Sixty years on - Part One

 In my previous post I made note of the six sister tugs built for Foundation Maritime in 1962. Remarkably, three are still operating, and are likely to put in several more years of service.

Since this year marks their 60th anniversary I will expand a bit upon the careers of each of the six tugs. My plan is to stretch the story over several months. Although the tugs were built in December of 1962 and a larger follow-on tug in June 1963, I will be extending this series to "before" and "after" - going back to the 1950s, and extending to a few years later.

Context

The Foundation Company of Canada was an offshoot of a large US construction company. A pioneer in the use of pneumatic caissons, they established Canadian headquarters in Montreal but had marine construction projects throughout eastern Canada. Their more or less accidental entrance into marine towing and salvage in the 1930s is most amusingly recounted by Farley Mowat in Grey Seas Under - required reading for any tug entusiast.

The exploits of the salvage tug Foundation Franklin make exciting reading in Mowat's book Grey Seas Under. A following book The Serpent's Coil tells of the salvage tug Foundation Josephine and its rescue of the cargo ship Leicester

 

The company's success in salvage work was only one part of their business. In order to provide a year round marine base, the Foundation Company purchased the Halifax Towboat operation and renamed it Maritime Towing + Salvage. It expanded to provide harbour tug services in Halifax, Sept-Iles, Baie Comeau and Port Alfred, as well as general towing. As Mowat relates, the company had to make do with a rag tag collection of old boats during war time. Following the conflict they were able to upgrade a couple of the boats to diesel and to buy some war-built tugs, but some of these were also inefficent steamers - built cheaply and "for the duration", and with a hodgepodge of power plants and machinery.

The Bansun (foreground) had been a non-condensing steam tug from the Geat Lakes, acquired during World War II and converted to diesel post-war. As a steam tug it had to return to the dock frequently to replenish its fresh water supply since briny harbour water filled the boiler tubes with scale. The tugs "chugged" like steam locomotives. Its coal burning sister tug Banstar (background) had yet to be converted when the above photo was taken.

Several small war built "Glen" class tugs were acquired,but were low powered and not up to the job of docking large ships. It took up to six tugs to berth the Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary for example.

 

 In the mid 1950s with the iron ore port of Sept-Iles and the grain, aluminum and paper port of Baie Comeau demanding bigger and more powerful tugs Foundation turned to the pre-eminent Canadian shipyard Davie Shipbuilding + Repairing Ltd in Lauzon, QC (then owned by Canada Steamship Lines). CSL / Davie also operated the tugs in Quebec City and had already begun to upgrade its fleet with new diesel tugs. They had both operating experience and excellent in house design capabilities. Incidentally, Foundation operated its salvage tug from Lauzon seasonally, so knew the Quebec tugs from close observation and co-operation.

In the 1950s and 1960s the Foundation Vigilant was based in Lauzon in the summer and moved to Bermuda in the winter, but ranged far and wide as needed.

Foundation first contracted for two big ice stengthened harbour tugs for use in Sept-Iles but with the ability to cover Baie Comeau. Foundation Victor was built in 1956 and Foundation Valour in 1958. They were single screw tugs of 1280 bhp, and worked most of the year in Sept-Iles but returned to Halifax during the dead of winter as there was generally no winter navigation in the Gulf or river between late December and the end of April, and Halifax was a busy "winter port" handling shipping diverted from the St.Lawrence.

 

Foundation Victor's high wheelhouse provided good visibility for ship berthing work.

The tugs were "triple deckers", built with a wheelhouse elevated above the officers' cabins to permit easier all round viewing and of the decks of large ships. This pattern was an improved version of the unheated but enclosed flying bridge of the earlier pre-war and war built steam tugs. The feature was continued with later tugs all the way to 2005, so obviously it was a succesful design feature.

The Scottish built Banscot was among the tugs acquired by Foundation Maritime when they bought the Halifax harbour tug business. It had an open fly bridge with a crude weather enclosure.
 

The war built Foundation Vera orginally had an open "monkey island" flying bridge, which Foundation enclosed to make weather tight. Tug skippers preferred the elevated position for its better visibility.

