been awarded a $5.7mn contract to break up the decommissioned former HMCS Athabaskan at Sydney, NS. The work also includes de-militarizing and removal of hazardous materials. According to the terms of the original tender, the ship was to be towed out of HMC Dockyard no later than March 31, 2018 (the end of the government's financial year).

 The last of Canada's destroyers - soon to be no more. 

The continuous deck line and balance of shapes made the Tribals among the best looking warships on the seas.

It will be interesting to see if the ship will actually go to Sydney on that date, since that port is likely still to be subject to severe ice conditions. The ship's last brush with ice in December 2012 resulted in six hull punctures and an estimated $2mn of repairs.This followed a $21.7mn refit in St.Catharines, ON, and over $1.2 mn of towing charges.
It is more likely that a place will be found in Halifax to park the ship for a few months while some of the initial work is carried out.

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Saturday activity

At Nova Scotia Power's Tuft's Cove generating plant on the Narrows, the Greek tanker Fourni was preparing to sail this morning. The 29,663 grt, 51,611 dwt ship, dating from 2010 and built by Hyundai Mipo, Ulsan had completed unloading one of the rare tanker cargoes at the plant. The facility was built to burn oil and can still do so but normally burns natural gas. Once in a long while it does take a cargo of oil, and often that is from an Eletson Corp tanker, and it is rarely a full load.

Well boomed off, Fourni has just completed unloading.

 Boats from Connors Diving removed the floating oil boom and released the ship's lines from the buoys fore and aft (the mooring buoy is orange in the lower right of the photo above).

Connors' aluminum "Stanley" - built landing craft handled the oil boom.

 Divecom III, built in 1984 is one of Connors' diving tenders and general work boat It handles the lines. (That is McNally's tug Mister Joe in the background with a dump scow en route from Port Hawksbury to Saint John.)

Atlantic Willow (foreground) and Atlantic Larch swing the ship off the berth. in the narrowest part of the Narrows. The naval replenishment ship Asterix, cargo ship Thorco Logos and supplier Atlantic Condor occupy Piers 9B and C.

 Atlantic Willow shortens up and pushes while Atlantic Larch (out of the picture) pulls to turn the ship.

Turn completed, Fourni heads to sea. It will anchor off Halifax awaiting orders for its next cargo.


In the lower harbour the Navigation Maritime Bulgare Ltd ship Vitosha completed bunkering and sailed from anchorage number 5.

Anchor clear,, the ship begins to get undewrway.
 
Built in 2010 by Shanhaiguan Shipyard in Qinhuangdo it is one of a pair* of ships originally ordered by Fednav. The name Federal Pearl.(after the Pearl River) was selected but by the time the ship was launched it was named Eastwind Yates. However it entered service as Vitosha, The Bulgarian state shipping company has had a longstanding arrangement with Fednav, so this was probably some form of financing agreement. The bulker, with three 30 tonne cranes, measures 19,865 grt, 29,800 dwt and is suited to trading to the Great Lakes. However with the St.Lawrence Seaway closed for the season, the ship's cargo of alumina/bauxite, loaded in Imbituba, Brazil, is bound for the RioTinto-Alcan smelters in La Baie, QC, on the Saguenay River.

NavMar Bulgare ships are easily recognized by their sandy coloured superstructures and cranes. They also have black hulls, but this ship sailed with a red hull for its first few years, a legacy of its Fednav roots.

* [The sister ship was ordered as Federal Yangtze, launched as Eastwind York and delivered as Strandja.]

Strandja on the St.Lawrence August 6, 2017 bound for Oshawa to unload, then Thunder Bay to load, finally exiting the Seaway September 3.]


At the South End container terminal, Halterm, the repeat visitor APL Danube approached pier 42. The 95,263 grt, 112,580 dwt ship is running on the Columbus JAX service with ARL's parent CMA CGM, and OCEAN Alliance members COSCO, Evergreen and OOCL.

Loaded to near cpacity, APL Danube prepares to turn off pier 42 with the assistance of the tugs Atlantic Fir and Atlantic Oak.
 
The ship's capacity is 9365 TEU (including 1458 reefers), but its split superstructure makes it appear much larger. Built by Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co in China in 2014 as CMA CGM Danube it was renamed  NileDutch Orca in  2016 then earlier in 2017, APL Danube as it was moved between various CMA CGM subsidiaries. APL (American President Lines, is owned by Neptune Orient Lines of Singapore, acquired by CMA CGM in 2016).
The ship probably could be lengthened to increase capacity if needed.

