Five Ships - one place

 At the the north end of Haifax Harbour, Bedford Basin has been a refuge and anchorage since the earliest days of the European presence in Nova Scotia. Today it is surrounded by insitutional, residential, recreational and commercial activity and there are also numerous parks and some historic sites. A National Historic Site memorial to Duc D'Anville, who landed there in 1746, is located in a tiny park adjacent to the Canadian National Railway's Pace Yard in Rockingham.

A little bit farther north, just before Birch Cove is an even smaller park with two look-off platforms that give sweeping vistas of the entire Basin and a clear view of ships at anchor and at several piers and moorings. 

On a quiet day, such as today, March 7, it was possible to see five ships at once, but there is no camera lens wide enough to take them all in at once. So working from the north and counter clockwise here is what was to be seen. 

Arriving from Montreal this morning the Vistula Maersk is waiting its turn at PSA Fairview Cove terminal.

It is one of four ships on the joint Maersk /CMA CGM transatlantic service that call in Halifax typically on Saturday, while eastbound for Bremerhaven. The Vistula Maersk was built in 2018 by COSCO Zhoushan Shipyard Co, as an ice class ship for Baltic service to Russia. At 34,882 gt, 40,000 dwt, it has a capacity of 3600 TEU including 600 reeefers. In 2022, following the Russian boycott, along with two sister ships, it was transferred to the joint Maersk / CMA CGM St-Laurent 1 / Canada Atlantic Express service. It made its first call in Halifax June 23, 2022.
 

Also at anchor is the now familiar tanker CB Pacific. It has been in Halifax several times in recent months carrying ethanol for Irving Oil. 

 The CB Pacific, built by Jiangsu New Hantong shipbuilding in Yangzhong, China, was delivered in 2020. The 27,250 gt, 37,787 dwt ship is equipped to handle crude oil, clean petroluem products or chemicals in twelve phenolic epoxy coated tanks (plus two slops tanks). The ship is also built to DNV Baltic Ice Class 1B and is fitted with a hybrid exhaust gas scrubber which can be run at zero emissions. As previously noted it has a covered fore deck - a feature rarely incorporated in tankers. 

Once it offloads at Irving Oil's Woodside termainal, it may head for the St.Lawrence River to supply other refiners.

Across the Basin from Rockingham at Wright's Cove, another CSL ship is loading at Gold Bond Gypsum. This time it is CSL Tarantau.

The stockpile of raw gypsum appears to have been replenished somewhat after its last visit February 27 -March 1 and that of CSL Tacoma on March 4 - 5. CNRail delivers gypsum almost daily, with unit trains from the East Milford mine.

The view from the Africville Park on the south of the Basin gives a better look at the ship itself.

The ship was built for the Torvald Klaveness Selfunloaders and operated under the name Balto until 2015 when Klaveness withdrew from the CSL pool and its ships were taken over by CSL and Algoma.  The red painted deck, hatch coamings and self-unloading gear is a carry over from Klaveness days.

The ship was built by Chengxi Shipyard in Jiangyin, China in 2013 to the ocean version of CSL's Trillium class design, so it was a natural fit in the CSL Americas roster.  At 43,691 grt, 71,405 dwt it is too large to take a complete load at National Gypsum due to draft restrictions at the Bedford Basin pier. 

The other busy spot in the Basin was the PSA Fairview Cove container terminal. At the east berth was NYK Demeter on the newly former Premier Alliance service.

 

Wires paralleling the CN rail main line are inevitable features of the view.

The Premier Alliance consists of Ocean Network Express (ONE), HMM (formerly Hyundai Merchant Marine) and Yang Ming as the survivors of THE Alliance after the withdrawal of Hapag-Lloyd. It is to be noted that the ship is still carrying many Hapag-Lloyd boxes.

NYK Demeter was built in 2007 by Hyundai, Ulsan, and is a 55,487 gt, 65,965 dwt ship with a capacity of 4922 TEU. It is owned by NYK Line, one of the partners, with MOL and K-Line, of Ocean Network Express.

At the east berth and RoRo ramp the Oceanex Sanderling is loading for its weekly trip to St.John's Newfoundland and Labrador.

 

More lines add to the view which is well above the rail lines.

