Gulf Dianne at Port Hawksbury

It was nice to see the tug Gulf Dianne again even if she is still in winter layup. The tug spends the shipping season shuttling gravel barges from Cape Porcupine, Nova Scotia to Prince Edward Island, but this winter she was laid up in Port Hawksbury where I caught her on Thursday.

She is an unusual tug for this coast, due to her distinctive open flying bridge.

This is a a west coast tug feature, and indeed Gulf Dianne was built on the west coast as Gulf Diane in 1962.

She came east in 1968 as deck cargo on one of her gravel barges, G of G 270, bedded in a load of limerock. That barge and the other barge G of G 271 were towed by Gulf Joan to Halifax, where Gulf Diane was unloaded. [see previous posting on Gulf Joan.]

She was employed by Gulf of Georgia Towing's "Fleuvetow" venture in Quebec, working from Stephenville, Newfoundland, among other places, carrying aggregate.

When that venture folded in 1976, she was sold to Mariner Towing of St.Eleanor's PEI and in 1985 the second "N" was added to her name.

She has been on the PEI gravel run ever since. She tows one barge while the other is loaded at Cape Porcupine.

And in case you wondered- yes the flying bridge is used. In the May 22, 1995 photo she is transiting the Canso Canal eastbound, towing G of G 270 with two men on the flying bridge, conning the tug and barge.

Big Steel

Dominion Diving's Big Steel steams down harbour this evening on her way to pier 33. In the background is Atlantic Towing's Woodside base, with Atlantic Larch, Atlantic Oak and Atlantic Spruce tied up for the evening.
Big Steel is a multipurpose vessel, used as a tug, diving tender, lineboat and general utility vessel. As a tug she often handles water and supply barges for tankers berthed at Imperial Oil.
Built for the RCN as YFU 116 / YMU 116 she was built for this role (the YU designation means Yard Utility vessel) She was one of two vessels of this type - the other was YFU 117 / YMU 117.
They were built by the famed Russel Bros of Owen Sound, ON in 1955, and worked in Halifax or Sydney (Point Edward) or Shelburne as needed.
Once acquired by Dominion Diving in the 1980s, she was modified, then in 1992 her wheelhouse was rebuilt.
Sister tug YFU 117 (photo taken 1994) is now owned by Indian Head Towing Ltd of Troy, NS.

Belle D

The small tug Belle D. has been working in Halifax all winter on a variety of jobs.

She was built in 1967 by Fercraft Marine Inc of Cote Ste-Catherine, QC as Boatmen 4. She worked for Montreal Boatmen, based in the eastern end of Montreal, servicing the anchorages with water and stores barges. She was rebuilt in 1989.

Picked up by the Irving group of companies in the 1990s, she became Stenpro IV, and was based at their ship repair yard, Steel and Engine Products, in Liverpoool. NS.

She then became Belle D. (for Belledune, New Brunswick) and was registered in Bathurst, NB. She worked in Belledune, Dalhousie and Bathurst, and other places as needed.

This winter she has been working with divers on the accommodation rig Chemul at Irving's Woodside yard as well as doing barge work on a daily basis to McNab's Island. Her crew seems to come from RMI Marine, and she has been based in Eastern Passage, but coordinates with Le Grow's Marine as well.

Oldie

Forty years ago the Haterm container pier was under construciton in Halifax. McNamara Construction built the sea-wall and did dredging and filling. They used their classic tug Douglas Reid, built in 1914 in Cleveland, Ohio as Racine. It had long been converted to diesel, but still had classic hull lines.

Glenevis and scow

Naval auxiliary tug Glenevis northbound with scow at noon time.

Svitzer Bedford at the ready.

Svitzer Bedford stands off the Svitzer pier awaiting the arrival of the container ship Atlantic Cartier early this morning. In the background Atlantic Oak returns to her pier on the Dartmouth side of the harbour after berthing OOCL Singapore. Both container ships tied up at the Fairview Cove container terminal. The OOCL ships require escort through the Narrows of the harbour and often use tow tugs. The ACL ships rarely use tugs, but this time Atlantic Cartier used 2 tugs- Svitzer Bedford and Point Chebucto.

Big Tug from the Shoebox

Halifax has seen many big tugs over the years, but as they age they are being removed from service and not replaced. With the recent loss of Waker to fire in the Netherlands and the scrapping of Wolraad Woltemade from South Africa, we can expect to see fewer and fewer of these big tugs.

There are several reasons. First is the presence of powerful offshore support vessels. These multi-function boats can perform towing and salvage services and there are usually vessels positioned near to incidents. As a result salvage and towing companies do not need to rely on their own vessels, when there are others for hire.

There is still a need for long distance towing and for salvage vessels, but it is no longer possible for most traditional salvage companies to keep vessels on station without work, in case of need. Some governments, notably the UK, France, the Netherlands and Germany do have big boats on government charter to respond to emergencies in their home waters, but even South Africa is down to one tug for this purpose, and it may soon be withdrawn. if the contract is not renewed.

Many long distance tows have been replaced by submersible ships. We have seen several of these in Halifax in the past two years- all doing work that was formerly done by tugs. The safety record and speed of submersibles means that they will be used more and more in lieu of tugs.

Big dedicated tugs are expensive to operate and maintain. They are being replaced by powerful smaller and more efficient vessels that can carry out most towing requirements, and be kept busy all the time.

So the days of the big traditional ocean tugs may be numbered.

The German tug Oceanic, owned by Bugsier of Hamburg is seen leaving Halifax on December 18, 1982 after towing in the oil rig John Shaw. (Its derrick is visible in the background between the tug's two masts.)

When built in 1969, she and sister Arctic were the most powerful tugs in the world, at 13,000 bhp. Remarkably Oceanic is still in service. She was re-engined in 1985, and after a period of layup from 1987 -1996, has been on contract to the German government, as an emergency towing vessel (ETV.) She is beautifully maintained, but does not get a lot of work. We are unlikely to see her or her kind in Halifax ever again.