Atlantic Huron - celebrations, but not all good news.

 1. Atlantic Huron inbound for National Gypsum this morning The lower portion of the hull was widened in 2002 to the new Seaway maximum size.

The arrival today of Atlantic Huron for a load of gypsum is a reminder that Canada Steamship Lines is doing a double header celebration this year. 2013 is the centennial of the formation of the CSL with the consolidation of the Richelieu & Ontario Navigation Company (dating back to 1845) and  James Playfair's Inland Lines and others. Under the figurehead of the enigmatic W. Grant Morden, with capital sourced by Lord Furness of Grantley, CSL became the colossus of Canadian shipping one hundred years ago.
Its ups and downs and its influence on other events (including its principals' later involvement in the founding of Halifax Shipyards) make for fascinating history - much too complex to recount here.

2. Atlantic Huron flies the traditional black barred house flag with red maple leaf and the 2013 centennial/ Trillium flag.

The second celebration is the delivery its new Trillium class ships. The first of the Chinese built ships, Baie St.Paul, was delivered late last year and opened the Seaway this spring. The second, Whitefish Bay arrived in Montreal this week and the third, Baie Comeau, is on the way. These state of the art ships will begin to displace older ships in the fleet, but it is early days to speculate on which ones, but Atlantic Huron is likely to be on the short list. Built in 1984 and converted to a self-unloader in 1989, it was extensively rebuilt in 2002 when its mid-body was widened. However its "after end"  - meaning engines and mechanicals are original. Its years in salt water and some nasty cargoes, have accelerated deterioration.  

3. The ship is looking pretty rugged up forward. The transition to the widened hull is taking a lot of abuse from locking though the Seaway, and will likely need some serious repair work.

Adding to the uncertainly of the future of this ship are questions about the future of Nova Scotia's gyspum industry. The ship was on charter to National Gypsum and carried the named Melvin H. Baker II (the founder of the company) from 1994-1997. Now we hear that National Gypsum may follow US Gypsum in closing down its mainland Nova Scotia operations*. USG permanently closed its mine near Windsor and loading facilities in Hantsport, NS. It seems that NSG may do the same unless conditions improve in the US building market. It operates the world's largest open pit gypsum mine near Milford Station and ships the product out through Halifax. Shipments have been drastically reduced due to the US economic woes, and the increase in synthetic and by-product gypsum. It is producing well below capacity and may well be closed or mothballed within a year or two.
* Revision: a nasty rumour - denied by National Gypsum - see posting of July 20. 

.

Barkald loads gypsum

1. Barkald loads at National Gypsum. The shore based loader (above the number 1) moves back and forth along a track on the dock, filling the ship's holds evenly.

The self-unloading bulker Barkald loaded at National Gypsum and sailed this morning. Built in 2001, the ship is operated by Klaveness Shipping of Oslo, and is registered in the Marshal Islands. It is part of the CSL/Klaveness/Oldendorff pool of self-unloaders.
The sip was built in Japan and measures 28,924 gross tons, 49,463 deadweight and unloads using its own cranes, clamshell buckets and a conveyor system on deck. The self-unloading boom is mounted on the port side just forward of the bridge. The boom is articulated, so that it can swing out and direct the flow of material without having to move the ship.

Ambassador takes another load of gypsum

Things must be picking up a bit at National Gypsum with two ships in a week. Ambassador arrived late Sunday night and sailed this morning for Burlington, NJ. The ship was built in 1983 at Port Weller Dry Dock as Canadian Ambassador and the full name still appears on the ship's hull in welded letters.
It has not carried that name since 1986 however, because in that year it was flagged out to Vanuatu when it left the Upper Lakes Shipping domestic fleet for Marbulk.
Aside from a brief interlude from April to December 2000 when it was renamed Algosea and reflagged Canadian, it has been foreign flagged ever since.

