Sarah Desgagnés - winter visitor

The Canadian flag product tanker Sarah Desgagnés made one of its rare visits to Halifax, sailing yesterday to return to Quebec City.

The ship was built in 2007 by Gisan Shipyard in Tuzla, Turkey as Besiktas Greenland. Groupe Desgagnés acquired the ship and renamed it in 2008. The ice class double hull ship measures 11,711 grt and 17,998 dwt. It has 14 cargo tanks and can carry a wide variety of oil product and chemicals. Since joining the Desgagnés subsidiary Pétro-Nav, it has traded domestically and internationally.

As its hull paints wears, evidence of its previous owners has emerged below the superstructure, on the after part of the hull, with some of the letters of BESIKTAS emerging in white.

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Edward Cornwallis - an open letter

Halifax Regional Municipality Council has (finally) ordered the removal of a statue of Edward Cornwallis from a prominent city park. The statue (erected t in 1931) to honour the founder of Halifax and Governor of Nova Scotia (1749-1752) has become a lighting rod for protests over the treatment of indigenous peoples.
There is much to be reviled about Cornwallis. His treatment of Scottish highlanders in putting down the Jacobite Revolution would certainly be grounds for a charge of war crimes today. No less heinous was his proclamation of a bounty to "take prisoner or scalp" for Mi'gmaq fighters and take women and children as prisoners. Cornwallis' less than stellar military career, term as a British MP and Governor of Gibraltar (1761-1776) - (surely a subtle form of exile) came to an end with his death in 1776.
How society is to remember Edward Cornwallis is open to debate, since we should never forget the damage he inflicted. However removing his name and statue from places of prominence is an important first step in expressing our regret for his actions.

This brings us to the subject of CCGS Edward Cornwallis a High-Endurance Multi-Tasked member of the Canadian Coast Guard fleet since 1986, and its predecessor of the same name from 1949. Surely it is time for the name to be painted out from that ship and a new one selected.

The following is the text of an open letter I sent today to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, the Hon. Dominic LeBlanc, PC, MP.

"As Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, you are aware that there is a Canadian Coast Guard vessel named CCGS EDWARD CORNWALLIS.

Named for the founder of Halifax, and a Governor of Nova Scotia, and bearing the same name of a previous Coast Guard ship, the vessel has provided good service to the Coast Guard and the people of Canada since 1986.

However we are now aware that Edward Cornwallis, the man, was not a figure to be revered. His actions as governor did much to entrench a racism that is still pervasive in our society. His name stands in the way of meaningful dialog between friends and neighbours.

The City of Halifax has seen fit to order the removal of a statue commemorating Edward Cornwallis, and may be moving toward removal of his name from streets and other public venues.

It is my opinion that the the Canadian Coast Guard must now remove the name EDWARD CORNWALLIS from that ship. I am therefore requesting that you use your authority as minister to set that process in motion.

The Canadian Coast Guard has naming policies for vessels of all sorts, (Fleet Order 103.00). In that order it states that the Minister is responsible for approving name selections for vessels. May I suggest sir, that the importance of selecting an appropriate name to replace the current one, is an opportunity to make an important statement.

Appendix A of that policy now states that vessels of this class (High Endurance Multi-Tasked Vessel) are to be named after former Canadian Governors General. I can think of several holders of that office whose names might be appropriate, including your late father. However I wonder in this case if it might be possible to deviate from that policy and select the name of an eminent historical leader of the Mi'gmaq, whose position would be the equivalent to a governor general."

 

I have also copied the Member of Parliament for Halifax, Andy Filmore, in hopes that the matter will be addressed during the current session.

The Coast Guard missed a perfect opportunity to rename the ship while it was in refit in St.John's last summer, but it is never too late to right a wrong. 

CCGS Edward Cornwallis (i) built 1949, retired 1987.

CCGS Edward Cornwallis (ii) built 1986, renamed 2018?

    

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An idea whose time has come (again)

With delivery of the new ferry Vincent Coleman (see yesterday's post) and the imminent delivery of the fourth and last new ferry for Halifax Harbour, talk has resumed on a commuter rail service from the Beaverbank, Lower Sackville area into downtown Halifax. This is a great idea and would have worked years ago when all the rail lines were in place. Now there will be some serious upgrades needed, but it seems likely that the City and CN will come to some agreement.

