Two tugs that Svitzer Canada will use in its Baffinland contract arrived in Halifax together this morning.
As previously reported: http://tugfaxblogspotcom.blogspot.ca/2015/05/svitzer-lands-big-one.html Svitzer will service the contract with two Canadian built tugs, Svitzer Nerthus ex Stevns Iceflower (ii) and Svitzer Njal ex Stevns Icequeen (ii)
The two arrived off Halifax sometime last evening and conveniently boarded their pilots in daylight this morning. It is great to see tugs at the Svitzer dock again, although they will only be here for a matter of a few weeks for Canadianization, which will also include new names.The tugs were temporarily registered in Kingstown, St.Vincent and Grenadines for delivery trip from Fredericia, Denmark. Svitzer Nerthus sailed May 18 and Svitzer Njal May 17 with professional delivery crews.
A brief tour aboard revealed that they are both in superb condition, and arrived "all found" with complete equipment and spares.
The tugs have Caterpillar main engines totaling just over 5,000 bhp, with Rolls Royce controllable pitch props in azimuthing stern drives and bow thruster.
For the curious the name Nerthus is that of a goddess of legend, and Njal a figure in ancient Icelandic sagas. Svitzer Canada seems to favour place names from the area of operation, following the word Svitzer, so it will be interesting to see what names these tugs get now.
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