 1. Ambassador has passed under the A. Murray MacKay bridge and is southbound in the Narrows off pier 9B, bound for sea.

2. The ship's previous name still appears on the hull, but there is little likelihood that it will ever be used again.

Upper Lakes Shipping sold its share of Marbulk in 2000 and has now exited shipping altogether, selling out to Algoma. Its ships which had the prefix "Canadian" have now been renamed. Algoma has been a co-owner of Marbulk since 1997 but are not likely to bring this older ship back to Canada, so the "Canadian" prefix is history. The ship operates within the CSL self-unloader pool.

Ambassador has appeared on this blog before - see previous posts for more info.

Salarium sails - finally!

The bulk carrier Salarium finally sailed this afternoon after countless delays stretching over a period of weeks. The big CSLer, formerly Nanticoke is headed for the Magdalen Islands to resume her salt carrying contract after completing a refit.
The ship was finally ballasted down on Sunday, but departure times were cancelled yesterday and today. Even the 1600 sailing was delayed when the pilot boarded and had to order a tug. Atlantic Oak stayed with the ship on a stern line until she was down harbour. The tug was certainly necessary to get the ship out of her tight space at pier 9A, but apparently had not been ordered in advance.

Salarium out of drydock

1. Salarium emerges from drydock with fresh new paint.

2. At 22 years of age, the ship shows a few signs of hard knocks received over the years.

3. In 1997 the ship was fitted with special gear to ballast the Hibernia gravity base.

4. In its first year of service, the ship unloads grain at pier 26. Since then the port has installed a hopper, allowing the ship to use its own self-unloading gear. The old grain leg was much slower and is rarely used anymore.

The self-unloading bulk carrier Salarium left the Novadock floating drydock this morning - not under its own power, but with the tugs Atlantic Oak and Atlantic Larch in control. The ship was then berthed at Pier 9A to continue its refit.

Built in 1980 By Collingwood Shipyard, the ship was originally to have been called "Gleneagles" a traditional name for Canada Steamship Lines, but that was changed to Nanticoke in recognition of CSL's customer the Steel Company of Canada (Stelco). They had just built a new steel mill in Nanticoke, ON and the ship was expected to deliver cargoes of coal and iron ore to the mill.

Built as a maximum size for the St.Lawrence Seaway, it was also built to go to sea, with restricted voyages along the Atlantic seaboard.

It started to do these from the start, often arriving in Halifax with grain and loading gypsum for the return trip.

Originally the ship was painted with a black hull, the usual hull colour for CSL self-unloaders, which carried a lot of coal. The black paint was better at concealing the inevitable residues of those cargoes than CSL's distinctive red hull colour.

In 1997 Nanticoke and fleet mates Atlantic Huron and Atlantic Erie were temporarily modified for a special project. The work took place in Dartmouth at the IEL dock adjacent to the Woodside ferry terminal. The ships were fitted with pumps and bow un-loading gear so that they could be used to fill the gravity base of the Hibernia oil field's offshore production centre.

The huge structure was towed out to sea and once in position the three ships pumped a slurry of magnetite (a heavy ore) into the gravity base's cells, to gradually sink it in place. The extremely abrasive magnetite tore the pumps and pipes to shreds, but it was a one time project. Once completed the ships returned to Halifax where the gear was all removed and the ships returned to their normal lives.

Shortly after CSL began repainting their self-unloaders in red and in 1998 Nanticoke acquired the CSL colour which it has kept ever since.

In 2009 CSL signed a long term charter for the ship to carry salt form the Mines saleines in the Magdalen Islands and the ship was renamed Salarium, replacing the Saunière, which went for scrap. [The Latin world salarium meant a form of payment using salt as the currency, and it is from that word that our present day English word salary derives.]

Carrying salt is not necessarily a full time trade for the ship, so it is able to back haul other cargoes from time to time, but the salt must be stockpiled in advance for use on winter roads.

Salt can be a very destructive cargo for the ship's steel structure, and extra maintenance is usually required to keep the ship in condition. At 22* years of age the ship can expect a few more good years before the salt really takes its toll. [*=typo - should be 32 - thanks for the correction notices!]

