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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From the (black and white) shoe box

With little tug activity to remark upon in Halifax recently, it was time to dig into the shoebox for some oldies.

Back in 1983 Cartier Construction, a Quebec company, included most of the assets of the former McNamara Construction Co. Among those was the tug Oshawa (built in 1969) and still going today for McNally Construction Ltd.

1. and 2. Oshawa pulling (and an aluminum motorboat pushing) the dredge Harold M and scow alongSide at Pointe-au-Pic, QC, 1983-08-20.

3. 2013-10-19 in Halifax.

In 1984 Canadian Dredge and Dock were the operators of the tug Bagotville (built in 1964)

4. and 5. Bagotville was tied up in Toronto 1984-04-13.

6. In Halifax, 2013-10-19.

BONUS

Also in Toronto in April 1984 was the Canadian Dredge and Dock Co's tug Traveller. It visited Halifax two times that I know of. It was built as the steam tug Dalhousie Rover in 1941 by Muir Bros DD of Port Dalhousie, ON for C.S.Boone Dredging & Construction. However due to wartime needs it was chartered to Saint John Tug Boat Co. It arrived in Halifax October 24, 1941 from Pictou and cleared for Saint John., NB. (It may have returned to the Great Lakes seasonally.)

On March 12, 1945, while towing a ship from Saint John Dry Dock it capsized and sank in Courtenay Bay, with the loss of three lives. Six others were rescued. The tug was raised, repaired, and called in Halifax October 31, 1945 en route to Sorel.

On June 29, 1946 it foundered in Lock 1 of the Welland Canal and six were drowned. It was again raised and repaired and renamed Towmaster. 

In 1949 it was briefly renamed Shediac (possibly for work in New Brunswick), but was soon renamed Traveller by Canadian Dredge and Dock Co Ltd.In 1960 CD+D rebuilt it at their own yard in Kingston, ON, converting it to a diesel tug, upping its horsepower from 450 ihp to 720 bhp with a 6 cyl B+W Alpha. Its steam winch and windlass were converted to electric by Russel-Hipwell of Owen Sound, who also supplied Lister auxiliaries, steering gear and pumps from the Steelcraft line.

The tug seems to have lead an uneventful life thereafter, lasting until 1995 when it was broken up in Port Maitland, ON.

Its similarity to the Glen class tugs of the RCN, built very soon after, but as diesel tugs, is worth noting. 

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Gleeful tugs

It is debatable whether tugs can be gleeful, but it seems that the three McNally Construction tugs in Halifax were gleeful at noon time today when they completed placement of the last of the cribs at pier 6 in Halifax shipyard.

 

Freed from towing the huge concrete cribs at glacial speeds, and hours of nudging them into position, the tugs seemed to kick up their heels when the job was completed. The workers were also pleased to have the rest of the week end off too.

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McNally triple tow

McNally Construction used three tugs to tow a concrete crib from the work site to the Fairview Cove container pier on Tuesday October 15. Bagotville took the lead, towing Oshawa, which was towing the crib. Jamie L brought up the rear pushing the crib for a time. As they neared the destination, Jamie L turned and repositioned as a brake to help position the crib.

[Power lines in the foreground  were unavoidable, due to a crime scene investigation underway closer to the water.]

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McNally - still working pier 6, pier 9 and Fairview Cove

Three McNally tugs in Halifax involved with pier expansions at Fairview Cove and Halifax Shipyard. One new concrete crib, built by McNally, will soon be placed at Fairview Cove to extend the pier. They are currently using Derrick No.3 to place steel sheet piles in the area.
Meanwhile using pier 9c as a base McNally is building cribs for the Halifax Shipyard pier 6 expansion. So far five cribs have been positioned.  Derrick No.1 and the semi-submersible Beaver Neptune are in use along with the previously shown Dexter scows and workboats.
McNally's tug Jamie L seems to be the tug most in use, but Oshawa can also be seen from time to time. Bagotville does not seem to be very busy by comparison.

1. Oshawa gives Jamie L a tow while floating off a concrete crib at pier 9 September 17.

2. Jamie L makes up to tow Derrick No.1 from pier 6 to pier 9c.

3. Tow under way, September 20.

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Bagotville off for the Strait

The tug Bagotville sailed this morning towing the mud scow Pitts No.1 It was a blustery and cold morning, but nothing daunted, the tug was off for Port Hawksbury. Following  my post last weekend I have been on guard for a photo of the tug in McNally colours.

