Three Tows - UPDATED

 Day to day tug activity in the Port of Halifax rarely attracts much attention. Docking, undocking and escort work appear to be routine and are carried out with quiet skill. 

Today, November 13 there were several ship arrivals and departures that used the tugs of Atlantic Towing Ltd in those typical functions. Large ships, such as the 149,525 gross tons 15,000 TEU container ship Zenith Lumos took two tethered stern escorts both inbound and outbound as required by Port of Halifax regulations.

 Sister tugs Atlantic Ash and Atlantic Maple both RAStar 3200-W types of 6675 bhp, 85 tonnes bollard pull provided the required double escort.

Seeing tugs with tows is rare, but today there were two of note. The first saw the US flag tug Ezra Sol (see previous post) finally getting underway after a long stay in port. It arrived initially on September 21 towing the bulk carrier AP Revelin. That ship lost its prop (or a blade) and was unable to proceed on its own. The ship transloaded its grain cargo to another bulker the Eva Bright then awaited favourable weather. Calm conditions are expected for the next week and the the tow was able to get underway this morning.

The Ezra Sol gets underway from Pier 25 today. 

After reconnecting the tow line, the voyage begins with the Atlantic Maple providing steering assistance from the stern tethered position. ETA New York is November 18.
 

Tugs from McNally Marine  are busy in the harbour with dredging and construction of the new pier face at Halifax Shipyard. Some of that work has been completed and the company will move some equipment back to its base in Point Tupper. Today their very capable tug Mister Joe (Russel Brothers, 1964, 750 bhp), which arrived from Cape Breton November 10,  towed out a derrick barge.

Built as the Churchill River and renamed in 2001, tug was extensively rebuilt in 2019. "Worth its weight in gold", the tug has worked all over eastern Canada including Hudson Bay and Newfoundland and Labrador. The trip to Point Tupper will take about 36 hours at 4.9 knots.

Tugs of the Royal Canadian Navy's auxiliary fleet are not commissioned naval vessels and are crewed by civilians. However they work for the Navy doing a variety of chores, including berthing naval vessels.Today's operation for the CNAV Glenside YTB 644 was a little out of the ordinary. It moved the long retired World War II Corvette Sackville from its summer berth, where it is open to the public, to its winter berth within the HMC Dockyard, the RCN's eastern base.

 

 The Glenside and two more sister tugs, the Glenbrook and the Glenevis were built in 1976 and are rated at 1750 bhp, 19 tons bollard pull. They are VS cycloidal drive boats, very adept at working within the confines of the Dockyard finger piers. 

When the time comes to move the Sackville next year the task may fall to a new tug, as the RCN is in the process of retiring these tugs and replacing them with two ASD tugs. The first of the new tugs, the CNAV Canso is fitting out in Quebec City and may be delivered this fall or more likely by next spring. [The wisdom of building only two tugs to replace three tugA and a fireboat, and ASDs at that for a growing RCN must be questioned. More on that another time.]

It is worth noting that between the time when the Mister Joe was built and the Glenside was built Canada instituted a requirement that all sleeping accommodation on new tugs was to be above the waterline. Older vessels were "grandfathered" as conversion was likely impossible. The regulation came into effect after several lives were lost when tugs sank, trapping crew below. The rule also applied to tugs, no matter their age, purchased abroad and brought under Canadian flag. If they had sleeping quarters below the waterline it had to be removed and new accommodation provided or the boat had to be a day boat, with no sleeping aboard. 

Bonus Round - Dominion Diving

Tugs and work boats from Dominion Diving Ltd are constantly busy in the harbour shifting barges,  providing line handling services and carrying out small tows.

The Dominion Rumbler scurries ahead of the inbound Morning Cornelia on November 11 for a line handling job. The auto carrier's bow line will be lead out to a mooring buoy and Dominion's crew members will make take the line and make it fast to the buoy, sometimes using an even smaller boat. (September 30 photos).

Note the boat has a towing bit mounted high on a "roll bar" aft.

The smallest tows seen recently include:

Dominion's as yet unnamed aluminum hulled workboat was spotted towing a former Coast Guard boat:

 And to outday, their venerable Halmar (built in 1960, rebuilt in 2009) won the prize for smallest tow. Halmar works as a crew boat for pilot delivery, goes well to sea for survey and sampling work, and acts as a diving tender.

The small inflatable was used for some unknown, possibly diving, work in Bedford Basin. Legend has it that the Halmar was built by Halifax Shipyard apprentices. It operated as a workboat at the old Dartmouth Marine Slip until it moved next door to Dartmouth Cove and was rebuilt by Dominion Diving.

