MSC Tamara

 Another one of MSC's St.Lawrence service ships arrived today to top up its load from St.Lawrence River draft to ocean draft.

MSC Tamara emerged out of the fog with a plume of water vapour from its exhaust gas scrubber. (Thanks to photo editing, the photo is a lot clearer than what I saw at the time.)

The ship dates from 2007 when it was built by Zhejiang YangFan Shipbuilding Co Ltd. It is a 41,225 gt, 50,446 dwt vessel with a capacity of 4254 TEU (including 550 reefers).

I saw the ship outbound in Quebec City in 2018 and note that its deck load was much less, but even so it was drawing less water. It may be carrying more empties on this trip. Because of the world wide shortage of containers, there is a huge demand for empties in the far east.

Calling in Halifax to offload some boxes on its inbound voyage or top up with more cargo outbound allows the ship to operate more efficiently on the ocean leg of the trip. 

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Contrasts

 Halifax harbour played host to three ships today that show the contrast in sizes of vessels that the port can handle.

Aristomenis is a 9954 TEU ship, built in 2011 by Samsung Shipbuilding and Heavy Industries Co Ltd in Koje. At 113,515 gt, 118,712 dwt , it is far from the largest container ship to call in Halifax, but it is too large to reach the Cerescorp terminal at Fairview Cove. The shipping line THE Alliance therefore arranged for the ship to berth at the PSA Halifax terminal instead. The normally competing terminal is unencumbered by bridge clearances or other restrictions and has handled ships in excess of 175,000 gt and 16,000 TEU capacity.

The auto carrier Morning Cornelia docked at two different facilities in Halifax. First it went to Pier 31 in the deep water piers area to off load "high and heavy" or other wheeled RoRo cargo such as machinery.

Later in the day the ship shifted to Autoport where it will unload the automobiles.

The ship was previously here January 18, 2021.

Late this afternoon the general cargo ship Enna docked at Pier 9A alongside the offshore construction vessel SIEM Dorado (see July 31).

A 2007 product of the Bodewes, Hoogezand yard, it was launched as Lifter but delivered as Hartwig Scan. It carried that name only briefly in 2007 when it reverted to Lifter . On July 1 of this year it became Emma. It appears to have put to sea with the paint still wet, as some of the new name has washed off.  It is a 4990 gt, 7778 dwt general cargo ship with a pair of 34 tonne capacity cranes. It has some tanks and steel fabrications on deck, but these may not be related to the work on SIEM Dorado which is undergoing conversion to a temporary cable ship.

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Government Ships

 It was a day for various government marine services vessels to move in and out of Halifax Harbour, and for merchant vessels to remain largely invisible.

The most notable move was that of the newly commissioned HMCS Harry DeWolf as it prepared to embark on its first mission as an Arctic Offshore Patrol Vessel. It is the first, and "name ship" of a new class of ships to be built for the Royal Canadian Navy. The ship first made a short move from HMC Dockyard to Irving Oil to top up its fuel bunkers. 

It later put out to sea on what will be an epic voyage combining arctic exercises, a transit of the Northwest Passage from Atlantic to Pacific, followed by a long west coast voyage to the Panama Canal. The ship will then participate in drug interdiction operations in the Caribbean with the United States Coast Guard before returning to Halifax completing a circumnavigation of North America.

The voyage will mark many firsts in addition to a return to arctic operations by the RCN. The navy has not had an icebreaker in its fleet since HMCS Labrador was transferred to Department of Transport in 1957. Tellingly Harry DeWolf's trip will retrace that of HMCS Labrador in 1954 when it became the first warship to make a Northwest Passage and then completed a circumnavigation of North America. Some considered the 1957 transfer of the Labrador to civilian service a slap in the face to the Navy, and a purely political move. Whatever it was, the RCN transferred its focus to anti-submarine warfare. The (previous) Canadian government's determination to assert its sovereignty in the Arctic lead in part to the current national shipbuilding program which will see more Arctic Offshore Patrol Vessels, frigates, Naval supply ships and icebreakers.

