End of the Road for Salarium

 The bulker Salarium has reached Aliaga, Turkey today on the end of a tow line and will soon be reduced to scrap. Renamed Sal for the trip across the Atlantic, the ship left Montreal October 27 in tow of the tug/supplier Thor I.

Emerging from drydock at Halifax Shipyard, with a fresh coat of paint, the ship's unusual bulbpous bow is fully exposed.

 The ship was a periodic caller in Halifax from the time it was built in 1980 as Nanticoke until 2009 when it took on a charter to carry salt and became Salarium. It then stopped carrying grain, and its visits here were less frequent.

Unloading grain the old fashioned way, using the grain leg.There is now a hopper arrangement that allows self-unloaders to use their own equipment.

Salarium made its last visit in November 2019. It was laid up in December 2019, and aside from one last non-revenue trip from Toronto to Montreal earlier this year. Its last paying cargo was the load of gypsum out of Halifax for Hamilton, ON.

 The ship's last load out of Halifax, and its last cargo, was taken on at Natkional Gypsum, just over a year ago.

Although thoroughly modern when built, The ship was replaced by the Trillium class ships which have greater carrying capacity and are more efficient . Salarium was among the dwindling number of Canadian built merchant ships.

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Salarium to the scrappers

 A ship with a long connection to Halifax has been retired and designated for scrap.

Built in 1980 as Nanticoke the ship was among Canada Steamship Line's "salty lakers". These were ships of maximum size for the St.Lawrence Seaway, but also designed to make short forays into ocean waters. A self-unloading bulk carrier, it had a maximum capacity of 35,100 tons.

Nanticoke was built by Canadian Shipbuilding + Engineering at Collingwood, ON, and measured  21,870 grt, 35,686 dwt. It brought grain to Halifax from the Lakes, and usually loaded gypsum as a backhaul.

In the first years the Halifax grain elevator did not have a way for self-unloaders to unload. The grain leg was used until a hopper could be added to the unloading tower.

In 1997 the ship participated with two of its CSL fleet mates in a very unusual operation. The ships were fitted with special unloading gear to carry a heavy aggregate called magnetite from the quarry in Newfoundland to the offshore location of the Hibernia oil field. There the ships discharged the material, as a slurry, into the Hibernia gravity base, ballasting it down to its permanent location. The ships were fitted out in Dartmouth and returned to Dartmouth to have the gear removed.

Temporary unloading gear was mounted on the ship's bow.

In 2009 Nanticoke entered into a long term charter arrangement with the operators of the Magdalen Islands salt mines. It then took the distinctive name Salarium. In ancient times salt was used as currency, and a payment in salt was termed "salarium", from which our present day word salary is derived. By that time CSL's self-unloading bulk carriers in domestic service were repainted in CSL's traditional red. (Self-unloaders had previously been painted black, which was thought to be more serviceable because of the amount of coal they carried.)

As Salarium the ship then spent most of its time carrying salt to ports in the Great Lakes / St.Lawrence, but occasionally ranging as far as Saint John, NB. It still carried gypsum or other cargo from time to time as a backhaul, but its grain carrying days were over. 

Salt is a notoriously destructive cargo, and despite maintenance it will take a toll on metal. And so eventually time caught up with Salarium. In December 2019 it was laid up in Toronto for the last time. In April if 2020 it was moved to Montreal but did not re-enter service.

Salarium taking its last load of gypsum at National Gypsum's dock in Bedford Basin.

On October 15, 2020 the ship was due to leave Montreal for the last time in tow of the tug Thor 1 for Turkey where it was to be broken up. Interestingly the tug has a Canadian and Halifax connection - as it is the former Maersk Challenger.

However Transport Canada's ship safety inspectors denied clearance for the ship to go to sea. It is thought that corrosion was so severe that the ship might break up at sea. Perhaps the inspectors recall some previous incidents where ships in tow for the scrappers have been lost or run aground with huge costs to scrap in place.

Some sort of repair has apparently been made to allow the ship to go and it is now scheduled to depart Montreal in tow on October 27.

For more photos and history of the ship see: http://shipfax.blogspot.com/2019/01/ringing-in-new-year.html

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Salt Shakeup

There may be changes coming in the salt business following the announcement by the German K+S Group that it will be selling its Operating Group Americas operations during 2020. Branded as  Morton Salt in the US and Windsor Salt in Canada, the company has 32 mine and production facilities in North America and 13 in South America.

Most relevant to eastern Canada are the mines in Pugwash, NS and the Magdalen Islands, Quebec. Both facilities move product by water and form part of the chain of bulk cargo sources that keep ships profitably employed in this region. Unlike coal, aggregates and gypsum, that are dependent on a strong economy, road salt seems to be in constant demand. It can be shipped and stockpiled in advance of need.

The port of Pugwash, NS is seasonal and caters only to small ships nowadays. Desgagnés ships seem to be the most common callers.

Long time regular at Pugwash was Amélia Desgagnés ex Soodoc (broken up in Turkey in 2017).

The Magdalen Islands salt facility can accommodate Seaway size ships and has had a long term contract with CSL to use their Salarium (ex Nanticoke) since 2009. However that ship was laid up at the end of 2019 Seaway season, and appears to be destined for the scrappers. It moved from its Toronto layup to another layup berth in Montreal this week. Built in 1979 at Collingwood, the ship has entered another decade, meaning an extensive refit if it was to contine in service.

