The former Atlantic Tern having been sold only a month ago and renamed Mirjana K (Panama flag) has not been idle. It left its layup berth in Stephenville NL May 7 and sailed directly to Rotterdam arriving May 22. It then sailed again May 27 with the surprising destination of Gros Cacouna, QC, towing the barge YN524305.

Recorded today, May 28, in the Dover Strait at 4.9 knots, it has an ETA of June 16. Gros Cacouna, next door to Rivière-du-Loup, QC, has a large port basin sometimes used for importing wind turbine components. It is also used to unload pulpwood from barges.

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 The last offshore tug/supply vessel based in Halifax sailed for Rotterdam today (June 16) [in dense fog]. Siem Commander first arrived in Halifax July 31, 2019 and participated in the removal of the last offshore gas platforms off Sable Island. Aside from contract towing, the boat has been idle at the C.O.V.E. in Dartmouth ever since the work was completed. In recent days it conducted trials in Bedford Basin and refueled at Irving Oil.

Parent company Siem Offshore, owners of Secunda Marine , still have Avalon Sea and Siem Pilot in Newfoundland, but with no planned activity offshore Nova Scotia it may be a long time before we see any similar vessels in Halifax.

Built in 2009 by Havyard Liervik as Stril Commander for Simon Mokster Shipping AS it is a 2807 gt, 3000dwt vessel of 16,000 bhp, fully equipped for DP2 with a swing up bow thruster and tunnel stern thrusters. Siem acquired and renamed the vessel in 2017 but it has seen very little service since then, either in Norway or in Canada.

See more images: http://tugfaxblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2019/07/new-for-secunda.html

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 There has been a temporary re-assignment of tugs to Halifax, with Atlantic Towing Ltd transferring Atlantic Cedar from Saint John, NB.

Atlantic Beaver and sister tugs Atlantic Bear and Spitfire III were built especially to handle LNG tankers at the mono-buoy unloading facility at Canaport, off Saint John, NB. Those ships are fairly rare now, so one of the three can usually be found in Halifax to assist with the large container ships.

 The tug Sandra Mary had a narrow escape today August 1, 2021 when it began taking water off Charlottetown, PE. Thanks to a quick response from the CCG and private boat owners a pump was delivered and a CCG mechanic assisted in securing the tug. It was towing the dump scow Pitts No.12 which was also secured and both were brought in and berthed in Charlottetown.

Sandra Mary was built by Russel Bros in Owen Sound, ON in 1962 as Flo Cooper and its complete history is available on the excellent Russel Bros web site: http://www.russelbrothers.ca/xflocooper.html

CCG vessels nearby responding included M.Perley, Samuel Risley (en route from the Great Lakes for refit in Pictou), CCG RHIB, two inshore fishing vessels and two pleasure craft.

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 With the lack of offshore oil and gas activity off Nova Scotia there has been no call for supply ships in the area. There were several boats laid up here earlier in the year, but they had all been redeployed to Europe, and it seemed unlikely that we would see any more.

However there have now been two visits. First was the return of Atlantic Condor after delivering two Canadian Coast Guard lifeboats to British Columbia.

See: New Gig and Lifting On

After off loading the boats in Victoria, Atlantic Condor was then used to assist in oil removal from an old shipwreck working with Resolve Marine Group and using an ROV to hot tap the hull and remove fuel.

See: Schiedyk wreck

Atlantic Condor arrived back in Halifax July 27 and after a short period at the IEL dock in Dartmouth returned to sea August 14 on an ROV survey far offshore. 

Today, August 16, saw another arrival, Siem Pilot from St.John's. One of the few remaining members of Siem's Canadian subsidiary Secunda Canada LP, the ship entered layup at the COVE dock in Dartmouth.

 It may be the first time that a "multi-cat" type vessel has made an unassisted transatlantic crossing. Even if it is not the first, today's arrival (August 24) of Tidal Pioneer is a notable one. The small workboat, measuring only 26m x 11m, and rectangular in shape, sailed from Rotterdam August 5. After a stop in the Azores, it resumed its voyage August 15 and sailed through the tail of Post Tropical Storm Henri before arriving in Halifax this morning.