 Although I have told it several times before, it seems an appropriate time to repeat the history of the Oceanex Sanderling:

Built in 1977 (!) by Sasebo Heavy Industries in Japan, it served the now defunct DDG Hansa as Ravenfels until 1980, then became Essen briefly for a Hapag-Lloyd subsidiary. In 1981 it was renamed Kongsfjord by S.E.A.L RoRo, a Norwegian American Line service in East Africa/ Indian Ocean. That only lasted until 1983 when it went to Amasis Rederei of Germany (Heyon-Janssen) as Onno.

It was under the latter name when it made its first appearance in Halifax as a substitute on the ACL Line service on April 12, 1987.

Later the same year Atlantic Searoute Ltd bought the ship and it became ASL Sanderling and a Halifax regular. It entered service January 10, 1988, running Halifax / Newfoundland, which it has done pretty much continuously ever since, aside from refits.(Corner Brook was later dropped and the ship now only runs between Halifax and St.John's.)

It was renamed in Oceanex Sanderling in 2008, although Oceanex had succeeded ASL in 1991.

 

The ship was given a major refit in 2022 and is currently listed at 21,489 gt, 15,195 dwt, with a capacity of 522 TEU. Its next major survey is due in 2026. With the limited number of ConRos availabe as a replacement, it is expected to be renewed for continued operation.

.

 

In for a bit

 With stormy weather coming the CCGS Cape Roger put in to Halifax this morning. The 1251 gt veteran offshore patrol vessel dates from 1977 when it was built by Ferguson Industries Ltd in Pictou, NS. Based in St.John's NL it can often be seen in Halifax during ice season.

 One of three offshore patrol vessels in the Atlantic Region it conducts fisheries surveillance, search and rescue and sovereignty patrols. The current National Shipbuilding Strategy calls for replacement vessels to be built by Seaspan in Vancouver.  In the meantime the two new Arctic and Offshore Patrol vessels under construction at Halifax Shipyard for the Canadian Coast Guard  may fill in to some extent even though they are substantially larger vessels, and may have conflicting assignments depending on the time of year. The first of those new ships is due for completion in 2026. 

The other six AOPS vessels, built for the Royal Canadian Navy, may be able to cover some of the patrol duties without interferring with naval deployments.

The Cape Roger is due for major maintenence next year, but is expected to remain in service for some time to come.

.

 

Interesting Times

 The current unpredictability in the Canadian economy thanks to unwarranted tariffs applied by the President of the United States against Canada will certainly show up in the shipping in Halifax harbour. Both imports and exports will be effected, due to the closely integrated economies of the two countries. Not only the amount of cargo, but the number of ship visits and the related truck and rail traffic and spin offs, will take a hit. For example:

Gold Bond Gypsum

The largest open pit gypsum mine in the world is located in East Milford, Nova Scotia and is operated by Gold Bond Canada (formerly National Gypsum.) The mine was developed by the Buffalo, NY based company to export raw gypsum to the United States in bulk. Fom the mine, the raw ore is sent by rail to Gold Bond's storage and shipping facility in Wright's Cove in Bedford Basin.

 

The storage stockpile appeared to be at a very low level as of yesterday when the CSL Tacoma was alongside loading.

 Gypsum from the Nova Scotia mine is primarily used for the production of wall board in the United States. It is a major component in building construction due to its fire resistant qualities. The amount of gypsum leaving the Halifax harbour dock has always been a reliable barometer of the United States' economy. When the US construction industry is booming gypsum export quantities are high. Only a small percentage of the US wall board production comes back to the much smaller Canadian construction industry, but due to the economies of scale, wallboard pricing in Canada has been favourable. If tarifs are applied to raw gypsum arriving in the US from Canada, the cost of finished board coming back to Canada, will certainly be higher - especially if Canada imposes retaliatory tarifs. Gypsum companies in the United States may find other sources of raw material. (See the previous post February 28 where CSL Metis sailed without loading gypsum. CSL Trantau did load last week, see March 1 .

Due to drop in the resultant demand there will likley be fewer ships loading here.

 

The CSL Tacoma at the shiploader, with a thin skim of ice in Wright's Cove in the foreground.

One of Gold Bond's competitors, US Gypsum has a Canadian subsidiary Canadian Gyspum Corp Inc (CGC) with two mines in Nova Scotia. One has been shut down permanently and one was on track to re-open in a few years, but that is now doubtful.  

Nova Scotia Power Corp

As noted in my previous post, electricity for the Halifax area is generated at the Tufts Cove generating station. The plant uses natural gas that arrives by pipeline from the United States. The gas comes from a variety of sources mostly the result of fracking. Electricity is fed back and forth  onto the grid to supplement power generated at coal fired stations in Northern Nova Scotia and Cape Breton. (That coal comes from the United States.)

