Welcome back Mister Joe

 There was another visit from a McNally Construction tug today. This time it was the Mister Joe, a 1964 vintage tug, often seen in Halifax over the years. Built as the Churchill River by Russel Brothers in Owen Sound, ON it operated in Hudson Bay until coming south to Newfoundland in the 1990s. It was then bought by Beaver Marine in 1998. When Beaver was acquired by McNally Construction Ltd of Hamilton, ON, they renamed the tug after their founder in 2001.

The Mister Joe has been in and out of Halifax frequently ever since, and is generally based in Point Tupper, NS but has also worked on the Great Lakes. It underwent a major refit in 2013-2014 when its wheelhouse was rebuilt to the orginal plans, but with modern glazing. McNally carried out the work in house at their Point Anne, ON base.

Today's visit was very brief, just long enough to tether its tow to the Bedford Institute of Oceanography (BIO) pier and head back to sea.  The tow appears to be the Beaver Neptune a semi-submersible barge used to build concrete cribs. The cribs are slip-formed concrete caissons, which are floated off the barge then sunk in place and ballasted full with gravel.

 McNally has the contract to remove the old timber pile pier and build a new pier at the BIO. Fleet mate and near sister tug Sandra Mary was featured here August 24, 2023 when it towed in other plant for the project, including the Derrick No.4 and scow with small tug D.D.Kaufman. It was here again September 9 with the crane scow Idus Atwell. It then departed for Point Tupper directly.

The Sandra Mary did not hang around Point Tupper very long, for it was reported earlier this week departing Sorel, QC for McNally's main yard in Point Anne, ON, near Belleville, towing the tug Bagotville. Reports indicate that the Bagotville, built in 1964, and laid up for a few years, will be scrapped, but that remains to be seen. McNally has done some significant rebuilds over the years.

Bagotville in Halifax in 2013.

I reported Bagotville's history here on May 11, 2013. It has spent very little of its life in salt water, and aside from the last couple of years in layup it has been well maintained. Bulwarks take a beating in its kind of work, but they can be replaced. 

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Tug Exchange

 Atlantic Towing Ltd, the providers of harbour tug services in Halifax and Saint John, NB, periodically moves tugs between the two ports depending on the need. They have three tugs of 70 tonne bollard pull and 5400 bhp, the Atlantic Bear, Atlantic Beaver and Spitfire III that were designed with higher bows and extra fendering to work with LNG tankers at the Canaport monobuoy in the open roadstead off Saint John. With gas imports at a very low level now, one or two of the tugs have been shifted to work in Halifax where their power is useful for large container ships.

When a gas tanker or large crude tanker is due in Saint John, the tugs may be sent back from Halifax, and one of the other Saint John harbour tugs moves over to take its place in Halifax.

The Atlantic Beaver went to Saint John in recent days, the Atlantic Bear sailed today,  and the Atlantic Cedar arrived from Saint John to supplement the three other regular Halifax tugs, Atlantic Fir and Atlantic Oak (5050 bhp 68 tonne bollard pull), and Atlantic Willow (4,000 bhp, 50 tonne bollard pull).

The Atlantic Cedar is also a 5050 bhp, 68 tonne bollard pull tug and it was soon put to work doing the same jobs that its sister Halifax tugs usually do.

That work included tethered stern escort for the arriving 113,509 gt / 119,180 dwt container ship CMA CGM Cochin. With a container capacity of 10,100 TEU it is about 5,000 TEU shy of the largest container ships to call in Halifax, but still requires the good power of three tugs to berth at PSA Halifax's Pier 42 - this case with the Atlantic Fir and Atlantic Oak.

Ships must be turned 180 degrees to tie up starboard side to, and tugs are required for slow speed steering assist, braking and the usual push pull. The stern tug keeps its line up, but moves to the port quarter and the offside tug (in this case Atlantic Oak) shifts to port midships for the actual berthing.

For comparison purposes the following file photo shows the additional fendering on the Atlantic Beaver:

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Dominion Warrior at Work - updated (and again)

 Dominion Diving's Dominion Warrior put to sea on a towing job September 21. 

Dominion Warrior at its base in Dartmouth Cove.

