Where are the ships - Part 2

In partial answer to my September 18 post, wondering about the dearth of container ships in Halifax recently, there was some activity today, September 21.

MSC Weser, which arrived in Halifax September 5 put out to sea today for trials. It did not take long to confirm that whatever the problem had been, the ship was now fit for service and it soon returned to port. It tied up at Pier 41 and began to load (or re-load) cargo.

The ship will be re-joining MSC's Canada Gulf Bridge service. It was en route from Philadelphia to Montreal when it arrived here, and will now continue that voyage. It normally sails from Montreal to Corner Brook and Saint John then on to Freeport, Bahamas and Mexico. That service does not call in Halifax.

Since the ship was completely unloaded on its arrival in Halifax, it was in ballast for today's trials. Just what it may be loading now is a bit of a mystery. Presumably whatever cargo it had for Canada could have been forwarded by tuck and rail by now, and outbound cargo could also have been sent here. However the ship is due in Montreal September 25, sailing September 26.

Another Montreal-bound MSC ship anchored off Halifax September 19. MSC Shristi was en route from New York when it made a "hard left" and anchored offshore.

As seen at a distance from Halifax the ship appears to be reasonably well laden, but perhaps not fully loaded. It was due in Montreal September 21, but has since been removed from MSC schedules. It is now due in Halifax tomorrow, September 22.

Built as Venice Bridge in 2005 by Hyundai, Ulsan, it is a 54,519 gt, 64,989 dwt ship with a capacity of 4738 TEU including 374 reefers. In 2019 it was renamed Baltic East under MSC management and in 2020 became MSC Shristi.

Also coming to anchor off Halifax today is the Conti Contessa, a sizable ship on THE Alliance's EC5 route (Far Est / Med/ East Coast North America). Built as Ital Contessa by Samsung, Koje in 2006 it measures a hefty 90,449gt, 101,007 dwt with a considerable container capacity of 8084, including 700 reefers. It became Conti Contessa in 2019 under Conti11 Schiffahrts ownership and Niederelbe management.

The ship appears to be heavily loaded, but is scheduled to transit the Narrows to Fairview Cove tomorrow, September 22. Based on its German ownership, it is likely filling some of HAPAG-Loyd's tonnage commitment to THE Alliance. (With ONE, Yang Ming and HMM.)

It is a large ship for the Narrows, so its airdraft must be minimized. 

Also at the Fairview Cove terminal today was NYK Rumina, a 55,487 gt, 66,171 dwt ship built by Hyundai, Samho in 2010.

The ship has a capacity of 4922 TEU, including 330 reefers, and it is on THE Alliance's AL5 service, which connects western Europe with the west coast of North America. Its last European port is Antwerp and first and last North American port is Halifax, so it is in competition with several other lines on the North Atlantic. 

One prominent and highly reliable Halifax subscription news source stated earlier this week that PSA's takeover of the Cerescorp / NYK operation at Fairview Cove is a "done deal" awaiting regulatory approval from Competition Bureau Canada. No date was given for when the green light will be illuminated, but it will be interesting to see how it plays out if it is approved (which seems likely).

Major investment in equipment is needed at Fairview Cove, and is underway at PSA Halifax's Southend Container Terminal (formerly Halterm.)

Some shuffling of shipping lines is also expected, in part to ease road traffic issues in downtown Halifax. The city will be entering a period of extreme congestion when major re-developments of several roadways are set to begin soon. Keeping heavy truck traffic off the peninsula's streets (and onto trains) should be a top priority.

Halifax has so far avoided the congestion that is backlogging ports in many regions, but careful management of landside activity will be required. As one pundit stated recently "ports are a mess, but shipping company profits are at record highs." 

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Baie St.Paul with the last of the salt

 The CSL self-unloader Baie St.Paul discharged what I believe is the last load of winter road salt at Pier 9C today. The ship was due at the Halifax pilot station at 0030 hrs this morning September 20. It would have tied up at the dock around 0200hrs, having sailed into Bedford Basin, turned and secured starboard side to the dock.  It likely started to unload within minutes. By 0800 hrs unloading was complete, and a pilot was ordered for 0900 hrs. I took the photo below at 0851 hrs. In the event the ship did not sail until after 1000 hrs.

This was the fourth load of salt that the ship has delivered from the mine in the Magdalen Islands. And unlike the City of Summerside, PE where the mayor has banned the unsightly stockpiling of salt on the public waterfront, the Port of Halifax has found a suitable and unobtrusive location for this stash of about 100,000 tonnes. The stockpile has also been discreetly tarped. Some of the tarp was peeled back to accommodate this load, but it will soon be covered up again after the stockpile is "groomed" to prevent erosion or slippage.

