Jean Goodwill - on patrol

 The CCGS Jean Goodwill (ex Balder Viking) sailed this morning on SAR patrol. With CCGS Earl Grey in refit the ship will head for the areas east of Halifax. CCGS Sir William Alexander is covering the area west of Halifax.

The former offshore icebreaking / tug supplier, built in 2000, was acquired by the CCG in 2018 and refitted for Coast Guard use for fifteen to twenty-five years or until new vessels can be purpose built. In the meantime other vessels will be given life extension refits.

Jean Goodwill entered service in November 2020 and has since worked the winter of 2020-2021 in the Gulf of St.Lawrence and headed north during the summer of 2021. It left Halifax July 1 and returned October 9. As with all CCG ships it is "multi-tasked" for SAR (Search and Rescue), patrol, navigation aids and other duties such as ice breaking.

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Container Feeders

As container ships get larger all the time, the ships calling in Halifax keep getting bigger too. However "small" container ships are also important and operate where cargo volumes do not warrant large ships. The smaller ships also work as feeders to gather up cargo and deliver it to hub ports for larger ships to load. They often have cargo cranes since some small ports do not have container cranes.

ZIM operates a feeder service between Halifax and its hub port of Kingston, Jamaica. The ships also call in New York, so provide a "short sea" service also for cargo from Halifax. Called the Canada Feeder Express (CFX) it currently works with two ships, Contship Leo and Taipei Trader. Both are familiar calllers by now  - the latter ship arrived today, November 20,  lightly loaded, from Kingston.

 

The ship has a capacity of 1102 TEU and that is considered "small" by today's standards. When container services started in Halifax fifty years ago, a 1,000 TEU ships was considered to be a giant! [See tomorrow's post for more on that.]

Meanwhile, anchored in Bedford Basin there is another "smaller" container ship - this one with a capacity of 2345 TEU (or 2339 depending on the source) including 500 reefers. Molly Schulte arrived from Hamburg, and although unscheduled, appears to be working for HAPAG-Lloyd exclusively. The green containers are marked for UASC - United Arab Shipping Co - the majority owner of HAPAG-Lloyd. HAPAG-Lloyd ships usually call in Halifax as part of THE Alliance.

 [Notice the free fall lifeboat partially deployed over the stern.]

Built by Yangfan Group, Zhoushan, China, it is a 27,279 gt, 30,263  dwt vessel equipped with three 45 tonne cranes. It is a most unusual size of ship for Halifax - midway between the 1,000TEU or less feeders and the more usual "liner" types which start at about 4,500 TEU, and do not carry cranes

The ship will remain at anchor until Monday, when it will move in to Fairview Cove.

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Morning Peace - extended stay

 Most car carrying ships spend very little time in port. They arrive and sail within a working day, since they can discharge cars at a high rate of speed. Some car carriers stay a little longer since they also have cargo to unload, which is not handled by Autoport. (Autoport is owned and operated by CN Rail, and thus handles mostly cars that will be forwarded by rail.) To discharge the other cargo the ships go to Pier 30-31, which us now within the operating area of PSA Halifax. That cargo is usually RoRo and consists of various kinds of machinery, but sometimes also oversize or heavy loads. It is also discharged rapidly, and therefore the ship can usually come and go in a day.

The most recent car carrier to call in Halifax ended up staying in port for a day and a half. Morning Peace arrived early in the morning of November 17 and sailed in the early afternoon of November 18. Its first berth was at Pier 30-31 where it spent the morning, then moved to Autoport in the early afternoon. As stated, a 24 hour stay at Autoport is unusual, so I image the ship did not work an evening or night shift, but instead two half days.

Morning Peace was built in 2017 by Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries Co Ltd, Yeongam, South Korea. It is a 66,802 gt, 22,438 dwt ship with a capacity of 7,368 to 7,549 cars (depending on the info source). It is also equipped with a high capacity stern ramp to handle heavy loads.

The ship is owned by Eukor Car Carriers, and managed by Wilhelm Wilhelmsen. It is en route from Southampton, UK to New York.

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HMCS Fredericton

 An engine room fire aboard HMCS Fredericton immobilized the ship for a time in the early morning hours of November 18. Fortunately the fire was soon extinguished and the ship was able to make its own way to port in Norway.

The ship sailed from Halifax July 24, 2021 [pictured above] for a NATO deployment, and at the time of the fire it was participating in the FOREX exercises off Trondelag, Norway. Reports I have read indicate that the fire was reported about 0400 hrs and the ship's own crew apparently extinguished the fire by 0700 hrs. The lifeboat Harald V stood by and the patrol vessel Njord and tug Balder Harald escorted the ship to the port of Trondheim where it will be assessed for damage and required repairs.

