Every morning the Chief engineer and his #2 would be having breakfast. He was a cheerful Ukrainian man and I always used to ask him, tongue in cheek, if the engine was still OK. On this occasion he invited us down to the engine room, an offer instantly accepted and he said that he would send someone upstairs to collect us in the afternoon.
The main engine is a Wartsila 8 cylinder Diesel 2-stroke that runs at 95RPM and produces 25,000BHP, it consumes about 3 tonnes of fuel an hour and is the size of a small house. It has deck levels to enable access to the various parts of the engine and I noted that the turbocharger was the size of a barrel, bigger if anything. Being right beside such an enormously powerful engine was a very humbling experience, you could literally feel the power in your stomach as the thing throbbed and shook on its mounts. Ear defenders are pretty much essential and communication was difficult. Other machinery of note included four Yanmar generator sets totalling 8,750 kW, these were not running as the main engine was driving the generator when at sea. We walked down the tunnel alongside the propeller shaft and at the very rear of the ship was the rudder mechanism which was a huge contraption with various hydraulic rams to move it. You could actually see small movements as the ship’s autopilot held course. The engine room also had a myriad of pumps and motors all powering things and a couple of large boilers that provided hot water and heating for the fuel oil I think. The engine space is not normally manned unless there is work in progress or routine maintenance but the engineers have a nice control cubicle were everything is monitored and real time data is shared with Wartsila, so I understand. The ship’s electrician also has a nice little hidey hole in this area and of course there were plenty of coffee cups spotted.
Dinner time was as usual and then the captain duly appeared in the galley and decided that he was going to make us all pancakes, so of course we hung around for this treat. He apologised again for not emerging from his cabin too much but said that he has 101 emails to deal with on a daily basis. His office door was always wedged open though, which was nice. Our ETA into Halifax had been slipping for a long while and now the concern was that our revised ETA was beyond the normal working hours of the dock employees, particularly the crane operators and efforts were being made by Grimaldi to try and arrange for overtime in order to not lose more time in port.
As we drew closer to Halifax I noted that the radar, which had effectively been blank for days had started to show other shipping in our area. As the light faded in the evening it became possible to see lights on the coast of Nova Scotia and as we made further progress towards Halifax the captain came onto the bridge and slowed the ship down, finally stopping the engine so we were just drifting. Within a minute the telegraph was put to ahead again and the engine re-started. This was standard procedure to ensure the engine would answer to commands as it had done nothing other than run full-ahead for over a week.
I noted that my phone had connected itself to 3G again so I headed off to my cabin and purchased an Air Canada via Toronto flight to Heathrow in the morning. For good measure I booked a room in the airport hotel, which turned out to be a mistake. During the crossing I was effectively unemployed as my previous employer had gone bankrupt and I had work to do to prepare for a job interview so I couldn’t hang around in Halifax, which was a great shame but the job must come first.
By now the bridge crew were in contact by radio with the port and the pilot boat was spotted heading for us, the pilot boat gave instruction to the ship to keep the pilot ladder inside the boat until the last minute due to icing conditions. About half an hour later the pilot arrived on the bridge and bellowed ‘’pilot on the bridge,’’ sat himself down, started up his own portable navigation device and announced how much we would clear a bridge by on our way into port. A large meal duly appeared on a tray for him together with coffee for us all. A tugboat arrived throwing up a decent wash as the guy obviously had the hammer down, it then shadowed us at very close quarters awaiting possible commands from the pilot. Our ship had bow and stern thrusters and so I asked why we needed a tug, the reply was that we could dock unaided at a pinch but it would take much longer. The ship was duly berthed and I noted that the ship’s thrusters were put to use holding the ship on the dock side while the ropes were put out and tightened up. Almost straight away the crane booms were lowered into their working position and containers were off and on loaded at top speed, the plan for this had already been determined while we were at sea. The crane drivers have great skill swinging a 40’ 40 tonne containers at speed towards the position earmarked for it and bringing it to a stop without it swaying like a pendulum and lowering in into a position that must be perfect to within a few inches.
By now, I had packed my bag and me and the other German passenger were invited to the captain’s cabin and office where we had some fizzy drinks. (no alcohol allowed) We were awaiting the customs people to check us prior to setting foot on Canadian soil. Around 2 hours elapsed and nobody showed up and the captain said that the window for them to attend had passed and we were free to leave. We thanked him very much and a deck hand chap walked us off the back of the ship’s rear ramp where I noted that vehicles were also being unloaded. Arriving at the port security hut I asked if I could sit down and make a call to arrange for a taxi to drive me to the airport. A big fat man with a huge white beard appeared in an elderly Cadillac taxi and immediately turned on the Trump hate. Conversation with him lasted for around 90 seconds after I let it be known that I was a Mr T supporter. It was now getting late, maybe around one in the morning and was glad to get to the hotel. I checked my flight times (05.25 depart) and then realised that check in was only a few hours away so that was a waste of money but I did get a few hours sleep and a shower.
The rest of the trip was pretty boring, ice everywhere, Canada looked chuffin cold in winter. Luckily the nice new Boeing Dreamliner to LHR was only about a third full so I was able to turn a centre row of seats into a bed and have a nice snooze. After LHR there was some sort of failure on the tube to Euston and we were stuck inside a tunnel for around an hour. By the time I got to Euston the last bloomin train up north had departed so I needed a hotel for the night. I marched around and found somewhere to the North of the station that had a vacancy, I think they ripped me off on the price but it was late again and I was tired. I got an early train back home the next day and life was back to normal.
It was a great experience, one that I shall probably never repeat but would recommend it to anyone with an interest in this sort of thing. Sadly, covid was on the horizon and due to the near impossibility of embarking and disembarking passengers at ports all companies suspended passenger voyages and hardly any have since resumed as of October 2026. A sad state of affairs but I have an idea that the office work required to accommodate the odd passenger was far more trouble that it was worth, covid being the excuse needed to pack it in. Cargo Ship Voyages website is still running and there are one or two possibilities today if anyone fancies it.
© text & images Cardinal Puff 2026