Today's contribution to the stockpile was in two parts. Some was added to the existing mountain in the background, and a smaller mountain was created in the foreground.

The salt will be trucked away bit by bit to salt depots or directly as needed during the winter. 

I have posted photos of the Trillium class ship Baie St.Paul many times, but never explained the significance of the ship's name. CSL's roots are in the Richelieu  + Ontario Navigation Co, formed in 1875. They operated a fleet of passenger ships with some freight carrying capacity. As the name implies they were active in the upper reaches of the St. Lawrence River and into the Great Lakes, but they also developed passenger services on the lower St. Lawrence River. When CSL was formed in 1913 by combining a number of smaller lines, including R+O, it soon became a powerhouse of cargo shipping too. 

Among the ports the R+O and then the CSL served on the Lower St.Lawrence were several on the north shore below Quebec City, that had no rail or road service. Among these was Baie St. Paul, about forty miles downstream from Quebec City. An important agricultural outpost it had a very shallow harbour, that dried out at low tide, and large ships could not dock there. Instead they landed at a "cage" or man-made structure out in the bay and people and freight were ferried to shore in small craft. Baie St.Paul became an important regional centre once the railroad and roads arrived, and was abandoned as a port. However it is noted as the ancestral home of the Simard family, founders of the many industrial enterprises in Sorel, QC. One has to wonder if they would ever have left the village if it had not been for the R+O / CSL.

The Baie St.Paul wharf is not accessible to large ships.

The scenery around Baie St.Paul is quite spectacular, and the area has become a home for artists and has numerous art galleries.

This photo could be stitched to the previous one to form a panorama, but would lose its detail.

CSL has named several of its ships for St.Lawrence north shore towns that it has served, and some more than once. Included in the list are Murray Bay and Tadoussac where CSL also operated resort hotels in connection with its "white ship" Saguenay River cruises, and Baie-Comeau, served only by its cargo ships. 

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Sarah Desgagnés - close approach and a Book Note

 The Canadian tanker Sarah Desgagnés made a close approach to Halifax today September 18. Coming to a stop off Chebucto Head for only a few minutes, it was soon on its way again, eastbound. It has been a while since the tanker has been in Halifax, and it was too far offshore (and in fog) for a photo today, so this March 2020 file photo will have to do.

The ship is returning from a trip to Philadelphia and I assume it came in close to shore to get into cell phone range for crew members to phone home.

Its current AIS signal is not giving a destination, but its heading is well offshore, possibly for Newfoundland or the St.Lawrence River.

Book Note

The Musée maritime de Charlevoix, in St-Joseph-de-la-Rive, QC has recently published a fascinating book (in French only) which is in fact two books under one cover. The village of St-Joseph-de-la-Rive is the ancestral home of the Desgagnés family, antecedents of the current Transport Desgagnés companies, and founders of the museum. It is therefore appropriate that the subjects of these two stories are the Desgagnés family over two centuries and Maurice "Jimmy" Desgagnés, pioneering schooner captain and the inspiration behind the founding family of the current company.

It will interest Nova Scotia readers to see references to trips by Maurice Desgagnés on his schooner Marie Vigilante to "Cow Bay",  Nova Scotia in 1890. This is not the present day Cow Bay, very close to Halifax, just past Eastern Passage, adjacent to Cole Harbour. That Cow Bay was named for an early settler whose name was Cowie. It has no coal (with an "a").

The Cow Bay that Desgagnés called on is today known as Port Morien and is the site of one of the oldest coal mines in Nova Scotia. (It supposedly received its name after a cow jumped off a ship into the harbour and made for land.) Desgagnés had a contract with the Caledonia Coal Company of Glace Bay and made several trip to load coal at Glace Bay and at nearby "Cow Bay". In October 1890 he opted to return to Quebec by way of the Strait of Canso rather than the Cabot Strait but encountered a severe October storm (possibly a hurricane) and ran aground. After jettisoning all of the cargo, he was able to reach Port Hawksbury for repairs.

Les Desgagnés, deux siècles en goélette du quai des Eboulements à la Terre de Baffin - Catherine Melançon // Maurice Jimmy Desgagnés et ses goélettes: une vie pour les moins aventureuse 1849-1912 - Michel Desgagnés.

Available from: La Musée maritime de Charlevoix, St-Joseph-de-la-Rive, QC.

ISBN 978-2-9801964-1-6, soft cover, 136 pages including a lexique (glossary), family tree, more than a dozen illustrations, including a map, general arrangement drawing (fold out page), priced at $19.95 (postage will be extra)

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Where are the Ships?

