Shipping News

The Port of St John's is a busy place. There are seagoing vessels of all sizes coming and going at all times in the harbour. In recent years, St John's has become a popular stop for the big cruise boats. The cruise ship usually arrives in the morning and the downtown fills with passengers and their cameras for the day, and then leaves for it's next port of call overnight. Around 30 cruise ship visits to St John's are scheduled in 2019.

 The MS Sea Princess is operated by Princess Cruises and was built in Italy in 1998. She can carry 2000 passengers and 900 crew.

 MSV Botnica is a state-of-the-art multipurpose offshore support vessel and icebreaker built in Finland in 1998 at a cost of $303 million.  Botnica is used as an escort icebreaker in the Baltic Sea during the winter months, but carries out subsea and offshore construction work supplying oil and gas drilling during the open water season.

 PSV Siem Pilot is a diesel electric driven offshore supply vessel and pipe carrier built in Norway in 2010. Siem Pilot is currently based at St John's, but in 2016 was in the Mediterranean, and was instrumental in picking up 2,400 migrants and carrying them to safety. Read about it here.

The St John's Pilot Boat is moored at a berth by Harbourside Park, right on the harbour's edge. All ships going through the Narrows are required to use the services of the Pilot to navigate the narrow entrance to the harbour. I was told that this is the oldest Pilot Boat still working in North America.