This type of vessel, commonly called a "multicat", although that is a trademark, is popular world wide, but still rare in North America. Dominion Diving's Dominion Warrior was the first to be seen in these parts, and it arrived from Europe on a heavy lift ship in 2018. 

Tidal Pioneer is owned by Sustainable Marine Energy, the Scottish/Canadian company that has developed floating tidal power generators. It is currently commissioning the Grand Passage project, between Digby Neck and Brier Island, Nova Scotia. The floating platform has been built by A.F.Theriault + Sons, Meteghan River, NS, and equipped with tidal turbines built by Schottel. Seabed anchors and undersea power cable work are scheduled for completion this summer. Presumably Tidal Pioneer will be used in the construction and servicing of the installation.

Tidal Pioneer was initially laid down in 2019 by Neptune Shipyard in Aalst, Netherlands as their hull number 556 then fitted out and completed for SME earlier this year. Neptune's multi-purpose vessels are called "Eurocarrier" and Tidal Pioneer appears to be based on the 2611 standard design, with many modifications to suit the specific needs of SME. It is a twin screw vessel, of 2600 bhp.

Registered in Canada July 2, it was reflagged to Belize for the delivery trip. This is standard procedure for ship delivery companies. They are contracted by means of a charter arrangement, and use experienced delivery crews, mostly from the Netherlands. These crews also perform warrantee monitoring, break in procedures and other work during the delivery voyage. They must also be a hardy breed of seafarer to withstand a transatlantic voyage like this one.

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 The small tug Strait Raven arrived in Halifax from Sydney late August 30 with the McKeil Marine barge MM143 and tied up at the Cherubini dock in Eisner's Cove. Although a small barge at 542 gross tons, it has a clear deck area on hull dimensions of 43.90 x 16.46m, so can carry a significant size load. Cherubini Metal Works specializes large metal fabrications such as the bridges recently completed for Toronto.

Strait Raven was  built by its owners, Superport Marine Services of Port Hawksbury, NS and is a twin screw 1,000 hp vessel, also equipped with a bow thruster.

A very useful vessel, it has carried out tows throughout the region, between Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

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 A pair of elderly tugs appear to have been sold, or at least are in the process of being sold for further service.

The older of the two tugs is the W.N.Twolan, built by G.T.Davie + Sons Ltd, Lauzon, QC in 1962. A twin screw tug of 1520 bhp, it is powered by Werkspoor engines. It was considered to be a very powerful tug for its day, and even twin screw tugs were something of a rarity.

It was built to operate in the Port of Churchill, MB on Hudson Bay, to assist bulk carriers into the port to load grain. It was ice strengthened so it could continue to assist ships at the beginning and end in the short July to October season. There were facilities for minor maintenance in Churchill, but the tug sailed south in 1966-67 and again in the 1970s for five year surveys and refits. 

The tug was replaced in 1986 and passed through McKeil and Dufresne/McAllister ownership until 1995 when it was acquired Buchanan Forest Products of Thunder Bay, ON. They used it to push a lumber barge on Lake Superior. In 2011 it was chartered to push a grain barge but has been laid up in Toronto since about 2013.

Its AIS signal has reappeared in recent weeks in the area of Toronto Dry Dock Co, where it seems likely to be refitted for service. That company has successfully operated the veterans Salvage Monarch (1959) and Radium Yellowknife (1948) in recent years.

Another old tug destined for a new career is the Escorte, presently reported in Kingston, ON undergoing re-certification. Built in 1967 by Jakobson, Oyster Bay, NY for the US Navy as  Menasha YTM-773 and later YTM-761 it was (along with a sister tug Mascouta) the first Voith Schneider tugs built in the United States. As Menasha it worked for the St.Lawrence Seaway Authority for a time in the late 1980s until acquired by Groupe Océan. It worked with Océan's dredging fleet for several years until moving to Goderich, ON  for ship berthing duties.

The tug worked in Goderich, ON until April 2021. It then moved to Hamilton, ON in April, Oshawa, ON in May and Kingston. It has been idle at Kingston since mid-August in refit. It is rated at 1,000 bhp, (1300 ihp) 13 ton bollard pull  from two GM 12V-71 engines and two V-S units mounted forward - a true tractor tug.

