Do you remember the first time you watched Star Wars? There’s a moment right at the beginning of Episode IV: A New Hope that fundamentally changed my understanding of scale and shattered any imagined limits of just how utterly enormous a thing could be. I’ll describe it for you if you’re unfamiliar: The scene opens with a glimpse of two distant planets, a third planet in the foreground, and a spaceship screaming across the starry void. Undeniably cool, but still within the ordinary realm of human scale. Then it happens: A grey, hulking mass of a spaceship, so big it can’t be contained to the cinema screen, eclipses the planets, seems to swallow the black void of space, and in 10 seconds of screen time, absolutely laser-blasts your mind through sheer force of its size.
Pursued by the Empire
I’ve never seen anything quite as big as an Imperial Star Destroyer since. But that’s the same effect these giant container ships elicit when you see them up-close. And this week, Halifax Harbour is going to host a behemoth.
Monday
The container ships Vivienne Sheri D and MSC Brianna both arrived at the South End Container Terminal on Monday, inbound from Reykjavik, Iceland and Sines, Portugal respectively. The ships will make their separate ways onward to Portland, Maine and Montreal.
The Vivienne Sheri D is owned by Ontario-based Doornekamp Lines but is currently hired out to Icelandic shipping giant Eimskip, which specializes in “reefer forwarding” (ship speak for refrigerated shipping). That means, by and large, imported and exported containers of seafood.
In 2020, Eimskip found itself embroiled in a scandal over the disposal of two of its former ships, which ended up in India, in a scrapyard with a record of environmental and human rights violations. The shipping company has maintained that it “complied with laws and regulations” in the sale of its ships and had no involvement in where the ships were disassembled.
Tuesday
The Tropic Lissette container ship reached port early Tuesday morning, eight days behind schedule from Philipsburg, Sint Maarten. It’s currently docked at the South End Container Terminal and will head onward to West Palm Beach, Florida. (God, that sounds nice right about now.)
Meanwhile, the 100,430-tonne Atlantic Sea ro-ro/container carrier was slated to arrive at the Fairview Cove Terminal on Tuesday evening, but don’t expect it to reach Halifax until late Wednesday morning. It’s a week behind schedule from Norfolk, Virginia. The Atlantic Sea is part of the New Jersey-based Atlantic Container Line fleet, which bills itself as a “niche” provider of roll-on/roll-off and vehicle cargo. Each ship can carry up to 1,300 cars and 3,800 20-foot containers. Once reaching Halifax, the Atlantic Sea will cross the pond to Liverpool, Hamburg and Antwerp.
Wednesday
Halifax Harbour activity picks up mid-week, as five ships are scheduled to reach port—and folks, we have a race: The 199-metre Morning Peace and the 67,141-tonne Don Pasquale ro-ro/vehicle carriers are both inbound Wednesday from Southampton, UK. Up for grabs? The Coast’s inaugural, no-it’s-not-fictional “Trans-Atlantic Throwdown” championship belt. (We’re gonna need to make a championship belt, aren’t we?)
Also arriving in port on Wednesday: The 29,316-tonne CMA CGM Louga container ship is slated to berth at the South End Container Terminal, along with the Oceanex Sanderling. The two are inbound from Quebec City and Argentia, Newfoundland. Rounding out the bunch, the Nolhan Ava container ship is expected to dock at the Fairview Cove Terminal, inbound from St. Pierre & Miquelon.
Thursday
What do you call two ships passing in the night? The Atlantic Sea’s container ship siblings, the Atlantic Sun and the Atlantic Sail, are both scheduled to reach Halifax later this week as they embark on their own version of Trading Places. The Sun, inbound from New York City, is making its stop before sailing onward to Liverpool, UK. The Sail, wrapping its week-long crossing from Liverpool, is bound for the Big Apple.
Thursday also marks the end of a long journey for the 334-metre One Hangzhou Bay container ship, which is slated to complete its 25-day ocean voyage after departing from Colombo, Sri Lanka on Feb. 20. It, too, will head onward to New York City.
Also Thursday: The MSC Cornelia and NYK Nebula container ships are expected to arrive at the South End Container Terminal and Fairview Cove Terminal, inbound from Sines, Portugal and Caucedo, Dominican Republic. The two will depart next for Boston and Southampton, UK.
Friday
It’s the tale of two Qingdaos in Halifax Harbour on Friday: The ZIM Qingdao container ship is projected to reach port at the South End Container Terminal at 8am after its crossing from Valencia, Spain; meanwhile, the MSC Qingdao container ship is pencilled for arrival at 10am, inbound from Baltimore. (A quick sidebar on the ships’ namesake: Qingdao—or Tsingtao—is a city of more than 10-million people on China’s east coast that borders the Yellow Sea. Its name means “azure island.” And yeah, there’s also that one beer.)
Remember shipping giant EUKOR from a couple weeks back? Another of its vessels, the 60,876-tonne Morning Cecilie vehicle carrier, is slated to berth at 8am at the Autoport in Eastern Passage. It’s six days behind schedule in its crossing from Southampton, UK. In 2016, the US government reached a $1.5-million settlement with EUKOR and Norwegian shipping company Wallenius Wilhelmsen over alleged antitrust violations.
Meanwhile, the NYK Romulus and MSC Sena container ships are both scheduled to arrive Friday. The Romulus is 10 days delayed from Antwerp, Belgium and will sail next for Port Everglades, Florida. The Sena is three days behind schedule from Sines, Portugal and will carry on to Montreal.
Saturday
Get ready for a mammoth of a ship this weekend. The 151,446-tonne CMA CGM Amerigo Vespucci container ship is expected to dock at the South End Container Terminal at 8am on Saturday. It concludes a week-long crossing from Tanger Med, Morocco. The Vespucci isn’t quite the biggest ship we’ve seen this year—that honour still belongs to the 176,500-tonne CMA CGM Von Humboldt—but it outranks anything else we’ve seen in recent weeks. At 365 metres long, it could fit two Dartmouth smokestacks laid end-to-end and still have almost enough room for the CIBC Building on Barrington Street.
Rounding out the weekend, the MSC Alyssa container ship, Grand Pavo ro-ro/container carrier and Violet Ace ro-ro/vehicle carrier are all scheduled for Saturday arrivals. The three are inbound to Halifax from Montreal; Gothenburg, Sweden; and Emden, Germany.
