Mister Joe on the move

McNally Construction's hard working tug Mister Joe made a brief visit to Halifax today. First job was to move the crane barge Canadian Argosy (951 grt, built 1978 Collingwood), from its anchorage near the MacKay bridge, in an inlet that I call Turple's Cove, to Pier 9 C with the assistance of the tug Oshawa.

Canadian Argosy has been in Halifax for a few years as McNally built various piers. Most recently it has been working on crib building for HMC Dockyard's new Arctic Offshore Patrol Ship jetty.

Mister Joe dates from 1964 when it came out of the Russel-Hipwell shipyard in Owen Sound, ON as Churchill River. McNally susibiary Beaver Marine acquired the tug in 2000 and renamed it in 2001.  It was also repowered in 2002 with a pair of GMs rated at 750 bhp, driving twin screws and extensively rebuilt, with a new pilot haouse identical to the original in 2013-2014.

Oshawa was built in 1969 by McNamara Marine in Whitby, ON and is 472 bhp twin screw.

Once the first move was completed the same tugs move the spud scow VM/S 87 from Turple's Cove to alongside Canadian Argosy.

 Later in the day Mister Joe sailed with VM/S 87 for Saint John, NB. Also built by Collingwood Shipyard, but in 1958, the scow was originally named S.L.S. 87 for first owners the St.Lawrence Seaway. Later the name was translated to French-  VM/S standing for Voie Maritime St-Laurent. McNally acquired the scow in about 2010. It measures 422 grt, and was not assigned a hull number by the builders.

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Old Navy Tugs

Canada's five Glen class tugs continue to serve, although based on the July report they will be replaced in record setting time by 2020. This date is one of several questionable aspects in what is expected to be a Request for Proposals issued this fall under the National Shipbuilding Strategy.

Firstly, the Canadian shipyards best positioned and most experienced in building tugs cannot (singly) deliver 4 tugs by 2020, even with the so called "off the shelf commercial design" that the government is calling for. What it should mean of course is that the order will be split, with two tugs going to a west coast yard or yards and two to an east coast yard or yards. If that is done then there is a chance for 2020 delivery.

What it should not mean is that some large yard (I am thinking Davie), with no tug building experience in this century, will get the job just because they built six tug in two years in 1962.


HMC Dockyard in Halifax currently has three Glen class tugs,  and Esquimalt in British Columbia has two. The expectation of the new plan is that Halifax can make do with two tugs, even though the fleet will be growing by 6 to 8 more ships after 2020. Two tugs aren't enough for Halifax, even with the availability of the small Ville class pup tugs and local commercial tugs. Experience should tell the powers that be that having three tugs gives unlimited availability in-harbour, and out-of-harbour at the same time and covers off refits. The low running hours and redundancy that result from having three tugs is one of the reasons that the current tugs are still serviceable after 40 years.
 
The new tugs will also have to have firefighting capability. This is now standard in most tugs built world wide,  and I suppose the thinking is that if one of the tugs is busy fighting a fire, they will hire in a civilian tug if they need one. This may be wishful thinking as emergencies do not always occur at convenient times.Again, to cover off the rare fire fighting requiurement, three tugs would be a safer bet.

Also if the tugs are to be capable of in-harbour and out-of-harbour work, what happens when one is out-of-harbour?

On Monday the tug Glenevis was spotted in Pictou with the swill barge YRG 62. I assume the barge is there for hull work, and maybe the tug is there for refit too. If so, under the proposed scheme that would leave Halifax with only one tug for an extended period.

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Another interesting term in the RFP is reported to be the Near Coastal Voyage Class 2 certification (no more than 25 miles from shore) and the RFP's restricted range of 750 nautical miles from home ports.  I suspect such a classification might preclude trips to Newfoundland, for example.

The 750 n.mi. restriction would might also prevent the trip that Glenevis made in 1977 when it went to St.Catharines, ON and took delivery of the self-same YRG 62 (but then called YBZ 62), newly built by Port Weller Dry Dock and towed it to Halifax.

My suggestion is for the RCN to build three new tugs for Halifax, - fit then out with decent anti-pollution capability, (and yes fire fighting) and have them capable enough of going to sea if need be and to make long trips - maybe even to the north in summer. Just building a pair of low power, short range, docking tugs seems to me to be short sighted.

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Océan Cartier

The latest Groupe Océan acquisition, Océan Cartier, remains in Quebec City undergoing maintenance. Since acquiring the tug from Svitzer Canada, when that company pulled out of Montreal, the tug has been to the Groupe Océan shipyard at Ile-aux-Coudres and has been repainted in GO colours.

The former Svitzer Cartier is a V-S tractor type tug, built in China in 2007 as Hai Gang 107. It was part of a group of tugs that Svitzer bought for use in Australia. However the tugs were rejected by crews due to suspected asbestos contamination. Svitzer then upgraded the tug for winter conditions, and working in ice, and brought it to Canada in early 2015 to work at Port-Cartier for ArcelorMittal. That assignment was short lived, and it was re-assigned to Montreal the same year.
Under Groupe Océan ownership it is rumoured to be headed to Hamilton, ON.