If there is an interruption in gas supply Tufts Cove can burn oil, and the recent delivery to its heavy oil storage stockpile came from Houston.

The tanker Larvik unloaded a cargo of black oil at Tuft's Cove. The ship's head lines and stern lines lead out to mooring buoys. A containment boom has also been deployed around the ship by Connors Diving's handsome work boat Eastcom.

 

 If there are obstacles to importing US gas, oil and coal, Nova Scotia Power will need to source fuel from overseas sources, which will almost certainly result in increased power rates. Even that situation will do little to spur NSP's lethargic development of alternate sources such as wind, hydrogen, etc., if they can pass on costs to consumers while still rewarding their shareholders with profits.

Gasoline, Diesel, Avgas, etc., 

Petroleum fuel for heating, cars, trucks, planes and ships arrives in Halifax by ship and is offloaded at two facilities. 

Irving Oil has its terminal in South Woodside, on the Dartmouth side of the harbour. That facility is supplied by ships and by rail and is backed up by a large storage and distribution facility. Irving Oil's refinery in Saint John, NB - the largest refiney in Canada, is the source for most of the product. Irving's two Canadian flag tanker ships (on long term charter) transport the fuel to Halifax, Charlottetown, Saint John's, and sometimes to Quebec.  The current tankers are about to be replaced by new ships (the first is en route from Korea) and the Canadian tanker Sarah Desgagnés has been short term chartered to bring product from Saint John to Woodside.

 Irving Oil also has a refiney in Ireland and a storage terminal in Amsterdam and has the capability to bring in product from those facilities. The majority of the product coming out of the Saint John refinery goes to the northeastern United States. The future of that arrangement is in the air due threatened counter measures.

Sarah Desgagnés sails for Saint John March 4.

Imperial Oil brings in product for its storage and distribution facility in South Woodside, next door to Irving Oil, (its tanks show up in the picture above) also by ship and rail. Algoma Tankers distribute the product to ports such as Sydney, Corner Brook and Sept-Iles. Resupply comes from Antwerp, Belgium or parent company (Exxon Mobil) refineries in the United States and Canada.

 Container Traffic is the big question. Although fourth quarter statistics for the Port of Halifax have not been released yet, I expect TEUs for the year 2024 will be down about 10% from 2023. Add that to the expected decline in bulk and other cargoes in 2025 the Port may expect a dreary year ahead.

 This afternoon's (March 5) misty arrival of the 14,052 TEU ONE Aquila may not be a sign of things to come. The ship is eastbound from New York for Europe and appears fully loaded, at least by volume if not by weight. The proposed tarifs would certainly not have had much effect when the ship loaded at its last ports.

(It was in Halifax February 1 to 2, westbound, and has since been in New York, Norfolk, Savannah, Charleston, and New York again.) Much of the import cargo on the ship was for the US and some the cargo unloaded in Halifax on its westbound leg would have been sent to the US mid-west by train through Canada. 

What sort of disruption will result if that arrangement is disturbed and how it will add to existing congestion in US ports and rail lines can only be imagined at this point.

 Autoport is eastern Canada's automobile import facility. An estimated 185,000 import vehicles arrive by ship every year and are prepped and dispatched by rail and truck on an as needed basis. These cars are exclusively for the Canadian market as far as I know, but the disturbance in domestic car production due to US tarifs will likely increase demand for foreign cars. While that may satisfy car buyers, it will add to the grief in Canadian car making if they cannot meet demand. Or worse, a crippled Canadian economy will reduce the demand for cars of any sort.

 

On February 27 the Emden brought in the latest consignment of Volkswagen products. The ship went on to US ports. The ship has a capacity of 7,000 CEU (Car Equivalant Units) and is usually loaded to capacity. Frequency of calls and quantity of cars could well change with the new tarifs.

Cruise Ships are a major interest of Halifax Port Authority, which recently announced the 2025 schedule (See previous post: February 14 ) with an anticipated 188 calls and 328,000 visitors. A large percentage of the latter will be US residents, whose US dollars will go a lot farther in Canada. I am sure they will still receive the friendly welcome that Halifax is known for, but I do wonder how many will be willing to come to Canada under the circumstances.

The last cruise ship of the 2024 season was the Insignia sailing on November 3.