.

Spruceglen to drydock

1. Spruceglen is clear of pier 25-26, and the tugs have started to turn it northbound.

2. Lining up for the Novadock with the tug Atlantic Hemlock on the bow. The ship has pumped out most of its water ballast, and is sitting very high in the water. Its steering nozzle and prop are visible.

3. Almost in position, the ship fills the length of the drydock.

4. In its original colours, and with its original name, the ship is tied up at pier 25-26 in 1986. The grain leg was needed to unload the ship, which has no unloading gear.

The bulker Spruceglen made a cold move this morning to the Novadock at Halifax Shipyard. Although there were some crew members on the ship, it did not use its own engines - the tugs Atlantic Hemlock and Atlantic Larch did all the work.

The ship has a long history with Halifax. It was built by Govan Shipbuilders in Scotland and was launched without ceremony January 28, 1983. However there was a formal naming ceremony April 15 of the same year, and the ship's sponsor was Mrs Ann Day, the wife of Sir Graham Day. He is a Nova Scotian, knighted by the Queen for his role in the reorganization of the British shipbuilding industry.

The ship was built as Selkirk Settler named for the Scots immigrants to Prince Edward Island, Southern Ontario and Manitoba, arranged by Lord Selkirk in the early 1800s. The settlements were deemed to be failures in his lifetime, but the enterprises brought hundreds hardworking highlanders to Canada.

The ship went to work for its first owners, Misener Transportation of St.Catharines, ON, in the Great Lakes and North Atlantic grain trade. It and its two sisters were among the first ocean going ships built to maximum Seaway size to fly the Canadian flag.

In 1991 the ship was sold to Fednav and renamed Federal St.Louis but was soon resold to Japanese owners, placed under the Philippine flag and renamed Federal Fraser. It was chartered back to Fednav for ten years, and changed owners several times, and was reflagged to Hong Kong and later Panama.

In 2002 the ship was renamed Fraser when Fednav bought the ship back in order to sell it to Canada Steamship Lines, where it acquired the name Spruceglen.

(Fednav and CSL had a long standing relationship, under which Fednav assisted Paul Martin in buying and expanding CSL.)

The ship also returned to the Canadian flag, but continued with some international work, generally on the east coast of North America, and working on the Great Lakes.

It was a frequent caller in Halifax in its early days, while carrying grain, and in its CSL days, usually for bunkers or repairs.

The ship still carries the black hull paint which used to denote ships of the international fleet, and gearless bulkers in the domestic fleet. Most of the gearless CSL bulkers now have red hulls, and this may be the year for the change. We will keep watching the Novadock.

The ship measures 730'-1" long x 75'9" wide (the maximum allowable Seaway size when it was built) and has an ocean deadweight tonnage of 36,281 tonnes (at 32'-8" draft) or Seaway deadweight of 26,291 tonnes (at 26'-6" draft). It is powered by a 10,880 bhp Sulzer engine driving a controllable pitch prop in a steering nozzle. It also has a powerful bow thruster.

This is a well built ship, with a long lived slow speed engine, and can be expected to give many more years of service.

.

Salt for grain for gypsum

1. Salarium completes unloading a grain cargo at pier 26, September 7.

2. Loaded to Seaway draft with gypsum, the ship sails out through the Narrows this morning.

3. Rust streaks around the ship's unloading gear show the damage caused by salt. The Mines Seleine logo has been superimposed on the CSL funnel.

The CSL self-unloader Salarium brought in a load of grain this week, and unloaded at pier 26. Last evening it moved to National Gypsum and sailed this morning for Côte Ste-Catherine, QC. Due to St.Lawrence Seaway draft restrictions of just over 26 feet, this was not a full load for the ship.

Salarium was built in 1980 as Nanticoke, even though its intended name was to be Gleneagles, a traditional CSL one. It was named instead for the new steel mill at Nanticoke, ON, which the ship would service. Built in Collingwood, ON, it is similar to other ships of its type, able to make coastal ocean voyages, but is smaller in tonnage than the Atlantic Erie and Atlantic Superior and Atlantic Huron.

