Where the Action Is

Most of what activity there was in Halifax Harbour today could be seen from Point Pleasant. With dredging still underway off  pier 42, the vista was narrowed somewhat but didn't impede traffic, except for the request to minimize wake while passing.


Melfi Line's Artemis sailed in the early afternoon.

Oshawa with the loaded scow S.11 heads for the dumping ground in Bedford Basin, and J.F.Whalen moves S.12 into position to load as Artemis gets away frompier 42..

The tug Spitfire III comes along with Hoegh Chiba inbound.

The autocarrer Hoegh Chiba arrived, but not for the usual destination for such ships. This time the vessel headed for Cerescorp's Fairview Cove container terminal.

Delhi Highway unloads at Autoport as Hoegh Chiba sails through number one anchorage.

The ship is carrying ACL's RoRo cargo that has been delayed by repairs to Atlantic Sail. ACL is using a combination of pure container, container/RoRo and RoRo ships to meet the demand. Atlantic Sail has been in drydock in Hamburg since April 10.


Hoegh Chiba dates from 2006 when it was built by Daewoo Okpo as Maersk Welkin. In 2008 it became Hoegh Chiba but was again renamed in 2012 as Alliance Richmond and flew the US flag (non-Jones Act). It was also lengthened 10 meters, changing tonnages from 52,691 to 59,705 gt and 21,500 to 19,670 dwt.  (Deadweight capacity did indeed decrease.)


In 2014 it became Hoegh Chiba again, under the Norwegian International Registry. It has a capacity of 6,000 CEU with a 150 tonne capacity stern ramp.

While this was going on lobster fishermen were at work close inshore. They seemed to be doing well, removing a number of the large crustaceans, often two from the same trap.

They were using a boat that was new to me, and new to this area. Named Knot Lookin' Back, the boat was built 2018 by Hustler Fibreglass Boats Ltd of Bloomfield, PE, and has the hull lines of a typical PEI type boat. However it is locally owned in Portuguese Cove.


The boat was lifting most of the traps and leaving only a few in the water. It is not the usual boat seen working in this area. That is a smaller unnamed boat powered by an outboard engine.

For some reason the usually attentive gulls, were nowhere to be seen when the bigger boat was working today.

The lobster season in Halifax, which is part of the Southwest Nova Scotia region, stretching from Eastern Passage to Yarmouth, lasts from November to the end of May.

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Caledonia Boston Bound

The tall ship Caledonia, once an aspiring part of Halifax's waterfront scene is on the move again after several years languishing in Toronto.

On Saturday morning May 4 it left in tow of the tugs Salvage Monarch and Radium Yellowknife for the St.Lawrence Seaway. Once clear of the locks it will have to be handed over to some more capable tug for the trip to Boston.

In its glory at Tall Ships 2009 in Halifax, Caledonia under sail.

The ship has a long and varied history, including various visits to Halifax.

Built in 1947 by the famed Cook, Welton and Gemmell in Beverly, England it was a steam powered trawler named Akurey working for a variety of Icelandic owners and the Icelandic government. In 1967 new Norwegian owners renamed it Akeroy, a name it carried until 1968 when it became Petrel, working as a seismic vessel. It was also converted to diesel power with a 1500 bhp KHD engine.

Techno-Navigation Ltée of Quebec City acquired the ship in 1976, renaming it Petrel V and converting it for research in 1977.   It was then hired out to various organizations, including Dalhousie University in Halifax. Based in Lunenburg it engaged in fisheries research in co-operation with several other universities and fishing companies.

In 2000 Cape Harrison Marine of Newfoundland acquired the ship, renamed it Cape Harrison, and it continued doing research work, some for the offshore oil industry. They modified the ship in several small ways, such as removing the cargo booms and installing a starboard side gantry, removing the large lifeboats and clearing off the after deck.

Cape Harrison arriving in Halifax for conversion.

In 2002 Canadian Sailing Expeditions of Halifax bought the ship, renamed it Caledonia, and began its conversion to a sailing vessel. In December of that year it was moved to Hamilton, ON. A major fire while at Heddle Marine's shipyard delayed completion. The ship was back in Halifax in September 2003 for a ceremonial arrival under sail the next day, although the below deck accommodation work was incomplete. Surviving hurricane damage, and another fire, work continued off and on back in Hamilton, returning to Halifax in 2007, with the work finally complete in 2008.

Unfortunately costs increased and what was estimated at $8.5mn ended up at $9.6mn and the owners were forced into creditor protection and eventual bankruptcy. Caterpillar Financial Services ended up as owners, with the previous owners as operators, but they were unable to sell the ship or mount a regular cruising schedule.


In November 2012 the ship returned to the Great Lakes and although it may have operated for a time, it was laid up in Toronto. Recently the price was reduced to $1,499,000.

In March a Boston based restaurateur, Navy Yard Hospitality, negotiated purchase as part of a redevelopment plan for the old Boston Navy Yard in Charleston. So far they have a temporary license to moor the ship in the Navy Yard as a "raw bar" from May to October. From press reports it seems that the ship will not be used for passenger work even though it is fully equipped and qualified under SOLAS regs to sail with 70 passengers and 21 crew. A perhaps undignified fate for an interesting vessel.

Sailing ships are notoriously difficult to tow - bow sprits tend to get in the way, among other things - and neophyte owners do not add value to the exercise. A riding crew would seem to be essential, certainly in confined waters. I will be following the tow as much as possible, remotely.

This is probably not the last we will hear of Caledonia.

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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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