Bandura for cable baskets

The Dutch general cargo ship Bandura arrived this morning and tied up at Pier 9C to be fitted with cable baskets. The prefabricated steel structures will be fitted in the ship's holds to enable it to carry fibreoptic cable.

Once the frames are in place the ship will likely sail to Portsmouth / Newington, NH to load the cable. Halifax is a popular spot for this type of work, with several ships loading the baskets, also known as tanks, in recent years.

Bandura is one of many ships built by the Damen company. Its hull was built by Zaliv in Kerch, Ukraine and delivered to Damen's Bergum yard in the Netherlands for completion. The 5425 gt, 8217 dwt ship is fitted with two 40 tonne capacity cranes.

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Easter Passage - something new for Autoport and more asphalt- UPDATED

Instead of the behemoth 6,000 to 8,000 car capacity auto carriers we usually see, today's caller at Autoport is the relatively tiny Viking Constanza, with a capacity of 2,000 cars.

Ships of this size are usually found on short sea routes within Europe or Asia, and it seems that this may be a short sea voyage also. The ship's last call was Vera Cruz, Mexico, indicating that it has a cargo of Mexican made cars, and possibly some buses.

The ship was built in 2010 by Sumitomo at their Kyokuyo Shipyard and has tonnages of 20,209 gt, 5496 dwt. It is equipped with one hoistable deck and can carry some "high and heavy" cargo in addition to typical cars.

Owners Gram Car Carriers, and managers OSM Ship Management Pte Ltd of Singapore have the ship time chartered to an unnamed line.

Meanwhile at the adjacent dock, owned by McAsphalt Industries, the integrated tug/tanker barge Leo A. McArthur / John J. Carrick * is unloading a cargo of asphalt.

Modernization of the former Dook's dock is still underway and the Municipal Enterprises Ltd barge, the former cable ferry La Have II is tied up inside the dock.

Built by Penglai Bohai in China in 2007 the pair are built for ocean work, but are more usually found working in the St.Lawrence Seaway between Tracy, QC and Sarnia, ON and numerous ports between. The barge has a capacity of 70,000 bbls and is equipped with a heating system to keep the cargo pumpable.

Named for the founders of McAsphalt Industries (in 1970) the pair are also ice strengthened, and have been known to work through the winter on the Great Lakes. They arrived in Canada for the first time September 9, 2009. and went into service for McAsphalt Marine Transportation.

The tug is connected to the barge by an Articouple system that allows it to detach, but rarely needs to do so.

The tug was initially named Victorious when it was managed by ULS Group (Upper Lakes Shipping) but was renamed when McAsphalt took over direct management with McAsphalt Marine Transportation Ltd. McAsphalt acquired the Miller paving company in 1977.

McAsphalt also operates another tug/barge combo, Everlast/ Norman McLeod which also works the Great Lakes / St.Lawrence.

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* Transport Canada's ship registry shows a period after the initial in the tug's name, but not in the barge's name. However there is a period on the barge itself.
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Bonus Round
On departure this afternoon Viking Constanza revealed another unsual aspect of the ship that was not obvious from the previous photo.

The ship has two stern ramps, one straight ramp and one on the quarter. This feature allows the ship to dock at a variety of facilities, and in some circumstances might even allow the ship to use both ramps at once. Also of note, the ship's bridge is aft of midships.

The ship seems to be a bit of a speedster, as it was making a lot of engine noise, and throwing up a bit of a rooster tail. Once clear of the harbour and heading south (destination New York) it was clocked in excess of 18 knots.

Nordic Wolverine

Not the usual product tanker, Nordic Wolverine made a short visit to anchorage in Halifax over night and sailed early this afternoon. The ship is a specialist chemical tanker with stainless steel and zinc tanks. It delivered a cargo of linear alkylbenzene (a detergent component) to Bécancour, QC and sailed directly to Halifax where it remained at anchor. Its next port is to be Altamira, MX.

Nordic Wolverine made a smoky departure from number 5 anchorage this afternoon.

The ship was built in 2006 with construction starting at the Aker Tulcea yard in Romania, and completion at the Aker Aukra yard in Norway. Launched as Nina the ship was delivered as Vaagen then renamed Northern Wolverine in 2010 and Nordic Wolverine in 2014.

The ship is owned by Bomar Four LLC and managed by Borealis Maritime Ltd. The latter is a 75 ship company based in Norway that manages ships for private and institutional investors.

