Craig Trans - another chapter, but maybe not the last

It is time to record another chapter in the saga of the tug Craig Trans but perhaps not the last one.

To summarize the previous chapter. After appearing in Halifax in late 2012 and detained by authorities, the tug kicked around various piers until ending up in Wright's Cove (Lower Burnside) at the old Secunda Marine pier. Since its American owner abandoned the tug, and its crew, a Sheriff's sale eventually went through (for around $1,000) last year, but the tug remained there until Thursday June 1 when it was towed out of Halifax by Dominion Victory and landed yesterday morning (June 2) in the remote port of Marie Joseph on Nova Scotia's eastern shore. (About 175 km NE of Halifax, at nearly 45 degrees N).
With nothing much doing in Halifax harbour today (June 3) I made the 353 km round trip to Marie Joseph to investigate. [I have travelled farther to see a tug, but will not divulge the distance.]

The tug is now beached beside the former Canadian Coast Guard ship Tupper that has been an eyesore there since 2011. (It was also towed by the Dominion Victory).  A resident of Marie Joseph, who lives across the street (which is Nova Scotia Highway No.7), began to break up the ship, but ran into numerous legal hurdles coupled with the collapse of scrap prices. Nevertheless he acquired the Craig Trans ostensibly to scrap it, but perhaps to try to salvage something of value from it.

Local residents, mostly inshore fishermen, are quite sick of seeing the partially dismantled ex Tupper, where there has been little activity for more than a year. They told me this morning that the Craig Trans would not be broken up there in their lifetimes, so there may be another chapter in this story.

Interestingly the Canadian government announced new legislation this week to clean up derelict vessels in ports and harbours around the country (more than 600 by some accounts), but it is not clear if the laws would apply to the ex Tupper and Craig Trans which are merely unsightly.

Dominion Victory started life as the trawler Vilmont No.2 in 1965 at les chantiers maritimes de Paspebiac. It was renamed Raymond Moore in 1983 and Alcide C. Horth in 1994 and worked as a research vessel for the Quebec government and the Université de Quebec, Rimouski.
Dominion Diving acquired the vessel in 2004 and since then it has carried out a variety of chores for underwater work including operating an ROV. It has also done it share of towing work, although not strictly speaking a tug.

To summarize the CCGS Tupper's history - it was built in 1959 in Sorel, QC and retired in 1996 having worked out of Halifax (Dartmouth) and Charlottetown for most of its career. It was renamed 1998-05 and sold to an owner that had plans to convert it to an expedition yacht. It was renamed Caruso and registered in Panama, but that was as far as the conversion got. It kicked around various berths in Halifax  and Sheet Harbour, but finally caught fire in Dartmouth October 11, 2008. It was sold to the Marie Joseph scrapper and towed out June 22, 2011.

A brief recap on Craig Trans. Built in 1943 by the Tampa Marine Corp for the US Army it was named LT 648. It was laid up from about 1950 to 1965 until acquired by Foss Maritime of Seattle and rebuilt as Craig Foss. They replaced the original 1225 bhp FM engine with a pair of EMDs totaling 4,000 bhp. The tug worked the Hawaii and Alaska barge runs for Foss. It carried out other work, including a trip to the Great Lakes in 1978.
Foss finally disposed of the tug in 2011 and it became Craig Trans for shadowy owners with Haitian connections. It was involved in scrap tows to Mexico and in 2012 was headed for Beauharnois, QC to take the Kathryn Spirit in tow to scrappers in Mexico. However it was late in the season and it was doubtful if it would make it to the Seaway before winter closing as the tug was losing power. It was diverted to Halifax and detained here for numerous deficiencies by Ship Safety. The Honduran crew were eventually repatriated through charitable donations after the US based owner walked away.

By coincidence, only now is the Kathryn Spirt being demolished in situ at Beauharnois, after several years of wrangling with the scrapper, the municipality and various authorities. The ship was a similar eyesore to local residents.

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Craig Trans - goes for a grand

CBC News reports that the tug Craig Trans was sold at auction on February 17 for $1,000 to local buyer Mike Parsons. Mike has been in the ship scrapping business before, and also buys and sells surplus marine equipment, so he must have seen something of value in the old tug.
His was the only bid, and compares with the $13,000 paid by the  last owner when it was sold after it was auctioned against debts in the port.  That owner walked away from the tug and several other derelict vessels in Nova Scotia when scrap metal prices tanked.

