Saturday saw Maersk Patras (Above) and Contship Leo at Pier 41/42 respectively. Contship Leo operates on ZIM’s Canada Feeder Express service between Halifax, New York and Kingston Jamaica. Maersk Patras serves the 2m Alliance’s St Laurent 1 Service with stops in Bremerhaven, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Montreal and Halifax.
CMA CGM Alexander von Humboldt spent yesterday at pier 42, with Oceanex Connaigra at pier 41. At 16000teu, CMA CGM Alexander von Humboldt is amoung the largest ships to call in Halifax.
With more Large ships on the way, PSA Halifax Announced the Purchase of 2 more SPPX Ship to shore gantry cranes. The New Cranes are set to be delivered in early 2023. one was an exercised option from the last purchase, and the other is net new. they will join the existing Cranes at Pier 41/42
The PSA Release includes quotes from Kevin Piper, president of the Halifax Council of ILA Locals, which is notable as evidence of a good relationship between the major Halifax terminal operator and labour.
the products tanker Torm Voyager arrived at Irving Woodside this evening. The Danish flagged tanker is carrying product from Irving Oil’s facility in the Netherlands. The ship Sailed from Ijmuiden on the 5th.
HMCS Charlottetown has been up on the sychrolift at the dockyard undergoing a work period. Her Paint below the waterline was recently completed, and looks sharp.
The SD Victoria Arrived February 10th, and has been at the dockyard ever since. It recently moved to a more photogenic berth, and i was able to get a picture. The ship is operated by Serco, which holds a contract with the UK MOD to provide support services to the British Armed Forces, and also operates the RCAF Air base in Goose Bay.
The SD Victoria is a support ship used to provide service to the Royal Navy. Its trip here was in support of some diving exercises, and remained to conduct some repairs. the ship is expected to sail next week.
The general cargo vessel Franbo Lohas tied up at pier 9 to install cable tanks. the ship will then likely sail to Newington, NH to load cable at the manufacturer.
the ship was built in 2016 as Thorco Lohas. Thorco vessels have been common visitors at pier 9 to load cable handling equipment over the years. Thorco sold the ship to Franbo last year.
IT Integrity also arrived back at pier 9. the ship is a converted 755-L platform supply vessel that was converted for cable work.
The Research Vessel Atlantis arrived this morning and tied up at BIO. The Vessel will likely be assisting with some Science missions that would normally be done by the now retired Hudson.
Built in 1998, The ship is owned by the US Navy, and is assigned to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. The ship is one of 3, the others being operated by Scripps university and NOAA.
Atlantis is also configured to carry the Alvin Deep Submergence vessel that was used to explore the Titanic.
Presumably with the sale of Shelburne ship repair set to close shortly, the CCGS Kolpit Hopson 1752 was towed to IEL in woodside, arriving this morning.
The Ship was formerly named CCGS Edward Cornwallis, and was renamed as part of an extensive life extension that saw the ship re-powered, and its buoy handling derrick replaced with a crane. The refit began at Shelburne Ship repair in January 2021, and the new name for the ship was announced last march.
Shelburne Ship repair has been sold by Irving Shipbuilding to Mersey Seafoods. Since 2014, Shelburne Ship repair has been the center of commercial ship repair work for Irving, with none happening in Halifax. Halifax shipyard has been focused on Building the AOPS, and frigate maintenance work.
Shelburne Ship Repair in 2011
All 67 employees at the yard will be retained by Mersey Seafoods. Shelburne Ship repair underwent significant upgrades in 2011, including a new marine railway. The total bill for the upgrades was 16milliion dollars. Shelburne Ship Repair can work on vessels up to 229 metres long, and the marine railway is capable of lifting two vessels weighing up to 4,200 tonnes each.
Since the Upgrade, the yard has conducted work on dozens of vessels including the refit on the CCGS Kolpit Hopson 1752, which was brought to Dartmouth for completion, Presumably to allow the sale to close with no work left in the yard.
Mersey Seafoods operates a number of Fishing Vessels, and is based in Liverpool Nova Scotia. Their trawler Mersey Phoenix is currently undergoing a work period in Spain.
Mersey Phoenix at Pier 9
The sale could signal that Irving is looking to focus solely on Government work under the NSPS, or they could be looking to do more repair work in Halifax. Halifax Shipyard is set to conduct its first commercial ship repair work in a number of years.