I have heard no reports of injuries, or the extent of damage due to fire or smoke, etc.,

Normal NATO assignments for Canadian ships last six months and Fredericton was expected back in Halifax by Christmas. HMCS Halifax will be sailing in January to take up NATO duties.

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More MSC Indus 2

The Mediterranean Shipping Co, MSC's, Indus 2 weekly service is on its sixth "new to Halifax" ship as it works its way through a rotation of eight or maybe nine ships for the first time. Today, November 16, it was a charter vessel Navios Unite arriving at PSA Halifax.

 Built in 2006 as YM Unity by Hyundai Ulsan, it is a 90,389 gt, 101,411 dwt ship with a capacity of 8208 TEU including 700 reefers.It took its present name in 2018. 

The ship is owned by the sufficiently opaque Xiang L47 HK International and managed by Navios Ship Management. The latter is a privately owned spin off from Navios Maritime Holdings Inc, a Piraeus based, publicly listed ship owner and operator, mostly in tankers and drybulk. Navios Maritime chair and CEO Angeliki Frangou seems to own the ship management operation personally, through a holding company. Even so the ship carries the Navios "N" funnel mark.

Although MSC has been on a buying spree lately, it still requires ships from outside its own fleet, so this may be a short term charter to meet demand.

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Afternoon Arrival - Afternoon Departure

 With the return to Standard Time it is touch and go for late afternoon ship photos, but today two ships moved in good time. One was a scheduled 1530 sailing and one a 1600 arrival. [Both times are the pilotage assignment times].

Sailing promptly from Autoport, the Wallenius Wilhelmsen Traviata rounded Ives Knoll when there was still lots of light.

The third of four Hero class ships in the Wallenius fleet, it appears to be the last ship delivered in the traditional white over green Wallenius hull colour. Subsequent Wallenius and Wilhelmsen ships have been painted in the teal and white colour scheme of the merged fleets.

Built in 2019 by Tianjin Xingang, in Tianjin, China it is a 73,358 gt, 23,889 dwt Large Car and Truck Carrier with a capacity of 7656 cars. Its last ports were Southampton November 4-5, Zeebrugge October 30 - November 2, Bremerhaven October 28-30, Zeebrugge October 24-26 - the typical Wallenius Wilhelmsen SVC1 route.  Its next scheduled port is Baltimore.

As Traviata sailed the container ship MSC Angela was arriving, and the ships arranged to meet in the Middle Ground area with MSC Angela taking the western, deep water channel. Its exhaust gas scrubber system was working overtime producing a steam plume like a vapour trail. Most ships try to reduce or eliminate the steam plume with a de-mister, but that costs money and does not contribute to pollution reduction, since steam is considred harmless.

MSC Angela is a 41,225 gt, 50,568 dwt ship with a capacity of 4254 TEU including 550 reefers. It was built in 2008 as a Panamax vessel by Zhejiang YangFan Shipbuilding Co Ltd in Ningbo. Sailing on MSC's Canada Express 2 service from Valencia and Barcelona, the ship has been anchored off Halifax waiting its turn to offload some containers at PSA Halifax. Once the ship reduces its draft to St.Lawrence River limits it will sail to Montreal, its terminal port. 

Ships on MSC's St.Lawrence services have become regular callers in Halifax either inbound to off load a few containers to meet draft restrictions, or outbound to top up containers for sea-going draft. The secondary benefit is to shave several days off the sea leg of the trip, and thus providing an "express" service when coupled with speedy train transport.

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BBC Europe - Update #1

Briese Schiffahrts operates a large fleet of ships trading world wide. Numbering in excess of 160 vessels of various sizes, the fleet consists of some ships owned by Briese but many are managed for other owners, such as Desgagnés. Briese's operating entities include BBC Chartering and BBC Heavy Lift . 

Today's arrival, BBC Europe is one of the heavy lift ships, and is equipped with a pair of 250 tonne capacity cranes that can work in tandem for a 500 tonne lift. Built in 2003 by Tianjin Xingang, in China, it is a 7014 gt, 7409 dwt multi-purpose ship with moveable tween decks and can also carry bulk cargoes and is rated for 599 TEU with 60 reefer plugs.

The BBC Europe has some cargo on deck, but it is heavily tarped and not possible to identify. Shore cranes are set up on Pier 27, so it is likely that whatever it is will be landed by the ship's cranes then loaded on rail cars.

The ship's recent itinerary is typical of world wide trading ships: Busan September 18-23, Panama Canal October 21-22, Jacksonville October 28, Savannah October 29-30, Charleston October 31- November 9.

I will update this post if I learn more about its cargo.

Update #1

The BBC Europe instead went to anchor. As of late afternoon November 12, the launch Captain's Pride was alongside:

 

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