Christmas Island

The final island that I visited on my Churchill Fellowship was Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean.  At Christmas Island I particularly wanted to observe the barges they use to handle containers when they are unable to use the tower crane at Flying Fish Cove particularly in the swell season.

Flying Fish Cove

 At Christmas Island they have 3 separate port facilities to handle the unloading of containers depending on the sea conditions.

 

Firstly, at Flying Fish Cove there is a luffing jib tower crane adjacent to the phosphate loading  cantilever, used for both unloading containers & loading bagged phosphate. There is no berth with ships being moored just offshore under the tower crane & a 20m cliff to deep water mooring buoys.

Flying Fish Cove Jetty & Barge

Secondly, at times due to the sea conditions it is not possible for the ships to moor under the tower crane at Flying Fish, and containers are transported ashore using motorised barges where they are unloaded using a gantry crane at the end of the Flying Fish Cove jetty.  This gantry crane is also used to launch & recover the motorised barges & the pilot vessel.

Norris Point

Lastly, during the swell season from December to March there is an alternate facility at Norris Point on the Eastern shoreline that is also equipped with a luffing jib tower crane.  At Norris point the ship cannot moor under the tower crane and the barges are used to transport the containers from the ship to the under the crane.

There are 2 motorised barges at Christmas Island with a length of 11 metres and capable of carrying a single 20’ container with a maximum weight of 32 tonnes.  2 Detroit Diesel engines power each barge, and when transporting containers has a crew of 6 men.  The same barges are often seen in the news media transporting asylum seekers ashore.  The operation of the barges & vessel stevedoring is by a private operator, Complete Stevedoring & Freight Services Pty Ltd.

Of all the Islands that I visited, the barges used at Christmas Island would be the most ideal solution for unloading containers from ships at Norfolk Island.

The Australian Government through the Department of Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts and Sport has contracted the management of the Christmas Island port to Patrick Ports. The Australian Government is currently calling tenders for a 41m extension to the Flying Fish Cove Jetty, and for replacement barges.

My thanks to Kelana Arshad from the Complete Stevedoring & Freight Services for taking the time to show me the marine facilities & the stevedoring operations, and to Dave Robertson the Port Manager for Patrick Ports.

Cocos (Keeling) Islands

The next stop on my Churchill Fellowship was Cocos (Keeling) Islands in the Indian Ocean.  I chose to visit Cocos as being an Australian territory (just like Norfolk Island) I needed to see what facilities the Commonwealth government has provided them.

Landing Craft Minti Sedaya

Cocos (Keeling) Islands are an atoll with a central lagoon.  The local Cocos Malay people (who are all Australian citizens) live on Home Island, while the Australians live on West Island, which is also the administrative centre of the Island and where the airport is situated.

The port facilities consist of the Home Island jetty & a brand new facility at Rumah Baru on West Island.  James Capstan) capable of carrying 16 containers, a landing craft (Minti Sedaya) capable of carrying 4 containers, and onshore 2 Groves mobile cranes with a lifting capability of 75 tonnes.

  

Barge James Capstan

In addition there is a ferry (Cahaya Baru) operating between Home Island & West Island several times a day with the passenger fare being only $2.50 each way.

The Commonwealth Government has provided all of the port & marine facilities. at both Home Island & West Island, together with the all the Boats. Operation of the port is contracted to Patrick Ports, while the Barges & Landing craft are operated by the Cocos Islands Co-operative Society Ltd.

Rumah Baru

The new port facilities at Rumah Baru on West Island were quite impressive consisting of an artificial offshore island, a connecting bridge to West Island.  The facilities were recently constructed between 2009 & 2011.The offshore Island provides both an area for mooring the barges & handling the containers ashore, and a ferry berth & passenger facilities.