In the 1970s the Foundation Company sold the tug business to Marine Industries Ltd of Sorel, QC which formed MIL Tug. However that company was soon resold to a joint venture between the Dutch Smit International and the British company Cory Towage, forming Eastern Canada Towing [ECTUG]. Over time Cory gained full ownership then resold to Wijsmuller which was soon taken over by Svitzer. Both Ectug and Svitzer built new tugs and they sold off the older tugs. All the new tugs built for the successor companies continued to follow the triple decker design up until the most recent tug, Svitzer Bedford dating from 2005. Even a series of British built tugs for the Smit-Cory era were triple deckers.

Six triple deckers alongside the old ECTUG dock Halifax in 1977.

The first of the new Davie built tugs were named Foundation Victor and Foundation Valour (the Second World War was still fresh in most minds in the 1950s)  and were delivered in 1956 and 1958 respectively.

Remarkably both of these 1950s era tugs are still operating in Canadian waters in 2022. The former Foundation Victor, later carrying the names 1973: Point Victor, 1977: Kay Cole, 1995: Jerry Newberry, 2013: R.J.Ballott is now based in Newfoundland but travels widely, towing as far as Montreal in 2021.

Foundation Valour, renamed Point Valour in 1973 has been serving as a harbour tug in Thunder Bay, ON for many years.

 

to be continued...

Old but indestructible, or When I'm sixty-four

 This blog has contained too many notices of old tugs going to the scrappers recently. Tug companies may be cleaning house as they have been carrying worn out vessels on their rosters for too long. However a few durable tugs are still soldiering on at relatively unheard of ages. One of those is the R.J.Ballot, which has apparently answered the Beatles question "Will you still need me....when I'm sixty-four."

R.J.Ballott at the former Coast Guard base, now the Centre for Ocean Ventures and Entrepreneurship (COVE) in Dartmouth.

Foundation Maritime, that legendary Halifax based towing company, built up a rag tag fleet during World War II. Some of those tugs were replaced by war emergency tugs in the late 1940s, but by the mid 1950s they still had several underpowered and steam driven boats. 

When the newly developing Labrador iron ore mines came into production, new port facilities were built at Sept-Iles, QC that could handle the largest of a new breed of bulk carriers. Along with nearby Baie Comeau, the ports required tugs with power and heft. Foundation went to Davie Shipbuilding in Lauzon (now part of Lévis), QC for what eventually turned out to be nine new tugs. Delivered in the years between 1956 and 1963, and all powered by Fairbanks Morse engines (and all but one, single screw driven) they have provided remarkable service for a variety of owners. 

It is notable that of those nine tugs, three were sold foreign and likely scrapped, and all but one of the rest remain in daily service in Canada. * - see below

The first of what were big ship berthing tugs at the time, is in Halifax now, having transitioned to long distance towing work. R.J.Ballott arrived from Makkovik, Labrador, via St. Barbe with the barge Kaligak loaded with construction equipment.

It is the same barge that R.J.Ballott towed out of Halifax on October 3, 2019

The tug, built in 1956 as Foundation Victor has had a long career with several owners as Point Victor, Kay Cole and Jerry Newberry and is still going strong at 64 years of age. It has been noted in this blog many times. Enter the name in the search box, or for a complete record see: R.J.Ballott

This Tim Randall photo shows Foundation Victor in its orginal colour scheme.

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* Foundation Valiant, later named Point Valiant (i) and André-H. was broken up in recent months at Quebec City. See this recent post

Point Vigour ex Foundation Vigour  is still at work as McKeil's Molly M 1.

Point Viking ex Foundation Viking  works for Construction Polaris Inc of Sept-Iles, QC.

Point Vim ex Foundation Vim works for Les Barges de Matane Inc of Matane, QC.

Point Valour ex Foundation Valour works for Thunder Bay Tug Services at Thunder Bay, ON.

