Maersk Chancellor arrived in Aliaga

The Maersk Canada tug/supplier Maersk Chancellor arrived in Aliaga, Turkey November 16 to be scrapped. Its Canadian registry was closed November 15, as Maersk pares down its supplier fleet world wide.

Maersk Chancellor was built in 1986 by Orskov Christensens Staalskibs Verft A/S in Frederikshaven, Denmark for O.I.L. (Ocean Inchape Ltd) as O.I.L. Chancellor, a 14,161 bhp anchor handling tug supplier. Maersk acquired the ship in 1991 and renamed it under Isle of Man flag.
It was flagged in Canada November 20, 2001, registered in Halifax, and arrived here December 20 for work with the West Navion oil rig. 
Later in began to work out of Halifax supporting the drilling rig Eirik Raude for Encana but spent most of its nearly 15 year Canadian run working from St.John's, NL.

A sister vessel from the same yard, built as Challenger III in1986, but soon renamed  O.I.L. Challenger became Maersk Challenger in 1991 and was registered in Halifax October 8, 2002 and began work with Eirik Raude in November. It eventually moved on to Newfoundland too.

Its Canadian registry was closed in 2014 when it was sold the Danish Blue Star Line and renamed  Blue Aries. It is still working out of Denmark.


A third sister vessel, built in 1985 as Kongsgaard, and renamed  O.I.L. Champion in 1987 became Maersk Champion in 1992. Although never registered in Canada, it did work out of Halifax and Sheet Harbour but under Danish flag, from June to October 1999 for the Sable gas project rig Rowan Gorilla III. 

Flying the Danish flag from the mast head and the Canadian flag forward, Maersk Champion turns off pier 9 to tie up at the EnCana dock.

Maersk Champion is currently at work in Brazilian waters, out of the port of Macae (no relation).

.

Lyubov Orlova - one way to solve a problem

It appears from press and private reports that Maersk Challenger was hired to tow the derelict and drifting Lyubov Orlova out beyond the 200 mile limit and let it go.
The last report I had about mid-day today was that the ship was 90 km outside the zone, 460km SE of St.John's.
It gives the term "deportation" a new meaning!
No port in Atlantic Canada wanted to be saddled with this ship, and the government didn't want to deal with it, since no compensation was likely forthcoming from its owners, and so decided to remove it from Canada.
I would certainly question the acceptability of shoving something unwanted out into international waters, where it either becomes nobody's problem or every body's problem. Canada can no longer claim that it takes the high road on environmental or other issues when it continues to take actions such as this. A few years back a ship was ordered out of Halifax when its cargo was found to be contaminated. It went out to sea, dumped the cargo overside, and returned to Halifax few days later - problem solved! 
Then there is the hazard to navigation issue. A derelict ship, will show up as  a radar target, but it would be just as effective as an iceberg if someone collided with it. What if the ship becomes partially submerged? Lets hope that mariners remain alert and vigilant enough to avoid it.

Maersk Challenger - gets the hot potato

The Lyubov Orlova tow off Newfoundland is like a hot potato game now, as the Port of St. John's in company with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has refused entry to the ship should it reach the coast.
According to press reports it is the Minister of Transport that is paying tugs to tow the ship around endlessly on the North Atlantic until they can determine what to do with it.

1. Maersk Challenger in Halifax in 2004.

At some point this evening the AHTS Atlantic Hawk is going to pass the tow over to another AHTS, the Maersk Challenger. Operated by The Maersk Company of Canada Ltd, it was built in 1986 at Orskov shipyard in Frederikshavn, Denmark, as Challenger III, becoming OIL Challenger in 1986, until acquired and re-named by Maersk in 1991. It came under Canadian flag in 2002, and has worked out of Halifax and St.John's.It is also a well equipped anchor handling/supply tug of 14,348 bhp. It is powered by four V-12 MAN engines through twin controllable pitch screws.