The yard is scheduled to conduct maintenance and Inspections on four Atlantic Towing platform supply vessels supporting the Hibernia and Hebron projects off Newfoundland. The Atlantic Shrike, Atlantic Griffon, Atlantic Heron, and Paul A Sacuta were constructed in 2016 and entered service in 2017. The 4 ships are built to Daemen’s PSV 5000 Design, and are virtually identical, though the Paul A Sacuta features an 100ton capacity offshore crane.
The coasting trade application indicates that each ship will be lifted out of the water for 7 days, and the 4 ships will be done sequentially, between February 15th at the earliest and concluding by May 31. The ships are due for their 5 year class surveys.
The Coast Guard is reporting that the container ship MSC Kim is adrift off Newfoundland, in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. The Ship was bound for Montreal, and sailed from Halifax the night of the 5th.
Last reported position of MSC Kim via MarineTraffic.com
According to Marinetraffic, the ship was making 20kn and then dropped to 1.5kn around 21:50utc on the 6th. The position again updated briefly on the 8th, with the reported speed less then 1kn. Its last reported position almost 48 hours ago was 48°25’24.7″N, 061°48’55.1″W, and the ship was reporting a navigation status of Not Under Command.
The CCGS Terry Fox is breaking ice in Stevenville NL, where the Atlantic Kingfisher is tied up, and will be responding to take the vessel in tow. MSC Kim was built in 2008, and is rated for 4254teu
UPDATES to Follow.
Update 02/09 22:34 with a more recent position. MSC Kim is drifting eastward towards Newfoundland in the wind. It is still 30nm West South West from the closest shore at Cape Saint George NL.
Atlantic Kingfisher is currently taking fuel from CCGS Terry Fox and is expected to Depart at 2300nl. Towing should begin in the morning. CCGS Jean Goodwill will also be responding.
UPDATE 02/09 2342: Atlantic Kingfisher is off the dock, and proceeding to MSC Kim with CCGS Terry Fox. MSC Kim is drifting east at 1.2kn
UPDATE 02/10 0700: Looks like Atlantic kingfisher has arrived at the MSC Kim. Overnight the MSC Kim drifted another 8nm east.
UPDATE 0809: now under tow. heading south.
UPDATE 1101: tow currently off Cape Anguille, NL and is bound for Sydney NS. Currently making 9kn, with CCGS Terry Fox following.
Position at 8:44pm Atlantic time
UPDATE 22:19: the tow is progressing towards Sydney, with an ETA of 1am.
Its also a good time to better understand the response. Its not known at this time when the MSC Kim called for assistance, but it certainly should have reported to MCTS that it was not under command. the CCGS Terry Fox was on icebreaking duty in the Straights of Belle Isle, specifically on the the Saint-Barb to Blanc Sablon Ferry route. On the 5th, terry fox departed for Corner Brook,and spent most of the 6th breaking ice in Corner Brook, before returning to the ferry run on the 7th. Terry Fox then Sailed for Stephenville the Evening of the 8th, arriving the afternoon of the 9th, which is where we picked up the story.
Jean Goodwill, Sailed from Sydney on the 4th to break ice in Charlottetown. The ship then returned to Sydney on the 6th, rounding the Tip of Cape Breton island 30 minutes after the ship appears to have lost propulsion. The ship returned to Sydney, and looks to have spent a portion of the day breaking ice in the approaches to Sydney.
Why does this time line matter – in 2014, the John 1 went aground after refusing a tow from the Coast Guard before the situation got worse. A last minute tow attempt by the Earl Grey failed, and the ship went aground. it was subsequently declared a constructive total loss and recycled.
The MSC Kim lost power in open water, and calm conditions. That doesn’t make the situation an emergency, however the potential for the situation to go bad exists. Even if a commercial tow is desired, there is no reason not to have a Coast Guard ship capable of taking a tow on scene in case situation changes, or conditions get worse. If you have time, you have options.
When a fire alarm is triggered, the fire department begins moving sufficient resources to deal with a fire closer to the site of the alarm in case they are needed. In many cases they get returned on route. but every now and then they are needed, and the improved proximity helps quickly bring the situation under control.
For all the talk of world class response, and the oceans protection plan, once again we have a case where the Coast Guard has failed to take positive control of a situation, to ensure it doesn’t go bad. Once again, we got lucky that a suitable commercial towing vessel was in a convenient place to respond, and the weather held. But if the Coast Guard wants to convince Canadians they have control, they need to step in and be in a position to respond.
UPDATE 02/11 0748: the tow is outside Sydney now. it looks like they might have chosen a path to avoid some ice, and probably were waiting for daylight to enter the Harbour.
UPDATE 02/19: MSC Kim sailed from Sydney this morning, bound for Montreal.
