The weather turned out better than forecast. On arrival it looked like a gloomy day but in the course of the morning the sun came through and the forecasted wind did not show up at all. People do not come to Halifax for a day at the beach but to explore the town and the hinterland and then to have a bit of a cool and overcast day is not a bad thing at all. Going to visit the Titanic graves when the sun is burning at 30oC is something that takes out the enthusiasm very quickly.
Copied from the Museum Newspaper that was for sale a few years ago.
The Maasdam docked at Pier 20 which is next to Pier 21 and together they form one pier that has been there for a very long time. Pier 21 is now a very nice museum showing how the emigrants landed on Canadian soil since the 1920’s. Holland America has been calling at Halifax since the late 19th. Century. Not always on a regular basis but still a lot of Canadians can trace their emigration history back to arriving with a Holland America Line ship. Halifax became more prominent during the First World War, when the U boat danger made ships sail North of Scotland and then call at Halifax for coaling before going further down the coast to New York.
After the First World War Emigration became more and more important to Canada and to Halifax and it was decided to open up a dedicated pier. Pier 21. The first ship to dock there, was The Nieuw Amsterdam of 1906. The people from those days would be shocked to see what docks at the Pier 21& 20 now. The Nieuw Amsterdam of1906 measured barely 17,000 tons but was a large ship for those days. It carried quite a few passengers on board, nearly 3000 but that was only because the large amount of emigrants that were packed into 3rd class and in dormitories in the cargo holds. Nowadays a 16,000 ton cruise ship only has 3 to 400 guests on board at the most.
Today we had at Pier 21, the Carnival Splendor (113,000 tons) carrying 3000 guests (lower bed capacity). The Maasdam (54,000 tons) carrying 1266 (lower bed capacity) and at Pier 20 and the Amadea (ex Asuka) of 28,000 tons carrying 600 (lower bed capacity) which was docked at the side pier. Altogether about 5000 cruise guests going ashore to see the sights.
Stock photo of the cruise terminal dock wall. Courtesy of Halifax Port Authority
The three ships dock together at the “Sea Wall” a construction that improved the old docks so it would be cruise ship acceptable. With new bollards and new gangways that can deal with the high tides, it is now a very good place to dock at. Normally the ships dock here nose out as well. This is being made easy as in the middle of the harbor there is an island with an old fort on the top of it. It acts as a sort of natural separation for traffic which goes in and out but as it is opposite Pier 21, an approaching cruise ship can sail nicely around it and dock starboard side alongside with the bow facing towards the harbor exit.
Today we docked portside, as there was Davit testing going on. The Davits are those poles in which the lifeboats hang and which stick out over the side of the ship when it is time to lower the boats into the water. They are called Davits after the inventor Mr. Davit who together with a Mr. Schat came up with the clever idea to use gravity to lower lifeboats instead of having to push them out with manpower. The Maasdam has davits that are partly working on gravity and partly on pressure. To get the lifeboat from its storage inside the ship, the telescopic arms are pushed to the outside by means of cylinder pistons working under pressured Nitrogen Gas. Once outside, the boats are lowered on account of their own weight; e.g. by Gravity. It is a beautiful system but it is mechanical and thus it can fail. Failure is not acceptable when dealing with lifeboats and davits and thus there is a yearly inspection and maintenance carried out by the constructor of the davits. As you do not want to lower lifeboats over land, you have to make sure that the lifeboats are over water, and that meant docking the other way around.
Tomorrow we are in Bar Harbor, which is a tender port. It will be a bit of a challenging day, as apart from running a tender service all guests also have to go through immigration inspection as it is the first port of call into the USA after coming back from Canada. So everybody has to show their face including me as I am not classified as a real crewmember this cruise because of my Visa.
Bar Harbor is supposed to be sunny but windy and that might mean a very wobbly tender ride to the shore.
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