Sir Robert Bond takes a final bow

The former CN Marine / Marine Atlantic ferry Sir Robert Bond is due to leave Sydney Harbour Sunday May 5 in tow, likely for the scrappers.

 Filling in while other ships were on refit, Sir Robert Bond sails from North Sydney.

Built by Port Weller Dry Dock in St.Catharines, ON in 1975, the ship had a brief career as an ice class III rail car ferry for CN Marine, operating between North Sydney and Port aux Basques. In 1978 it was converted at Davie, Lauzon to a car and truck ferry, with augmented passenger accommodation to operate between Lewisporte, Cartwright and Happy Valley-Goose Bay, in summer. It still served on the Cabot Strait while other ships were on refit during the winter and early spring.

Note the different paint scheme, with white funnel base structure.

The ship is refueling from a tank truck while berthed at North Sydney Lewisporte.

In 1998 the Province of Newfoundland took over Marine Atlantic's local services and Sir Robert Bond remained on the same run until 2010. It then went into winter only service between Corner Brook and Blanc Sablon until 2014 when it was declared surplus. It was kept in "warm layup status" (at a cost of $1mn) in Lewisporte. The provincial government of the day was given to understand it would require $3mn to $5mn to refit the ship. When a new government came in they soon sold the ship for $615,000 plus HST.

In November 2016, new owners Beausejour Peat Moss Inc sent the ship to Burry's Shipyard in Clarenville for a 6 month "life extension" refit, to carry 8,000 bales of peat moss per trip from Cape Tormentine, NB to Canadian and US ports.

Plans apparently fell through, and the ship arrived in Sydport in October 2018. (Burry's shipyard also retreated into Bankruptcy in late 2018).

The ship's Canadian registry was closed January 25 of this year, and it is now apparent that the new owners are sending the ship off to scrap. It will be the end of an era as it is the last ship still in existence from CN Marine's Cabot Strait operations. Marine Atlantic was formed in 1987.

See a previous post on the ship:

sir-robert-bond-unlikely-future.html

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The Mists of Time

CMA CGM Orfeo spent the afternoon in number one anchorage, most of the time barely visible in a thick mist.  Fortunately the camera sees better than I do, and it was possible to get a photo as it was getting underway to move to pier 41.

Tugs have gathered alongside the ship to move it to pier 41.

Not too many years ago the George's Island fog signal would have been operating, giving Halifax a minute by minute reminder of the foggy conditions. However complaints from hotel guests resulted in the demise of the horn. Its shed still stands at the foot of the lighthouse.

The main  reason for the move was that before tying up the ship had to undergo an inspection for the presence of Asian Gypsy mother larvae, since it was recently in one of the countries where the pest originates. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is tasked with preventing the moth from proliferating in Canada where it is especially harmful to our native trees.

Once at anchor the ship awaited the departure of the Zim Vancouver so that it could have all of pier 41-42 to itself, and presumably all four of Halterm's big cranes.

CMA CGM Orfeo dates from 2008 when it was built by Hyundai Heavy Industries at their Ulsan shipyard in South Korea. It is a 111,249gt, 120,892 dwt ship with a carrying capacity of 9658 TEU, including 700 reefers.  Its keel was laid as Santa Laetitia but it was launched as CMA CGM Orfeo and delivered to owners Rederi GP Offen for long term charter to CMA CGM.

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Yantian Express saga - coming soon to a port near you

News out of Freeport, Bahamas indicates that the fire damaged Yantian Express will indeed to be coming to Halifax, likely before the the end of May, to discharge the remaining containers.
Subject to technical approval of the classification society and the refitting of hatch covers, and final berthing arrangement in Halifax, the ship is expected to sail from Freeport around mid-May.

I won't recap all that has gone before, except to say that after the January fire broke out and the ship arrived in Freeport, the damaged containers have been removed . Insurance reps identified 202 containers a total loss and another 460 requiring inspection. Presumably that has been done now, and all "distressed" boxes removed.

However there remains the logistical issue of unloading thousands of others, and what to do with them then. Apparently up to one third of cargo owners have not contributed to the general average fund, meaning that they have written off their boxes and will no longer want delivery.  I would assume that the insurers are then free to sell the contents to defray settlement costs.

