More boxes and more cars + Bonus Round

 The work of the port continues unabated with daily arrivals of container ships and the somewhat less frequent arrival of RoRo traffic.

This morning, April 22 saw the arrival of both types of ships. At PSA Halifax it was a return visit of CMA CGM Brazil one of the so callled "Ultra" class of ships. It made its first visit in October 2020 when it set the record for largest container ship to call in Canada. (That record has since been broken by CMA CGM Marco Polo).

CMA CGM Brazil makes its way inbound in drizzle with three tugs (one not visible)

Delivered in May 2020 by Hyundai Samho, it is a 149,314 gt, 157,076 dwt vessel with a capacity of 15,072 TEU. As usual with these large ships it has an isolated bridge structure well forward and engines aft.

The CMA CGM Brazil is on the OCEAN Alliance PSW3, AWE3 service. OCEAN Alliance consists of CMA CGM, COSCO, Evergreen and OOCL.

An early morning arrival at Pier 9C is the auto carrier Silver Ray. It will unload some machinery at Pier 9C then move to Autoport to offload cars. Despite the owner's name emblazoned on the sides, the ship is filling a slot on Wallenius Wilhelmsen's regular North Europe / North America service  SVC 1.

There is still machinery on the pier left from previous ships. It is gradually going out by truck and train.

The Silver Ray was built in 1999 by Kanasashi, Toyohashi as Altair Leader for MOL. However it was almot immediately sold to the US shipping company Waterman and renamed Green Dale. Under that name it called in Halifax in 2015. It was sold on to Sallaum Lines in 2017. The ship measures 50,087 gt, 16,157 dwt, and has a capacity of 4148 RT43 size cars. Sallaum ships normally operate from Europe and the United States to West Africa with new and used cars.

The Silver Ray flies the Panama flag, and is not to be confused with another autocarrier of the same name, but built in 2017, and flying the Marshal Islands flag. It measues 71,178 gt, 29,995 dwt that is operated by Hyundai Glovis.

Bonus Round

An April shower had just passed over when the Silver Ray was moving from Pier 9C to Autoport, allowing for an opportunity to see the whole ship:

 

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NYK Delphinus - sailing light; MSC Tianjin - sailing heavy

 We seldom see ships as lightly loaded as NYK Delphinus was today (April 21). Despite plenty of boxes on deck, the ship was showing a lot of boot topping. AIS reports it was drawing 8.7 m [28.54 ft] of water.

The ship is sailing on THE Alliance's AL5 service from the far east via the US west coast, Panama Canal, and Dominican Republic eastbound for Europe. Exports from the US (and Canada) are way out of balance with imports from Asia, so the ship is likely carrying lots of empties.

This is the ship's first call here since its scheduled July 6, 2021 call was cancelled. On May 14, 2021, while about 50 miles off Monterey, California on route from Vancouver, BC for Oakland, CA the ship reported a fire in the engine room. Fortunately the crew were able to seal off the area and no one was injured. Emergency reponse from shore assisted in cooling the hull and putting out the fire and the ship was towed into Oakland, May 17. By that time however the loss of power to refrigerated containers meant that cargo had spoiled, and there was other smoke and water damage to ship and cargo. It was three months before the ship could be unloaded, as the general average process for insurance meant that all cargo interests had to post bonds before their goods could be released. That process began August 11, 2021. The Dutch tug ALP Seeker then towed the ship to Busan, South Korea for repairs.

It resumed its normal rotation and sailed from Tokyo March 6 and made calls in Los Angeles, Oakland, Panama Canal and Catagena. Its last port was Caucedo, Dominican Republic April 17.

Built in 2007 by Hyundai, Ulsan, the NYK Delphinus is a 55,534 gt, 65,950 dwt ship with a container capacity of 4888 TEU. It has 330 reefer plugs.

Two tugs met the ship and shepherded it through the harbour to Fairview Cove.

Later in the day MSC Tianjin sailed for Baltimore on the Indus 2 service from North India. It was more deeply laden, showing 13.8m [45.28 ft] draft.

Built by Samsung SB+HI Co Ltd, Koje in 2005, it has tonnages of 89,097 gt, 105,528 dwt, with a capacity of 8063 TEU including 1400 reefers. Originally named OOCL Tianjin it became GSL Tianjin in 2017 and MSC Tianjin in 2019.

What appeared initially to be a black funnel, now seems to be the starboard side painted black instead of the usual MSC tan colour. The after side is that usual colour. I could not see the port side.

Perhaps they ran out of paint. Unlike owned ships, it does not carry the MSC banner on its hull either.

