What's in a Name - French warship arrives

 The French naval vessel Premier-Maître L'Her arrived in Halifax this morning, March 17, and berthed at HMC Dockyard Jetty November Bravo 3. It was soon boomed off - indicating that it may be fueling while in port.

 The 1,000 ton displacement ship is a Type A69 Estienne d'Orves class "aviso" which loosely means a lighter weight vessel such as a sloop or corvette.  However when the ship was commissioned in December 1981 it was classed as a patrol frigate and assigned the pennant number F792. It is more properly an offshore patrol craft, as later ships of the class were designated, and is most frequently used for sovereignty and security enforcement and has served with NATO. Interestingly it does not display a pennant number.

This is likely the ship's last deployment as it is scheduled to be paid off this year.

The ship is named for a World War II hero who carried the rank of Premier-Maître [translation: First-Master] a warrant officer or NCO rank, designated OR-8 in NATO terminology or Chief Petty Officer second class in Royal Canadian Navy terminology. 

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French naval vessels visit Halifax about once a year as part of their regular activities at the Territorial Collectivity of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon off the south coast of Newfoundland. The French territory is an archipelago of several islands and includes an exclusive economic zone that extends due south 200 nautical miles out to sea to a point well south of Halifax. Although narrow, the zone measures 4,768 square miles and is entirely surrounded by Canada's Exclusive Economic Zone. The boundaries were settled in 1992 by arbitration.

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Good Bye to the Atlantic Vision

 Marine Atlantic's flagship ferry Atlantic Vision made a ceremonial last run from Port aux Basques to North Sydney on March 15. A new ship, the Ala'suini, is en route from China and will enter service in June soon.

Acquired in 2008, the Atlantic Vision entered service in 2009. From 2011 it was used on the longer North Sydney to Argentia route seasonally, and but ran on the Cabot Strait route to Port aux Basques for the rest of the year.

The Atlantic Vision was built in 2001 by Howaldswerke Deutsche Werft in Kiel, Germany as Superfast IX. The 30,285 gt ship was capable of 29 knots. Whether it ever had occasion to make that much speed for Marine Atlantic would be interesting to know.

Halifax was not on the ship's usual itinerary, but it did visit once in 2012 and was drydocked at Halifax Shipyard on the Novadock floating drydock. Soon after that the shipyard stopped doing repair work on commercial ships.

The Atlantic Vision is due for another drydocking in April to maintain its DNV classification (1A1 Car Ferry and Ice 1A) but will not be coming here as the Halifax. For the time being it is tied up at one of Marine Atlantic's berths in North Sydney.

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Sonderborg for Tropical

 Tropical Shipping's weekly service from Halifax to the Caribbean has been using the gearless container ship Sonderborg since January 29, 2024 in place of the Tropical Lissette which has been switched to more southern routes. Tropic Hope remains on the Halifax run.

Sonderborg was built in 2012 as Sonderborg Strait by Nanjing Wujiazui, and is a 12,514 gt, 14,222 dwt ship with a capacity of 1085 TEU including 250 reefers. It dropped the "Strait" from its name in 2017.

Normally the Tropical ships arrive at PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway on Mondays, but this week Sonderborg did not arrive on Monday, March 11, but instead arrived on Thursday, March 13 and instead of tying up at Pier 42 (which was occupied by other ships) it went to Pier 27. That pier has no container cranes. To work cargo there, it must have used mobile cranes since it has no cranes of its own.

The Sonderborg sailed this afternoon, March 16 for San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Tropic Hope is due Monday March 18 from Limetree Bay USVI on the regularly scheduled date. 

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Clear and not so clear

 The autocarrier Asian Captain arrived in Halifax yesterday, March 14, just over a month after its last call. It was here February 6 and since then has been to New York, Brunswick, Charleston, Bremerhaven, Zeebrugge and Southampton. This is the usual circuit for ships in the Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean transatlantic service, (It skipped Goteborg this time however.) Despite the EUKOR (Europe Korea) name, parent company Wilhelmsen also uses the Eukor ships to transport new European cars to North America. 

The Asian Captain stopped first at Autoport to discharge cars, then today, March 15, moved over to the Halifax side of the harbour to unload RoRo cargo at Pier 9C. That move necessitated passing through the Narrows to Bedford Basin, turning and coming back alongside, starboard side to the dock.

With assistance of the tugs Atlantic Oak and Atlantic Beaver the move was made quite neatly, and allowed a good view of both sides of the ship. Despite the hundreds of sections of gas pipe stacked on the pier there is still lots of room for the RoRo cargo such as agricultural, forestry and mining equipment.