 

Update 2025-11-14 

The Mister Joe returned to Halifax, with its tow, after only few hours at sea. There may have been an equipment failure of some sort. By the end of the day November 14, the tug and tow were still in port.

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The Narrows - the place to be

For a short stretch of time this morning [ 9:47 -10:21 AST], the Narrows was the place to be to see some tug and workboat activity.

Siem Commander arrived to tie up at pier 9C south.

Since joining Secunda Marine from parent Siem in July, the boat has been kept busy replacing Trinity Sea on Secunda's Exxon Mobil contract. That work involves decommissioning the Sable Offshore Energy Project gas installations. The seven platforms will all be removed and the 22 wells capped by the end of next year.

Dominion Diving's general duty workboat Halmar was returning from Bedford Basin after delivering a pilot to the anchored bulk carrier Salarium. The self-unloader was moving to National Gypsum on departure of the Algoma Verity [see Shipfax].

Also returning from the Basin, the Dockyard tug Glenside completed a security patrol to Birch Cove. Although the research barge is not there now, a flat deck barge has been moored in its position, and requires periodic checking.

Glenside is showing some rust on her strongback / stern rail from some recent towing work.

The tug Mister Joe returned from pier 42 with the split hull hopper barge Pitts No.12 after delivering another load of ballast rock.

J.F.Whalen came out to assist the barge alongside as the outbound Algoma Verity was fast approaching the Narrows.

McNally's work on extending pier 42 southward is nearing completion with the cribs almost completely ballasted. The Port has also let the contract for the cope walls, and McNally is beginning to pack up some of its plant.

The tug Whitby has been loaded aboard the crane barge Idus Atwell both of which were brought in from the Great Lakes last spring for this project.

Although it is a research vessel, the CCGS M.Perley is certainly a workboat. Built by Meridien Maritime Reparation Inc in Matane, QC in 2012, the 210 grt vessel is used for nearshore fisheries research and usually lays up for the winter at the BIO in Dartmouth.

The vessel's specs are outlined at: https://inter-j01.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fdat/vessels/vessel-details/120

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Tugs from above - Updated

A walk out on the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge this afternoon allowed for some interesting angles on various tugs.

First was a general view of two of HMC Dockyard's  Glen tugs awaiting their next assignment.

 Glenside YTB 643 and Glenbrook YTB 644 alongside. They are Voith tractors built in 1976-1977.

The third tug, Glenevis YTB 642, was apparently elsewhere [see Upate below], possibly on refit. Construction work on the replacement tugs of this class will begin soon at Industrie Océan in Ile-aux-Coudres, QC. Unfortunately the powers that be think that only two tugs will be needed in Halifax, and two in Esquimalt, to replace five tugs and two firefloats.

The current tugs are the second generation of Glen tugs in the RCN (the first generation were built during World War II), and using many of the same names. I hope the new tugs will maintain the tradition. [see footnote]

I have photographed McNally Construction's J.F.Whalen from every angle but this one since it was built in 2013 by Chantier Forillon in Gaspé,QC. In this view the tug is sailing light and appears to have an electric arc welder mounted on deck just aft of the house. The 670 bhp (492 kW) twin screw tug has a demountable house for road transport and push knees for scow work.
It is registered in Toronto, ON, although McNally is headquartered in  Hamilton, ON.

Spitfire III heads north to assist in docking a container ship. One of three 5300 bhp (4000 kW) (70 tonne BP ahead, 66 astern) tugs built by Eastisle, Georgetown PE in 2007, it was designed to berth LNG tankers in the open roadstead off Saint John, NB. That facility does not need full time tugs so this one and Atlantic Bear work out of Halifax and make trips to Saint John when needed. The third tug Atlantic Beaver remains in Saint John.
It is fitted with a heavy duty berthing winch forward and a third "lip" of tubular fendering around the bow. It also carries a towing winch aft and is rated LR FiFi1 with water spray.

Footnote: 
I was reminded recently about the first Glendyne, (YTB 503) built in 1945 by Russel Brothers, Owen Sound, ON. On February 15, 1957 while assisting in docking HMCS Magnificent, the tug was girted [pulled over by its own towing line] when the aircraft carrier went astern, and capsized with the loss of two lives.The skipper and four other crew members were recovered alive.
An inquiry found no negligence, but a misunderstanding about instructions to the tug lead to the tow line becoming so taught that neither tug nor ship could release it in time.
The aircraft carrier HMCS Magnificent was returning from duties with the UN Emergency Force in Suez.

