and more

Some clearing later in the afternoon allowed for a brief outing to catch a traffic jam of one departing and two arriving ships. It was deftly handled and safe passages were had by all, although I did think that perhaps one ship was a little overly eager.

The departing ship was another queen (see earlier post) but this was a more prosaic one. Viking Queen is a Singapore flag autocarrier from the Gram Car Carriers fleet. Built in 2007 by the Uljanik shipyard in Pula, Croatia as Hoegh Delhi it was renamed in 2017.

The 55,775 gt, 16,840 dwt ship has a capacity of 7000 cars (CEUs) and as the largest and least maneuverable of the three ships, it claimed the main channel as its seaward course en route for Davisville, Rhode Island.

The first of the incoming vessels, HMCS Fredericton took the western, or deepwater channel to give Viking Queen some room.

Fredericton emerged from the latest repair session at Halifax Shipyard in November 2018 and for the past few weeks has been seen in Bedford Basin, at the static sound range and loitering offshore. Today's outing may or may not have included a commemoration of the the D-Day landings in Normandy 75 years ago. I could find no reference, to what it was doing, in particular.

As the departure point for thousands of Canadian troops sent to Europe during World War II, the port of Halifax was closer to the war than any other Canadian city. That was recognized today in a special ceremony attended by among others, the Governor General. Although it had to be moved indoors due to the weather - that was nothing new for those who know Halifax! - it was well reported by all news organizations. Attendees included some of the sadly diminishing ranks of those who served in World War II.

Third vessel in the mix was the supplier Trinity Sea returning from the Sable Island area on its regular supply run.

As the smallest of the ships it was able to hug the eastern side of the main channel and gave the outbound 'Queen a port to port passing.

Here is what it looked like as Fredericton emerged from the western channel, Viking Queen carried on and Trinity Sea kept to the eastern side.

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Ownership complications - updated

Ownership is often a murky subject when it comes to ships. For a variety of reasons ships are sometimes owned by what are known as "single ship" companies. The company, often incorporated in a tax haven, owns only the one ship, and the company's shareholders are shielded from liability through a complex tangle of investors, banks, lenders and mortgage holders. Not that it is any of my business who actually owns a ship. A good thing too since it is frequently impossible to determine who actually does own a ship. In fact some well known "ship owners" have become ship managers only and don't actually own any ships, preferring to operate them for others.

Unclear ownership is not restricted to unscrupulous operators flying the flags of dodgy nations. Even large, well established and respected shipowners are given to spreading the ownership of their fleets among a variety of entities for perfectly legitimate reasons such as ownership syndication.

Despite all the obfuscation some shipowners want to identify ships as part of their fleet by selecting names with common themes, adopting common stylistic preferences and painting them in company colours. The most obvious means of identification is the time honoured funnel marking.

All this forms a back drop to two ship arrivals in Halifax yesterday and last night. Two tankers, both coming from Amsterdam, one tying up at Irving Oil and one at Imperial Oil, both with names from Greek mythology. There are lots of Greek tankers in the world, but would the owners of these ships be connected is the obvious question (at least to me).

Having researched the daylights out of the question, I am still not sure.

First in was the Strymon. Named for the mythological Greek river god, son of Oceanus and Tethys, it is wearing the gray hull and traditional "lambda" (Greek L) funnel marking of Stavros G. Livanos. A typical mid-range tanker of 30,020 gt, 47,120 dwt, it was built in 2005 by STX Shipbuilding Co in Jinhae, South Korea. It tied up at Irving Oil's Woodside terminal.

Strymon unloading at Irving Oil.

From what I can learn, the ship, flagged in the Bahamas, is owned by Empire Navigation Ltd-LB and managed by Sun Enterprises Ltd-LB. Visiting the Sun Enterprises website, the company traces its history to 1920 and mentions acquiring 12 Liberty ships in 1947. That history is common with the legendary Stavros G. Livanos, but the name Livanos appears nowhere in the history. A side bar gives S.Livanos Hellas SA as manning agents. That company, based in Athens appears, at least in name, to be the successor to the famed shipping "empire" of Stavros G. Livanos and his son George S. Livanos.

The second arrival, which tied up at Imperial Oil's number 3 dock, has, at least so far, been invisible due to rain, is MR Orestes (MR standing for Mid Range and Orestes for another Greek mythological character).

                                --- picture to be added if it becomes available ---

Flying the Marshall Islands flag, it is a 30,006 gt, 50,106 dwt ship. Built in 2009 by SPP Plant and Shipbuilding Co, Sacheon, South Korea as Hongbo it was renamed in 2015 by current owners MR Orestes Shipping. Managers are listed as Empire Navigation Inc. A search reveals Empire Navigation Inc as a totally different company from Empire Navigation Ltd. Although based in Greece, it has a different address and a location in the Athens suburb of Elliniko.