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 The Platform Supply Vessel (PSV) Island Champion made a short stay at anchor in Halifax, NS September 14-15. The Bahamas flag vessel is en route from Montrose, Scotland to Norfolk, US.

 The tug Zeus arrived in Halifax today, September 24, towing two barges on a long trip. They are en route from the barge builder's yard in Erie, PA to the owner's home port of Newark, NJ.

The tug is an interesting one, as it was built as far back as 1974 and is still serving its original owners, as the first tug in the fleet. Dann Marine Towing LLC of Chesapeake City, MD now has a fleet of more than twenty tugs and a number and variety of barges. The Zeus is a twin screw tug with a pair of Caterpillar engines delivering 2250 hp. According to the owner's website the tug was built by Bobbin Fabricators of Harvey, LA (other records say Houma Welders Inc of Houma LA.) It has an elevated wheelhouse raising the height of eye for the helmsman from 38 ft to 55 ft above the waterline.

The two open hopper barges, named Witte 3301 and Witte 3302 grossing 1360 gt were built by Donjon Marine in Erie, PA for the yard's parent company, based in Hillside, NJ. Starting as a marine salvage contractor, Donjon is also involved in dredging and metal recycling in addition to operating the large shipyard in Erie. The company's founder, J. Arnold Witte is the dean of the American salvage industry. In fact the shipyard has recently completed building an inland rivers type pusher tug named  J.Arnold Witte. 

On arrival of Halifax the tug Zeus handed off one of the barges, Witte 3302, to the tug Atlantic Fir for docking at Pier 9B. Zeus then came alongside the Witte 3301 and docked it at Pier 9B. I understand that tug and tows  will remain in port until the tropical storms Odette and Peter have passed offshore.

As a sort of footnote, it is interesting that the two barges were brought down through the St.Lawrence Seaway separately. Zeus handled the Witte 3301 and the McKeil tug Molly M 1 handled the Witte 3302. The Molly M 1 is the former Halifax based tug Point Vigour ex Foundation Vigour built in 1962. It passed off its tow at the Escoumins pilot station and Zeus then towed both barges.

 The tug Zeus sailed this afternoon (September 28), towing the barges Witte 3301 and Witte 3302. The tug and tow arrived in Halifax September 24 en route from Erie, PA to Newark NJ. [See previous post]. With the assistance of the harbour tug Atlantic Fir the departure was a nice bit of work.

Atlantic Fir moved the barge Witte 3301 outboard of the Witte 3302 and the pair were lashed together until they were well off the dock.

 There are only a few ships built exclusively for the installation and repair of subsea cables. However offshore support vessels can often be pressed into service for specific jobs. This particularly so now that tug/suppliers are readily available due to lack of offshore work.

IT Telecom, based at Pier 9A in Halifax has used offshore vessels many times and has a portable, containerized fibreoptic cable splicing unit that can be loaded on supply boat's deck. Other equipment including what I call a slide, can be fitted over the stern to retrieve and re-lay the cable.

Other conversion work may be needed for more complex jobs that require use of a ROV. That is the case for the offshore construciotn support vessel Horizon Enabler which has recently returned from cable work in Barbados. Conversion work included removal of a portion of the ship's transom bulwark. That section has now been reinstalled and the ship can return to it owners.

Now another offshore vessel has arrived to be adapted for cable work. Maersk Clipper, built in 2013 in Chile is an anchor handling tug supplier. Its twin MaK engines produce 15,000 hp and deliver 180 tonnes bollard pull.

The ship will be fitted with the containerized cable splicing shop and other gear to retrieve and repair cable.

 The little tug Roseway despite its many years of service is in almost daily use for Dominion Diving in Halifax harbour. This morning I caught sight of it while en route to one of its regular assignments, as line boat for the Irving Oil jetty in Woodside. That is one of two regular docks where line boats are needed (the other is Autoport). A third dock at Nova Scotia Power in Tuft's Cove rarely sees ships anymore since the plant is now normally gas fired.