In 2009 it was placed on a long term charter to Mines Seleines (part of Windsor Salt) to carry salt from the Magdalen Islands to Great Lakes and east coast ports, and renamed Salarium. It replaced Algoma's Saunière, which had finally succumbed to the ravages of salt exposure and has since been scrapped. The charter does not preclude the ship from carrying other cargoes, if it can keep up with the demand for salt.

As an older ship, with the prospect of severe service ahead, and the impossibility of protecting it from its salty cargoes, it is fair to wonder how long the ship can be expected to last. It is certainly a pretty hard looking case now.

One less Halifax

1. The steamship Halifax on the St.Lawrence River in 2005, with a full load of iron ore

The port city of Halifax has been the namesake for several ships over the years, but that number will be reduced by one in the next few weeks. On April 21, 2011 the Canadian registry of the ss Halifax was closed, and the ship will soon head for scrappers on a tow line. The tug Sirocco is due in Montreal May 23 to tow the ship to Aliaga, Turkey.

The steamship Halifax was built in 1962 at Davie Shipbuilding in Lauzon, QC as hull number 638. Commissioned in May 1963 it was named Frankcliffe Hall by the owners Hall Corporation of Canada, Montreal. Hall was a major Great Lakes shipping operator of the time, and the ship was built to take advantage of the recently completed St. Lawrence Seaway. It measured 730'-2" long x 75' wide, the maximum dimensions for transiting the locks. Although modern in many respects, it was powered by a traditional Pametrada steam turbine, built by John Inglis Co Ltd of Toronto. It developed 9,000 shp, and geared through a single fixed pitch propellor giving a reported speed of 17 knots.

The "— cliffe Hall" naming scheme was unique to Halco, and in this caser the prefix "Frank" was chosen to recognize Frank A. Augsbury Sr, founder of the company in 1923. The ship was what is known as a straight decker in Great Lakes parlance, meaning a gearless bulk carrier. Engaged primarily in grain and ore hauling, it ran between the head of the lakes and as far east as Sept-Iles. It also had its wheelhouse forward in the Great Lakes tradition.


2. Halifax in Halifax in 1990.

In the 1980 the ship was taken in hand by Port Arthur Shipbuilding, in Thunder Bay, ON and converted to a self-unloader. The superstructure for the gear was mounted aft, and necessitated raising the funnel to ensure that exhaust gases were kept clear. The conversion also involved raising the ship’s main deck, thus increasing her tonnage. The added freeboard and hull stiffening allowed the ship to venture out of the Gulf of St.Lawrence and come to Halifax with grain, and load gypsum as a back haul. As a result Frankcliffe Hall was the only maximum size laker, with wheelhouse forward, ever to call in Halifax on regular trading.

By the late 1980s Halco had fallen on hard times, and in 1987 the ship was chartered out to Canada Steamship Lines for a year. At the end of the year CSL bought the ship as the Hall fleet was sold off and the company wound up. It was at that time that she was renamed Halifax.
The ship continued calling in Halifax, and even wintered over here in 1990-91. In 1991 she made 8 trips in with grain and loaded out gypsum 5 times, but as more modern ships were available, the ship’s visits decreased each year. Her last visit was in 1996 when she took out one load of gypsum.

3. Frankcliffe Hall in Halifax in 1986, unloading grain.


At the end of the 2008 season the ship was laid up in Montreal and has been idle ever since. In April she was re-registered in Liberia and she was prepared for the overseas tow. As the only member of what might have become a "Halifax" class of ships had others been similarly converted, she was a memorable vessel. She gave a little taste of the Great Lakes to Halifax, and served her owners well for over forty years.

Ambassador

1. Ambassador creeps up west of George's Island, making barely any bow wave.

2. Once clear of the island she swings well to starboard to the anchorages. The asymmetrical name on her stern is a result of painting out the word "Canadian" when she was reflagged in 1986.