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Tanker Loss

In the aftermath of the tragic tanker fire last week off China in which all thirty-two crew members of the Iranian tanker Sanchi lost their lives, it is well to realize that no matter how up to date and state of the art we are, shipping accidents will happen. Halifax is no stranger to such tragedies, but since 1917 we have been mercifully spared another similar terrible event.

There have been numerous groundings, sinkings and other total losses in Nova Scotia waters, so we are not immune, but few have had any close connections to Halifax. I can think of the Gold Bond Conveyor mentioned previously in these pages and a search shows several references: http://shipfax.blogspot.ca/search?q=gold+bond+conveyor

One that perhaps may not come immediately to mind occurred January 5, 1993 when the Liberian flag Braer ran aground and became a total loss in the Shetland Islands. It was loaded with 85,000 tonnes of crude oil, all of which spilled into the sea. It was a very light oil, called Gulfaks, which dispersed and did not create the widespread mess that the Exxon Valdez or the Arrow did, but nevertheless was responsible for the direct loss of thousands of seabirds and seals and unknown other longer term environmental effects.

Braer was at the time en route from Mongstad, Norway to St-Romauld, QC with its cargo for Ultramar, when a pipe rupture on deck allowed water to contaminate its fuel supply and it lost power. It drifted onto rocks which punctured its single hull. Recent recountings of the incident are at odds with the notes I made at the time, but it is clear that  towing the ship away from the rocks might have been successful but for an unfortunate lack of organization. Once aground it was struck by the most intense extratropical cyclonic storm on record, and was beaten to pieces. Fortunately the crew had been removed and there was no loss of (human) life.

All this is a reminder that I am still waiting for the federal government to deliver on its promise for Emergency Towing Vessels (ETVs) on the Canadian Coasts. The government tender is supposed to close January 16, but it may be some time before we hear the results. All this when recent intense storms remind us that the worst weather of the year on this coast is late fall and winter, so there will likely be no standby vessel this winter.

Clever offshore operators have recognized that there are some great deals to be had acquiring modern tonnage due to the world wide slump. (See today's Tugfax). Davie shipyard in Quebec has even offered to acquire some icebreaking tugs at a bargain, but Canada seems determined to take its time to take responsibility for Guarding our Coasts. 

The other  reason that I mention the Braer at all is that it did visit Halifax, and I was on board tugs that docked the ship in October 1987. It was named Brae Trader at the time, although it had been built as Hellespont Pride for the Canadian company Papachristidis. Oshima Shipbuilding of Nagasaki built the ship in  1975 and it measured (by today's standards) a modest 44,989 grt, 89,730 dwt. Papachristidis sold the ship in  1985 when it became Brae Trader. In 1989 it was sold again when it was renamed Braer.

Aboard the tug Point Halifax I took this photo of the Point Vibert making fast aft.

Brae Trader poses against a vastly different Dartmouth skyline (as is the Halifax skyline in the upper photo.).

We do not need more oil spills, fires, groundings or loss of life (in its many forms) and despite all reasonable precautions, they are likely to happen due to force of weather or human error. However the effects can be reduced by providing timely and organized responses to emergencies. This includes vessels standing by and able to tow ships, with an overall organization set in place to mobilize resources.

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Tirranna makes port

After a rough North Atlantic Crossing and a delayed arrival due to various weather bombs and storms, Tirranna tied up at Pier 27-28 today. It was originally scheduled to arrive earlier in the week, but spent at least two days jogging offshore until conditions permitted it to enter port.

Jammed in to pier 27-28, the ship monopolizes the area, and is almost as high as the grain galleries.

At pier 27-28 it begin unloading  machinery and other cargo that will be forwarded by truck or flat car. This afternoon it moved to Autoport to complete discharging autos.

 Rounding Indian Point, Tirranna makes it way into Eastern Passage for Autoport.

In the background CMA CGM Rhone works at Haterm.

Built in 2009 by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering in Okpo, South Korea, the 71,673 grt, 29,936 dwt ship has a capacity of 7,620 automobiles.

This is the fourth ship in the Wilhelmsen fleet to carry the name of the Albanian capital, (Wilhelmsen ship names begin with the letter "T").

The first Tirranna was the best known, a 7,230 grt general cargo ship with refrigerated cargo space and accommodation for twelve passengers, built by F. Schichau in Danzig in 1938. In 1940 it was captured by the German raider Atlantis off Mauritius. It was then sent back to Germany with captured ships' crews as prisoners. On September 29, 1940, while trying to run the Bordeaux blockade, it was torpedoed by HM submarine Tuna and sank in the Gironde estuary with the loss of 87 of the 292 people aboard. 

