The legendary J. Lauritzen company of Denmark has long been associated with arctic shipping, and its ice reinforced ships pioneered winter navigation on the St.Lawrence River. Until the early 1960s when Lauritzen began a regular transatlantic service to Montreal, the St.Lawrence was off limits to shipping from December to April due to ice and cold temperatures that froze up anchors, mooring winches and cargo handling gear.
Halifax and Saint John were ice free"winter ports" and virtually all shipping traffic was diverted to these ports or US ports to ensure that ships were not exposed to sea ice.
On February 13, 1959 Lauritzen's Helga Dan arrived in Quebec City - the first ocean vessel to reach that port in winter. Within a few years Lauritzen ships had extended their reach to Trois-Rivières and then Montreal, arriving there March 12, 1962.
Lauritzen Lines also called in Halifax on its transatlantic service.
I have told about Lauritzen here before, particularly my post of June 11, 2018, so I will not repeat that story again.
Today, Febrary 19, 2025 another Lauritzen ship is due to sail from Halifax with a bulk cargo, presumably wood pellets, for Immingham, UK, site of the world's largest biomass storage facility. The ship arrived here February 10 but loading has been delayed by inclement weather including the whole gamut from rain through freezing rain to heavy snow.
Frida Bulker at pier 28 February 12, before the worst of the weather.
Built by Imabari Shipbuilding Co Ltd in Imabari, Japan, the ship is a 25,003 gt, 40,161 dwt vessel with double hull and stengthened for heavy cargo. It is equipped with four 30 tonne cargo cranes and deck stanchions which enable it to carry timber on deck. Although the ship is painted with the traditional red hull colour and the usual five letter woman's name, ending in "A" it does not have the "JL" shield on the bow. That indicates that the ship is on a long term charter rather than owned outright. Lauritzen Bulkers operates in the range of 200 ships, some of which they do own.
The Past vs the Future
When winter navigation on the St.Lawrence became a possibility there was a large hue and cry from Halifax, the beneficiary of redirected seasonal shipping. Hundreds of seasonal longshore jobs (even though workers had to be brought in from Quebec ports to meet demand) were at risk, not to mention the spin offs for the railway and other ancillary businesses involved with general cargo imports and exports and grain exports.
A typical winter view of the Port of Halifax deepwater piers until the late 1960s.
Pier 20, top left, to pier 40, bottom right.
The loss of dozens of ships in port at a time, all working cargo by traditional labour intensive means had been unthinkable. To make matters worse government icebreakers were used to clear the channel to Montreal. It is interesting that the federal government claimed the icebreakers were for flood control (which was certainly at least partly true), whereas Halifax champions claimed political bias to quell separtist grumblings in Quebec. In fact there may have been another factor, again involving Lauritzen.
Although Lauritzen's Polar class ships were among the only ships that could navigate in winter, there was one other major arctic shipowner and that was the USSR. In fact Lauritzen gave up its St.Lawrence service in 1969 due to competition from the USSR's many ice class ships. Not only did the ships have the capability of navigating in ice, some of the ships were in fact icebreakers and the USSR was threatening to use those ships to keep the St.Lawrence River channels clear for their own use.
The Indigirka of 1957 was a 7661 gt, 7430 dwt heavily ice strengthened general cargo ship.
The federal governement, wisely, opted to "skate around" the USSR by making the St.Lawrence route useable by ice capable rather than strictly ice reinforced or ice breaking ships. Shipping lines responded and Montreal as well as other St.Lawrence River and Gulf ports opened up for year round activity.
Halifax was also begining to suffer from the decline of ocean passenger shipping. Jet air traffic, even for immigrants, was becoming more popular and affordable, and sea mail was also taking to the air. Although passenger ships still called Halifax for a time, the shift to cruise ships did not take place for several years.
Italian Lines' elegant Leonardo da Vinci, built in 1960, arriving in Halifax in 1970, was the last Italian transatlantic liner in 1976. It was used for cruising in 1977, retired in 1978 then scrapped in 1982.
Halifax interests were not pleased with these developments and a few lean years for the port ensued, but luck was about to deliver a lifesaver.
The advent of containerization, coupled with RoRo capability, was revolutionizing shipping. The Port of Halifax jumped on the band wagon early and by 1969 was firmly in the container and RoRo shipping business, and has never looked back. Recent major investments to support, expand and diversify port activity have confirmed the wisdom of those initial moves.
Atlantic Container Lines' impressive G1 (first generation) ships carried containers, cars, crated, palletized and other RoRo cargo.
Container shipping had the benefit of being year round, with most lines preferring to call at the same ports on a regular basis. Both Halifax and Saint John and Montreal developed consistant relations with shipping lines - sometimes competing with each other for business, but there was very little seasonal shifting of routes.
Shipping Lines operating from Europe to the United States on the Great Circle Route could make a slight course deviation to call in Halifax en route to New York and Canada bound cargo incidentally received a huge subsidy as a result. US bound cargo could be loaded on a train and be most of the way to Chicago before the ship arrived in New York. Halifax thus became a useful waypoint for shipping lines, without the added costs and time to reach Montreal, and this applied to export as well as import cargo.
Halterm, the first container terminal in Halifax, extended the port's facilites from pier 40 (slightly left of centre) to the south (right in photo) creating Pier C with berths 41 and 42. Much has changed since this 1974 photo.
Thanks are due to Lauritzen for nudging the port in the right direction.
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