Glendyne was recovered from 80 feet of water off HMC Dockyard by navy divers and Foundation Maritime's crane barge Foundation Scarboro on February 19. The tug returned to service and was retired in 1979. The builder's plate has been preserved, apparently at the naval museum in Halifax. The hull was sunk off Shearwater for diver training for the Fleet Diving Unit Atlantic, but I have no idea if it is still there. Her wooden wheelhouse served as a ticket office at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic wharf in Halifax.

 Two first generation Glens laid up retired but not yet de-stored at HMS Dockyard in 1977.

The second Glendyne, built in 1975 by Yarrow in Esquimalt, is one of two second generation Glens based at HMC Dockyard, Esquimalt and will be replaced under the new program, along with its west coast running mate Glendale.

For more on the first generation Glens see:
http://tugfaxblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2013/05/first-generation-glen-class-tugs-of-rcn.html


Update:
Thanks to readers: Glenevis is in St. John's, NL for ship berthing duties for visiting Canadian and foreign warships. Another reason why only two tugs in Halifax won't do!

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Glen tugs going about their business

Although we see Glen tugs going about their business in Halifax Harbour they do go farther afield from time to time.

On Tuesday morning (April 24) Glenevis (YTB 642) was at work with the flat top scow YC600 moving from HMC Dockyard to Shearwater.

The deck load on the barge appeared to be trot buoy anchors. The old trot buoys used to be positioned off the dockyard on the Dartmouth side of the main channel to the Narrows. They have not been used for some years and were lifted this spring and their anchors retrieved by Dominion Diving using the Waterworks Construction crane barge.

RCN ships HMCS Iroquois, Huron and Skeena secured to the trot buoys for fleet review 1980.

The trot buoys were not navigational buoys, but were Admiralty pattern mooring buoys, large steel cylinders, about 15 feet long and 8 feet in diameter used by naval vessels as an alternative to the civilian anchorages which were generally reserved for merchant shipping. Especially agile crew members, called "buoy jumpers" took bow and stern lines to the buoys by boat, then and clambered up onto the buoys to make the lines fast or let them go. The buoys had the advantage of keeping the ships in the same position no matter the direction of wind or tide, unlike a single point anchor..

On April Wednesday April 18 the Glenside (YTB 644) left Halifax towing HMCS Goose Bay. I was not aware of the destination at the time, but by tracking on AIS (and referring to the St.John's Shipping blog) I have learned that the destination was St.John's NL. The tow arrived there safely April 23 and Summerside was delivered to Newdock for a refit.

 

The tug sailed from St.John's on April 25 and stopped over in Marystown until sailing last night giving Halifax as its destination.

Glen tugs regularly make short coastal voyages to Shelburne and Pictou towing small naval craft to refits, or to go on refit themselves, but St.John's is about as far away as they range.

The current class of five Glens (three in Halifax, two in Esquimalt) are the second generation of Glens, the first having served the RCN for better than thirty-five years, but went on to successful commercial careers for many years after.

 A pair of first generation Glen tugs at HMC Dockyard shortly while still in naval auxiliary service. Note the elaborate pudding fenders. These masterpieces of ropework were once common on tugs and sailors made them up out of old rope. Even after old tires became the standard for fendering, the Dockyard's rope shop "embroidered" the tires to give them the desired characteristics. These included reduced scuff marks (black smears on navy grey hulls were not desired!) and better friction on contact - not to mention appearance..

 The first Glenevis (CN 890, W.65, YTB 502) was built by Russel Brothers in Owen Sound, ON in 1944 and served the RCN until 1979. McKeil Workboats of Hamilton, ON purchased the tug, and replaced its 400 bhp engine with 900 bhp, converting is from single to twin screw.

McKeil did not rename the tugs, and its RCN replacements used the same name, thus creating the unusual situation of two vessels of the same name operating in Halifax at the same time. Since naval vessels are not registered the way private vessels are, there is no requirement for their names to be unique. Private vessels may not have the same name as a vessel already on the register, so this does not apply to naval vessel names.

On January 1, 1991 Glenevis sank at its berth in Pugwash, NS, but was raised on January 9. A major rebuild included a new raised wheelhouse with captain's cabin. The tug lasted in McKeil service until June, 2007 when it was sold to Caribbean owners and sailed through the Erie Canals to Long Island Sound. Its movements thereafter remain a mystery.


