Left: Shanghai Trader at the east birth Right: Dalian Express at the West birth
The Dalian Express is making her east bound stop on the EC5 service. She was last here a few weeks ago heading westbound. Joining her at the east end of Fairview Cove is the Shanghai Trader, which sailed from Bremmerhaven, and appears to have made east bound stops in Savannah and New York in place of the Yantain express.
Shanghai Express
Shanghai Trader’s trip is extra odd, since at least 3 eastbound vessels have called on these cities in the eastbound direction. typically east bound are a large number of empty containers due to to trade in balances between Asia and North America. the Deck Load, and the ship being so high out of the water suggests it is loaded mostly with empties.
With the Yantain Express fire being on the verge of taking the second place spot for most popular post i thought it was worth mentioning the real second most popular post. Since moving the Site off Blogger, the Popular posts widget was reset. The 5th most popular post on the current site is more popular then all but the most popular post from the old host.
The Asian emperor was a car-carrier that had some cargo break free off halifax, and get trashed as it rolled about the hold. the ship was also carrying a number of custom order BMW’s which the owners were tracking online, and following the progress of the ship.
when it was delayed, they started posting in Car forums, and i started receiving anxious emails from people wondering if their car had survived.
Today brought the arrival of the CMA-CGM Libra, the largest container ship to call in halifax to date. She is Rated at 11,388TEU. Built in 2010, and flagged in Malta, the ship is calling on the Columbus loop service.
The Largest container ship to cal in Cnada so far, was the COSCO Himalayas, which tied up at the Prince Rupert Fairview Terminal November 14-19/2017. that ship is rated for 14,500 Teu
HMCS Oriole was reassigned to Marlant, after a winter refit in Esquimalt . HMCS Sackville spent the summer undergoing extensive restoration work at he dockyard, and returned to the water in the fall.
In a bid to Cut costs, ZIM Started a New Canada Florida Express service, and stopped calling in halifax on the ZCP Service. The ZCA Service remained unchanged, while ZCI service began being marketed by The Alliance as AL7, after they canceled the Halifax call of their competing AL6 service.
Maersk added a New weekly Med/Montreal Express (MMX) Serivce with a call in Halifax with its first call in early august. Halifax was dropped from the service in November.
The final New Dartmouth Ferry, the Rita Joe was delivered in October. the Vincent Colman was delivered in January, and entered service in February.
Norwegian bliss made a stop in Halifax April 30th on her maiden voyage, heading to spend the summer cruising Alaska. Fram was the first Cruise ship of the season, arriving 8 days earlier on April 22nd
The Boa Barge 37 arrived to facilitate launching of the AOPS at the shipyard at the end of April. The first ship received its final coat of paint in August, was launched in September, and was named HMCS Harry DeWolf in a Ceremony at the shipyard. AOPS #2, the future HMCS Margaret Brooke, had the Center and stern megablocks rolled out and joined at the end of September, and the keel laying ceremony for AOPS #3, the future HMCS Max Bernays was held December 5th. The feds also announced they were going ahead with a 6th AOPS, after splitting the Halifax Class Maintenance contract between Halifax shipyard and Davie.
Davie completed the conversion of the former Vidar Viking, into the Medium Icebreaker CCGS Captain Molly Kool.
The CCGS Corporal McLearn MMV was damaged after someone cut the cables securing the cradle the vessel was sitting on at the CAE Shipyard in Sambro Head, causing it to become partially submerged.
In June 3 men were arrested with diving gear after drugs were found in a sea chest of the container ship Aracia. The ship was operated by CMA-CGM on the the maersk CAE service.
The Norwigan Frigate, KNM Helge Ingstad sunk after a collision with a tanker. The Norwegian accident investigation board’s interim report suggest the hull has a design or construction flaw, which caused the loss of the ship.
In July a dump truck operator was killed, after his truck ended up in the harbour at the infill site next to Fairview cove.
In August, the Tufts cove power plant spilled bunker C oil into the harbour. The cleanup took months.
Planes, Trains..
Halifax saw 2 derailments in 2018. the first in Rockingham yard saw a number of cars go off the end of a track. the second, at the south end terminals, saw 2 cars damaged as they split a turnoff.
A Skycube 747 crashed at the end of the runway at YHZ after overshooting on landing. there were minor injuries. the plane was scraped onsite.
4 British men were rescued from a disabled sailboat last night, 250 nautical miles off Halifax. The 4 were hoisted off the sailboat, and flown to Halifax. The 45′ boat was in 21′ seas, with a 50knot wind (75KM/h) and looks to have a shredded Jib sail, and lost steering control.
The vessel is the Makena and was bound for Toronto, via the Canary Islands with an apparently professional delivery crew aboard. The owner had recently purchased the boat.
I have been told that the crew were under prepared, and lacked survival suits. Certainly others have questioned the wisdom of being in a sailboat, in the North Atlantic, In December. If the plan was to make Toronto, they would have encountered ice in the St. Lawrence river, and the pending closure of the locks above Montreal at the end of the Month.
CCGS Cape Roger, HMCS Summerside, HMCS Glace Bay, A USCG Aircraft and a vessel of Opportunity all responded.
Today the province announced repair work on the CSS Acadia. From the Release:
The Provencal Government is making repairs to the only vessel still afloat to have survived the Halifax Explosion, the historic CSS Acadia.
The CSS Acadia is a national historic site that is permanently moored at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax. The 105-year-old steel-hulled ship also served in the Royal Canadian Navy during both World Wars.
Restoration work that is necessary to preserve the CSS Acadia will include repair of the deck and sub-deck and drydocking the vessel to repair the hull, electrical systems and ballast tank.
No word on the cost estimate, or who will be doing the work. I believe the only available facility in Nova Scotia able to accommodate the Acadia would be shelburne ship repair.
No tender notice has yet been posted, nor has a time line for the work.
The Cruise ship insignia arrived yesterday from Saint John. Due to Weather, they were unable to board a pilot to enter the harbour until 7:30 last night, several hours after they were scheduled to sail. The ship required bunkers, so it waited out the weather watch, tied up at pier 24, and fueled from the Algoma Dartmouth, finally sailing at 0300 this morning.
the Port of Sydney announced last night that the ship would be skipping the call there today, and is now sailing direct for Quebec.