Another idea that has been quiet for a ling time is a waterborne commuter service from the Bedford area to downtown Halifax. A demo run using the high speed catamaran Whaling City Express in October 2005 attracted a lot of attention (and the usual naysayers). Traffic volumes have continued to increase in the Bedford to Halifax corridor, but nothing has been heard on the water commuter concept.

Recent developments had lead to me to the conclusion that time is right to discuss this again.
1. The upheavals that will be caused by the Cogswell interchange demolition will make bringing car downtown even more difficult.
2. The redevelopment of Shannon Park, including a proper dock could help to move north Dartmouth commuter into downtown Halifax. Alternatively it would be a convenient drop off point for Burnside with a proper bus connection.
3. Improvements to the current Halifax ferry terminal and requests to extend the Woodside service hours, indicates that ferry travel is popular.
So why not a ferry from Bedford, with maybe one stop at Shannon Park on the way, and a drop off in the vicinity of the Halifax ferry terminal?
Such a service would not necessarily be tied in Halifax Transit - it could be a totally private operation- but it is still worth looking at.

A potential site for a terminus is the fill area of Mill Cove, with piers already in place and a newly paved access road. The piers are used largely for pleasure craft and winter layup of harbour tour boats.

Theodore Too and Silva are among the winter residents of Mill Cove

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The new normal, etc.,

This afternoon's arrival of  ZIM Djibouti, a 10,000 plus TEU ship at Halterm has become the new normal, and passes without comment. It was only in June 2017 when the first ship to exceed the 10,000 TEU mark, sister ship ZIM Amsterdam  arrived in Halifax.

Tugs Atlantic Fir on the bow and Atlantic Oak on the stern are ready to turn the ship as it approaches Halterm.

It is one of four identical ships on ZIM's ZCSP service from China/Korea to the east coast of North America. The other 6 ships on the serive are smaller, but range from 8204 to 9954 TEU. Built in 2009 by Hyundai Samho, Maersk Djibouti comes in at 114,0444 grt, 116,440 dwt and has a declared capacity of 10,062 TEU, including 800 reefers. It made its first call here November 1, 2017.

Halterm was working two ships today, the weekly Maersk/CMA CGM ship Maersk Penanag was already in port. Normally Saturday callers, these ships have been arriving on Sunday recently, likely due to ice in the Gulf slowing their trip to and from Montreal.

Meanwhile at Fairvew Cove the HAPAG-Lloyd Palena was just sailing as the Yang Ming YM Enlightenment entered the Narrows. The latter is a 47,952 grt, 56,500 dwt ship with a capacity of 4662 TEU. Built by China Shipbuilding Corp in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in 2015, it is one of four sister ships maintaining the AL1 service from the Mediterranean to the east coast of North America for THE Alliance.

YM Enlightenment has just passed what has become known as Ground Zero, the site in the Narrows of the Halifax Explosion December 6, 1917.

 
A newcomer to Halifax is the ferry Vincent Coleman which arrived fresh from the builders on Friday.  The second last of the new ferries built for the Halifax Regional Municipality, it is named for the telegrapher that sent out warnings to incoming trains warning of the Halifax explosion in 1917. Working at Richmond Station, he lost his life when the explosion occurred nearby. In a contest to suggest names for all the new ferries Vince Coleman was on the short list twice, and was finally selected for this vessel. Built by A.F.Thériault + Son Ltd in Meteghan River, NS, it measures 259.45 grt, and  is a sister to the previously delivered Craig Blake,  Viola Desmond and Christopher Stannix. The final boat in the order, to be named Rita Joe, is due in a few months time.

more business,

With breakbulk exports way down last year, the Port of Halifax must be pleased to see another Spleithoff ship arriving. In recent months they have been regular callers, loading what appears to be reinforcing steel. Re-bar as it is called is an unusual Canadian export, but the high production standards used in this country make it a more desirable then unreliable re-rolled third world material often derived from ship scrapping.

 Logistec's mobile crane swings another bundle of re-bar aboard.

One of Spleithoff's S2L class, it was built in 2005 Szczecinska Nova in Poland. It is equipped with two 120 tonne cranes and five sidleloaders. It measures 18,321 grt and 23,660 dwt. Later in the day the ship shifted to Fairview Cove for container cargo.