 

Conclusion

I do not normally stray too far from the topic of shipping in these blogs and will try to refrain from getting off topic in future. But I do have to declare deep ancestral roots in the United States, both paternal and maternal. Without going into detail I do wish to proclaim my own allegiance to Canada while acknowledging my affinity for the United States and its peoples several of whom are blood relatives! (My mother was born on this day in 1915 in Collamer, Ohio.)

The current situation is so personally disturbing that I cannot bear to dwell on it in this blog in an objective manner, so will have to avoid discussing it except as it may apply peripherally to ships and shipping.

As usual I do not publish comments submitted to this blog. It is, and will remain, my personal ship watching diary - not a discussion forum.

 .

 

Cape Ashley - total loss

 The second total loss of a fishing vessel in a month has fortunately not resulted in loss of life. The Fortune Pride sank in severe weather off Halifax February 4 with the deaths of all four crew members. See my post of February 7.

The latest loss was the result of fire while the boat was alongside at Glace Bay, NS. It is not clear from early reports whether anyone was aboard the Cape Ashley at the time, but it has been confirmed that there was no loss of life.

The Cape Ashley was a wooden hulled longliner, built in 1989 by Snyder's Shipyard in Dayspring, NS. The 111.83 gt boat sailed as Renée and Trevor for several years and it was carrying that name when I saw it in Halifax almost thirty-two years ago on March 14, 1993.

The Renée and Trevor comes alongside the Maritime Museum wharf as the tug Point Vibert passes by.

 As with many boats of its size it carried outriggers and paravanes that were deployed for stability in rough seas.

 The most recent owners of the Cape Ashley are listed as Tucker & Son, Reef's Harbour, on the Great Northern Peninsula / Strait of Belle Isle on the west coast of Newfoundland.

 .

 

East Coast update

 When the Irving Oil tanker East Coast moved to Pier 9B on February 27 I should have realized that the ship would be handed back to its owners. My post of that date, titled More Tankers gave the story of that ship and an update on the new tankers that Irving Oil will charter from Algoma. In fact the ship's Canadian register was closed the next day, February 28.

 On February 27 the East Coast turned in the Narrows in order to tie up at Pier 9B for re-flagging.

 The ship hoisted the Portuguese flag (not Portugal's offshore flag of Madeira) and sailed today March 3, for Gibraltar, giving an ETA of March 12. That would indicate to me that Vroon, the ship's actual owner have either sold the ship or found a new charter, but in any event the ship has completed its twenty year charter to Irving Oil.

November 20, 2024 photo.

 Until the new ships arrive from the Hyundai shipyard in Ulsan, South Korea, Irving Oil will be relying on ships from other Canadian tanker fleets to distribute product. The first of those arrived in Halifax from Saint John, NB today, March 3. The Sarah Desgagnés has rarely called here, since it was acquired by Transport Desgagnés Inc's tanker operator Petro-Nav in 2008. 

Built in 2007 by Gisan Gemi in Tuzla, Turkey, it is a smaller tanker of 11,71 gt, 17,998 dwt. All ships built in Turkey are given a name when launched, and often trade for a time for Turkish onwers. This ship was originally named Besiktas Greenland and after trading for about a year under Turkish flag became Sarah Desgagnés in mid 2008.

The Sarah Desgagnés usually works the St. Lawrence River and Gulf and into the Great Lakes. On January 1 the ship sailed from Port-Cartier, QC and arrived in Las Palmas January 20 for refit until  February 14. It then sailed for Saint John, NB, arriving February 1.

.

 

 

 

 

Oil for Power

 The Nova Scotia Power Corporation, a subsidiary of Emera Corporation operates the electricity generating facility at Tufts Cove on the east side of Halifax harbour. The plant is located on The Narrows, directly opposite "Ground Zero" - site of the 1917 Halifax Explosion.

The plant has been built in stages since 1965 and now consists of three large steam turbines and three gas combustion turbines. The orginal unit, built in 1965 could burn coal or oil, and subsequent units built in 1972 and 1976 were built for oil only. In 2000 the facility was reconfigured to burn oil or natural gas. Gas comes to the plant via the Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline, originating in Dracut Massachusetts, where it connects to the North American natural gas grid. In 2003 and 2004 two gas combustion turbines were installed and in 2011 a sixth unit, a combustion-cycle generator was added. The total nominal generating capacity is now 500 MW. Each of the gas /oil burning plants has a 152 m (500 ft) tall chimney, painted red and white for aircraft warning.