 Eurocarrier type vessels are commonly used for towing in Europe as they are equipped with towing winches, shark jaws and all the usual appurtenances for towing. However they are such rare vessels in Canada (there are only two, and both in Halifax - see below) that it is still a bit of a novelty to see one towing. 

 Today's tow is the Scotia Tide a specially constructed lift barge, designed for the placement (and retrieval) of tidal turbines from the sea bottom. When the orginal tidal power project was cancelled, the barge was laid up Saint John, NB where it was the subject of extended litigation, and eventually ended up in Halifax.

The launch Halmar retrieves the line handlers from the barge as it heads for sea.

According to reports the barge's new owners are planning to put the unit back in service, and are sending it to the shipyard for renewal of its classification. Despite the Dominion Warrior's AIS signal giving a destination of Gibraltar, it is more likely to be heading for a shipyard closer to home.

The 1293 gt barge was built at the Aecon Atlantic Industrial Inc shipyard in Pictou, NS. It is registered at 1293 gt (and surprisingly was not listed on the pilot dispatch list, as vessels of more than 1,000 gt usually require a pilot).

Footnotes:

 1. The Federal Court ordered sale of the other Euro Carrier, Tidal Pioneer is expected next week (October 4). It is laid up at Dominion Diving Ltd's base in Dartmouth Cove. [see previous post].

Update:

 2. Thanks to a reader I have learned that there is also a Euro Carrier vessel working on Canada's Pacific Coast. The Haisla Northwind was built by Neptune in 2019 and is owned by Bridgemans GP Ltd of Richmond, BC. It is currently at work on the LNG Canada terminal construction project in Kitimat.

3. I have just discovered another Eurocarrier - this one in Newfoundland, operated by 360 Marine of Harbour Breton. As far as I can tell it is a 2209 model (21.6 m length overall x 9 m breadth), twin screw 748 kW and 15 tonnes bollard pull. Built in 2022 and orginally operated in the Netherlands as NP 574 , it was registered in St.John's in June as 360 Handler. It has been reported in St.John's, Harbour Breton, Marystown and Argentia.

4.There is slighly larger Turkish-built version also working in Newfoundland. Its name is Oderin and it is also working in the Marystown / Argentia area for NL Marine Services Inc of St.John's. It was built in 2017 and operated in Turkey as Ulubey and was renamed Ulubey 1 in 2019. It was registered in Canada and given its present name in 2020.

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Tidal Pioneer for sale

 A notice in the Halifax Chronicle Herald newspaper on September 12 announced that the mult-purpose workboat Tidal Pioneer is offered for sale by tender. Its owners, Sustainable Marine Energy (Canada) Ltd entered into voluntary bankruptcy earlier this year, citing government permitting issues. After operating a pilot project in Grand Passage, Digby Neck, the company wanted to install floating tidal generators in Minas Passage, further up the Bay of Fundy where there is an extremely large tidal range and fast flowing currents. 

The Tidal Pioneer was used to tow the generators and install them on location, and service them once they were anchored and operational. The company suspended operations in April-May and the generators were to be scrapped according to press reports.

[There were controversial issues with this tidal power project which will not be dealt with here. An internet seach will reveal more information from news sites.]

The Tidal Pioneer was built in 2019 by Neptune Shipyards BV in Aalst, Netherlands.  It is a standard design EuroCarrier 2611 type, a twin screw flat deck vessel with two Caterpillar main engines delivering 1940 kW with 35 tonne Bollard Pull. It carries two deck cranes and a variety of towing and anchor handling gear. The hull measures 24.5m x 11.04m x 3.45m depth (about 2m draft). The offset superstructure allows for large deck loads. [Details from Neptune's web site for typical craft of the type.]

This type of vessel is popular in Europe, and has been exported world wide, but is still rare in North America. Remarkably it made an unassisted Atlantic crossing via the Azores, arriving in Halifax August 24, 2021. (Dominion Diving's Dominion Warrior is the only other vessel of the type in Canada and although only slightly smaller, it arrived in Halifax on a heavy lift ship in 2018.)

The sale ad notes that any claims against the vessel must be registered in the Federal Court of Canada by October 7, 2023.

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