And yes that is a pleasure craft on the deck of the ship. Spliethoff has a large business in the dry transport of yachts.

The luxurious trawler yacht Penny Lane gets a dry trip. The 65 foot Fleming, built in 2009 carries a rigid hull inflatible craft called - what else but Rubber Soul.

 A ship that has not called in Halifax since late 2013 put in another appearance today to take bunkers. CSL Acadian is a coal carrier and it is headed back from a delivery to Belledune, NB. A self-unloader now, it was built as a tanker in 1982 by Tsuneishi ZKK in Numakuma, Japan. Named Janus for the Anders Jahre fleet, it measured 40,482 grt, 67,208 dwt. It was renamed Skaulake in 1991 then Cabo de Hornos in 1992.

CSL Acadian picked up some frozen spray during  its passage from the Gulf of St.Lawrence and Baie de Chaleur.

When single hull tankers were banned in most countries following the US lead after the Exxon Valdez grounding, the ship was still in good condition, with a quality B+W main engine (built under license). CSL International acquired the ship and renamed in Cabot in 2004. It was then rebuilt with a new forebody as a self-unloader and renamed in 2006. Now measuring 45,740 grt, 74,517 dwt, it has many years service left.


Travellers between south western Nova Scotia and New Brunswick will have to go the long way until March 20. The ferry Fundy Rose made its last crossing between Digby, NS and Saint John, NB January 24 and headed for Halifax.

It is now berthed at pier 9 for a refit. When the Minister of Transport acquired the Blue Star Ithaki in 2014 it was renamed Canada 2014 and came to Halifax where it received an extensive refit before entering service July 18 2015.  It was named to commemorate Rose Fortune a notable Digby citizen, born a slave and credited with being the first female police officer in Canada.

The ship has been well received on the Fundy service, and has been working steadily until now. It certainly shows cosmetic evidence of that hard work.


The exodus of RCN ships for warmer climes happens every winter, but this year there is a bit of a twist as Kingston and Summerside headed for West Africa this week. Newspaper accounts report that the ships of this class were built as minesweepers and intended to be coastal vessels but now seem to be able to "go anywhere". Several have indeed made trans ocean voyages. These two will head to the Caribbean first before taking the shorter equatorial crossing of the Atlantic to join Operation Obangame Express 2018 in the Gulf of Guinea.

Orange clad matelots tidy up on deck and stow fenders as Windsor heads for sea.

Also sailing today was HMCS Windsor Since it did not declare its destination I can only assume it is headed south also.

At Autport Glovis Companion was unloading another batch of cars. The ship was built in 2010 by Mitsubishi, Nagasaki as Ocean Challenger. The 60,213 grt, 18,671 dwt ship has a capacity of 6,340 cars and was acquired by NOCC (Norwegian Car Carriers AS) in 2013 and renamed.

 The tide was way out in Eastern Passage, and a conveniently discarded tire will serve as the copyright mark for this photo.

Late in the afternoon the ship moved to pier 27 to work more cargo, and free up the berth for the next ship, Mediterranean Highway. There is a steady stream of ships into Autoport this winter as usual, stocking up the lots for the spring.

Always impressive, Atlantic Container Line's Atlantic Star arrived  on its regular slot this afternoon. The first of the G-4 ships to call in Halifax, it made it first visit January 6, 2016. 

All five of the new G5s have had breaking-in issues, but now that the bugs have been largely ironed out ACL has announced that it will accept up to 12 fare paying passengers on transatlantic voyages. A variety of fares, depending on ports and choice of accommodation sound quite reasonable for such a unique experience.

Finale
The autocarrier Mediterranean Highway almost missed the last call for photos as dusk descended rapidly this afternoon. It is passing the Maugher's Beach lighthouse in bound.

Built in 2002 by Imabari Zosen, Murugame, the 55,493 grt, 17,228 dwt ship has a capacity for 6015 cars.

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More TEUs

The Port of Halifax (Halifax Port Authority = HPA) has announced results for 2017 and as expected the TEU count is way up. A 16% increase over 2016 sets an all time record of 559,242 TEU. The previous record, set in 2005, was 550,642.