Built in 1998  by Hyundai Ulsan the Asian Captain was originally a 55,729 gt, 21,466 dwt vessel, but in 2007 it was lengthened from 228.78m to 248m overall length, thus increasing its tonnages to 71,383 gt, 25,765 dwt. Its original capacity of 6,246 CEU  increased to 6,460 CEU.

The mid-day clear conditions did not last however as showers of rain combined with snow took over late in the afternoon, preventing clear views of the arriving NYK Remus on THE Alliance's AL5 service.

The ship is east bound from Pacific coast ports via Panama and Saint John, NB to Europe. One of several Constellation class ships the 55,534 gt, 65,981 dwt vessel was built in 2009 by Hyundai, Samho and has a capacity of 4922 TEU including 330 reefers. 

The NYK Remus has been here many times, both for the old G6 Alliance in the 20 teens and since 2021 for THE Alliance.  Not so the outbound ship MSC Sines R. on the CANEX 2 service from Montreal for its namesake port of Sines, Portugal.

 

It was built by Samsung Geoje in 2001 and measures 37,113 gt, 39,978 dwt with a capacity of 3430 TEU including 800 reefers.  It retains one 45 tonne SWL crane aft, but three more cranes once mounted forward have been removed - apparently since joiing MSC. 

The ship was launched as Santa Cristina, but was delivered as P + O Nedlloyd Bantam and carried that name until 2005 when it was renamed Santa Cristina. In 2010 it became Cristina Star and in 2020 MSC Sines R. 

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Catching up

Due to weather for the last two days several ship arrivals and departures were delayed until pilotage operations resumed this morning. (See also yesterday's post.) 

The bulk carrier CSL Tacoma returning from Baltimore for another load of gypsum was the first arrival (The ship was here March 2-3 and loaded for Baltimore). Pictured in these posts countless times, it is a 43,691 gt, 71,552 dwt self-unloader, built in 2013 by Changxi Shipyard in Jiangyin, China.

As the CSL Tacoma made its way toward Gold Bond Gyspum CCGS Earl Grey departed the Bedford Institute for SAR patrol east, and possibly the Gulf of St.Lawrence. A large quantity of gas pipe is accumulating at Pier 9C prior to be shipped out at some point.

In the meantime things were busy at the southend container terminal operated by PSA Halifax as the Atlantic Gateway. ONE Grus arrived very early Sunday, March 10 and sailed at 0900 hrs ADT this morning March 12 once pilotage operations had resumed. As per new regulations instituted in January, the ship used two stern tethered escort tugs outbound.

As noted in the previous post, the ship is eastbound sailing via the Cape of Good Hope to avoid the Red Sea and is giving an ETA of April 15 for Singapore, with no intermediate stops.

Soon after, the next inbound also made for Pier 42. It is an unusual ship for the Ocean Alliance service and may have been added to the usual rotation of 15,000 TEU ships on the PSW3 + AWE3 rotation to make up for the extra long transit times due to the dangerous conditions in the Red Sea. The ship sailed from Colombo February 10.After passing Cape Town it called in Tanger Med  March 3-4. Zodiac Maritime ships have been targeted in the Red Sea, so they are staying well clear of the area.

 

The Erving was built by Hyundai Samho in 2011 for charter to Maersk as Maersk Erving. In 2011 it became CMA CGM Erving for another charter then in 2014 reverted to Maersk Erving. It became Erving in 2017 under Zodiac Maritime management. The 142,052 gt, 141,377 dwt ship has a capacity of 13,092 TEU including 1,000 reefers.

 

The next arrival was also an unusual one, and possibly also the result of re-routing. The Höegh Transporter dates from 1999 when it was delivered by Stocznia Gdynia in Poland. The 57,757 gt, 16,747 dwt (or 21,300 dwt) ship has a capacity of 6,500 CEU, and carries a 150 tonne SWL stern ramp.

Instead of arriving from the usual north Europe or Mediterranean ports, this ship is arriving originally from Masan, Korea (January 30) and Nagoya and Kawasaki, Japan (February 1-4) via the Panama Canal (February 27) then Kingston, Jamaica (February 29 - March 1), Jacksonville (March 4-6) and Dundalk (Baltimore) (March 8-9).

In January Höegh Autoliners announced a four year contract to deliver unnamed Asian-built Electric Vehicles (EVs) to Europe. If this is the first trip, it may also be delivering some vehicles to North America too, now that ships are avoiding the Red Sea.

Such is the demand for auto carriers these days, particularly in Asia, that even ships of this age are kept running. (Its next big survey is due no later than May 30.)

