Three New to Halifax - corrected: make it two

Most ships that come to Halifax these days are repeat callers. Even if it has been some time since they were here last, they are familiar to varying degrees. Today however there were three two first time callers to to see.

Arriving over night at Irving Woodside, the tanker Elka Glory is, as usual, coming from Irving Oil's bleanding terminal in Amsterdam. It was anchored off Halifax yesterday, then moved to anchor inside the harbour. It then waited  for Irving's Acadian to sail early this morning before moving alongside.

 Due to the angle of the photo, it is Imperial Oil's tanks that show in the background, even if the ship is tied up at Irving's Woodside terminal. 

The ubiquity of the Irving name however is safe, thanks to a Midland Transport truck on Pleasant Street. (Midland is owned by the other side of the Irving family from Irving Oil, namely J.D. Irving.)

Elka Glory is a member of the European Product Carriers fleet of "Elka" ships. It came from the Brodosplit shipyard in Split Croatia in 2008 and measures 27,612 gt, 44,598 dwt.

Oddly another Croatian built tanker arrived this afternoon. Brodotrogir of Trogir, built the NS Spirit in 2006.

 With tugs alongside, NS Spirit  NS Pride heads for Imperial Oil's number 4 dock.

Owned by the Russia based SCF, it is a 27,357 gt, 46,941 dwt Mid-Range type and is giving Antwerp as its last port.

Correction:
I mis-identified the ship. It is in fact NS Pride, built in 2006 by ShinA Shipbuilding Co in Tongyeong, South Korea. Its tonnages are 25,467 gt, 40,119 dwt and in fact it has been here before - 2017-05-13 for Irving Oil.

The third second "new to us" ship is  JSP Levante, owned by a German investment syndicate and registered in Antigua and Barbuda with Jebsen Shipping Partners as managers. It was built in 2006 by Kouan Shipbuilding Industry in Taizhou, China. The 9957 gt, 13,634 dwt ship is a CV1110+ type feeder container vessel with a capacity of 1118 TEU. It carries a pair of 45 tonne SWL cranes.

The tug Atlantic Oak is positioned near the ship's stern to swing it around for backing in at pier 31.

This is a new ship to Melfi Marines regular service between Europe and Cuba. It is on the return leg of the trip, and as usual the ship has a load of nickel sulfides in bags, which it will unload here. There are no containers stacked on hold number seven of the ship's eight holds, to allow the bags to be craned out.

.

Write if you find work

It think it is time for a letter from the Lomur. After a short tenure with Eimskip, the ship arrived in Halifax April 12 and anchored in Bedford Basin. Original schedules showed Lomur with a longer term charter with Eimskip, but perhaps all the storm damage incurred to ship and cargo in March convinced someone that the ship was not suitable for the type of work, and cut the deal short.

 Lomur awaiting assignment, Bedford Basin.

It now appears that the ship has been fixed for work with Transport St-Pierre International (TSMI) for at least a few trips. Lomur will move from anchor to Cerescorp Friday morning to load, departing later in the day.


TMSI also serves Argentia, NL but Lomur will be unable to do that as a foreign flag vessel, so it will only run between Halifax and St-Pierre. As for lack of RoRo capability, TSMI has recently taken delivery of a number of flat rack 53 foot containers containers, which should accommodate most RoRo items such as cars. TSMI and Oceanex are among the very few container lines in the world to carry 53 foot containers to sea. Both companies operate ships that do not have celluar holds, which limit the size of containers.

TMSI's brand new 53 foot flat racks await work at Cerescorp. 

 (They carry reporting mark "MMJ")

 

The regular TMSI ship Nolhan Ava is in Freeport, Bahamas for reft. Is there a small chance that it will handle some of the Halifax bound cargo from Yantian Express that has been stuck in Freeport for months?

Nolhan Ava with several 53 foot dry containers on deck

.

Algoterra Sails

After a remarkably quick "Canadianization" the tanker Algoterra sailed this afternoon to take up its new duties. It had only arrived on Sunday April 14, and in less than a week it had made all the needed changes.

First order of business after getting away from the dock today was a compass swing in Bedford Basin. (I noticed a lot of welding going on around her main mast, above the bridge, which likely played havoc with the ship's magnetic field.)

Away from the berth, bound for Bedford Basin.

Countering a stiff nor'west breeze, making for the Narrrows outbound.

Once that operation was completed, the ship was outbound for Montreal, giving an ETA of mid-day April 23.

The pilot ladder is rigged to disembark the compass adjustor to the launch Halmar in the lower harbour. The pilot will be aboard for another hour until they reach the pilot station.

Algoma Tankers Ltd have their entire tanker fleet "booked" for the navigation season according to information from Algoma. There may still be a need for some coasting licenses for foreign tankers, but so far Algoma seems to be getting along without, except for one short term trip for a US flag tug and barge.

.

Worth a Wait

I've never been one to adhere to the old adage about all good things coming to those who wait. However I did wait it out today in hopes of getting a sunny photo of a first time caller, Grande Senegal Although the pilot was called for 1630 and the tug Atlantic Bear was alongside, the ship was not ready to call for clearance until 1740 and then did not get away from Cerescorp, Fairview Cove until 1915. There were some sunny breaks in the interval, but it was down to glimmers when the ship actually hove into view.

Owned by Grimaldi Lines, parent company of Atlantic Container Lines, the ConRo is here as a substitute for ACL's Atlantic Sail which had to go into drydock in Hamburg April 10. It is still there.