Neighbouring tugs include André H. (ex Point Valiant, Foundation Valiant, 1963: 2100bhp) 

and Océan Delta (ex Capt. Ioannis S, Sandy Cape, Sistella, 1973: 6436 bhp).

The tug is rated at 5400 bhp, 56 tonnes bollard pull and has firefighting capability.

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Paddling off

Tugfax will be paddling off on my annual summer break for a few weeks. It is possible that there will be some remote posts, but they will be rare.

Thank you for your support, additions and corrections, and to those of you who were able to attend my photo exhibit, which is now closed.  I hope to have an on-line verison in the fall.

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Firebird for sale

The Royal Canadian Navy's Halifax based fireboat Firebird YTR 561 has now been put up for sale by GCSurplus:  here

At its customary berth in HMC Dockyard, Firebird shares space with YTL 593 Merrickville and YTB 642 Glenevis, part of the tug fleet operated by the Queen's Harbour Master. 

Built in 1975, and commissioned in 1978 the boat was one of two built for the RCN (Firebrand is based in Esquimalt) by Vancouver Shipyard, North Vancouver, BC. It arrived in Halifax in August 1978, nested in a barge of traprock, and towed by the tug Ocean Crown.

Originally classified as a Yard Fire Boat (YFB) it later became a Yard Tug Rescue (YTR), but was rarely if ever used as a tug. However it has tug-like propulsion of two azimuthing stern drives, powered by a pair of 385 bhp Cats and bow thruster, giving a 7.5 ton bollard pull. It also has a pair of 365 bhp Cats driving two fire pumps of 2500 igpm capacity @ 150 psi. These serve three 3" manual monitors and a variety of deck connections. It also carries 500 igals of AFF.

The 76ft x 20.5 ft x 8'-10" (draft) vessel carried a crew of 7 which included operators and firefighters. In addition to firefighting, the tug also carried out rescue work and security calls at various port installations. However, faced with cutbacks the night shift eliminated January 29, 2014. The tug was finally retired December 4, 2014. HMC Dockyard firefighting was then left to shore crews or the harbour tugs.

Closing date for the sale is August 13, 2017 and the minimum bid is $5,000. It is expected to fetch far more than that however.

Firebird doing security rounds in the Narrows is likely heading for the Defense Research barge in Bedford Basin. 

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Merger or Aquisition

In the Mergers and Acquisitions (M+A) world the distinction between a merger and an acquisition is often what the parties want to call it.  The second Hamburg based acquisition in recent months is being termed a merger, and unlike the earlier one in which the Spanish company Boluda took over URAG and L+R, this one involves two well known Hamburg companies.

It is one is certainly an acquisition but may look like a merger because both parties (for now at least) will continue to operate under their own names.  Fairplay (Fairplay, Schleppdampschiffs-Reederei Richard Borchard Gmbh) has purchased Bugsier ( Bugsier, Reederei-und Bergungs Gesellschaft mbH + Co KG).

 The Hamburg "Tug Ballet" uses representatives of  the local fleets.

Not as well known on the  world stage as they once were, the companies are a strong presence in North Europe, and with more than 100 tugs at their joint disposal, can be expected to grow and strengthen. 

Their company histories are well known, so I will not repeat them here, but it is a sign of the times as both companies retreated from the world market over the years, they became smaller and smaller players. Now perhaps rejuvenated, we may see more of them  outside of Europe.  

Once operators of the largest tugs in the world, Bugsier has pulled back to smaller vessels.

Fairplay did their share of ocean towing. This Fairplay X towed two lakers (Charles M.White and Thomas F. Patton) from Quebec City to Karachi, Pakistan in about 100 days.

 
Bugsier and Fairplay have worked together in Hamburg for many years as members of the harbour tug pool, and co-operate on ETV operation. They operate a variety of modern tugs, in addition to the older ballet tugs pictured above.

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Now Showing

Although I am in my sixth decade of marine photography, my current show at the Public Archives of Nova Scotia is entitled Four Decades of Marine Photography. That is because I have selected images only from the 1960s to 1990s.


They are all in black and white and were taken in Quebec and Nova Scotia (with one from New Brunswick) and show a wide range of shipping related subjects from my large archive.


On Saturday, July 8, there will be an opening reception from 1300 to 1600 in the Chase Gallery at the Public Archives of Nova Scotia, 6016 University Avenue, corner of Robie Street.


The exhibit runs until July 26. Gallery hours are Monday to Saturday 0830 -1630, Wednesdays until 2100 hrs.


All photos are professionally printed on archival water colour paper, with acid free matte and framed behind glass and are for sale. Prices range from $125 to $150.

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