Roll Out the Bow

Halifax Shipyard marked more milestones today when they rolled out the bow megablock for AOPS2, the second arctic patrol vessel, and officially started construction of AOPS4.

The bow megablock is coaxed into position late this afternoon for AOPS2, while AOPS1 lies alongside at the fitting out berth.

AOPS2, the future HMCS Margaret Brooke was laid down May 29, 2017 and the first two megablocks were rolled out September 21 and 22, 2018. Today's megablock (actually Megablock #1 in the shipyard's plan) completes the major assembly phase.  It took much longer to bring this bow section out than it did on the first ship of the series AOPS1 (future HMCS Harry DeWolf) - 7 1/2 months versus 5 months.

AOPS1 was launched September 15, 2018 and it is alongside the shipyard fitting out. It will be delivered this summer. Based on the previous timeline it may be up to 9 months before AOPS2 is actually launched.

The Defence Minister was in town today to witness the start of construction of AOPS4, the future HMCS William Hall. He agreed that there have been production delays because a sixth ship was added to the contract. How that explains the delays he did not elaborate.

He is also reported to have said he wasn't concerned about delays if it meant quality standards are upheld. This may be a veiled reference to problems that have been rumoured, but never acknowledged. Certainly Irving Shipbuilding and Sesapan started close to ground zero in shipbuilding, and all sorts of issues would have been anticipated. Much was made of welding quality in Seaspan's ships, and some had to be re-done.

The sixth AOPS ship is expected to be completed in 2024. The minster apparently did refer to the gap between that delivery and the start of the frigate replacement program, when the shipyard will not be able to sustain full employment for some period of time. The sixth vessel was supposed to reduce that gap, but it is by no means clear on how the government plans to "mitigate" it.

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Torm and Schulte

I always enjoy seeing a ship from the Danish company Torm A/S. They are among the few tankers that display the company name on the side. Not only that but the company house flag design is also painted on. Then there is the unique paint scheme. which certainly makes them stand out from the rest.

Torm Camilla arrived this afternoon and tied up at Irving Oil's Woodside terminal. The ship started out in 2003 from STX Shipbuilding Co in Jinhae, South Korea with the unusual name Gron Falk but took its present name in 2005 when acquired by Torm. It flies the Danish flag, but is otherwise a fairly typical MidRange tanker of 30,024 gt, 46,219 dwt.

As Torm Camilla docks at Woodside, the small tug Roseway is tucked under the stern, picking up mooring lines to take ashore.

Tugs are kept well away from the billboards, so as not to mar the paint job.


Gerhard Schulte also arrived this afternoon for ACL and went to Fairview Cove. Apparently the ship has been chartered in to make up for lost capacity due to the unplanned drydocking of Atlantic Sail in Hamburg
The ship is owned by the Bernard Schulte company of Hamburg, and was built in 2006 by Shanghai Chengxi Shipyard. Shortly after delivery it was renamed APL Bangkok for a charter which ended in 2014, and it reverted to its present name.

The 35,991 gt, 42,082 dwt ship has a capacity of 3534 TEU, including 500 reefers. ACL's schedule shows the ship sailing from Halifax on Friday. so it will be in port for some time. It is also scheduled to be back in Halifax June 13. (The ship is to sail earely tomorrow morning).

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CMA CGM (again) at Halterm

The Columbus JAX service was initially named for its connection between Jakarta, Indonesia and Los Angeles, but it is virtually a round the world operation using 18 ships on a 118 day rotation, thereby making weekly calls at a bewildering array of ports.

Starting from Hong Kong, it calls in Vung Tau, Singapore, Port Klang, Colombo, Halifax, New York, Norfolk, Savannah, Charleston, Port Klang, Singapore, Jakarta, Laem Chebang, Ving Tau, Los Angeles, Oakland and Hong Kong.

CMA CGM is the operator of the service, but as part the Ocean Alliance, there are three other partners:
APL, which is owned by CMA CGM,  OOCL, which is owned by COSCO, and Evergreen.
COSCO/OOCL calls their share SEAP (South Est Asia Pendulum) and Evergreen calls theirs PE 1

The line's Halifax calls, usually on Saturday have been adjusted recently when a new ship was inserted in the rotation and all the other ships were moved one week later. This has caused some irregularity in arrival times. There was no call Easter weekend. That meant one ship called on Friday-Saturday (CMA CGM Ivanhoe) last week-end and another yesterday and today (CMA CGM Fidelio).