Fortunately Grimaldi was able to find another ship in its stable to take over for at least one round trip. Grande Senegal was built in 2010 by Uljanik Shipyard in Pula, Croatia and is one of fifteen similar ships in the Grimaldi fleet, and two of its class, at 47,218 gt, 26,653 dwt with a capacity of 800 TEU and 2500 CEU.  While nowhere near the giant size of the ACL G5s, it certainly takes some of the weight off the line which relies on five ships to meet a weekly transatlantic schedule. This ship's next port is given as Baltimore, so apparently ACL is skipping New York entirely on this voyage.

Another Grimaldi ConRo, Grande America has been in European news for several weeks after it caught fire and sank in the Bay of Biscay March 12. A large oil slick resulted, but seepage has now been halted by sending down an ROV to seal vents. The wreck is intact and upright on the sea bottom, 15,000 ft down. It carried 365 containers, of which 70 carried hazardous cargo, and 2,000 cars, many of which were luxury models.
Porsche went to the extent of re-activating a closed production line to replace four 911 GT2 RS models that were included in those lost. Thier Brazialian owners will be overjoyed I am sure.

I did get one photo when the sun peeked out, as Atlantic Condor moved from pier 9B to Bedford Basin for a short trial period.

The supplier is one of two Atlantic Towing vessels servicing the Deep Panuke gas installation off Nova Scotia. Both Atlantic Condor and the smaller Atlantic Tern have been drydocked this spring in St.John's forcing the partner vessel to spend almost three weeks at sea, since one vessels stands by the facility at all times, while the other shuttles back and forth with supplies. 

The Encana owned Deep Panuke gas field ceased production last year and is in the decommissioning stage, which will last until 2021 when all four production wells and one injection well are capped, and production trees and topsides structures are removed.
For whatever reason government regulators allowed the pipeline to shore to be abandons in place. It is to be purged and opened and filled with seawater.

.

Fresh Paint

A couple of dry days allowed painters to get to work on two ships in Halifax.

Acadia Desgagnés, has removed Bridgetown and applied St.John's as its port of registry and as of today returned to Canadian registry. They have not found the Canadian flag in the flag locker yet, so the Barbados flag still flies astern.

The owners could save on repainting if they would register the ship in Antigua, where the port of registry is also St.John's. Unfortunately Bridgetown, Nova Scotia is no longer a port of registry. It certainly would be closer to Acadia than St.John's.


Algoterra now carries the Algoma Central Corporation disc on its funnel, complete with the famous bear. The funnel itself has been repainted to Algoma colours, whereas the disc is shop made and was installed by crane.

.

Slow Rush Hour

The end of the workday usually results in a build up of harbour traffic. Hardly a rush hour really, but usually a good time to do some shipwatching in a short period of time.

Today's miniature rush hour saw two departures and an in-harbour move all happening with a few minutes of each other. Before those however the pilot boat set out for the station.

Outbound ahead of the departures, Scotia Pilot catches a sunbeam as does HMCS Ville de Québec at anchor.

The container ship Budapest Bridge sailed from Cerescorp's Fairview Cove container terminal at 1700 but it was a full hour before the ship arrived in the lower harbour.

The sun was disappearing again as the ship made its way outbound.

As soon as the big ship was clear, Trinity Sea moved from the Exxon Mobil dock in Dartmouth to pier 27 in Halifax. This seems to be a popular layby berth for offshore suppliers. They don't usually load or unload there, but could take fuel if the Irving Oil terminal is occupied, as it was today with Irving Oil's East Coast.

A very dark squall chased the vessel across the harbour.

Horizon Star followed, heading for sea trials. The big offshore craft has been idle at the Cove in Dartmouth, since January 25 when it returned from the Yantian Express salvage operation.That ship is still stuck in Freeport, Bahamas with no destination yet revealed to unload its un-damaged cargo.

As the photos indicate the sun was in and out from behind clouds and rain squalls with gusty winds blew through every few minutes. Typical April weather.

Meanwhile dredging continues round the clock off pier 42. Two complete crews work 12 hour 7 to 7 shifts from  1900 Sunday night until Friday.

 Yesterday the dredge Derrick #4 was enshrouded in fog  and looked like it was in outer space.

 Note the water depth, from the height of the 70 foot spuds above the deck of the dredge.

There is still about three weeks of dredging left to do.

.

Algoma's Latest Tanker - UPDATED

Algoma Tankers Ltd's latest acquisition arrived at Pier 9C this morning. Built in 2010 by Jiangnan Shipyard Group in Shanghai, the ice class 1A, 11,889 gt, 16,512 dwt ship worked for Knutsen OAS Shipping as Louise Knutsen under British flag, registered in Aberdeen, Scotland.

Algoma announced the purchase on March 21, and the ship was renamed Louise K under Tuvalu flag for the delivery trip. International Marine Service took charge of the ship and sailed it from Amsterdam to Halifax, sailing March 30.

The ship had been in port for only a few hours and workers were already painting over the old name and preparing to change the funnel markings and carryout other work to "Canadianize" the ship.

The new name is reliably reported to be Algoterra, but we will have to wait until it is actually painted on and the ship is registered to be certain.

As previously reported other Canadian companies such as McKeil and Desgagnés are also buying tankers on the used ship market.

Desgagnés latest, to be named Gaia Desgagnés has already sailed from Landskrona, Sweden and is due in Quebec April 21. It is the former Fure Vinga, built in 2018 by AVIC Dingheng, Yangshou and measures 12,770 gt, 17,999 dwt. It is a state of the art dual fuel, ice class ship.

UPDATE:
Algoterra it is. After painting over the old name, a crew in a bucket lift applied the new name using transfer letters.

 Further aft, staging was going up around the funnel to apply the Algoma colours and "Bear Spot", the company logo.

 The Algoma company flag was also hoisted on the foremast.

There is room to add "NS" to the port of registry line, since "Halifax" is not centered under "Algoterra"

.