The second Tirranna was built in 1952 as the 5,463 grt cargo /reefer Taiwan but was renamed Tirranna in 1959. It ran aground and became a total loss near Tromso in 1966. The third was a 10,060 grt reefer /cargo ship built in 1967. In 1971 it was rebuilt with a new hull section inserted to carry 90 containers.Then 12,115 grt, it was sold in 1978 and renamed three times before being broken up in 1984.

The ship is expected to sail tomorrow.

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Weather Bomb - Part 2

The so called weather bomb certainly brought high winds and the storm surge created havoc on coastal roads, with many washed out or washed over. Small ports saw wharf damage and more than half of all Nova Scotians were without electrical power for a least some of the time.

Halifax harbour however seems to have escaped relatively unscathed. By today some shipping had returned more or less to normal, even  though there were still gale warnings and freezing spray warnings in effect.

The multi-purpose general cargo ship Symphony Star arrived this morning after riding out the storm in St.Margaret's Bay since Wednesday night. One of six ships of the ECO Box design, it was built by Ferus Smit's Leer, Germany shipyard in 2015, and has a single box shaped hold suitable for bulk, general or heavy cargoes, and carries a pair of 85 tonne cranes that can work in tandem. It has a modest grt of 6749, and deadweight of 10,546.It can operate "open top" for oil field supply and similar work, and then has a deadweight of 7,120 tonnes.

The unusual house forward and reverse bow, make the ECO Box ships  stand out from the crowd. The ship was chartered out as Nordana Star from 2015 to 2016 when it returned to Symphony Shipping, a Dutch company. (Sister ship Nordana Sky was charted by Desgagnés in 2015 to carry salt out of Pugwash, NS.)

Once alongside at pier 28 the ship began refueling from tank trucks.

After weathering the storrm in the relative comfort of Bedford Basin the Canadian bulk carrier Radcliffe R. Latimer moved to pier 26 this morning and entered winter layup.

It is customary for Great Lakes ships to tie up for one to three months each winter for needed maintenance, and there have often been ships from Canada Steamship Lines laying up in Halifax. However it is rare that Algoma Central Marine ships lay up here.

The ship is no stranger to Halifax, sometimes bringing in grain and /or loading out gypsum. Built originally in 1978 by Collingwood Shipyard as Algobay, it was a "Nova Scotia" class ship, meaning that it could make limited sea voyages and was the maximum size allowed by the St.Lawrence Seaway locks.In 1987-88 it was upograded to "Caribbean class" allowing for deep sea work. After a time under foreign flag and a charter to CSL as Atlantic Trader from 1994 to 1997 it reverted to Algobay until it was laid up in 2002, in need of major repairs from years of wear and tear..

In 2007 it was announced that a new forebody would be built in China and connected to the existing superstructure. A towing operation that began in Hamilton, ON in May 2008, using a series of tugs, saw the ship arrive in China in December (via the Suez Canal) where the new forebody was connected, and the old hull sent for scrap.

After a re-engining and rebuilding its self-unloading machinery machinery, the ship returned to Canada (via the Panama Canal) under its own power and resumed trading in 2010. It was renamed Radcliffe R. Latimer in 2012 in recognition of the retired Chairman of the Board of Algoma Central.

After de-ballasting all morning, the crew then put out extra heavy weather lines and the ship was laid up. Some crew, mainly engine rooms crew, remain with the ship during the winter for maintenance work, and contractors come in to work on other repairs such as the inside of ballast tanks, and cargo holds.

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Weather Bomb - Part 1

The huge storm that swept up the US east coast arrived in Nova Scotia this morning and in Halifax by late morning. Extreme high winds and driving rain last until early evening when it became eerily calm and the rain virtually stopped. Widespread power outages included Ship Central (home of Shipfax). A storm surge is expected at high tide 2300 hrs this evening.
Shipping activity ground to a halt as ships either held off the port or went to anchor or to safer berths. A brief roundup:


. NACC Quebec had been en route to Baltimore Providence from Port-Daniel, QC with cement, but after anchoring off Lockeport/Shelburne opted to come to Halifax for better holding, and anchored in Bedford Basin.

 NACC Quebec in more serene conditions. Operated by Nova Algoma Cement Carriers, operating out of the McInnis Cement plant in Port-Daniel, QC to US and Canadian ports. The unusual funnel houses a Pure SOx exhaust scrubber. Built as Tenace in 2011 by Tuzla Gemi Endustrizi in Turkey as a bulk carrier, the ship was converted in 2016-17 to carry cement.Tonnages: 9,286 grt, 13,800 dwt.