It remains to be seen what will happen to the Craig Trans now, but it must be moved from its current berth at the Secunda pier in Wright's Cove where it was abandoned.

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Criag Trans - it's still not over

The story of the tug Craig Trans should have been over long before now, but it seems that another chapter will be added on February 17. On that date bids will be opened at the office of Cox+Palmer, attorneys, after its most recent owner walked away from the tug (or perhaps more accurately he ran away).

The tug's story as far as Halifax was concerned began with its arrival here December 18, 2012, but in fact it started in 1943 at Tampa Machine Corp where it was built for the US Army's Transportation Corps as LT-648. I told a bit about its subsequent career as Craig Foss on this blog December 18, 2012., but to summarize the legendary Seattle operators, the Foss Maritime Company acquired the tug from the Army in 1960, but kept it mothballed until 1966 when they overhauled it completely, and installed two new GM-EMD engines of 2,000 bhp each, replacing the single Fairbanks Morse. Foss completed all the work at its own shipyard in 1967.

For the first few years of its life with Foss the tug was constantly towing a log barge barge back and forth to Hawaii (40 days each way). Then in 1972 it towed a barge load of lumber from Coos Bay, OR to Camden, NJ and Portsmouth, NH, returning it empty to Mobile  AB. Its seagoing capabilities were never in doubt.

The tug towed regularly on the west coast including many trips to Alaska until 1978 when it made another tow to the east coast, this time from Tacoma, WA to Chester, PA Earl, NJ, Norfolk, VA and Charleston, SC. It then went on to Bay City, MI  to tow a dredge to Baltimore, MD, tow scows to Puerto Cabello,  Venezuela, and two offshore suppliers to Seattle. It was then back to Alaska runs until the early 2000s when the tug was laid up and sold in 2011.

It then entered a shady period where its movements become hard to trace. It did show up September 8, 2012 as Craig Trans when it towed the derelict ferry Queen of Saanich from Anvil Island BC to Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico for scrap. The old Swartz Bay-Tsawassan ferry, built in 1963 had been sold by BC Ferries in 2008 and ended up arrested and derelict until a Federal Court ordered sale in January 2012. It was moored on Anvil Island while copper was stripped out, then towed away.

In its prime, Queen of Saanich was one of BC Ferries stalwarts, but ended up in Mexico for scrap, towed by Craig Trans. 

 
When Craig Trans put in here in December 2012 it was en route to Beauharnois, QC to tow away the derelict Kathryn Spirit - see Shipfax   but the crew was without food and the tug was unlikely to get to Beauharnois before the close of the navigation season.
Once tied up at pier 25 it was found to be in despicable condition. Some 53 deficiencies were listed by Port State Control. See these photos and report. The owner, Vesta Shipping, owned by a US based Haitian arrived in Halifax then disappeared, abandoning tug and crew. The latter were repatriated thanks to the generosity of donors and the Mission to Seafarers, but the tug was eventually auctioned off. Its sale price came no where near compensating the agents, the Port, the Atlantic Pilotage Authority, and other creditors who were saddled with the tug for months, keeping it afloat and preventing it from polluting the harbour.

I made several more posts over that time December 20, January 30, 2013 , May 18 , July 28
and perhaps some others until the time of its sale.

The buyer was identified as a local ship breaker, but a number of his previous purchases have since sunk or have been abandoned - or both - in various Nova Scotia ports. The tug, which had elapsed (or falsified) Bolivian registry, was then registered in Canada as a "yacht" - thus freeing it from any regulations covering commercial vessels.

It ended up at the Secunda pier in Wright's Cove, Bedford Basin where the scrapper has now apparently given up ownership. The pier is in poor condition and will likely be dismantled and the tug must go somewhere else.

Craig Trans will have to move from the Secunda pier. In this September 2015 photo the Waterworks barge Commdive II was tied up there when it was working nearby.

