Harry Dewolf to builders sea trials

Following on yesterday's harbour trials in Bedford Basin the first Arctic Offshore Patrol Ship AOPS#1 set out on sea trials today.  Using the name Harry Dewolf although far from being officially commissioned with that name, the ship got under way from Halifax Shipyard, with no name or pennant number displayed. The 430 was painted on its hull even before launch, but has now quietly vanished.

The period of builders trials will apparently now extend into the new year and will be a period of feverish activity for Irving Shipbuilding leading up to handover to the RCN sometime in the first quarter of 2020.

The overly optimistic delivery dates for the ship have been extended from the original estimate of late 2018. As lead ship of its class, there is every reason to expect delays and extensions, but having reached the builders sea trials stage, there must be some light at the end of the tunnel.

Today's builder's trial will be an all day affair, but extended multi-day trials will be necessary before the ship is handed over to RCN for its own trials and commissioning.

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Tankers in and out

The usual comings and goings at Irving Oil and Imperial Oil this week saw one tanker at each facility.

At Imperial Oil it was the Pro Onyx a very new ship, just delivered in September by Hyundai Mipo, Ulsan. It is a chemical product tanker of the MR type, 29,655 gt and 49,999 dwt (or 49,936 according to some other sources).

Although very new it does not appear to be too different from most ships of its type, with two exceptions. One is that its funnel is offset to starboard. This may be as a result of incorporating an exhaust gas scrubber system within in the funnel casing.

Note also the traditional lifeboat placements, port and starboard with davits, instead of the stern launch type seen in recent years.

Meantime at Irving Oil Elka Glory is back with another cargo from Amsterdam (it was first here in April).

Also a MidRange product tanker, of 27,612 gt, 44,598 dwt, it was built in 2003 by Brodosplit in Croatia. It has the stern launch type lifeboat. Intended to ease launching under difficult conditions such as a list, there have been numerous accidents in training with many serious injuries. More important to crew survivability, particularly with tankers, is the enclosed lifeboat, now seen on most ships.

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MOL Empire first time

MOL Empire made its first appearance in Halifax today on what seems to be a once only call.

MOL Empires inbound past Maugher's Beach.

The ship is lightly smaller than the usual MOL ships we see on Alliance service.  Built in 2010 by Hyundai Heavy Industry in Ulsan, this ship measures out at 54,940 gt and 67,170 dwt with a container capacity of 5087, including 330 reefers. The "P" class ships that are regular callers carry 6350 TEUs with 500 reefers.

With tug assistance the ship passes through the Narrows en route to Fairview Cove.

The ship arrived from New York and is headed for Rotterdam and European ports on the AL1 service before switching to the AL5 service for its next transatlantic trip to southern US ports and the Pacific coast.

The ONE houseflag.

A much tattered ONE house flag apparently flies forward on the jack staff at all times, judging by its condition. It is not quite the official ONE magenta colour anymore (it looks more red) with Ocean Network Express spelled out below the ONE also in whitre lettters. The ONE flag is an acknowledgement that the ship sails for the joint venture of NYK (38%) , K-Line (31%) and MOL (31%) formed in 2018 to merge the three competing Japanese container lines. The merged entity is a partner in THE Alliance with HAPAG-Lloyd, Yang Ming and Hyundai Merchant Marine.

The Washington "W" also appears somewhat tattered.

Nevertheless the ship is still owned by Seaspan Corp, the Dennis Washington owned international container ship financing operation that currently owns more than 100 ships. All are leased out to shipping lines. The Seattle-based Washington also owns the Seaspan interests in British Columbia, including the shipyards and tug boat company, but Seaspan Corp is operated independently and trades on the NYSE.

This week Seaspan Corp announced the acquisition of six ships (as yet not identified) for $350 mn (USD). That will swell the owned fleet to 119 ships, with a total capacity now exceeding more than 1 mn TEU or 7.7% of the global container capacity of 23 mn TEU.