I have referenced the tug many times over the years on this blog, so here are some posts from the past: Roseway

Roseway dates from 1960 when it was built by Steel and Engine Products Ltd in Liverpool, NS (then owned by K.C.Irving) for the Department of Public Works. It was paired with a small dredge and dump scow and put to work in small harbours, chiefly in Nova Scotia. The tug's name comes from the community of Roseway on the western shore of Shelburne harbour, and Cape Roseway on McNutt's Island at the entrance to Shelburne harbour, site of the second oldest lighthouse in Nova Scotia, built in 1788.

Just about 40 years ago I caught Roseway and its dredge D.P.W.No.16 and a dump scow in Eastern Passage.

I don't have many pictures of cars that I have owned, but that is my 1977 Volvo on the pier in middle of the photo. One of the dredge spuds blocks a view of the spire of St.Andrews Roman Catholic Church, immediately behind the car.

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 The offshore construction vessel Siem Dorado sailed from Halifax today, October 21, giving "Dover" as its destination. My guess is Dover Strait, for orders.

Built in 2009 by Kleven Ulsteinvik in Norway, it is a 4869 gt, 4257 dwt vessel, equipped with the usual variety of thrusters. Coupled with a diesel electric propulsion system, it has a high grade dynamic positioning capability. It is also equipped with a 100 tonne capacity, heave compensating crane, equipment to support an ROV including a moon pool, not to mention the obvious helicopter landing platform.Owner Siem Offshore AS is the parent company of Secunda Canada LP, but this ship appears to be directed by the parent company. It was built as Siem Dorado but carried the names Adams Vision 2010-2013, Siem Stork 2013-2015 and Siem N-Sea 2015-2019. 

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 Atlantic Towing Ltd provides harbour tug services in Saint John, NB and in Halifax. Tugs are sometimes reassigned between the ports, and it is always interesting to see one from Saint John come to Halifax. Atlantic Cedar arrived October 21 for for a special assignment at Irving Shipbuilding's Halifax Shipyard.

Atlantic Cedar was built by Irving Shipbuilding's Eastisle Shipyard in Georgetown, PE in 2005. It is a 5,000 bhp, 66 tonne bollard pull tug with FF1 fire fighting capability. It is a sister tug to the Halifax based Atlantic Oak and Atlantic Fir. They are among the 36 similar vessels built from 1995 to 2011 based on a Robert Allen Ltd design of azimuthing stern drive harbour tug.

Atlantic Cedar's normal duties involve standing by tankers offloading at the Canaport monobuoy off Saint John, NB, where they deliver crude oil to the Irving Oil refinery.

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 It is hard to believe that the tug Atlantic Elm has reached the venerable age of  41 years, yet still does a a day's work tugging and towing. 

The tug spent the summer barging cargo in Chesterfield Inlet, off Hudson's Bay. The cargo was bound for Rankin Inlet, and it was lightered off ships anchored in deep water. The tug returned to its home port of Saint John on October 22 with the barge Atlantic Marlin. It was not long until it was underway again, making a run across the Bay of Fundy, possibly with a small ferry in tow.

Its most recent assignment was a tow from Shelburne, NS to Halifax, NS. The vessel in tow was the museum ship Acadia, built as a hydrographic research ship in 1913. Irving Shipbilding Inc completed some much needed hull work on the old ship and it was time to return to its static berth at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.

Atlantic Elm handed off the tow of Acadia to the harbour tug Atlantic Fir which brought the old ship alongside the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic's pier on November 5.

Atlantic Elm was built in 1980 by Saint John Shipbuilding and Drydock to a Robert Allen Ltd design. The twin screw 3460 bhp, 44.5 tonne bollard pull tug was originally named Irving Elm but was renamed in 1996 as part of a fleet wide renaming program.

The split funnels provide some additional view aft over the enclosed winch house. The design of the tug closely follows that of the Jervis Crown / Seaspan Monarch built in 1977 for barge work on the Pacific coast, and also still in service.

Job completed, the tug returned to Saint John. Its fleet mate the even older Atlantic Beech, built in 1969, is also in Saint John having just returned November 3 from Chesterfield Inlet.