Recent statistics show that MSC owns 325 ships and charters 339 with a total carrying capacity of 4,351,960 TEU. The company has bought 186 ships since August 2020.  As of January 6, 2022 MSC out paced Maersk which owns 380 ships, charters 401, with a total capacity of 4,248,100 TEU.

Maersk has 29 ships of 319,100 TEU on order and MSC has 62 ships of 1,193,086 TEU on order.

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Initial visit CSL Kajika - updated

 The self-unloading bulker CSL Kajika anchored in Halifax April 19 - marking its first visit to this port. Since joining the CSL Americas division of CSL Group Inc in October 2021, the ship has been working in the CSL International Pool on the east coast of North America and as far south as Columbia and Panama, chiefly carrying coal and aggregates.

The ship is the second of two Kamsarmax gearless bulkers acquired by CSL and converted to self-unloaders. Sister ship CSL Koasek has been working the west coast. The two ships are additions to the fleet rather than replacements of older existing ships.

Built in 2015 by Jiangsu New Yangzi Shipbuilding as SBI Flamenco for the Lauro family's Scorpio Bulkers Inc, it initially was registered at 44,290 gt, 81,800 dwt. It was renamed Flamenco in 2019 when it was acquired by CSL and handed over to COSCO Nantong for the conversion work. That work included two longitudinal gravity fed conveyors leading to a single loop belt system and an 80 meter slewing boom. Unloading rates range from 4,200 mt/hr for coal to 5,000 mt/hr for other commodities. With the seven new double hopper shaped holds, revised tonnages come in at 44,408 gt, 77,247 dwt. The ship is completely double hulled including bunker tanks.

The ship's name, from first nations languages means "walks without sound". The sister ship's name CSL Koasek refers to the traditional band, Ko'asek, of the Sovereign Abenaki Nation.

CSL Americas, once called CSL International, is one of many divisions within the CSL Group Inc, which now has interests in Asia, Australia and Europe. Among them is the founding company Canada Steamship Lines. 

Update:

CSL Kajima sailed later in the day for Sydney, NS with its cargo of thermal coal. No reason was given for its stop here. I did see the launch Halmar alongside at one point.

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Asterix returns

 The Royal Canadian Navy's "afloat sustainment point" Asterix returned to Halifax today April 17 after nearly a month at sea. The ship sailed from Halifax March 21, first for NATO exercises and a call in Bermuda, then on across the Atlantic as far as the English Channel approaches with HMCS Halifax.

The ship then returned solo via the Azores, recrossing its eastbound track mid-Altantic. There may be some explanation for that odd return track- perhaps it was to stay clear of any iceberg zones. (This was  Titanic anniversary week).

Once past Mauger's Beach the ship deployed a couple of fast craft - which sped off into the harbour.

The ship is leased by the Royal Canadian Navy, and has a civilian crew. It therefore takes a civilian pilot and uses civilian tugs when arriving or departing port. However it also carries some navy personnel for specific duties, and I suspect these boat crews are navy matelots doing some boat drills.

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Quiet weekend -edited

 With Easter and Passover coinciding this weekend, shipping traffic was predictably quiet. Container ships however come and go as usual. Today (Saturday April 16) it was NYK Meteor at Fairview Cove and MSC Mirella Michaela at the Southend. The latter ship I did not see as it arrived at dawn and will sail over night. 

NYK Meteor has been a regular caller off and on over the years. One of twelve ships of its class, all with "celestial" names, it still carries its NYK name and colours but is now sailing on ONE's schdule for THE Alliance.

Built in 2007 by Hyundai, Ulsan, it is a 55,534 gt, 65,935 dwt ship with a 4922 TEU count according to some sources. Others give it as 4888, then give it at 2413 FEU (Forty foot equivalants) with 330 FEU refrigerated. Go figure. [There are presumably no 20 ft reefers]

The ship is not actually owned by NYK Line as far as I can tell. It is likely working out a charter with NYK, and thus has been chartered to ONE and has not been "translated" to a ONE name and colour scheme. ONE is gradually building up a fleet of ow ned ships as charters from member companies expire. Since this ship is due for a major class inspection in 2022 or early 2023, I imagine its charter will be up then, so repainting would not be done for a short term deployment.

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The Horizon Star is now ADV Reliant

 Horizon Maritime's former flagship Horizon Star has been renamed ADV Reliant by its new owners, the Australian government. ADV stands for Australian Defence Vessel - it will not use the Royal Australian Navy Ship (RANS) title. I assume this means that as a naval auxiliary vessel it will have a civilian crew, and will not be commissioned as a naval vessel. It may also be unarmed.