With the current state of the scrap metal market it won't fetch much at this sale. Let's hope no one thinks they can rehabilitate it and put it back in service, or get it running as a "yacht". One only has to recall the ill fated coaster Fermont that left Halifax under a Kentucky yacht license and within days wrecked on Seal Island. It cost the Canadian tax payer a small fortune to clean up back in 1991. See my Navigation-Quebec blog  Poste #27  for more on Fermont.

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Craig Trans - unlikely yacht

The troubled tug Craig Trans has now been registered in Canada, as a pleasure craft. Its previous Bolivian registry was brought into question when it was abandoned by its owner in Halifax early in 2013.

On December 18, 2012 it came in to port with mechanical issues, in bad weather with an unpaid and hungry crew. The owner refused to pay the crew and they were repatriated to Honduras and San Salvador through public donations.  Finally creditors seized the tug and it was to be sold at auction June 13, 2013. Soon after it was moved to the far reaches of Wright's Cove in Bedford Basin and tied up at a the former Ultramar /Secunda  pier in Lower Burnside.

On July 18, 2014 it entered the Canadian Register, but as a pleasure craft it does not have to meet the standards of a commercial tug. I believe the new owner has purchased other ships for scrap, so it is unlikely that Craig Trans will be reconditioned for service.

Shortly after arriving in Halifax, the tug was boomed off as a precaution.

Built in 1943 by Tampa Marine Corp for the US Army it was named LT 648 (LT standing for Large Tug). The Army laid up the tug in 1960, and Foss Maritime of Seattle acquired in 1965. They rebuilt the tug at their own yard in 1966, replacing the original single 1343 bhp Fairbanks-Morse with a pair of 2,000 bhp EMDs. Renaming it Craig Foss they sent it far and wide. First hauling lumber barges to Hawaii, and latterly running to Alaska, it made numerous long tows to the Gulf of Mexico, Venezuela and got as far north as New Jersey on at least one trip.

Eventually in 2011 Foss said goodbye to the tug. Its first assignment for the new owners was to tow the ferry Queen of Saanich from Anvil Island, BC to Ensenada, MX for scrap in August. 2012. I don't have any details on its movements between then and December 2012 when it arrived in Halifax.

The eight member Honduran and Salvadoran crew on Craig Trans ran out of food three days before arriving in Halifax, but the tug was headed for Beauharnois, QC, ostensibly to tow out the Kathryn Spirit for scrap in  Mexico. However the tug was going to be too late to make to the Seaway before winter closure.

Since then the Kathryn Spirit has languished in Beauharnois, with the barge Jean-Raymond , as an eyesore and potential environmental disaster.

see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathryn_Spirit

Just upstream of Montreal, on Lac St-Louis, the Beauharnois lower lock is in the foreground, the power dam in the middle ground and the Kathryn Spirit in the background.

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Craig Trans - writ has appeared

In the last very few days what appears to be a Sheriff's arrest order has been posted in the wheelhouse window of Craig Trans. In the old days he would nail it to the mast, but that is no longer practical. However what it signifies is that a process of arrest and forced sale is underway.

It is not a quick process however, so it may be some time before an actual sale takes, place. In the meantime the ship is attached to shore power to keep it from freezing up.

Craig Trans - lights on, no one home

After the repatriation of the tug's crew. through the generosity of the public, there was a little activity on the tug last week. A welding machine was parked on the pier and there was a watchman also. Since then the tug has taken a bit of a list to starboard. Now the gates to pier 24 are closed at both ends and there is no sign of any activity on board.
There are still lights on, indicating that a generator must be running, but there is no sign of other life. I hear that the owner is arranging for another crew, and hopes to resume his trip to Beauharnois, QC as soon as the Seaway opens in March.
With the ongoing Lyubov Orlova / Charlene Hunt situation in Newfoundland, I wonder if that will be allowed to happen? The ship is still adrift and the tug remains tied up in port, but there doesn't seem to be any resolution in the offing.
 http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/empty-cruise-ship-drifting-off-newfoundland-raises-alarms-1.1132103