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 McKeil Marine has been disposing of surplus tonnage in recent years, and the latest to go under the torch is Salvor, one of two similar former Moran tugs in the fleet. I covered the tug's history on this blog ten years ago, and there is little to add to: Salvor story

McKeil acquired the fleet mates Esther Moran (built 1963) and M.Moran (built 1961) in 2000, but they were not unknown to Halifax. Both were here in 1982 to tow out the El Paso Columbia with help from local tugs in the above photo. Esther Moran is on the starboard side (left in photo) with Point Vim while Point Vibert assists M.Moran on the port bow (right in photo) moving the ship under the Angus L. Macdonald bridge.

Esther Moran became Salvor in 2000 and it has recently been reported that it is being broken up in Port Maitland, ON. M.Moran was initially renamed Salvager but became Wilf Seymour in 2004. It has been paired with the barge Alouette Spirit for many years delivering aluminum ingots from Sept-Iles, QC to Great Lakes ports and returning down river with a variety of cargoes. It is still in full operation.

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 Wishing all readers a Merry Christmas and Happy and Healthy 2022.

(Oil rigs were a common sight in Halifax harbour in those days.)

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 There is a long tradition among ship watchers to exchange photos at Christmas time showing ships in snowy or icy conditions. I was going through some photos from 1977 and grabbed the photo that was part of my previous post and included it with no identification of the two tugs and the oil rig.

I did not intend to make it a guessing game or a mystery quiz, since I do have the names of all three recorded. So starting in reverse order they are:

The Sedco 704 one of seven semi-submersible oil drilling rigs built by Halifax Shipyards. This one dates from 1974 and was a known as a "mid-water floater" with a rectangular platform supported by columns on pontoons. It could work in water depths to 1,000 ft (later revised to 1,200 ft) and drill depth to 25,000 ft. It had a major drydocking and refurb in 1992-1993 at Verolme Botlek in Rotterdam, which consisted mostly of upgrading welds.

After a period working off Nova Scotia it operated in the North Sea for successor company Transocean. The rig was scrapped in Turkey in 2017.

Background tug, Point Vigour, built in 1962 by Davie Shipbuilding in Lauzon, one of six sister tugs, all single screw, 1,000 bhp. Eastern Canada Towing Ltd acquired the tug in 1973 and it was renamed Point Vigour, they had it had refitted with a Kort nozzle and its single Fairbanks Morse main engine was upgraded.

 In 2007 McKeil Marine bought the tug and renamed it Molly M 1. It is still operating on the Great Lakes and St.Lawrence with the occasional foray into salt water. It will be sixty years old in 2022, but is nevertheless going strong. Two sister tugs, which have remained in Canadian operation, Point Viking and Point Vim are also still operating. The other three were sold foreign and are believed scrapped long ago.

Foreground tug is the Pointe Marguerite one of two tugs ordered by MIL Tug (formerly Foundation Maritime) for service in Sept-Iles, QC. Built by Collingwood Shipbuilding in 1973, they were heavily reinforced for work in ice, and had an icebreaker bow. Powered by a pair of 12 cylinder GM engines, they were rated at 4300 bhp (but often quoted as more than 5,000 ihp). MIL Tug was sold to Eastern Canada Towing Ltd while the tugs were under construction, and ECTUG employed them as planned in Sept-Iles.

Tragically Pointe Marguerite was crushed between two ships November 14, 1978 in Sept-Iles Bay and sank immediately with the loss of two lives. Sister tug Point-aux Basques is still in service, now with Groupe Océan as Océan Basques as is the replacement tug, built to essentially the same design, Pointe Sept Iles now as Océan Sept-Iles.

 In my previous post I made note of the six sister tugs built for Foundation Maritime in 1962. Remarkably, three are still operating, and are likely to put in several more years of service.

Since this year marks their 60th anniversary I will expand a bit upon the careers of each of the six tugs. My plan is to stretch the story over several months. Although the tugs were built in December of 1962 and a larger follow-on tug in June 1963, I will be extending this series to "before" and "after" - going back to the 1950s, and extending to a few years later.