At 349 meters long, it is hard to get a sidelong view of the ship without resorting to a wide angle lens. After its first North American call, the ship is still well loaded.

Although not giant ships, they are certainly big at 9415 TEU and take a long time to work with Halterm's current facilities where sometimes only two cranes are available if other ships are in port at the same time. Having two of these ships in such a short spell also puts pressure on the storage areas and rail service.

The situation will only become worse if larger ships are added.

The great advantage to Halifax (and Canada) is that we are the first port of call from Asia thus expediting imports to Canada. A lot of the cargo that comes off these ships is destined to the US mid-west too, and Canada effectively "piggy backs" on that traffic.

 Dredging continues off the south end of pier 42, as CGA CGM Fidelio gets underway. The scale of these largish ships gives an idea of how much longer the pier will have to be to host two at a time.
 
Halterm expansion is certainly on the front burner, and current operators Macquarie Infrastructure Partners have apparently finalized a sale to an as yet unidentified buyer, but believed to be PSA International, a wholly owned subsidiary of the PSA Corporation. Formed in 1997 when the Port of Singapore Authority was privatized, the company has interests in many lines of business including tug operations and ships, but is primarily known as a leading terminal operator. (The parent of PSAI, Temasek, were the previous owners of APL's parent NOL - see above)

Mcquarie on the other hand is also an important terminal operator. Coincident with the sale of Halterm they have announced the acquisition of the former OOCL Long Beach container terminal for a cool $1.87 bn (US). US authorities required OOCL divest the terminal as part of approval process for the takeover by COSCO.

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Inaugural Call and Repeat Visitors

It was the inaugural call for Holland America's Zaandam today as the 61,396 gt ship tied up at pier 31.
The regular cruise terminal facilities at pier 22 are not ready for the tourist season yet, so the ship berthed at the open (and highly industrial) pier 31.

Zaandam makes the turn in for pier 31.

Built in 2000 by Fincantieri, Venice and refurbished most recently in 2015, the 1430 passenger ship will become a familiar sight in Halifax this year with  no less than 23 scheduled port calls. The ship replaces the veteran Maasdam (1255 passengers) that has been reassigned to the Alaska/Pacific area.

It is regrettable that ships have to tie up at pier 31, and then have to be bussed off the Port property through other port related activity. However there may be more ships docking there this year as the only two berths for large ships may be occupied by other cruise ships. If ships want to take bunkers, they may have to tie up at pier 31, because tanker trucks can't access the Pier 20-22 seawall and there is no bunkering barge service in Halifax anymore.
The Port's master plan will eliminate pier 31, so there will not be enough berth space at the deep water piers for all the cruise ships that usually call here. - definitely a problem awaiting a solution.

The Canadian owned tanker Kitikmeot W arrived early this evening and tied up at pier 27. The ship was last here, at the same pier, December 30, 2018 to January 2, 2019 and sailed under Marshal Islands flag for foreign going winter work. It returned to Canadian waters last week when it sailed up through the Seaway to Hamilton, ON, arriving there April 22. After unloading, it headed for Halifax in ballast. It will likely be re-flagged Canadian here in the next few days.

Kitikmeot W exhibits a case of "lock rash" from its recent trip through the St.Lawrence Seaway. 

Ships slide along the approach walls to the locks on their "knuckle" and incur serious scraping.

Coastal Shipping Ltd of Happy Valley-Goose Bay, NL, part of the Woodward Group, are owners of the ship. Built in 2010 by Icdas, Biga, Turkey, the 13,097 gt, 19,938 dwt ship sailed as Icdas-09 until last year. It arrived in Halifax May 8, 2018 for AGM inspection, but was still under Marshal Islands flag. It then made a trip to Oshawa, ON to deliver cargo then was first registered in Canada June 5, 2018.

A tanker that was last here in 2012 arrived yesterday for Imperial Oil. At first it tied up at Number 3 dock, then today after  NS Pride sailed, moved to Number 4 dock.

Ance sails for the Latvian Shipping Co of Riga, but is registered in the Marshal Islands.

The 30,641 gt, 52,622 dwt tanker was built in 2006 by 3 Maj Brodogradiliste in Rijeka, Croatia., and arrived from Houston.

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