March 1970

I am always grateful when errors in my posts are pointed out. In my previous post regarding Anticosti , which I copied directly from an older post, I repeated an error of long standing that has stood uncorrected for several years. Thanks to a reader for pointing it out - and it is now corrected.

I should have recalled that one of the early operators of offshore tug/suppliers was P+O, and that their boats carried the suffix "Lady" in their names. The reason I should have remembered is that one of the first suppliers to call in Halifax was P+O'S Lady Delia in 1970.

I know 1970 was not yesterday, but I have been doing a series of posts on my companion blog Shipfax on events in Halifax harbour from 1970, and it was in the spring of 1970 that Lady Delia was here. In fact it was in the same month of March!.

I was lucky enough to be at pier 23 when Lady Delia got underway on whatever her mission was on March 7. (There was lots of exploration and drilling going on off Nova Scotia and elsewhere including off Prince Edward Island scheduled for the summer.)

The old grain loading gallery was still in place at pier 23-24, and there was even a shed on pier 23 in those days (right side of photo - all gone now.)  A little Spanish trawler Arosa Tercero occupied pier 25 (left side of photo.)

The tanks on the after deck appear to be for drilling mud, and are being transported to a drill rig. (They are not themselves being used as part of the boat's cargo capacity !)

Lady Delia was built in 1966 by Brooke Marine, Lowestoft and measured 773 gt. Originally powered with 2 cyl Blackstones = 1600 bhp,  it was re-powered in 1971 with two English Electrics = 3250 bhp.
When Tidewater took over P+O Offshore Services (which had been renamed International Offshore Services in 1970) the vessel was renamed Delia Tide in 1974.

The ship was finally sold in 1985 to Jovence Blue Corp SA and renamed Delia. Lloyd's dropped its in 2010 as its existence was in doubt.