Although the facility uses natural gas primarily it does use oil from time to time and stockpiles oil on site in case of a disruption in gas supply. This morning, March 2, the tanker Larvik arrived from Houston with a cargo of heavy oil.

 The Larvik was built in 2006 by Sumitomo Heavy Industries Marine & Engineering (SHME) in Yokosuka. It is classed as a crude oil / product tanker of 35,711 gt, 61,213 dwt. Presumably that means that the ship has heating coils to keep black oil flowing for offloading.

The ship's commercial management is in the hands of Polyar Tankers AS of Oslo, hence the Norwegian name, but its technical operation is handled by World Tankers Management Pte of Singapore. Both those companies are in fact arms of the Cypriot  Greek ship owner Polys Haji-Iannou, whose father Loucas was one of the world's largest tanker owners at one time. The family has since branched out into airlines and other businesses and now owns about twenty tankers.

The tugs Atlantic Willow (foreward) and Atlantic Oak (aft) bring the ship alongside the Tufts Cove jetty. Not seen is Connors Diving's boat Eastcom taking lines to mooring buoys. The ship's 213.4m (700 ft) length contrasts with the 152m (500 ft) stacks.

.

 

March - in like a lamb

Today, March 1, was a very bright, very spring-like day with temperatures edging above zero Celsius. A brisk sea breeze brought a light mist and a healthy dose of ozone. With lots of shipping activity, the only frustration was the glare from the sun.

An early morning arrival (before daylight) was the Orinoco for Melfi Lines The ship made its debut here November 24, 2024 from Mariel, Cuba and is bound for Europe. By the time I caught the ship at PSA Halifax Pier 42 it had its hatches open and cranes were digging deep for cargo.

Built in 2010 by Fujian Shipbuilding Co in Fuzhou, the 9994 gt, 12,306 dwt ship has a capacity of 880 TEU and carries two cranes of unknown capacity. The ship was launched as E.R. Helsinki but completed as Friesdijk. It was renamed X-press Tajumulco in 2013 and became the Orinoco in 2020. 

There were several morning departures which meant some skilful coordination so that ships could meet in convenient places.

The self-unloading bulker CSL Tarantau sailed from Gold Bond Gypsum for Portsmouth, NH. 

 

Falling in behind was the auto carier Themis which had arrived yesterday at Autoport and moved to Pier 9C last evening. It completed unloading RoRo cargo this morning.

 

As it was lifting its stern ramp to prepare for sea I noted the crew deploying a small gangway (bottom right in the photo). This was perhaps to be used to board the pilot instead of the usual gangway closer to midships.

Built in 2016 by Hyundai Samho, it is a 75,283 gt, 23,786 dwt ship with a capacity for 8,000 RT43 size cars and has a 320 tonne capacity stern ramp. As with many newer autocarriers, it has no side ramp. It is also fitted with an exhaust gas scrubber, and is emitting water vapour from its scrubber vent.

 Themis took the main channel outbound, leaving the western deep water channel for the next arrival, the much larger APL Sentosa inbound for Pier 41 at PSA Halifax Atlantic Gateway.

APL Sentosa is a 151,015 gt, 150,936 dwt (or 150,166 dwt from other sources) vessel. At 13,892 TEU. It falls well shy of the current Halifax record for container capacity which is 16,020 TEU by my reckoning.

There was other activity in the harbour with several comings and goings, but the next ship of interest was the Smoke a large bulk carrier.

The ship arrived off Halifax February 25 from Sept-Iles, QC and took up a position in the outer anchorages. Early this afternoon it embarked two pilots (due to its size and an unidentified malfunction) and moved in to #1 anchorage in the lower harbour.

 

The impressive ship was built in 2001 by IHI Kure (Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries, now Japan United) and measures 84,448 gt and 170,085 dwt. The largest size of dry cargo ship, it is classed as 'Capesize' meaning that it is too large for the Panama and Suez Canals and must travel via the Cape of Good Hope of Cape Horn to carry iron ore from the Atlantic to Asia. Its dimensions are 289.6m x 45.0m (950 ft x 147.6 ft) [In journalese parlance that is more thsn three footsball fields long and a half a football field from bridge wing to bridge wing.]

Once secure at anchor Dominion Diving's Dominion Rumbler came alongside, likely with a technician or a diver.

Its next port appears to be Las Palmas, but that is a waypoint either for orders, or further repairs, but not a destination for its iron ore cargo.

 .