Goodbye 'Osprey

 A Halifax-built AHTS has been sold and is en route to Greece.

The Atlantic Osprey was sent down the launch ways April 17, 2003 and completed in July of the same year. It was handed over to Atlantic Towing Ltd for operation in Newfoundland waters. Both Halifax Shipyard and Atlantic Towing Ltd are owned by branches of J.D.Irving Ltd, the industrial arm of the Irving family of companies from Saint John, New Brunswick. 

The 3453 gt ship was the last of four similar vessels built to an Ulstein 722 design. The first two, Atlantic Eagle and Atlantic Hawk were 3157 gt platform suppliers and the second two, Atlantic Kingfisher and Atlantic Osprey were UT722L types with anchor handling / towing winches and 5 meter longer hull at 80m LOA. 

 Atlantic Eagle is currently serving as an Emergency Towing Vessel in British Columbia. Atlantic Hawk was sold in 2021, renamed Sayan Jarl then Seival under Russian flag. Atlantic Kingfisher has been chartered out to Brazil since 2002.

The Atlantic Osprey appeared to have a more elaborate fire fighting outfit. It was equipped with two controllable pitch props delivering about 100 tonnes bollard pull from four Bergen main engines of 14,411 bhp. It had one conventional and one azimuthing thruster forward and two athwartship thrusters aft. (It was also report at 16,000 installed horsepower.)

 

Atlantic Hawk (left) and Atlantic Osprey (right)

 From September 2022 to August 2023 the Atlantic Osprey was reflagged to Barbados, presumably for work overseas. It may also have operated abroad on other occasions. It did work out of Halifax for a time between 2018 and 2020 with a drill rig Noble Regina Allen and offshore platforms. It was laid up periodically in Stephenville and did spot charter work.

 

In March of this year, its Canadian registry was closed and it was renamed Giant under Liberian flag. New owners are reported to be Giant Shipping SA with managers Megatugs International Salvage. It departed Bull Arm, NL April 12, 2025 for Piraeus, Greece.

 

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Osprey

This afternoon the the Anchor Handling Tug Supplier Atlantic Osprey returned to the port where it was built. The 3453 gt vessel was delivered by Halifax Shipyards in 2003 and has worked from ATL's St.John's base. It was built to the Ulstein UT 722-L design, and has carried a variety of cranes and other gear over the years. However it now has a clear working deck.

It is also fitted with one conventional thwartships thruster and an azimuthing thruster forward. There are also two thrusters aft. Its four Bergen main engines geared to two controllable pitch props, deliver approximately 16,000 bhp with a design bollard pull in excess of 100 tonnes. It also carries the usual fire fighting gear and dynamic positioning.

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Return of the Osprey and other Atlantic Towing activity

The Province  of Nova Scotia's official bird is the osprey, a migratory fish hawk that usually puts in its first appearance of the year in late April or early May. Today's return of the big tug supplier Atlantic Osprey is certainly seasonally correct, but as to origin, it is coming from St.John's Newfoundland rather than more southern waters.

The 3453 grt, 16,000 bhp OSV is one of four similar ships in the ATL offshore fleet, two of which are UT 722 and two are UT 722L (L=long), all built at Halifax Shipyard under license from Ulstein. The boat was laid up for a time over last winter, and a large deck crane and other gear, such as an ROV davit have been removed.

While arriving it passed Atlantic Towing Ltd's Woodside tug base, where the usual four harbour tugs, Atlantic Oak, Atlantic Fir, Atlantic Willow and Atlantic Bear have been joined temporarily by Atlantic Larch. The latter tug will likely be towing out the barge Atlantic Sea Lion for northern supply work.

Atlantic Bear went to Saint John last week to assist with an LNG tanker, but returned to Halifax in time to put on a water demonstration for the inaugural call of the auto carrier Grande Halifax on Wednesday (see also Shipfax).

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