Alluding to the Canadian Coast Guard, there have been "visiting" CCG patrol boats in Halifax recently. As Halifax based boats are in refit, boats from other bases have appeared in Halifax. Today CCGC Caporal Kaeble V.C. was noted at the Tall Ships Quay.

The second in the Hero class of patrol boats to be built by Halifax Shipyard, it was commissioned in 2013 and is based in Quebec City. The boat is a modified Damen Stanpatrol 4207 (42 m long by 7 m wide). The boat also carries an RCMP crew when it is engaged in law enforcement duties. However it appears to be more likely to be engaged in Coast Guard College cadet training at the present time.

Unlike the Canadian Coast Guard ships which are crewed by civilians (plus police as needed), United States Coast Guard ships are military. Two USCG vessels sailed from HMC Dockyard today after a weekend in Halifax. They had previously been exercising off Nova Scotia.

USCG Richard Snyder WPC-1127 is a Sentinel class patrol vessel commissioned in 2018. (Based on a Damen Stanpatrol 4708 (47 m long x 8 m wide), this is the size and type that the CCG should have acquired due to their better sea keeping ability.)

Here is a comparison photo of CCGS Constable Carriere taken July 27.

Also sailing was the Boston based USCGC Escanaba, WMEC 907, a Famous class cutter that has called here several times since it was commissioned in 1987.

Unlike the USCG, the CCG also operates outside the enforcement sphere. Since 1995 the CCG has also incorporated the Department of Fisheries and Oceans fleet of research vessels. This included CGS Alfred Needler which arrived today as CCGS Alfred Needler.

Built by Ferguson Industries Ltd in Pictou in 1982, it is a fisheries research trawler. It must be very close to decommissioning as the current National Shipbuilding procurement Strategy has completed all three of the new "Offshore Fisheries Science Vessels". The two east coast vessels, CCGS John Cabot and CCGS Captain Jacques Cartier have been delivered and are supposedly in servic, replacing Alfred Needler and Teleost. Maintenance issues with other ships, including CCGS Hudson may explain why the Needler is still operational.

The sole merchant ship movement noted today was the early morning arrival of MSC Anya which has been anchored off Halifax since July 29. Presumably it is bound for Montreal.

MSC Anya was visible on holiday Monday, through the haze, as it waited at anchor off Halifax.

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CMA CGM again

 CMA CGM's Columbus JAX schedule has been "bunched up" with two ships arriving in quick succession rather than the usual week apart. Sailing yesterday was the CMA CGM Jules Verne after an overnight port call.

The 16,020 TEU ship arrived early a.m. July 31 and sailed mid-day August 1.

Following close on its heels today CMA CGM Leo made an early morning arrival.

Built by Hyundai Ulsan in 2010, it is a 131,322 gt, 131,236 dwt ship with a capacity of 11,200 TEU. Of note is the fact that all superstructure is together. Most ships of its size have an island bridge structure well forward.

The previous ship CMA Jules Verne had had a slower passage between Colombo (July 9) and Suez (July 18-19) while CMA CGM Leo sailed from Colombo July 13 but reached Suez July 21-22. Most schedule delays these days are blamed on port congestion or labour availability issues, but this situation appears to be more a matter of ship's speed with Leo catching up more on each leg.

The Columbus JAX service operates with COSCO, OOCL and Evergreen under the Ocean Alliance banner. Currently the service uses nineteen ships, all provided by CMA CGM or subsidiary APL. The rotation is thus about four months for each ship. The ships call at seventeen individual ports between east coast North America and west coast North America via Suez / Far East with no European ports of call.

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New Faces in New Places

 Two first time callers put in to Halifax July 31.

