Experience, experience and more experience. That is the number one, basic requirement for masters and crew on board the nine ice-classed container ships, owned by Hapag-Lloyd and managed by Anglo Eastern that call at the port of Montreal, Quebec, Canada on regular basis.
"We manage the risks involved in operating out of Montreal by having experienced crews, and the masters with several years’ experience on the St. Lawrence Waterway," says Rajiv Pal, Senior Technical Superintendent of Anglo-Eastern Ship Management Ltd in Montreal.
1,600 km from the Atlantic
Montreal, some 1600 km inland from the Atlantic Ocean, is a major port in a global context, serving Canada and the US. The St. Lawrence Seaway starts at Montreal, and since its opening 50 years ago some 2.5 billion metric tons of cargo, with an estimated value of more than USD 375 billion, have been handled. Everything has to pass through Montreal, which is the port closest to North America’s industrial heartland, representing a hinterland of some 100 million Canadian and American consumers. There are locks further inland from Montreal, meaning that most cargoes arriving on oceangoing vessels will be loaded on to smaller ships, and vice versa. Further inland from Montreal, there are the cities of Toronto, Detroit and Chicago. Approximately half of the container traffic through Montreal has Canada as its final destination.
The port of Montreal handles more than one million TEU containers annually, transporting a wide variety of cargoes: foodstuffs, alcoholic beverages, machinery and tools, car parts, construction materials, lumber, pulp and paper, clothing and fabric, steel and alloys, chemical products and so on. The port has four container terminals, equipped with no fewer than 14 dockside gantry cranes covering an area of some 80 hectares.
To reach the port, ships coming in from Europe navigate the Belle Isle Strait during the summer time. During the winter time, the access is south west of Belle Isle to reach Quebec. In open sea, the water temperature is normally around 4 degrees Celsius. At the coastline, the temperature can drop fast down to minus 30 degrees Celsius. Such low temperatures may cause problems for sea chests, hydraulic systems and boilers. Losing the boiler in such temperatures is much like having a fire on board. Therefore, these ships normally have two boilers, one of which is composite. Experience is important when it comes to operating the systems under these circumstances.
Pilots on board for the final stretch
"The voyage up or down the river from Les Escoumins to Montreal takes some 20 to 24 hours," continues Rajiv Pal. "On that stretch, we have three different pilots on board – one from Les Escoumins to Quebec, the next from Quebec to Three Rivers and the third from Three Rivers to Montreal. This is the requirement stipulated by Transport Canada, which also provides the ice breakers when needed. In the winter time, all the buoys are taken out of the river as drifting ice combined with the current will destroy and relocate the buoys. The speed on the river up till Quebec, is normally 16 to 18 knots and 10–12 knots from Quebec to Montreal, leaving little room for error. There are also some areas with speed limits lower than this due to pleasure boat and beach traffic. Along the river, there is first-year ice on either side. The current is quite strong so that the navigation paths are free from ice, but sometimes there can be ice pile-up due to bridge pillars close to Quebec. When going down the river with the current, this may be a challenge if the waterway is ice blocked, but normally the ice breakers deal with the situation before it becomes a problem," says Pal.
"A special feature of the St. Lawrence River is the issue of navigation. Today, navigational aids are very good, ranging from GPS systems to electronic maps, and there are also many lighthouses and lights on the river and these are close together. Then there is the preparation of the ship itself to avoid frozen hatches and twistlocks, for instance. Also, the hydraulic systems will be up and running to prevent potential problems. We run the heating systems, boilers, at all times when entering the seaway. The bulk carriers coming to St. Lawrence often experience the problem of freezing spray creating a lot of ice on the foredeck. On container ships, this is not normally a problem because of bow construction and higher freeboard. Masters have instructions to avoid the freezing spray at any cost, meaning he is to change course, lower speed or even turn around. Still, we get ships arriving in Montreal covered with snow from the occasional snow storm. Normally, this does not give us any operational problems, but some container locks may be hard to open. Freezing spray would be a huge problem, but we have not experienced this thanks to ship construction and good seamanship."
"Ships with Ice Class 1A or 1B will not have any structural problems in the St. Lawrence seaway and the three 294 m long, ultra-modern and largest container ships (OOCL Montreal, Toronto Express and Montreal Express) have no problems," says Rajendra Singh, the General Manager and Fleet Director of Anglo-Eastern. "They have a departure cut-off time from Montreal of 12 noon for daylight navigation through narrow passages – the smaller ships can leave later in the afternoon. On the way to the open ocean, we have to watch out for icebergs, and the so-called ‘Bergy bits’ (smaller icebergs) and ‘Growlers’ which may be hard to detect. This is why during the summer time we only enter the Belle Isle Strait during daytime. A ‘Growler’ is a mostly submerged iceberg where maybe just a little is visible above water, or maybe the entire iceberg is submerged just a few metres below the surface. Only 1/10 of any iceberg is above the sea, meaning that whatever is below the sea is very large and can be bad news if you hit it.
Experience
"Knowing how to operate and planning and preparing in advance for the risks is the key. Knowing that any equipment that can move is a potential problem as it can freeze up. Sea chests and filters have a tendency to get clogged due to ice slurry. So the ships are equipped with a return flow of hot water from the main engine cooling system. This needs to be fitted and is a must. Oddly enough, this is not a requirement for the Baltic ice classes (e.g. 1A and 1B)."