Glenside (i), (CN.88, W.93, YTB 500) also built by Russel in 1944, was also acquired by McKeil in 1979. It was assigned to their Remorqueurs et Barges de Montréal Inc subsidiary and received a similar rebuild in the same year, and  converted to twin screw, with new engines totaling 1450 bhp.

In 1998 it was also sold to Bahamas owners and sailed from the Great Lakes via the Erie Canal. It was renamed Tycoon but little is known beyond that except that it likely did barge work for Tycoon Management Ltd, a large local construction aggregates operator.

The third Halifax based Glen is Glenbrook (YTB 643). I have not seen it in action recently, and it may not be crewed at present.

Its predecessor the first Glenbrook (CN.889, W.64, YTB 501), also a 1944 Russel product  and acquired by McKeil in 1979, received a different rebuild in 1980 when it was repowered with engines totalling 1300 bhp.

Its wheelhouse was replaced in 1990 with a larger installation with all round windows. After its sale to Caribbean owners in 1999 its movements are not known to me.


The current Glens have served the RCN for thirty-eight years now, and seem likely to hit the forty mark, since the replacement process is still in its early stages.

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Light duties for Glenside

In a break from the usual job of shoving naval ships around, the Canadian Naval Auxiliary Vessel Glenside was tasked this week to return two large fenders from the Bedford Institute to HMC Dockyard.

The Ville class "pup" tug Listerville moved the fenders originally (see a previous post) perhaps to be used to protect CCGS Hudson during the recent severe sou'easterly winds.

Glenside is one of three "Glen" class tugs based at HMC Dockyard in Halifax (there are two more at Esquimalt on the Pacific coast). Built in 1977-79 they are 1750 bhp (Ruston-Paxman) 19 tonne Bollard Pull Voith-Schneider tugs, and were quite revolutionary for their time. Despite their great agility and ability to move within the tight confines of HMC Dockyard, they are under-powered by today's standards and obviously are getting old and parts are hard to source.

Late last year the Department of Defense and the government procurement agency issued a Request for Information to "solicit feedback from industry" for replacement of these tugs. It was not a invitation for bids, since there is no funding in place yet, but more of a sounding out of those interested in building new tugs. I have detailed some of the particulars here before, but essentially the navy wants two new tugs in Halifax and two in Esquimalt, and they are to be more or less off-the- shelf commercial designs.

Canadian Navy tugs come under the direction of the Queen's Harbour Master (QHM) and and have civilian crews. The Master Attendant in the QHM is responsible for their daily operation.
When the current Glen tugs were planned, it was recognized by the QHM that work in HMC Dockyard had some unique characteristics due to the narrow cambers between the finger piers. The operators studied tugs in many other locations, including the Alcan tugs at Port Alfred, some of the earliest V-S tugs in Canada. Voith-Schneider tugs, with their ability to change thrust direction without having to re-orient hull direction, were ideal for the Dockyard work, but I believe it was a bit of hard sell to convince the top brass that the higher cost was justified. Perhaps that is why the horsepower is so low.

Things have changed since those days however, with  larger naval vessels in service and more to come. There are also many more options such as ROtor tugs (three thrusters), more sophisticated Azimuthing drives, including controllable pitch props, and more efficient V-S. It will be interesting to see what comes out of the RFI, which closed February 28.

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Navy tugs at work

Canada's navy tugs are crewed by civilians, and operated by the Queen's Harbour Master. As Canadian Navy (Forces?) Auxiliary Vessels they are dedicated to navy work. This morning they were at work moving HMCS St.John's  from HMC Dockyard to pier 21.
Granville was in the lead with a tow line:

Next was Listerville under the bridge with a bow line:

Proving the power from the stern is Glenbrook:

Bringing up the rear was Merrickville with two Yokohama type fenders. While the other tugs turned the ship, the fenders were installed on the pier face:

Later in the morning other Dockyard small craft placed a containment boom around the ship.
Meanwhile the tug Glenside was inbound towing HMCS Shawinigan from refit in Shelburne, NS.

Navy tugs at work

Glenside and Glenevis were called in the berth HMCS Toronto at the Maritime Museum at noon time. It was a tight squeeze, but the tugs were quickly lashed up and moved the ship bodily alongside the Yokohma fenders.

These tugs, with their Voith Schneider propulsion can move forward, aft or sideways with ease, and with almost full power. Their cut away bridge wings just clear the ship's sides, and their high wheelhouses allow the master to view the deck party and Queen's Harbour Master berthing pilot. Note also these tugs do not use tires as fenders.