So is there a connection? Other than the coincidence of arrival from the same port at about the same time, it appears not.

All this delving into ownership of course recalls that Stavros G. Livanos was one of the famed Greek shipping tycoons. Notably frugal, he was quoted as saying "I have no money. I have ships." Nevertheless he traveled in very wealthy circles. One daughter married Aristotle Onassis and after divorcing him, married among others Stavros Niarchos. The other daughter had previously married Stavros Niarchos too. The Livanos family therefore had a front row seat to the legendary rivalry between Onassis and Niarchos which was fought out by building larger and larger tankers.
George S. Livanos, son of Stavros G. seems to have inherited the family business, but has been able to completely shield himself from any notice or notoriety.

As for the Onassis and Niarchos "empires", there is much to be told. However simply put the Onassis family foundations have many shipping investments and Olympic Shipping and Management still owns and operates ships. The Niarchos family investments are widespread in real estate but in 2013 they pulled out of shipping. After a series of oil spills from other Greek tankers and huge liability claims, they decided the business was too risky. They now count hotels and ski hills in St.Moritz, Switzerland as part of their portfolio.

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Queen Mary 2 - unplanned call

The transatlantic passenger liner* RMS Queen Mary 2 made an unplanned and brief call in Halifax in the early hours of this morning. The ship is on the westbound leg of a voyage from Southampton to New York and back, part of a 14 day two way Atlantic crossing.

Not all of Queen Mary 2's Halifax calls are in ideal conditions nor in broad daylight.

Such brief calls are usually the result of a medical emergency on board. There has been no official release of details, but it seems likely that weather conditions at sea precluded a helicopter evacuation or transfer to another vessel. Driving rain with torrential showers and high winds alongshore and offshore prevailed over night.

The ship seems to have tied up briefly at pier 22 before sailing at about 0630 hrs. Nor is it known yet if it was a passenger or crew member that needed assistance.

Medevacs are common from cruise ships, and are a fact of life. Fortunately the big ships like QM2 have excellent medical facilities and staff and illnesses or injuries can receive early intervention and stabilization. The risky process of helicopter evacuations can often become unnecessary with good on-board care.  That the ship can also travel at very high speed (up to 30 knots) means that it can reach a port relatively quickly compared to slower speed cruise ships.

The other factor is that family members may need to accompany medical cases, and the physical condition of the case and the companions may make helicopter and ship to ship transfers impractical.

*Cunard has designated Queen Mary 2 as a transatlantic passenger liner, that also conducts cruises. Its design and construction make it suitable for heavy ocean work, unlike purpose built cruise ships. In fact it is now the only ocean liner in the world and the largest ever built.
It also carries mail, and is thus eligible to be designated a Royal Mail Ship (RMS). It was a contract to deliver mail that funded the start of Cunard Line.

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If you have to ask....

The expedition yacht Bella Vita arrived at Tall Ship Quay today. I avoid calling it a super yacht simply because there are reputed to be 139 larger (and maybe more impressive) yachts in the world. However at 248 ft x 44 ft x 12.47 ft (draft) it is certainly a big yacht. Its six decks can accommodate 12 passengers and up to 22 crew to run the ship and cater to the owner and guests.

Built to a very high level of finish by Lurrson in 2009 as Northern Star it was sold and renamed in 2017. It is an ice class vessel with a range of 6,000 miles at 12 knots. Normal cruising speed would be 15 to 17 knots. Its gross tonnage is 2205.

The ship comes with a variety of small water craft. One of which (seen in the left background) seemed to be doing a security patrol. Some of the craft are housed discretely behind hull doors.

In case you are one of those who feel compelled to ask anyway...
When it was sold in 2017 the list price then was reported to be US$ 93,000,000. As with most vessels of this class it is available for charter and goes for about US$ 730,000 per week plus expenses.

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NEAS news

The yearly northern sealift conducted by NEAS (Nunavut Eastern Arctic Shipping) will indeed have two new ships sailing for it this year according to a press release issued May 30. The new names and schedules have also been published. By process of elimination I have determined which ships they are. It remains yet to determine which ship will get which name.