Craig Trans - saga continues - Atlantic Fir to Montreal - maybe

1. Atlantic Fir - file photo

The Port of Montreal web site shows the tug Atlantic Fir arriving Christmas Day, then proceeding on to Beauharnois. Presumably this would be to pick up the former cargo ship Kathryn Spirit which has been tied up there for recycling. Neighbours managed to block the scrapping in that location, and the hulk reportedly has been sold to Mexican owners.
It is also the ship which the tug Craig Trans - see previous posts, was intending to fetch.
Craig Trans is still tied up in Halifax (now minus the containment boom), and directly across the harbour sits the tug Atlantic Fir. It has been in port for several days, presumably waiting out the horrible weather we have been experiencing. It will not, as a result, be arriving in Montreal on Christmas Day. Another minor complication is that the Canso Canal will be closing on Christmas Eve, so it will mean sailing through the Cabot Strait, where weather has been bad enough to force cancellation of Newfoundland ferry service.
The object apparently is to get the Kathryn Spirit out of the Seaway before closing - which will likely be December 29 at the latest - and get ti to Halifax where Craig Trans or some one else can to tow it to Mexico.
Let us hope it is the well found tug Atlantic Fir that tows it past Scarari Island, so it does not join the Miner, wrecked over a year ago by a failed tow line.
We'll wait and see.

2. Kathryn Spirit laid up in Sorel in July 2011. In August 2011 it was moved up the Seaway as far as Beauharnois where scrapping began, but was then halted.

Craig Trans - more

1. Craig Trans now has a boom around it.

News reports tell us that the eight member Honduran crew on Craig Trans ran out of food three days before arriving in Halifax. The tug has now been detained by Transport Canada due to deficiencies related to crew accommodation. It will not be allowed to sail until these are corrected. The Mission to Seafarers and Adship Agencies are tending to the crew's needs, but are also asking for public assistance.
Yesterday afternoon the tug Gulf Spray placed a containment boom around the tug, so there are other problems too.
The report also says that the tug was en route to Montreal to tow a ship to Mexico for scrap.There are several candidates in Montreal for such a tow, so I won't speculate on which one it might be, except to say do we need another Canadian Miner?
Owners are quoted as being Vesta Shipping of New Jersey. Who in their right mind would tow a ship out at this time of year? Will authorities stop them if they try? Stay tuned.

Craig Trans - more

With storm conditions persisting the tug Craig Trans is secure at pier 25, but she is still bobbing around in the swells.
The tug has certainly seen better days. She still wears her Foss green hull colour with white bulwark panel, but the formerly white painted house has been daubed over with a sort of rusty yellow. The  colour does not conceal some real rust streaks weeping from vents. And there is lots of soot from her EMDs staining the work boat and funnel.
She flies the Bolivian flag on her signal mast, but still maintains some dignity.

More news when I have it.

Craig Trans - in the teeth of a gale (more to come)

1. As Craig Foss

The classic tug Craig Trans flying the flag of Bolivia, arrived this afternoon in the teeth of a gale. It anchored at first, but was unable to hold position, and so moved to pier 25 - where I hope to get a better picture.
Built in 1943 by Tampa Marine Corp for the US Army, it was one of the class of Large Tugs and was named LT 648.
The Army laid up the tug in 1960, and Foss Maritime of Seattle acquired in 1965. They rebuilt the tug at their own yard in 1966. They replaced the original single 1343 bhp Fairbanks-Morse with a pair of 2,000 bhp EMDs. Renaming it Craig Foss they sent it far and wide. First hauling lumber barges to Hawaii, and latterly running to Alaska, it made numerous long tows to the Gulf of Mexico, Venezuela and got as far north as New Jersey on at least one trip.
Eventually in 2011 Foss said goodbye to the tug. Its first assignment for the new owners was to tow the ferry Queen of Saanich from Anvil Island, BC to Ensenada, MX for scrap last August. I don't have any details on its more recent movements however.
At this point my bet is that it is heading for St.John's to tow the cruise ship Lyubov Orlova to the Dominican Republic, instead of the woefully under powered Charlene Hunt featured in these pages a few weeks ago. [My bet was wrong - see updates]
That tug is still sitting in St.John's with plywood on its windows after encountering severe weather on its way past Halifax. I hear it had to be evacuated by some of its crew, and was brought in full of water by only its master and engineer.
Regrettably I fear that Craig Trans, despite its power and wonderful sea keeping abilities may be well past its prime too, so there may be little good news in this story.
More later.

2. As Craig Foss.