Halifax is a pip squeak on the word stage for containers. Consider the following port stats for 2016:

• Shanghai  37.133 mn (broke the 40 million mark by early December 2017)
• Singapore 30 mn
• Shenzhen 23 mn

Among the top twenty world ports only two are not in Asia:

• Rotterdam 12 mn
• Antwerp 10 mn

Among our neighbour / competitors:

• New York 6.5 mn
• Montreal in 2017 about 1.35 mn  (up 7% from 2016)

 How Halifax was able to achive a 16% increase with fewer cranes and larger ships indicates that the port must be working well below capacity. The increase is at least partly due to the addition of Tropical Shipping to the lines serving Halifax.

 The arrival of the first 10,000 TEU ship was heralded, even tough 13,000 an larger are calling in nearby US Ports.

Nice as this increase my be, it is no invitaiton for complacency. The long promised master plan is needed now.

Overall Halifax port tonnage is up 12% signalling a major drop in non-containerized cargo. In fact export tonnage through HPA facilities was down a startling 25%. If non-HPA facilites are included there was an increase of 7.5% import and 7.7% export tonnage.

There was also good news on the passenger front, with 173 ships and 292,722 visitors, up 22.9% over 2016. (2014, 2015 and 2016 were off years. There were 252,121 passengers in 2013).

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Red sky in the morning

 
Sailors are supposed to take warning from a red sky in the morning, but certainly nothing ominous occurred in Halifax today. Ships were able to arrive and depart in relatively calm conditions and bright sunshine.
There was still a swell running outside the harbour, with stiff winds (see Tugfax).

The container ship NYK Artemis arrived with tug escort as it made its way to Fairview Cove. It is a 75,484 grt, 81,171 dwt ship with a capacity of 6492 TEU (including 450 reefers). On the EC5 service of THE Alliance, it works with ten other ships from partners HAPAG-Lloyd, K-Line, and Yang Ming.

As expected for a Japanese ship owner, the ship was built by IHI, Kure in 2003. Following the lead of shipping industry takeovers and consolidations, NYK, K-line and MOL have received final approval from the last of the trading nations, to merge their container carrying into Ocean Network Express (to be known as ONE), effective in April. Early publicity showed a ship painted in an eye searing "cherry blossom magenta" hull colour, with containerS of a similar hue on deck. the amalgamation should have been rejected on aesthetic grounds alone! If the entire fleet, that will have a capacity of 1.44mn TEU, gets the new hull colour, it will be a windfall for magenta suppliers. ONE will be a memeber of THE Alliance, so I guess we should be prepared.

At the south end of the harbour Bomar Rebecca arrived for Tropical Shipping. The 1118 TEU ship, built in 2008 by Jingling Shipyard in Nanjing first called in Halifax a year ago on January 16, 2017, but carried the name AHS Hamburg. It changed names here July 3 when it was sold by Carston Rehder Shiffs to Bernard Schulte. When built it was as Pacific Hawk, a name it carried for Bocksteigel Reederei until sold in 2012.

There was more naval activity today as HMCS Montréal arrived from sea.

Although distinctive, the Halifax class frigates could not be callled terribly attractive.

It was probably involved in the same exercises recently completed by the new naval suppl,y vessel Asterix. During the past week HMCS St.John's sailed for the middle east and HMCS Charlottetown returned from its six month deployment to the Baltic and Mediterranean.

Also last week the government announced that Marine Recycling Inc had been awarded a $5.7mn contract to break up the decommissioned former HMCS Athabaskan at Sydney, NS. The work also includes de-militarizing and removal of hazardous materials. According to the terms of the original tender, the ship was to be towed out of HMC Dockyard no later than March 31, 2018 (the end of the government's financial year).

 The last of Canada's destroyers - soon to be no more. 

The continuous deck line and balance of shapes made the Tribals among the best looking warships on the seas.

It will be interesting to see if the ship will actually go to Sydney on that date, since that port is likely still to be subject to severe ice conditions. The ship's last brush with ice in December 2012 resulted in six hull punctures and an estimated $2mn of repairs.This followed a $21.7mn refit in St.Catharines, ON, and over $1.2 mn of towing charges.
It is more likely that a place will be found in Halifax to park the ship for a few months while some of the initial work is carried out.

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