The self-unloading bulker Ambassador arrived this afternoon to take on bunkers. A frequent caller at National Gypsum over the years, she rarely puts in without taking cargo.

Built way back in 1983 at Port Weller Dry Dock in St. Catharines, ON, her original name was Canadian Ambassador and she was owned by Upper Lakes Shipping. Built to Seaway dimensions, she measured 24,320 gross tons, and was designed for 37,500 deadweight (less at Seaway draft.)

In 1986 she was placed under the flag of Vanuatu (registered at Port Vila) and began to operate internationally. Although usually confined to the eastern seaboard of North America, she has worked overseas too. The "Canadian" part of her name was painted over, but the welded letters are still there on the bow and stern.

When she was reflagged she was given blue funnels with a yellow seahorse, once the funnel marking for Island Shipping, an Upper Lakes subsidiary that operated some ships offshore. However ownership was vested in another UL subsidiary called Marbulk Shipping. In 1997 Algoma Central Corp acquired a 50% interest in Marbulk, then in 2000 CSL International acquired UL Group's 50%.

Since that time the ship has been in the coal/ aggregates/gypsum trades within the CSL International pool, and is operated from CSL International's offices in Beverly, MA. (CSL ships are in turn operated by V-Ships, a Monaco based company.)

The ship had a major refit in Halifax in 1998. Then in 2000 she came back under the Canadian flag for a few months, being renamed Algosea at Halifax Shipyard on April 13. (Because Upper Lakes no longer had an ownership interest in the ship, it was not appropriate to resume her original name.) The ship resumed trade on the Great Lakes until December 21, when she became Ambassador again, being renamed at Trois-Rivières, QC.

Since that time she has continued in the usual trades, and on this trip is en route from Newington, NH (a favourite gypsum offloading port) to Cape Porcupine, NS on the Strait of Canso to load aggregates.

.

More gypsum moving

1. CSL Atlas sailing up the Narrows this morning, to load gypsum.

2. Unloading fresh Canadian gypsum at Tampa, FL April 22, 1993. The articulated boom can drop cargo up to nearly 300 feet away from the ship.

There seems to be a bit more gypsum moving of late. This is a sign that there is activity in the US economy, even though it is still way below the capacity of the National Gypsum mine in Milford, and the capability of their dock in Wrights Cove to store and ship the ore.

CSL Atlas has been a regular caller over the years, but has had to content itself with coal, stone and other bulk cargoes in the absence of gypsum when the US building industry took a plunge.

Launched in 1989 by Verolme Estaleiros do Brasil SA at Angra dos Rios she entered service in 1990. At the time she was the only Panamax self-unloader in the world. CSL has been among the Canadian ship owners at the forefront of self-unloader technology, and have created a major niche for this type of work. They now have six Panamax self-unloaders of their own and nine others in their CSL International pool.

You will see on CSL International's web site that they are now very active in Australia and Asia. In August they announced a major building program to add to their ocean going self-unloader fleet and their domestic self-unloader (Seaway size) fleet. See more on CSL International at: http://www.cslint.com/

CSL Atlas has a 67,634 deadweight tonne capacity, and can unload at 3,000 tonnes per hour (coal) and 4,500 tonnes per hour (ore). She was also the first in the fleet to be equipped with a new tpye of articulating self-unloader boom. For more on the ship see: www.cslint.com/pdf_specs/AT-CSLAtlas.pdf

Oakglen becomes Canadian

Although Oakglen was officially registered in Canada on April 7, it wasn't until this evening that the port of Montreal began to appear on her stern.

This photo, taken through a forest of other shipyard activity, shows the painter just starting to work on the "L".

My rather breathless announcement that it wouldn't be long now on April 2, was anticipating just a bit! Normally drydockings take a month, so I will remain patient until the ship emerges.

It appears that repainting the superstructure will be left to the crew when the ship returns to service.