Algobay with grain

The bulker Algobay arrived this morning with a load of grain. from Thunder Bay. This is the ship that was rebuilt in China two years ago, using most of the 1978 afterbody. That rebuild included new engines, and new self-unloading gear.

The ship's first call in Halifax since the rebuilding was in September 2010 when it loaded gypsum. It will return to Halifax again this month with a load of corn which it will load in Hamilton, ON in about two weeks time.

For more on the ship see:

http://shipfax.blogspot.com/2010/09/algobay-returns.html

http://shipfax.blogspot.com/2010/09/algobay-again.html

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Nirint Hollandia glides in to port

The Dutch flagged general cargo ship Nirint Hollandia glides in to pier 31 this afternoon. Tomorrow morning it will start to discharge its cargo from Cuba. The ship was built in 2007 - the hull at Okean shipyard in the Ukraine, and was completed by the Damen Shipyard in the Netherlands. Damen specializes in this type of two stage construction with yards in Romania and Poland also building hulls for completion in Holland.

The ship carries two 80 tonne cargo handling cranes and can accommodate a wide variety of bulk, breakbulk and containerised cargo. Its container capacity is 686 TEU. It measures 8999 gross tons and 12,000 deadweight (approx.)

As advertised on the ship's sides, its operators have a website, which is worth a visit at : http://www.nirint.com/

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More tanker activity

1. Algosea moves down the harbour toward Imperial Oil.

2. The handsome Histria Tiger awaits a berth at Imperial Oil.

3. Clipper Legend also waits at anchor for its turn.

The Imperial Oil refinery continues to be busy with a variety of chemical and product tankers shuttling in and out of berths to unload and load.

Today's activity included Algosea moving from anchor in Bedford Basin to the oil dock this afternoon. On the way is passed two tankers at anchor awaiting berths: Histria Tiger and Clipper Legend.

Algosea was built in 1998 at Alabama Shipyards in Mobile for Danish owners, Danneborg. It traded internationally for them until 2005 when Algoma Tankers acquired the ship and modified it for Canadian service. It is an ice class, double hulled vessel with phenolic epoxy coated tanks. It measures 11,290 gross tons and 16,775 deadweight.

Histria Tiger is owned in Romania, but registered in Liberia and is a chemical and oil products tanker measuring 25,864 gross tons and 40,416 deadweight. The ship was built in 2008. Romanian ships are very rare in Halifax, but the country has developed a shipbuilding industry, with major yards in Constanta and Galati. This ship was built at the former yard. [Istria refers to the first Greek colony in what is now Romania.]

Clipper Legend is sister to Clipper Lancer which was in earlier in the week. Measuring 6522 gross and 10,048 deadweight it is a chemical tanker, registered in the Bahamas, and owned by the Danish group Nordic Tankers. It was built in 2004 by the Yardimci Tersanesi A.S. in Tuzla, Turkey.

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I will not make jokes about subs, I will not.....

Canada's unfortunate experience with submarines recently makes one wonder about the choice of a new play structure adjacent to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. Nonetheless it looks like it will be a lot of fun.

More shiny and modern looking (I will not make jokes....) than the previous structure, the old one had a real charm as it was built as a wooden boat in frame with lots of ways to play on it. It eventually wore out and succumbed to the safety police, and had to be replaced. (No ironies intended-I will not make jokes...)

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BBC Fuji takes on boiler modules

1. BBC Fuji at pier 30 loads a stem generator module.

2. One of the ship's cranes makes easy work of a generator module weighing 100 tonnes or so.

The general cargo ship BBC Fuji spent the day loading steam generator modules from Innovative Steam Technologies (ISI) of Cambridge, ON. The four modules arrived by rail and some component parts by truck over the last few weeks.

The ship is very new, and was delivered in June by Xingang Shipyard in China to Briese Schiff's GmbH of Germany. This company, known also as BBC Chartering, has a modern fleet of more than one hundred ships, many of them equipped with heavy lifting gear. BBC Fuji's cranes can each lift an astounding 350 tonnes. The ship measures 8255 gross tons, 9266 deadweight, and is a versatile vessel, capable of carrying a variety of cargoes including paper, timber, bulk grain, 660 TEU of containers or heavy lift and oversize.

ISI has exported their "Once Through " steam generators all over the world.

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Preserver Part Two

1. Novadock is positioned in one of the narrowest parts of the harbour.

2. Ouch#1 including gash, with a navy buoy in the foreground, signaling shallow water.

2. Ouch#2 (near the south end of the Novadock)

Yesterday's incident with HMCS Preserver seems not to have produced too much panic at Halifax Shipyard. I didn't detect any activity on the outside wall of the Novadock this morning, where the damage was quite evident. It included two mangled companionways and a gash in the side wall of the dock. It is possible that these will not effect the operation of the dock. Work was apparently continuing within the dock setting up blocks for CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent.

Meanwhile Preserver was alongside at HMC Dockyard with a nasty looking set-in to her sprayrail forward. I expect that some of this damage extends to frames below the weather deck, and that repairs will be time consuming and expensive!

The ship was under full naval control at the time of the incident, but was still undergoing post refit engineering trials. Speculation on the cause is no doubt the topic of conversation in may pubs, but I have no particular insights.

I do make the following observations:

1. Turning a ship that size in the Narrows seems needless. Lots of other ships go the Basin to turn. Some ships turn north of the Novadock, but they use a lot more powerful tugs when doing so.

2. Turning was necessary because the Force Defence Booms prevent turning in the lower harbour. These expensive (and not fully utilized) booms were set in the water to protect naval vessels from attack. They also whacked a huge chunk off available space in the approaches to the Narrows, where some ships (maybe even Preserver) could have been turned by tugs.

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Preserver allides with dock

1. HMCS Preserver January 3, 1971. The bow mounted gun was removed due to its exposed location.

HMCS Preserver "bumped" her pier when she arrived from sea early this afternoon. I have no details, but the CBC reports that there is visible damage. Divers were called to the site almost immediately after the event.

Preserver is just out of refit and has only been fully operational for a few weeks. OUCH!

[Allision = contact with a fixed object]

Update: the incident occurred as the ship was turning in the harbour, and what it struck was the Halifax Shipyard's Novadock, smashing a companion way and punching a hole in the side of the floating drydock. This is most unfortuinate as the shipyard was preparing the dock for Monday's arrival of CCGS Louis S.St-Laurent for emergency repairs to its centreline prop/shaft.

The Novadock is registered as a vessel, but is permanently moored, and therefore is a fixed object. I will stick with the term allision.

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