If this all seems a little arcane, please refer the previous post of April 10:   http://shipfax.blogspot.com/2019/04/more-changes.html

As reported two of the older members of the NEAS fleet were built in 1988, Avataq and Umiavut, and I was fairly certain that these would be retired this year. However the newly published shipping schedule shows Umiavit continuing to sail this year, along with the newer Mitiq and  Qamutik (built 1994) and Nunalik (built 2009). Typically NEAS may charter in one or two other ships for the summer. Erasmusgracht and Dolfijngracht  are shown on their fleet list page: https://neas.ca/fleet/

The new ships to the fleet are shown as Aujaq (meaning "summer") and Sinaa (meaning "ice floe edge"). The press release states that the ships are sisters of Mitiq and Qamutik, former Spliethoff E-type vessels, that are ice class 1, carrying 720 TEU, and equipped with three 60 tonne cranes.

The two Spliethoff ships are almost certainly:

•  Egmondgracht which was anchored off Montreal a few days ago and is now upbound through the St.Lawrence Seaway to Port Colborne, still under Dutch flag.
• Egelantiersgracht en route from Antwerp to Montreal and due to take a pilot at Escoumins June 9.

The NEAS schedule shows Aujaq sailing from Valleyfield, QC June 22 and Sinaa June 30. This leaves the ships a couple of weeks to be "Canadianised" and sign on a Canadian crew.

The two ships will, like the rest of the fleet, be Inuit owned, with certain aspects of operation and management coordinated by Logistec.

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MSC Nuria

Although we see their containers from time to time on other ships it is rare to see an actual MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Co) container ship in Halifax. As the second largest container shipping line in the world, it calls in many nearby ports including Montreal and Saint John, NB.

MSC Nuria in number one anchorage with the launch Halmar alongside.

Today's arrival of MSC Nuria however was not a sign of things to come. Instead it was a routine matter of undergoing a Canadian Food Inspection Agency examination for Asian gypsy moth. The ship had recently been in the area of Asia where the moth proliferates and before being allowed to proceed farther into Canadian territory it had to be checked. The procedure did not take long and the ship was underway again in about 3 hours, to continue its trip from Liverpool, UK to Montreal.

Making its way outbound passing Thrumcap the ship has its accommodation ladder rigged to disembark the pilot when it reaches Chebucto Head.

The MSC Nuria is a 50,963 gt, 63,377 dwt ship built in 2008 by Daewoo's Mangalia shipyard in Romania, with a capacity of 4884 TEU including 560 reefers. MSC moves its ships frequently from one route to another, to put the most appropriate ship on a given run. With more than 525 ships and a fleet capacity is around 3.3 mn TEUs, they have a wide range to chose from.

MSC also operates cruise ships and has two autocarriers on charter to Grimaldi. MSC Immacolata and MSC Christiana are regular callers at Autoport.

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Arctic Research

As the year progresses, and the north becomes accessible once again, research activity is gearing up. Today's arrival of CCGS Amundsen is en route to the north once again.

Thanks to a gypsum train blocking the road, my plan to photo the ship as it sailed up the Narrows was foiled and I had to settle for this view as the ship made for its berth at BIO.

Built as a Pierre Radisson class icebreaker in 1979, the former Sir John Franklin (ex Franklin 1979-1980) had been declared surplus in 1996 and actually decommissioned in 2000. Thanks to NGOs that found outside funding, the conversion of the former hold for extra accommodation and other work, such as installation of a moon pool, was carried out by Verreault at Mechins in 2003.

The scarcity of other marine resources in the Arctic has meant that its research work has been interrupted by emergency work. Last year's grounding of the Akademik Ioffe for example took the ship away from its main mission.

The ship tied up at BIO this morning to load equipment for its 2019 season. Its trip from Quebec City was not without incident however. It experienced a propulsion failure May 31 off Cacouna, QC, but the crew managed to effect repairs while the ship drifted.

This class of vessel - among those to be replaced by new ships as part of the fleet renewal recently announced - have had a history of engine issues with their Alco main engines. Equipped with six of the engines, working through electric drives, the ship generates 17,700 shp for its two props.

Amundsen is believed to have accompanied another vessel for at least part of the trip. The 66 ft William Kennedy is the only research vessel dedicated to Hudson Bay. Owned by the non-profit Arctic Research Foundation and operated with the University of Manitoba and the Churchill Marine Observatory, the boat has a surprisingly large capacity. It can house up to 14 researchers in addition to its crew.

Built in 2002 as a crab fishing vessel White Diamond  it was converted to research work in time for the 2018 season when it sailed out of Summerside, PE for Hudson Bay. Now tied up at The Cove, it is also being readied for summer work.

Built of Kevlar reinforced fiberglass over a wood hull, it has extra reinforcing for work in ice. Its 12 foot draft allows it to work in shallow water. The bay's extreme tides make that a desirable attribute.

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