Cargo ships calling at Cocos Islands are required to anchor in the lagoon near Direction Island, being unable to berth at either of the jetties at Home Island & West Island due to the shallow depth.  The landing craft (Minti Sedaya) tows the dumb barge (James Capstan) from the Home Island Jetty to the cargo ship.  Containers are discharged using the ships cranes onto the both the dumb barge & landing craft with 2 tag lines being used to minimise pendulation of the containers during lifting operations.  The Cocos Islands Co-operative Society who perform the stevedoring have a very strong approach to Occupational Health & Safety.

My thanks to Ron Grant from the Cocos Islands Co-operative Society for taking the time to show me the marine facilities & the stevedoring operations.

Saint Helena Shipping - South Atlantic

If there ever was a sister island to Norfolk Island then St.Helena would have to be it.  The similarities between the two islands were quite amazing.  We arrived on St Helena after a 4 day voyage aboard the RMS St Helena.  Before we had even disembarked at St Helena the local stevedores had already discharged all the containers on deck, and were beginning to discharge those in the hold.

St Helena has a coastline of imposing 200m high cliffs surrounding the Island with only 2 places accessible to the sea.  With no airport (although currently under construction) St Helena is totally dependent on one ship for both passenger access & cargo with the RMS St Helena being their access to the world, operating from Ascension Island & Cape Town

Jamestown is the only port on St Helena and is a open roadstead anchorage.  All passengers arrive, and cargo are unloaded at “The Wharf”, Jamestown.  The Wharf is built on a narrow rock platform directly under the 200m high cliffs. The cliffs have been covered in steel mesh to prevent rock falls.

Passengers are ferried ashore in dedicated passenger tenders.  To handle containers they use 2 Flat top barges that can carry up to 30 tonnes in weight.  Depending on the weight of the containers, each barge can carry up to 3 containers. 








As well they have former US Navy landing craft.  While the landing craft is twice the size of the flat top barge it can only carry 2 containers. The landing craft is only used occasionally due to its high fuel consumption & limited payload.

Ashore the barges are moored a few metres off shore from the wharf face, with the cargo being unloaded using 2 Sennebogen crawler cranes capable of lifting between 100t & 180t. The cranes were provided to St. Helena by a European Union aid project.

On a typical voyage of the RMS St Helena they unload 60 containers (& load 60 empty containers) with a handling rate of 40 containers in a day, with the ability to handle up to 70 containers in a day.

The stevedoring & lighterage is carried out by Solomons & Company, a public limited company majority owned by the St Helena Government.  They employ 40 men to unload the RMS St Helena, with 19 men working aboard ship, 12 men working on the wharf, and 15 men manning the barges.

Ascension Island

The purpose of my Churchill Fellowship is to look at the methods used to unload on gainers from ships using barges at small isolated islands.

I could not believe my luck to arrive on Ascension island to find a vessel, Ocean Charger, from the USA discharging containers for the many US facilities on Ascension Island.

 

They were using 3 motorised flat barges to unload the containers. Each barge was capable of carrying either 2 x 20' containers or 1 x 40' container. The barge was driven by a huge outboard engine driving a propellor.

While I could not properly see the operations alongside the Ocean Charger due to the distance from shore, I alas able to closely observe the shoreside operations. The pierhead on Ascension Island is situated on the northern side of the Island, in the capital, Georgetown. The pierhead itself is no bigger than Cascade Jetty on Norfolk Island. The containers were unloaded with a large mobile crane, and placed directly onto waiting trucks for transport directly off the wharf to a compound at the USA base facility.

What amazes me was how easy the whole operation was. From arrival of the barge at the pierhead, tying up, unloading two containers, and reversing back out to sea was only taking them 7 minutes.

Next stop is St. Helena Island, 700 miles south-east of Ascension Island. To get there I have a 3 day journey by sea on the RMS St Helena - the last working Royal Mail Ship in the world.

 

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Falkland Islands Shipping

Despite having 2 ports where ships can berth, the Falkland Islands suffer from the tyranny of distance, and a unfriendly neighbor - Argentina.