The bottom dumping scow, a veteran of the old C.A.Pitts Construction's marine division, taken over by McNally around 1990, was built in 1962 by Collingwood Shipbuilding. Not visible from these pictures, but partly seeable in last weekends post, the scow is loaded with buoys, anchors, rails and other gear used by McNally when building the cribs for the pier 9C extension last year.With no further work for McNally in Halifax, the equipment is going back to McNally's Point Tupper base.

Alcan's tugs

Alcan and Tugs

(updates an article I wrote for Lekko in 1983)

In the early1900s what was to become the Aluminum Company of America was attracted to Canada by abundant hydro-electricity potential in Quebec. Alcoa's founder Arthur Vining Davis, established power dams and aluminum smelters (one in a town modestly named Arvida for the first syllables in his name) in the Saguenay region and spun off the Aluminum Company of Canada Ltd in 1928. Part of the development was construction of a railway and the port of Port Alfred on the La Baie de Ha Ha- the head of navigation for large ships.(Smaller ships can continue upstream to Chicoutimi.) 

1. Alcan's Powell Wharf at Port Alfred, used to import and store bauxite.  
Early Mac Mackay photo

(The photo was taken from the Consolidated Paper Company's mill (now gone). A Canada Steamship Lines "white ship" cruise ship can be seen in the background (also long gone). It will tie up at the Bagotville government wharf.)

Several of the timber piers on Baie de Ha Ha are in the town of Bagotville. (A few kilometers inland is CFB Bagotville a Canadian military base, housing jet fighter aircraft and other Air Force activities.)

With development of the port came the need for tugs. There have been tugs on the Saguenay River since the earliest days of steam in Canada.Used mostly for log boom towing, and ship towing they also performed ship assist work. Price Navigation (part of Price Brothers paper) kept the tug Chicoutimi from 1921-1941, but it was primarily a towing vessel.

After World War II with the expansion of the aluminum business and the paper industries, dedicated docking tugs were needed. Foundation Maritime had two Glen tugs on summer station on the Saguenay, usually docking at Bagotville.

 

 2. Bansturdy and Banswift are tied up to the goelette Dan B, with Bergeronnes Transport at the quai Lepage in Bagotville. (Mac Mackay collection)

As mentioned previously Alcan decided to build their own tugs in the early 1960s, and Bagotville and sister Port Alfred were the first ones. Both built by Verreault Navigation Inc at Les Méchins, QC, they were 65 footers, with 680 bhp on one screw.

3. Port Alfred in Halifax en route to Vancouver.

It was very soon apparent that these tugs were under powered, and so Port Alfred was sold. Its trip to Vancouver was memorable to say the least. It went aground soon after leaving port, endured a hurricane off Cape Canaveral, terrorists in Jamaica and numerous mechanical breakdowns due to tropical water temperatures, for which it was not built. (The Saguenay is one of the coldest rivers in Canada, and engine cooling can be accomplished with ease.)

4. On the west coast, it served as Island Trojan to 1970 then Seaspan Trojan until its register was closed in 2004. It was right at home on the Fraser River, with a winch and flying bridge. 
Photo:Mac Mackay collection

 

A new Port Alfred II followed from Ferguson Industries in Pictou, NS in 1969. It was an 86 foot, 900 bhp single screw tug fitted with a Hodi steering nozzle.
Sold in 1972, it went to Omnimar, the operators of Sorel Tug Boats Inc and was renamed Omni-Richelieu. When Groupe Océan took over Sorel Tug Boats, it was not renamed.It has been reassigned in recent years to Ocean Tugs Ontario and is based in Hamilton, ON and serves that port, Toronto and Oshawa.

5. As Omni-Richlieu in a previous Océan colour scheme.

In 1969 Alcan ordered the revolutionary Grande Baie from Georgetown Shipyard in PEI (at the time operated by the PEI Industrial Corp). The first Voith-Schneider tug built for commercial service in North America it is powered by two 8 cylinder Nordqvist+Holm engines giving 2400 bhp. It had an aluminum house, which remained unpainted throughout its career with Alcan. With Port Alfred becoming a year round port in 1968, the tug's only drawback was its inability to work in deep ice.

 6. The Voith-Schneider fleet at Powell Wharf.

With ever large ships arriving, it became necessary to order an even larger tug, and Alexis Simard joined the fleet in 1980. Also Voith-Schneider, it was significantly larger at 3290 bhp, delivered by two V-8 MLWs. Georgetown Shipyard also built this tug and it served well. Heavily damaged in an explosion in 1990, it was rebuilt at Ile-aux-Coudres.

 7. Gooseneck ducts are used to vent the VS propulsors.

The disadvantage of the two V-S tugs was that they did not operate well in winter. Alcan hired in tugs from Groupe Océan for the winter at considerable expense. After Alcan acquired new tugs Alexis Simard was sold to Groupe Océan, renamed Océan A. Simard and based in Baie-Comeau, which is also an "all V-S" port, with Svitzer's Pointe-Comeau as the other tug.