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Storm Delays

 The latest storm to pass through the Atlantic region has resulted in numerous delays to shipping including Halifax. On Sunday (March 10) into Monday (March 11) high winds and driving rain brought arrivals and departures to a halt as swells built in and created a significant storm surge. Rough conditions prevailed through Monday and pilotage operations were suspended.

The Mauger's Beach spit was awash for much of the day with surf also breaking over Thrumcap and other shoals.

At time of writing, late Monday afternoon, the Atlantic Pilotage Authority informed that conditions would be reviewed on Tuesday morning March 12 at 0600 hrs ADT, and pilotage operaitons would not be resumed before then.

The bulk carrier CSL Tacoma, inbound for Gold Bond Gypsum, met the pilot boat at the pilot station at 0800 hrs ADT on Monday March 11, but did not embark a pilot, and put back to sea. It will now try for Tuesday morning to enter port if conditions permit.

The container ship CMA CGM Paranagua arrived earlier and was able to board a pilot and made its way in to Pier 42. Due to high wind cargo operations were slow during the day, and it was still loading late afternoon. The ship will remain alongside over night.

 

CMA CGM Paranagua at Pier 42 has its own cranes swung out to permit shore crane acces.

The ship is sailing on the joint CMA CGM / Maersk North Atlantic service, CAE / SL1, and is on the eastbound leg en route from Montreal to Bremerhaven. It is a 35,881 gt, 41,801 dwt ship with a capacity of 3108 TEU, including 500 reefers and is equipped with three 45 tonne SWL cargo cranes. It was built by Szczecinska Nowa in  Szczecin, Poland in 2005 and has the stylish superstructure featured by ships from that shipyard.

Originally named Cosima by the Peter Doehle organization, it was renamed Norasia Atlas in 2005, and Letavia briefly during 2006 becoming Emirates Freedom to 2009 when it was again named Letavia until 2021. CMA CGM then acquired the ship and it took its present name, and was placed under the management of NSB Niederelbe.

Yesterday's arrival ONE Grus appears to have completed cargo work -the cranes are up-  and was scheduled to sail over night but will also have to remain in port until pilots are able to disembark safely. 

 

Yes there is a ship under that pile of containers. ONE Grus appears to be loaded to near capacity of 16,026 TEU. The 146,694 gt, 138,611 dwt ship was built by Japan Marine United in Kure in 2019.

Ships subject to windage because of high freeboard or deck cargo, such as Ultra size container ships and auto carriers are particularly difficult to manage in high winds. One auto carrier, Höegh Transporter, will remain offshore until tomorrow as will the container ship Erving. More details on them when they arrive.

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MSC Sao Paulo V fire - update #4

 The Canadian Coast Guard has declared that the fire aboard MSC Sao Paulo V is extinguished. The CCG made the announcement yesterday, March 8, and allowed all emergency resources to stand down. Two firefighting teams from the United States assisted the ship's crew and CCG in containing the fire that broke out on March 3. 

The icebreaker CCGS Amundsen has now returned to its spring ice operations on the Saguenay River and the tug l'Anse du Moulin is heading for its home port of Baie-Comeau. (The tug Grande-Baie came over from Méchins to look after tug ops in Baie-Comeau.) The two MSC ships, MSC Don Giovanni and MSC Celine  which were providing relief and catering to the crew of the MSC Sao Paulo V have also continued on their ways to Montreal and Corner Brook respectively. 

A period of 24 hours was needed to evacuate smoke and clear CO2 before crew could re-occupy the ship without breathing apparatus, so the ship remained at anchor over night.

The tug  Ocean Keith Rusby arrived from Quebec City with a generator which allowed the otherwise powerless ship to raise its anchor. Making up a line astern it then joined Ocean Taiga taking the ship in tow for Quebec City, leaving the Prince Shoal area of Tadoussac this morning, March 9. I can find no reference to whether crew have re-boarded or not.

MSC's published schedule does not show what will become of the MSC Sao Paulo V's cargo which was en route to Sines, Portugal, and Mediterranean ports. Presumably it will have to be unloaded in Montreal as there are only limited facilities in Quebec City and no container cranes. If General Average is declared the cargo may be impounded until cargo interests make their contribution to the GA fund.

It is likely that the ship's stopover in Quebec City will allow for a formal survey of damages and a Transportation and Safety Board of Canada investigation. With a ship this age (it was built in 1998) there will be the question of whether the extent of damage will make repairs prohibitive.

Arriving Halifax July 4, 2022.

Assuming the ship arrives in Quebec City this evening without incident, I don't expect a further update for some time.

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