A tug that made one trip to Halifax has turned up at a scrap yard in Amelia, Louisiana. I stumbled across the a photo of the tug Coastal Sun while reading an article on another ship being scrapped at the same yard.
http://www.marinelog.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4212:decommissioned-navy-oil-to-be-scrapped-at-southern-recycling&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=195
Coastal Sun was built in 1970 by Gulfport Shipbuilding in Port Arthur, TX as E.B.MacNaughton for Ultramar Chemical Co and worked on the west coast and in Hawaii. It was renamed Dauntless in 1990 when acquired by Crowley Marine Services of San Francisco.It became Coastal Sun in 1999. Its owners were Bay Towing Corp of Norfolk, VA, when it called in Halifax June 6 to 9, 2003 -almost exactly 10 years ago.It was towing the barge Columbia Miami, and it loaded containers at Halterm and Fairview Cove. The containers were all empties, and were hauled away to Elisabeth, NJ.
Since then the tug was owned by Harbour Service LLC then Tug Coastal Sun LLC, but its US documentation expired August 31, 2009, and has likely been laid up since that date.Since its visit to Halifax it had a small elevated wheelhouse added.
Unusual for a US tug of its vintage, it was powered by a pair of 12 cylinder Fairbanks-Morse engines, generating 4400 bhp, through gear boxes to twin screws..
At one time towed barge HAWAII to Vancouver to load potash for Hawaiian agriculture. Tug and tow so big they had to embark a pilot.
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