There are two shipping services services servicing the Falkland Islands. The first service is from Britain using 2 large roll-on/roll-off vessels primarily to service the military facilities at Mt Pleasant providing a monthly service. Space is available on this service to the civilian population, however the military have first priority. These ships dock at Mare Harbour, some 35 miles from the capital, Stanley.

The other shipping service is named South American Atlantic Service (SAAS). The General Manager of SAAS, Eugene Hurley, was very kind to show me the SAAS facilities in Stanley. SAAS is 50/50 owned between the Falkland Islands Government & a private company, Consolidated Fisheries Ltd. SAAS charters the vessel, MV Scout with a capacity of 292 containers. The ship operates between Port Stanley & Montevideo in Uruguay, with an additional 4 voyages a year to Punta Arenas in Chile. SAAS have arrangements with other shipping lines to & from Montevideo to provide services to the UK, USA & other worldwide ports.

In Port Stanley, the Scout docks at the Falklands Interim Port and Storage System, known simply as FIPASS. FIPASS consists of 6 interconnected floating barges and was installed by the British Military shortly after the 1982 Falklands conflict. Since the construction of the military facilities at Mt Pleasant & Mare Harbour, FIPASS is now operated the Falkland Islands Goverment to service the civilian cargo ships, fishing industry, oil exploration vessels, as well as a ship repairs. The FIPASS facility is able to handle both 20' & 40' containers at the maximum weight of 30 tonnes together with the Forklifts to move the containers around and on & off the container trucks. However FIPASS is almost 30 years old & was built as a temporary, interim facility & the Falkland Islands Government have announced their intention to build a much larger port facility at Port William, which is the entrance to Port Stanley.

The biggest issue they have is Argentina. While the fighting war stopped 30 years ago, Argentina effectively operates a economic bar. They only allow one LAN Airlines flight a week though Argentinian airspace, they will not allow shipping lines to carry cargo both to Argentinian ports & the Falkland Islands. As a result SAAS has to charter it's own vessel, and operate it's fleet of unbranded containers. Despite these restrictions SAAS only charge US$3,000 for a 20' container from Montevideo to Port Stanley. This works at around US$120m3 to US$150m3 depending on how much cargo is packed in the container

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Rapa Nui Shipping

On Rapa Nui (Easter Island) I saw the first of the container barges that are used to unload containers. The barges are based at a small boat Harbour at Hanga Piko, on the northern coast of Rapa Nui on the edge of the Hanga Roa township.

The boat Harbour has a water depth of 4m, and a 100m long cargo wharf. They have built a small breakwater to protect it from the ocean swells. The approach to the Harbour has numerous volcanic rocks protruding out of the water.

The cargo barges are operated by SASIPA (Agricola y Servicios Isla de Pascua), in addition to operating the Islands electricity & water supplies.

They have 3 motorised barges, that are 14m long and a draft of 1.0m. They are powered by a inbuilt engine driving a propellor. Each barge is capable of carrying a 20' container with a maximum weight of 38 tonnes. Shoreside they have a Tadano 60 tonne mobile crane to lift the containers ashore from the barges.

They get 2 ships a month from Chile, and are able to move a cargo load of 20 containers from ship to shore in 3 hours.

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Tahiti

The first stop on my Churchill Fellowship travels to investigate the methods used to load & unload containers at small, isolated islands was a 30 Hour stopover in Tahiti.

I took the opportunity to visit the team at Transam Polynesie. Not only are they port agents for Pacific Direct Line, but they are also agents for Marfret - a large container ship operator that operates a Round the World service linking various French Territories with France. I could not believe my luck to find they had the Marfret Container ship in port on the one and only day I was in Papeete.

Stephen Nehemia from Transam Polynesie took me on a tour of the Papeete port, where I was able to see the cargo operations of the Marfret container ship. The Papeete port is on a small island on the edge of the reef that rings the island of Tahiti. The main wharf has room for 2 large container ships, together with numerous small wharves for the inter-island cargo ships.

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