8. Ocean A. Simard in current Océan colour scheme at Baie-Comeau.

In 2007 RioTinto bought out Alcan and became the largest aluminum producer in the world. The new RioTinto-Alcan decided to acquire new tugs for year round operation. They were to some extent forced into the decision when Grande Baie sank at her dock December 31, 2007. Although she was raised on January 8, 2008 she was declared a constructive total loss. Sold to Les Equipement Verreault and towed to Les Méchins, it has never been rebuilt, but its register remains open.

9. Still flying the Danish flag, Fjord Saguenay does trials in Bedford Basin before handing over to RTA.

RioTinto-Alcan (RTA) quite fortunately found two modern ASDs working in Europe that were Georgetown built. By this time the Georgetown Shipyard had become East Isle Shipyard, part of Irving Shipbuilding Inc. They had produced a successful series of ASD tugs based on a Robert Allen design. Several of the tugs were sold to overseas owners. Stevns Iceflower(i) dated from 2006 and was a 5,025 bhp ice class tug with firefighting capability. Danish owners Nordane built the tug for charter, and it worked for Svitzer from 2007 to 2009 as Svitzer Njord before returning to Nordane and reverting to its original name. RTA purchased the tug in 2009 and it sailed back to Canada on its own, arriving in Halifax February 28, 2009. Arriving on one engine, it went into drydock at Irving Shipbuilding's Halifax Shipyard for repairs. It then conducted delivery trials and was handed over to RTA and registered on March 23. Leaving Halifax March 26 it was at work at La Baie on March 29.

 
RTA then acquired a sister tug, built as Stevns Icecap (i), also built in 2006. Identical in all respects, it was chartered out as Svitzer Nanna from 2007 to 2010, when it was returned to Nordane and became Stevns Icecap again. After the experience of steaming the previous tug on its own, the decision was made to send this one to Canada by heavy lift ship. Thus Fjord Eternité arrived in Halifax on Fairlane on April 4, 2011.   It was offloaded the next day and sailed April 8 for La Baie.

 10. Fjord Eternité arriving in Halifax in style.

The Saguenay ports of La Baie, and the port of Grande Anse (between Chicoutimi and La Baie) are now well served by two modern tugs, and look to be in good hands for many years to come.

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Bagotville pops in

1. Bagotville alongside the mud scow Pitts No.1 at pier 9C

A first time caller to Halifax arrived at pier 9C to tow out a scow. The Bagotville has been around for a good ling time, but I have never seen in it Halifax, In fact it is 29 years (less a week) that I saw it last, and that was in Toronto.
Built in 1964 by Verreault Navigation at Les Méchins, QC, it spent is first ten years working at Port Alfred, QC (La Baie) for Alcan's shipping arm, Saguenay Terminals Ltd. Sagterm decided in the early 1960s that they would operate their own tugs and dispense with the services of Foundation Maritime, and so ordered this tug, and a sistewr called Port Alfred. A modest 65 gross tons, and 850 bhp on a single screw, the tugs worked seasonally in ship berthing. In those days, ships were not as large as they are now and a pair of small tugs could do the necessary work. Alcan's tugs also serviced ships calling at Consolidated Paper's pier and the government wharf at Bagotville.
As ships began to grow, Alcan began to build larger tugs, and sold Bagotville to Canadian Dredge + Dock Co Ltd (CDD) in 1974. The tug was often in Toronto, but worked around the Great Lakes, with CDD's yard in Kingston, ON as home base. [It was that yard that built some of Glen class tugs shown in a previous posting.]

2. Bagotville in Toronto in Canadian Dredge + Dock colours. This was the first (and until today, the only) time I saw the tug.

In 1999 McNally Construction, after absorbing Beaver Marine, C.A.Pitts and McNamara, purchased CDD and Bagotville has been part of their fleet ever since.It is a former Pitts scow, a five pocket mud scow, that the tug will tow out when weather permits.

3. The dump scow Pitts No.1 has not changed its name since acquired by McNally.

While here today, Bagotville repositioned the crane barge Derrick No.3 from pier 9C to Turple's Cove. That scow was built by CD+D in their own yard in 1941 and operated by them until the McNally take over.

4. The crane scow Derrick No.3 is on the inside at pier 9C this morning. By this afternoon it had been moved across the harbour and spudded down in a cove just south of the MacKay bridge on the Dartmouth side. afternoon.

See following blog posting on Alcan's tugs 

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