Another Borealis managed ship is a regular caller in Halifax. Bomar Rebecca was in port yesterday sailing for Tropical Shipping. Its charter was recently extended by three months at $7,000 per day.

 

That period should see delivery of the sixth and final new ship for Tropical Shipping. When it is delivered, Tropical is likely to assign one of the new ships to the Halifax run, joining Tropic Hope, the first in the new build series.

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Summer Hiatus - a High Challenge

This week marks the start of my usual summer travel time and thus there may be limited posts for a while, and many of them will not be made from Halifax.

As one of the few ships in port today, perhaps High Challenge's name will indicate the difficulty of keeping track of Halifax port activity while I am many miles away.

High Challenge is part of the d'Amico International Shipping SA fleet. According to the company website [ https://en.damicointernationalshipping.com/about-dis/fleet/  ]  d'Amico owns 27 tankers and has another 30 under various types of charters and management agreements. Sixteen of the owned tankers are of the Mid Range size (45,000 to 51,000 dwt) and a further 27 MRs are under their control.

High Challenge unloads a cargo from Houston at Imperial Oil's number 3 dock.

This ship was built in 2017 by Hyundai-Vinashin Shipyard Co in Ninh Hoa, Vietnam, a shipyard established with the assistance of the Korean tanker specialists to take advantage of lower labour costs and government subsidies. d'Amico has been a major customer.

 Measuring 29,957 gt, 49,990 dwt, High Challenge is  owned outright by d'Amico, and is a typical Mid Range type.

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CCGS Frederick G. Creed

A rare visitor has been working in and out of Halifax for the last week or so. CCGS Frederick G. Creed is a hydrographic survey vessel, normally based in Rimouski, QC. However it works the length and breadth of the St.Lawrence River and Gulf and makes occasional forays into the Atlantic.

It is a SWATH vessel (Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull), a hull form patented by Nova Scotia native Frederick G. Creed. Read more about it in this previous post:  http://shipfax.blogspot.com/2013/05/fgs-planet-swath-has-nova-scotia-roots.html

Despite its diminutive size (152 gt) the vessel provides an extremely stable platform for the delicate work of charting. Built in 1988 by SWATH Ocean Systems Inc in San Diego, CA, the ship appears to be holding up extremely well for its age. It has certainly received numerous upgrades, some of which are apparent by comparing today's photo with the 1994 and 2013 photos on the previous post. It appears to have a larger stern gantry now, not to mention numerous satellite and other communication devices.

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HMCS Halifax back to port

After an overnight sea trial HMCS Halifax crept back into port late this morning and tied up at HMC Dockyard.

Wearing the NATO badge on its bridge wing, HMCS Halifax re-enters its home port at a very slow speed late this morning.

I speculated yesterday that repairs to an oil seal in one of the turbine compartments had been repaired, but apparently it is not yet ready to join its NATO mission in the Mediterranean. Certainly things happen on ships, but this must be a bit of an embarrassment for a ship that has been working up for this operation for some months.

Navy sources have given no time line for completion of repairs, but I am sure after recent publicity about the 2004 fire aboard HMCS Chicoutimi that they are taking extra precautions. The cause of the fire was determined to be the crew's failure to follow standard operating procedures by leaving hatches open. The resulting ingress of water caused an electrical short and fire that gutted much of the interior of the boat.

HMCS Chicoutimi, on the heavy lift ship Tern April 5, 2009 for transfer to the west coast and rebuilding.

That fire aboard the ex RN submarine Upholder on its delivery trip to Canada resulted in the loss of one life and serious long term health consequences for most if not all of the rest of the crew. Since repaired and rebuilt, HMCS Chicoutimi is based on the west coast.
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HMCS Halifax back to sea

HMCS Halifax sailed this evening after being forced to return to port on Sunday (July 7). The ship had sailed on Saturday July 6 to take up its duties as part of the NATO Operation
REASSURANCE in the Mediterranean. An oil leak in a gas turbine compartment posed a serious risk of fire and the ship came back to HMC Dockyard to have a seal replaced.

That work has apparently been completed in quick time, and the ship has now put back to sea. However this may only be a trials trip as AIS indicates the ship returning to Halifax tomorrow.

The RCN has been a part of this NATO mission since 2014, and Halifax is to be the flagship for this 6 month deployment.

HMCS Halifax FFH 330 was the lead ship of its class of frigates, and was commissioned in 1992. It completed its life extension program in 2011 and has since received a major systems upgrade and refit.

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