Ocean renames two

Groupe Océan has renamed two tugs it acquired earlier this year from Svitzer. The two tugs completed their obligations with Svitzer at the end of last month and returned from Milne Inlet, Baffin Island where they had been working for the last three summers.

Undergoing  refit in Quebec the pair have now been renamed Océan Raynald T (ex Svitzer Nerthus) and Océan Clovis T (ex Svitzer Njal).

They are a good fit with the Groupe Océan fleet, as they are Georgetown-built, ice class ASD, 66 tonne bollard pull, 5,000 bhp tugs, similar to most of the modern tugs in the Ocean fleet. No assignments have been announced for the tugs yet.


They were built in 2009 by East Isle Shipyard in PEI for Nordane shipping as Stevns Iceflower (ii) and Stevns Icequeen (ii) and sailed from trials in Halifax to Denmark. They were soon chartered and eventually acquired by Svitzer and renamed the same year.

 

Flying the Barbados flag for the delivery trip, the two tugs arrived back in Halifax in company June 4, 2015 and tied up at the Svitzer Canada dock.

When Svitzer won the Baffinland contract in 2015, they brought the two tugs back to Canada. They were stationed in Montreal in winter and worked in Milne Inlet in the brief summer navigation season from July to October.

In January of this year Svitzer decided to shut down its Montreal operation and sold three of its tugs to Groupe Océan.. The Svitzer Cartier (ex Svitzer Wombi-125, Hai Gang 107 -14) became Océan Cartier and was refitted in Quebec City but has not been assigned any work yet.

Svitzer Nerthus and Svitzer Njal were committed to the Baffinland project for this past summer but were handed over to Ocean on return south.

 
The fourth tug, Svitzer Montreal although a similar Georgetown class tug, is not ice strengthened, and Svitzer re-assigned it to its Point Tupper, NS operation which has the three other Svitzer Canada tugs.

For more on the tugs and photos see Tugfax : June 6, 2015

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