Context

The Foundation Company of Canada was an offshoot of a large US construction company. A pioneer in the use of pneumatic caissons, they established Canadian headquarters in Montreal but had marine construction projects throughout eastern Canada. Their more or less accidental entrance into marine towing and salvage in the 1930s is most amusingly recounted by Farley Mowat in Grey Seas Under - required reading for any tug entusiast.

The company's success in salvage work was only one part of their business. In order to provide a year round marine base, the Foundation Company purchased the Halifax Towboat operation and renamed it Maritime Towing + Salvage. It expanded to provide harbour tug services in Halifax, Sept-Iles, Baie Comeau and Port Alfred, as well as general towing. As Mowat relates, the company had to make do with a rag tag collection of old boats during war time. Following the conflict they were able to upgrade a couple of the boats to diesel and to buy some war-built tugs, but some of these were also inefficent steamers - built cheaply and "for the duration", and with a hodgepodge of power plants and machinery.

The Bansun (foreground) had been a non-condensing steam tug from the Geat Lakes, acquired during World War II and converted to diesel post-war. As a steam tug it had to return to the dock frequently to replenish its fresh water supply since briny harbour water filled the boiler tubes with scale. The tugs "chugged" like steam locomotives. Its coal burning sister tug Banstar (background) had yet to be converted when the above photo was taken.

 In the mid 1950s with the iron ore port of Sept-Iles and the grain, aluminum and paper port of Baie Comeau demanding bigger and more powerful tugs Foundation turned to the pre-eminent Canadian shipyard Davie Shipbuilding + Repairing Ltd in Lauzon, QC (then owned by Canada Steamship Lines). CSL / Davie also operated the tugs in Quebec City and had already begun to upgrade its fleet with new diesel tugs. They had both operating experience and excellent in house design capabilities. Incidentally, Foundation operated its salvage tug from Lauzon seasonally, so knew the Quebec tugs from close observation and co-operation.

Foundation first contracted for two big ice stengthened harbour tugs for use in Sept-Iles but with the ability to cover Baie Comeau. Foundation Victor was built in 1956 and Foundation Valour in 1958. They were single screw tugs of 1280 bhp, and worked most of the year in Sept-Iles but returned to Halifax during the dead of winter as there was generally no winter navigation in the Gulf or river between late December and the end of April, and Halifax was a busy "winter port" handling shipping diverted from the St.Lawrence.

The tugs were "triple deckers", built with a wheelhouse elevated above the officers' cabins to permit easier all round viewing and of the decks of large ships. This pattern was an improved version of the unheated but enclosed flying bridge of the earlier pre-war and war built steam tugs. The feature was continued with later tugs all the way to 2005, so obviously it was a succesful design feature.

The war built Foundation Vera orginally had an open "monkey island" flying bridge, which Foundation enclosed to make weather tight. Tug skippers preferred the elevated position for its better visibility.

In the 1970s the Foundation Company sold the tug business to Marine Industries Ltd of Sorel, QC which formed MIL Tug. However that company was soon resold to a joint venture between the Dutch Smit International and the British company Cory Towage, forming Eastern Canada Towing [ECTUG]. Over time Cory gained full ownership then resold to Wijsmuller which was soon taken over by Svitzer. Both Ectug and Svitzer built new tugs and they sold off the older tugs. All the new tugs built for the successor companies continued to follow the triple decker design up until the most recent tug, Svitzer Bedford dating from 2005. Even a series of British built tugs for the Smit-Cory era were triple deckers.

The first of the new Davie built tugs were named Foundation Victor and Foundation Valour (the Second World War was still fresh in most minds in the 1950s)  and were delivered in 1956 and 1958 respectively.

Remarkably both of these 1950s era tugs are still operating in Canadian waters in 2022. The former Foundation Victor, later carrying the names 1973: Point Victor, 1977: Kay Cole, 1995: Jerry Newberry, 2013: R.J.Ballott is now based in Newfoundland but travels widely, towing as far as Montreal in 2021.

Foundation Valour, renamed Point Valour in 1973 has been serving as a harbour tug in Thunder Bay, ON for many years.

to be continued...