At PSA Halifax it was CMA CGM Jules Verne another of the Ultra size ships on the Columbus JAX service. Built in 2013 by Daewoo, Okpo. it is a 176,435 gt, 186,470 dwt ship with a capacity of 16,020 TEU. Built to the same design (Daewoo 16000) as the current "largest container ship in Halifax" title holder CMA CGM Marco Polo, the Verne may be a few gross tons smaller than the Polo. However as a calculated (rather than measured) description of the ship's cubic capacity, gross tonnage is not a fair comparison. In terms of lifting capacity, deadweight tonnage may be a better gauge. Verne's 186,470 dwt is just shy of Polo's 187,625 tonnes. Nevertheless both ships have the same hull dimensions ( 396m x 53.6m) and declared container cafrrying capacity.

I will leave it up to someone more fastidious about these things than I am to declare a winner.

At the other end of the harbour, IT International Telecom welcomed the Offshore Construction Vessel Siem Dorado arriving from Aberdeen, Scotland.

Built in 2009 by Kleven Ulsteinvik in Norway, it is a 4869 gt, 4257 dwt vessel, equipped with the usual variety of thrusters. Coupled with a diesel electric propulsion system, it has a high grade dynamic positioning capability. It is also equipped with a 100 tonne capacity, heave compensating crane, equipment to support an ROV including a moon pool, not to mention the obvious helicopter landing platform.

Owner Siem Offshore AS is the parent company of Secunda Canada LP, but this ship appears to be directed by the parent company. It was built as Siem Dorado but carried the names Adams Vision 2010-2013, Siem Stork 2013-2015 and Siem N-Sea 2015-2019. The ship was laid up in 2020 and has been reactivated for whatever work IT has for it. I am not aware of any application for a coasting license, so the work is likely well offshore, outside territorial waters.

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ONE Helsinki - big ship for Fairview Cove

 Fairview Cove operators Cerescorp and shipping consortium THE Alliance continue to push the envelope for larger and larger ships. Today's (July 30) arrival of ONE Helsinki is another example.

Built in 2012 by IHI, Kure as Helsinki Bridge the 96,801gt, 96,980 dwt ship has a capacity of 8930 TEU according to most sources. K-Line renamed the ship in 2020 as part of the Ocean Network Express amalgamation of the primary Japanese container lines. It is now one of about a dozen ships on THE Alliance's EC5 service. Ships are constantly being changed, and some are too large for Fairview Cove and have been assigned to PSA Halifax. There will also be a number of cancelled or "blanked" east bound sailings as the lines try to maintain schedules as they contend with port congestion and delays.

With the expansion of the Panama Canal, completed in 2016, the ONE Helsinki is well within the Neo Panamax limits.  It measures 334.5m long x 45.6m wide, versus the new 366m x 55m maximum.

At some point the ship's capacity was increased by increasing the allowable stack height on deck. This was done in part by adding a secondary navigation bridge atop the original bridge.The required forward visibility requirement was maintained while adding at least one more container on most stacks.

To maintain the lowest possible air draft the height of all fixed equipment was minimized, and various masts and antennas were built to be lowered or folded down.

Thanks to this feature the ship was able to squeeze under the MacKay bridge with lots of clearance (at low tide). 

For the record, tug assistance was provided by Atlantic Bear as stern tethered escort. Port side: Atlantic Oak. Starboard side: Atlantic Fir, shifting to port side, once into Bedford Basin.

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NH Siri at Imperial

 Siri is in fact a Norwegian female surname. And it was a Norwegian woman friend of one of the original developers whose name was given to the voice activated Apple personal assistant. It is therefore perhaps not surprising that a Norwegian owned tanker should bear that name too. NH Siri is owned by Nyhill Shipping + Trading AS of Bergen. Founded in 2006 by Ketil Nystad and Stig Hilland, it was a spin off of Jo Tankers.

The ship was built in 2010 by Hyundai Mipo, Ulsan as Gan-Triumph it is a 29,680 gt, 49,999 dwt MidRange tanker, and acquired and renamed by Nyhill in 2019. As with all the eight NH tankers it operates within a "tanker pool", in this case likely the fast growing Maersk MR Pool.

The ship arrived at Imperial Oil's number 3 dock from Beaumont, TX.

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