Atlantic Star

Although luckily already positioned by chance on an ideal portion of the Halifax Waterfront to take photos of outgoing ships, Atlantic Star managed to sneak up on me on Thursday morning - I was just about to head up the hill to work when I found an excuse to stick around for a few more minutes. In the foreground, employees of McNally continue the demolition and removal of the old Foundation Maritime/Pilot wharf.

Winds were light enough that the pilot obviously felt comfortable cutting the escort tug free after the narrows, and Atlantic Star proceeded to take the western passage past George's Island to avoid the incoming Elka Nicholas.

The rows of containers in the forward cells appear to be cut down as they approach the bow, presumably to improve forward visibility from the bridge.

Elka Nicholas headed east of George's Island to avoid the outgoing vessel.

In the above image, one of McNally's work barges supports a crane involved in the demolition of the Foundation Maritime / Pilot wharf.

Unlike many (the majority of?) container ships, the design of both the 3rd (now sold for scrap) and 4th (pictured) generations of Atlantic Container Line (ACL) vessels incorporated cell guides to help stabilize the racks of containers, and to hold the containers in place. With some of the world's larger container ships recently experiencing large-scale collapses of container stacks (with the resulting loss of, and damage to, cargo), these seem to be a good idea. Containers lost at sea, when still afloat, are also a cause of damage and loss for smaller vessels at sea. The cell guide system can be seen to good effect above, and ACL boasts that it has not lost a container at sea for the last 30 years.

In addition to the deck cargo of containers, the ACL ships incorporate a large ramp and several decks dedicated to RO/RO (roll-on/roll-off) cargo - these are currently the largest multi-purpose RORO / Container vessels in the world, and they are regular callers at the Fairview Container Terminal in Halifax.

The ship is about to eclipse the McNab's Island lighthouse in the image above. In addition to cargo, these ships are set up with passenger berths, although the passenger service has been put on hold in 2020 due to COVID-19. 

Both ships that day would also have needed to give way to the tanker Largo Desert, which was at anchor in the inner harbour.

While my commute some mornings can be devoid of interesting shipping in the harbour, I was lucky to catch three ships that morning. With COVID-19 forcing me to work from home since March, with only a limited return to the office since late-September, catching shipping in the harbour on my occasional trip to the office is much welcomed.

Heerema's Hermod going for scrap

In 1999 and 2003, Halifax was visited by two large semi-submersible crane platforms in support of the Sable Offshore project, Saipem 7000 and Heerema's Hermod respectively. The former is the younger of the two (completed in 1987), has the heavier lift cranes (two 7,100 tonne models), and is still in service. Hermod, completed in 1979, has recently been sent for scrap.

Hermod, with her two cranes of 5,000 and 4,000 short ton capacities, was in port around April 12, 2003. She transported and installed the jacket(s) (support legs) for the Alma platform, in 67 metres of water depth. At the time, the daily rate to hire Hermod was reported to be in excess of $150,000 per day.

Hermod with McNab's Island in the background.

Hermod is the younger sister of Balder (completed 1978), which is still in service with Heerema.

Hermod, with two offshore supply vessels alongside.

Hermod surrounded by vessels in Halifax.

Hermod ready to be towed out. That's Fenwick Tower in the background under the two cranes.

To replace Hermod, Heerema is building the world's largest semi-submersible crane platform, the Sleipnir, with two 10,000 tonne cranes for a total capacity of 20,000 tonnes. 

As an aside, these four images were scanned from film negatives, and they aren't cleaned up as well as they could be. In addition, there was a spot of dust in the scanner that caused an overexposed line to appear in the center of each photo - best visible in the first image.