. Radcliffe L. Latimer arrived late Thursday and went directly to anchor instead of pier 25-26.
. Oceanex Sanderling anchored in Bedford Basin.
. CCGS Cape Roger arrived at BIO, CCGS Sir William Alexander remains alongside.
. Asterix was to move to an anchorage Wednesday, but found space at pier 9c. (Her huge superstructure would be subject to windage such that anchoring might not be feasible). During the day the tug Atlantic Spruce was tethered alongside, but was not needed by evening, and tied up nearby
. Offshore suppliers Burin Sea, Trinity Sea, Siem Hanne and Atlantic Condor are all tied on at pier 9c.
. Algoma Dartmouth moved to pier 9.
. IT Intrepid remains at pier 9A,
. Tug Atlantic Fir moved to pier 6 at Halifax Shipyard alongside the barge Atlantic Sealion
. The pilot boats Nova Pilot and Scotia Pilot moved to the inner face of Jetty November Lima in Dartmouth.[see below]
. Metro Transit cancelled all ferry and bus service.
. The Bridge Commission closed the A. Murray MacKay bridge for a time, then partially opened but kept it closed to high sided vehicles.
. Tugs Atlantic Oak and Atlantic Willow are tied on the inside of the IEL dock.
. Irving Oil tanker Acadian sailed at 0800 hrs - the last ship to arrive or sail for the time being.
. Nolhanava remains nestled inside pier 36.

Outside:
The cargo ship Thorco Logos (a light ship, with only cable racks in its hold) opted to leave its anchorage position in Bedford Basin and head out to sea  late last night.

In St. Margaret's Bay, just to the south of Halifax the heavy lift ship Symphony Star anchored off Mill Cove. It arrived at the pilot station last night and went directly to the Bay. It has cargo for pier 27-28.
Also nearby is Bomar Rebecca. The Tropical Shipping container ship sailed from Halifax last night.

In the Bay of Fundy, the container ship Zim Constanza bound from Halifax for New York is hove to or slow steaming. It left Halifax late last night. (Numerous other ships are also in the mouth of the Bay, bound for Saint John).

. Two arrivals scheduled for today, Budapest Bridge and Atlantic Sky, have been held off, with no definite arrival time scheduled yet. Arrival times will depend on conditions being suitable for the safe boarding of pilots. This will be a test for Halifax's "new" pilot boats that are much lighter and have lower freeboard than the previous boats. There is some suggestion already that they may not be as capable as their predecessors.

Winds are predicted to build up again overnight tonight and remain high until mid-day tomorrow. Temperatures will also drop from the relatively balmy +5c of today to -9C.


Part 2 to follow tomorrow: 

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New Year's Tally

Since New Year's day is a holiday for longshoremen, it is usually fairly slow for commercial shipping and today was no exception, with only one arrival and one departure. For many years I have been  taking New Year's Day to search out every identifiable vessel in Halifax Harbour. When I scout the backwaters and coves I usually come up with about 70 names, excluding pleasure craft and fishing boats.

This year did not turn up anything very unusual, but it did take me places I don't often go.

Wright's Cove is an area on the southeastern corner of Bedford Basin, below the Burnside Industrial Park, and includes Navy Island Cove, home of one of the few remaining steel side trawlers of the 1960s.

Navy Island Cove, an undisturbed backwater, is frozen solid. The gypsum stockpile conveyor looms in the background.

Hydra Mariner, the former Cape Mira was built in George T. Davie+Son in Lauzon (Lévis), QC and launched May 27, 1963. Its sponsor was Judith Smith, daughter of Ronald G. Smith, one of the founders and head of National Sea Products. The boat began fishing out of Louisbourg in October of the same year. In 1976, following the upheaval in the Newfoundland fishery, it was moved to Natlake and worked out of Burgeo. Eventually it returned to National Sea and was converted to a scallop dragger working out of Lunenburg. 
In 2001 it was renamed Hydra Mariner with a plan to convert it to a "chase boat" for seismic operations. I suspect this never happened and the boat kicked around various berths in Halifax for several years. In 2009 it found its spot in Navy Island Cove and has not moved since, except for a brief excursion in February 2014. It parted its mooring lines and drifted ashore, but was soon refloated and resecured by the RMI Marine tug Belle-D.. There does appear to be some activity on board from time to time, in the summer, perhaps as a sometime liveaboard/summer camp. It is now considered to be a "yacht".

At the other end of the harbour, at Eastern Passage, the above mentioned RMI Marine has its base.

Its tug Belle-D and one of its landing craft and two dive tender /workboats await the next assignment.

In the background, at the government wharf, the former Province of Nova Scotia cable ferry LaHave 2 and the former HMC Dockyard fire boat Firebird sit idle.
The ferry has been fitted with spuds and has been used for a variety of construction projects since 2010 when it was acquired by Municipal Enterprises. The fireboat on the other hand has not found a new occupation since it was sold as surplus last year.