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Glovis Countess and a strike

Glovis Countess arrived at Autoport this morning for what I believe to be the first time. The 60,213 gt, 18,701 dwt ship was built in 2010 by Mitsubishi Heavy in Nagasaki as CSAV Rio Geike. It changed names in 2013, and current owners are associated with Dong-A Tankers (hence the DAT on the funnel), a major South Korean ship operator. The ship has a capacity of 5,221 cars.

Glovis Countess has rounded Ives Knoll and is headed for Eastern Passage and Autoport.

The Dong-A Tanker company sought creditor protection in April 2019, but it is unclear if DAT Countess Maritime SA (owners of this ship) and DAT Maritime Co Ltd (technical managers) are involved in those proceedings.

Once off the Autoport berth tugs swung the ship to come alongside starboard side to.

Autoport is owned and operated by CN and as of this morning some three thousand CN conductors and yard workers were on strike. Autorack rail cars were still being switched at Autoport, but that may not last for long if management tries to take on operating jobs.

The ship arrived from New York, so must be loading export cargo, which would already be on the pier waiting to load, so not likely effected by the strike.

Originally due yesterday, the ship spent the night off St.Margaret's Bay after pilotage operations were suspended. There was still some swell running today, but conditions were much more benign.

Glovis Countess inbound with a residual swell.

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More Comparison

I did not expect to see such an obvious difference between yesterday's arrival and today's departure of YM Modesty.

The ship's after deck has noticeably more boxes than it did coming in.  I count seven tiers (except on the top) today whereas some of the stacks were only five or six high yesterday.

(picture from yesterday for comparison)

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Don't Say No Comparison

With the same ships returning to Halifax time after time for years on end, it is easy to become blase and to ignore the repeaters. There may be something to learn however from seeing the same ship in the same setting after different times.

Westbound (that is arriving in North America) the ship is always heavily loaded. Once it has completed its US calls and turns Eastbound it is more lightly loaded and has fewer boxes on deck. The trade imbalance of imports versus exports becomes pretty obvious as does the quandary of how to return empty boxes to Asia when there is no revenue in doing so.

YM Modesty is one of those repeaters, as it shows up regularly for the Alliance, both eastbound and westbound. Its arrival today on the Eastbound leg gives an opportunity for such comparisons.

Today: Eastbound

November 2: Westbound

July 20 2018: westbound

Some rather obvious things jump out to me:

First: the ship was more deeply loaded westbound in 2018.

Second: the ships was more deeply loaded eastbound in 2018.

Third: slightly more empties (on the after deck) in 2019 eastbound.

Note also the many new or newly repainted ONE (Ocean Network Express) boxes in 2019, indicating that the merger of the three primary Japanese container lines (K-Line, NYK and MOL) is slowly taking effect. Are they scrapping old boxes - effectively abandoning them in the west, and building new ones in the east?

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More Gypsum To Go

There has been a real run on gypsum lately with another load going out today. This time it is a domestic load, on CSL's Salarium a Canadian flag self-unloader.

Salarium docks stern in to make it easier for the shoreside ship loader to function.

(The ship does not seem to have loaded much in the 23 hours it had been alongside when I took this  photo this morning.)

The ship is on long term charter to carry salt from Mines Seleines in the Magdalen Islands, but that does not take up all its time, so it is free to pursue other work when it is available. In October the ship even made one of its rare calls to the Great Lakes. 

On that trip (its first since 2017) it went to Windsor*, ON, loaded salt for Twin Ports (Duluth / Superior) WI, then loaded iron ore pellets at Two Harbours, WI for Quebec City. It seems to have come directly from that assignment to Halifax to load gypsum - by passing the Magdalen Islands en route.

[*The salt mine in Windsor, ON is owned by K+S Windsor Salt, also owners of Mines Seleines.]

As a Canadian flag ship (built in 1980 as Nanticoke, 21,870 gt, summer draft capacity 35,100 tons) the ship can deliver its gypsum cargo to a Canadian port. The ship was renamed in 1990 when it was chartered to la Soçiété Québecoise d'Exploration Minière [SOQUEM]. Normally the ship keeps running well into the winter, and lays up in Montreal during the most severe ice conditions.

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