Built in 2017 by Kleven, Ulsteinvik, Norway, the state of the art offshore support vessel was sold for USD$ 67 million and is en route from the Netherlands to Las Palmas for refit. Horizon looks to make a substantial profit on the sale since they bought the ship at a distressed price. The original owners apparently cancelled the order and the shipyard sold the ship to recoup losses.

The Australian government had considered building a new "Pacific Support Vessel" but like many governments (such as Canada's) it found that buying "used" made more sense than paying the astronomical costs to build domestically. The ship will be based in Brisbane and will be standing by to respond with humanitarian aid and disaster relief, supplementing the navy's amphibious craft which are based in Sydney.

St.John's based Horizon Maritime used the ship to support oil and gas exploration off Nova Scotia in 2018, but that work dried up and it was assigned to the North Sea. It also supported the salvage operations on the Yantian Express fire in 2019.

 Horizon still has four ships in its stable. Horizon Enabler, Horizon Arctic and K.J.Gardner (the former Siem Commander - quietly acquired in 2021 from Secunda) all offshore support ships. The fourth is the icebreaker Polar Prince, the one time CCGS Sir Humphrey Gilbert.

After wintering in Mulgrave this year, the Polar Prince is now docked at the C.O.V.E. pier in Dartmouth.

 

Old Tricks - updated

 Forward visibility on container ships can be a problem if the deck load of boxes is too high. The International Maritime Organization (the IMO) which sets standards for ship design, construction and operation, has a guideline for visibility, with several clauses. The most basic one is that the view of the sea surface ahead from the conning position is to be two ships lengths or 500 meters, which ever is less, and within 10 degrees both sides of the centre line.

It was found that early container ships could carry many more containers than the orginal design allowed, but that the visibility would be compromised. Because of the variable weights of loaded containers, and the number of empties in the cargo, ships could be loaded safely (within the regulations for freeboard), but did not have the forward visibility because of the high deckloads.

The solution was to build a second, supplementary, navigation bridge above the original bridge. The second bridge did not duplicate all the facilities of the original bridge, but did have a helm and thus the desired visibility from the conning position. How much it was actually used in practice, remains a question.

One early container ship with such a modification that I remember seeing was the ZIM New York, built in 1972 by Italcantieri, Genoa Sesti. 

 As Zim New York departs Halifax in 1978, it is staying well clear of the Bluednose II. The extra added bridge structure is just visible, and the ship is loaded to its marks.How many TEUs could the ship carry? - see footnote

The high bridge is just visible as the ship prepares to leave Pier 41, Halterm in 1975. I think I was within the two ship's length but outside the 10 degrees margin. The tugs Point Viking (foreground) and Point Vim are pulling the ship clear with tow lines. (They were the ship's lines.)
 

In those good old days, the breakwater extended out beyond the end of pier 42 and had a lighthouse at the end. Here the ship has a much smaller deck load - and a noticeably lighter draft.The miniature second bridge is just visible.

Even with more historical information available on cargo, and sophisticated computer calculated mathematical models for determining ships' deadweight capacities these days, the actual weight of cargo at any one time can vary greatly. So some "modern" ships have also been fitted with one of these supplementary bridge structures. Such a ship appeared in Halifax today.

 ONE Hangzhou Bay, built as Hangzhou Bay Bridge in 2012 by IHI, Kure is a 96,790 gt, 96,980 dwt ship with a capacity of 9120 TEU.

Leaving Fairview Cove this afternoon, the ship would have had virtually no visibility from is original bridge, and so the small upper bridge was certainly required to meet the visibility standard. Was it added after the ship was built?

The ship is owned by K-Line and operates for Ocean Network Express, the Singapore based combination of the three major Japanese container lines (NYK, MOL, K-Line). It was renamed in 2021 and painted in ONE's magenta theme. ONE is a partner in THE Alliance and the ship is on the Asia-North America EC5 route.

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Footnote

The Zim New York, launched as Thermopylae measured 25,831 gt, 24,815 dwt and was rated for 1436 TEU according to Lloyd's Register of 1982-83. LR  did not publish TEU numbers in the 1970s, so I don't know what its original capacity might have been.

The current ZIM New York built in 2002 is a 53,453 gt, 66,766 dwt ship with a capacity of 4839 TEU.

Update: Thanks to a reader with better reference material than mine, I can say that the 1436 TEU capacity was the original capacity for the ship when built.

After thought

I did not call the added structure a "wheelhouse". That might have been correct terminolgy - but not all ships have wheels anymore. I also did not call it a "monkey's island", a term used for open helm positions, left over from the days of sail.The hardy tars that manned those positions on early steamships deserve great credit for being exposed to all weathers, where they could supposedly see and hear other ships. Fortunately modern seafarers do not have to put up with those conditions, and can still control a ship from the shelter of a proper navigating bridge.

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