Atlantic Cedar - rare visitor

 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.

 Today the tug was standing by alongside the semi-submersible Boa Barge 37 as the latest Arctic Offshore Patrol Vessel was rolled aboard using self-propelled modular transporters (SPMTs). The barge is on long term charter to perform this function as the ships are no longer launched in the traditional way.

The barge will be moved to Bedford Basin where the ship will be floated off. That operation will likely be covered tomorrow on the companion blog Shipfax.

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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