 I am not a shipping analyst - merely a ship watcher, but I cannot help but notice that there have been very few container ships in port lately. In fact during the past week (September 12 to 19) Cerescorp has handled only two ships for THE Alliance and three ACL ships. PSA Halifax handled no ZIM ships (a feeder is due September 20), no Tropical Shipping ship (one is due September 20), two Maersk/CMA CGM  transatlantic ships, but no CGM long haul ships, one Eimskip ship (two calls - one westbound and one eastbound) and three MSC ships.

So aside from strictly transatlantic ships and North American routes, there was very little activity. Shipping lines have "blanked" sailings because the ships are not available. Some 65 ships are anchored or drifting off Los Angeles / Long Beach, California and other west coast ports are experiencing delays.

Shipping lines are therefore diverting ships from their regular routes and sending them to the Pacific in hopes of keeping up with demand (and making more money). However LALB, for instance, is working to capacity and cannot increase throughput even if there is demand.

Therefore we are seeing fewer ships in Halifax since they are either delayed in the transpacific legs of their trips or they are being taken off Asia /Europe or transatlantic routes and sent to the Pacific.

MSC Anya anchored off Halifax August 2.

MSC for instance has recently transferred MSC Anya to the Pacific. It has been a regular on one of MSC's Canadian services. MSC has also acquired more ships so will likely make up the difference. Of more concern are ZIM, THE Alliance and CMA CGM whose absence will surely reduce Halifax's annual cargo figures substantially.

In the next few days we will begin to see some "extra loaders". These are unscheduled ships spot chartered or diverted slightly from other routes, to deal with delayed cargo or to pick up desperately needed empties to send back to Asia.

And an almost footnote is the reduction in automobile imports due to a shortage of computer chips. Again it is difficult to measure the reduction in cars carried per trip, since the auto carriers continue to come to Halifax from Europe, but all automakers worldwide are experiencing production issues due to the dearth of chips. 

WW's Torino moving from Pier 31 to Autoport today (September 18) has some cars on board despite the chip shortage.

So far traffic from Asia has not been diverted in significant number to Suez/Med/Atlantic or Panama/ East Coast but it may happen as cargo shippers grow frustrated with delays. In the meantime we will be seeing fewer container ships in Halifax, but some unusual ones too.

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Oceanex Sanderling - Update

 My previous report on September 12 ( see: update ) stated that Oceanex Sanderling remained in port due to bad weather (Hurricane Larry). Based on more recent information, that statement appears to have incorrect. I have heard that the ship had a stack fire soon after leaving Halifax on September 10 and returned to port for repairs and clean up.

The ship remains tied up at Pier 9C. The Oceanex schedule shows the ship sailing from Halifax today, September 16, for a September 18 arrival in St.John's, but there has been no posting on the pilotage list so far today.  The ship is now due to sail at 2000hrs .

Stack fires usually leave soot deposits on the funnel, and I can see some light black staining on the port funnel. The ship's auxiliaries seem to be running, with exhaust coming from the starboard funnel, and deck lights functioning.

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Tanker Evros for Irving Oil

 The tanker Evros arrived in Halifax from Amsterdam on September 15 with the latest cargo of refined product for Irving Oil.

The ship was built in 2005 by STX, Jinhae, South Korea with tonnages of 30,020 gt, 47,120 dwt. Flying the Bahamas flag, owners are listed  as Empire Navigation Ltd, and managers as Sun Enterprises Ltd. The latter is one of the operating arms of the Stavros G. Livanos companies, and the funnel carries the traditional "Lambda" (Greek letter "L") for Livanos. This ship's sister Strymon also called at Irving Oil in June 6, 2019.

The red "Λ" and blue border marks Livanos ships. The name Evros is from a river that flows through Bulgaria and forms the land border between Greece and Turkey. It has also been the scene of mass refugee migrations pushed by the Turkish government and is now heavily fortified. Nearby Alexandroupoli is also an important naval port for NATO.

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Two departures and updates

 Two ships sailed this afternoon, September 14,  in near perfect lighting conditions, allowing for better photos than when they arrived.

Trinitas completed unloading its cargo of nickel sulfides from Cuba on Nirint Shipping's regular route and departed for Bilbao, Spain.

The ship arrived yesterday, September 13, and due to the sun's position, the ship was in shadow.

See yesterday's post.

The other departure was the bulk carrier Manzanillo. As previously reported it arrived September 8 from Sorel, QC.

Now with a cargo of wood pellets it is headed for the River Tyne, England. This time I was able to get a photo without tugs alongside.

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