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Jerry Newberry sold

The veteran tug Jerry Newberry has found a new career. On the for sale list for more than a year, a buyer in Newfoundland has  purchased the tug, expecting to find work connected with the massive Hebron oil project. The tug is due to sail from its layup berth in Port Hawksbury in a few weeks, with a fresh coat of paint and some other improvements, to take up the new post.

The thrice renamed tug was the first in a new era of postwar tugs built in Canada for Foundation Maritime, the tug operation arm of the Foundation Company of Canada.With the development of new iron ore mines in Labrador and the looming opening of the St.Lawrence Seaway, Foundation saw a need for more powerful tugs. They set out to replace their entire fleet of pre-war and war-built tugs and in the end built ten new tugs over a seven year period, nine of them in Canada.

The Foundation Victor slid down the ways at Davie Shipbuilding in Lauzon, QC on November 19, 1956 and was handed over to her owners December 22. At 244 gross tons and 1380 bhp (delivered by an 8 cylinder Fairbanks Morse, to a single screw) it was a big tug for its time, and was thought to be capable of handling the biggest ships of the day. It was intended to work in Sept-Iles, QC in summer and Halifax in winter, following the pattern of the day when the Gulf of St.Lawrence was closed to winter navigation and Halifax and Saint John became the primary eastern Canada ports in winter.

The tug sailed from Lauzon January 11, 1957, and with the assistance of the icebreaker N.B.Mclean
worked through heavy ice to Bird Island. It then reached Sydney on its own to effect repairs to due to iced up radar and standard compass. It reached Halifax 19 hours after leaving Sydney.

Joined by near sister Foundation Valour in 1958, the pair continued in the winter/summer pattern for some time, but events eventually overtook them. Winter navigation became a reality and  Sept-Iles became a year round port. Ships increased in size and tug horsepower had to grow with it, and the duo were virtually obsolete with a few years. It was not until 1973 however that new 4,000 bhp icebreaking tugs displaced the pair from Sept-Iles and they transferred to Halifax permanently. Even in Halifax, which had become a year round port, they were underpowered as larger ships needed more powerful tugs, with quicker response times.

 

1. Point Victor was built with an elevated wheelhouse to provide added visibility when docking large bulk carriers.

Meanwhile Foundation had sold the tug fleet in 1968 to MIL Tug, a division of Marine Industries Ltd of Sorel, QC, who then sold MIL Tug in 1971 to what became Eastern Canada Towing Ltd (a joint venture between the Dutch Smit and British Cory) in 1973. Ectug, as it was known, renamed the tug Point Victor and  found some work for it, but sold it in 1977 to Pitts Engineering + Construction Ltd of Toronto.

2. Kay Cole was fitted with a towing winch, mounted low on the after deck, feeding the tow wire forward through a sheave at the former towing hook location, then aft over the stern.

Renamed Kay Cole the tug ranged far and wide around eastern Canada towing Pitts' dredges and scows to construction sites.They also fitted it with a towing winch. It had a good run with Pitts (which among many other companies merged into various other concerns including Foundation) until 1991 when it was sold to McKeil Work Boats of Hamilton, ON.

3. In McKeil colours, the tug lays over in Halifax while towing a barge with crane components to the US.

4. As Jerry Newberry the tug worked in Montreal for time when McKeil provided ship berthing services in the port.
 

McKeil ran the tug as Kay Cole until 1995 when it became Jerry Newberry. It ranged even farther afield for McKiel, including barge towing to the United States east coast, but as their fleet expanded it was sold to McNally Construction, also of Hamilton in 2007. It was used by their Beaver Marine subsidiary on the east coast and the north. It was while returning from Labrador that it lost the crane barge McNally Olympic when the tow line parted and the barge drifted ashore. The barge was also carrying the smaller tug Le Taureau which was also lost.

5. The tug was looking quite forlorn while laid up in Port Hawksbury last summer. Competitor Mac Isaac Construction had their tug/wokboat conversion Whsipering Seas II tied up alongside.

McNally laid up the tug in Port Hawksbury and listed it for sale, but it was only last month that new owners were found. They have not re-registered the tug or changed its name yet.

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