Just to the north is the Valero dock, (also known as Ultramar, and the former Gulf Oil refinery dock.) It sees very little tanker traffic, but is home to the barge John P. Oxley.
 

Built in 2001 by les chantiers Verreault in Les Méchins, QC, it  is a pollution control and oil recovery barge, operated by the Eastern Canada Response Corp.(ECRC). Since its arrival in tow of the tug Océan Foxtrot on Christmas Day 2001 it has left port only once, for refit in Shelburne, NS in 2011.


One of the only working parts of the harbour today was Autoport where another car carrier was busy unloading. Hoegh Sydney arrived yesterday just after Viking Queen departed (see previous post)

The Japanese shipbuilders Tsuneishi, built the ship at their Cebu yard in Balamban, Philippines in 2007. It carries 5400 autos and measures 51,7631 grt, 17,311 dwt. Operators Hoegh Autoliners is majority owned by the Leif Hoegh group with Maersk as a minority shareholder at 38.75%.

One of the more colourful spots in Halifax harbour, now partly concealed by the King's Wharf development, is the home of Dominion Diving in Dartmouth Cove.

Its fleet of nine workboats and several scows and barges all wear the unique company colour. Located at the mouth of the Sawmill River (which is being daylighted), the recreation of a portion of the Shubenacadie Canal's inclined plane, and the cconflunece of the Shubenacadie Trail and the Trans Canada Trail, one has to wonder how long this prime site will  be able to hold out against the inevitable pressures of development.

As mentioned above, there was very little commercial activity in the harbour. Oceanex Sanderling arrived early at Halterm  pier 41 but appeared to be taking a day off.

At Imperial Oil the Torm Louise completed unloading and moved out to anchorage number 1 to take on bunkers. Once that operation was completed it sailed for Sept-Iles, QC. [Later info: the ship is instead headed for Quebec City.]

Atlantic Bear (see Tugfax) returns to base after assisting Torm Louise to move off Imperial Oil dock #3 to nearby anchorage to take on bunkers.

Of typical Mid-Range size - 29,283 grt, 49,999 dwt, it is markedly different from the Korean built tankers we usually see. It dates from 2009 and Guangzhou International, in Guangzhou China, and is one of Torm Lines' Super Ice class. Its heavy bow and full width bridge are sure indicators that it was built for harsh weather.

There was also activity at the Coast Guard Base at Bedford Institute. The patrol vessel CCGC Corporal McLaren M.M.V. sailed early in the afternoon, but did not get far before returning to base. It was destined to Cow Bay where a whale stranding was reported. However the whale was "refloated" and lead back out to deep water in very short order by a group of hardy volunteers.

 Corporal McLaren M.M.V. outbound, but soon to turn back. The new pier at HMC Dockyard is taking shape in the background.

Meanwhile sister vessel CCGC G. Peddle S.C. arrived from seaand followed the McLaren in to BIO.

That was not the only CCG activity. CCGS Sir William Alexander arrived earlier from the Sydney area, well encrusted with ice, and carrying a very icy buoy on deck.

Streams of vapour were blowing off her forepeak as ice melting was underway prior to tying up at BIO about noon time. The ship had obviously been in the ice recently as the wear on her boot topping indicates.


Another far reach of Halifax harbour, well outside the normal confines of the port, is at the harbour's entrance. Sambro is home to numerous fishing vessels and is the base for the lifeboat CCGC Sambro.

One of ten Arun class boats in service with the CCG, it was built in 1996 by Hike Metal Products, in Wheatley, ON and is due to be retired. Its replacement, Pennant Bay is currently undergoing trials and training in Dartmouth and will soon be in service. That Sambro was not tied up at her normal dock may signal that this move may be very soon.

Nearby at Sambro Head, Canadian Maritime Engineering operates the former Brenton Gray's boatyard.
Currently it has the harbour tour vessel Silva on the cradle for refit.

Silva (whose official name is Silva of Halifax) dates from 1939 when it was built as a three masted trading schooner by Karlstads Mek. Verk. in Sweden. Working the Icelandic trade it was converted to an auxiliary motor vessel, then a bulk carrier before it was "rescued" by Canadian Sailing Expeditions and converted to a harbour tour boat, closely resembling its original  design.  Passing through Tall Ship Silva Inc to Murphy Sailing Tours Ltd, the boat is a popular waterfront attraction (in summer). Its fleet mates are also in winter layup in various parts of the harbour, although former fleet mate Haligonian III, retired in 2016, remains tied up in Sambro.

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