With a rare grain cargo for Halifax Salarium took a break from hauling salt. It likely picked up gypsum as a backhaul.

Salt's corrosive properties are notoriously hard on ships and ten years in the salt trade will certainly have taken their toll. A forty year old ship is also a rarity, although frequent freshwater assignments to the Lakes would have done the ship no harm. 

A post last year summed up the ship's career:
http://shipfax.blogspot.com/2019/01/ringing-in-new-year.html

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More Gypsum To Go

There has been a real run on gypsum lately with another load going out today. This time it is a domestic load, on CSL's Salarium a Canadian flag self-unloader.

Salarium docks stern in to make it easier for the shoreside ship loader to function.

(The ship does not seem to have loaded much in the 23 hours it had been alongside when I took this  photo this morning.)

The ship is on long term charter to carry salt from Mines Seleines in the Magdalen Islands, but that does not take up all its time, so it is free to pursue other work when it is available. In October the ship even made one of its rare calls to the Great Lakes. 

On that trip (its first since 2017) it went to Windsor*, ON, loaded salt for Twin Ports (Duluth / Superior) WI, then loaded iron ore pellets at Two Harbours, WI for Quebec City. It seems to have come directly from that assignment to Halifax to load gypsum - by passing the Magdalen Islands en route.

[*The salt mine in Windsor, ON is owned by K+S Windsor Salt, also owners of Mines Seleines.]

As a Canadian flag ship (built in 1980 as Nanticoke, 21,870 gt, summer draft capacity 35,100 tons) the ship can deliver its gypsum cargo to a Canadian port. The ship was renamed in 1990 when it was chartered to la Soçiété Québecoise d'Exploration Minière [SOQUEM]. Normally the ship keeps running well into the winter, and lays up in Montreal during the most severe ice conditions.

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Ringing in the New Year

There was harbour activity on January 1 despite blinding snow, later turning to rain, and more activity January 2.
Note: black bordered photos are form the Shipfax archive. Borderless photos are usually "fresh".

 Atlantic Tern

The offshore standby vessel Atlantic Tern had the distinction of being the first arrival of 2019. It was returning from its duties at Deep Panuke. The Encana facility stopped producing gas in May 2018 and is now in the dismantling process.  Fleet mate Atlantic Condor was built at Halifax Shipyard in 2010 for a ten year renewable contract as supply vessel for the troubled gas project.

 Atlantic Tern has a rough job standing by off Sable Island for a month at a time.

The other offshore gas producer, Sable Offshore Energy made the surprising announcement that it is halting production this week - one year earlier than planned. The Exxon Mobil lead project (with Shell, Imperial, Pengrowth and Mosbacher) came on line in 1999. It is also in a dismantling process.

Salarium

Heard but not seen for its arrival January 1 was the bulker Salarium. The ship arrived in very restricted visibility but its "fog horn" could be heard until it was secured at anchor in the lower harbour. Returning from Saint John, NB, where it had unloaded a cargo of road salt, the ship is en route to its loading port in the Magdalen Islands. Its stay in Halifax was brief, sailing again this morning less than 24 hours after arriving. Its visit was to shelter from very high winds last night. With the ship in ballast, it would not only be uncomfortable, but potentially dangerous at sea.

The ship was built for Great Lakes trade with limited seagoing and is restricted to Canadian waters south of 52 degrees latitude, and is permitted to go to St.John's, NL and "the eastern seaboard of Canada." which includes Halifax, Saint John. NB and the St.Croix River to Bayside, NB.

When laid down by the Collingwood Shipyard, it was with the intention of naming it "Gleneagles" reviving a traditional CSL name. However it was launched as Nanticoke, named for a new Stelco steel mill built near the town of the same name, on Lake Erie. CSL had long standing  contracts to deliver iron ore to Stelco and it was a fitting choice. (The plant was located on Lake Erie, which allowed it to receive iron ore from upper lakes ports without having to send ships down through the Welland Canal to Hamilton.) A nearby coal fired generating plant provided power for the mill (until it was closed in 2014).  CSL was also in the coal delivery business.

Afrer an end of season grain delivery, Nanticoke was about to shift to Natyional Gypsum for its backhaul cargo.

A Seaway size self-unloader, Nanticoke plied the other usual routes for CSL carrying grain, gypsum, coal and ores. It also participated in the early top off operations in the Strait of Canso and Sept-Iles Bay where CSL self-unloaders completed the loading of large deep sea ships that could not load to maximum draft in their usual loading ports.

CSL self-unloaders used to have black hulls, which were thought to be more serviceable in view of the coal and other dirty cargoes they carried.

In May 1997 Nanticoke, Atlantic Huron (a regular Halifax caller) and Atlantic Erie (scrapped in 2016) were fitted with special cargo handling systems to deliver magnetite, in slurry form, to ballast the Hibernia Gravity Base structure on location off Newfoundland. The ships were converted and "unconverted" in Halifax.

A large pipeline was attached tho the ships' bows and pumps were used to move the heavy ballast

from shore to ship, then to the gravity base, well out at sea.

Not long after the Hibernia Challenge, CSL began to paint its self-unloaders with traditional red hulls, once reserved for bulkers and general cargo ships. 

Here Nanticoke disembarks its pilot at Escoumins as a whale tour boat sets out.

In 2009 CSL signed a long term contract to carry salt for (what is now) K+S Windsor Salt/Morton Salt, Mines Saleines in the Magdalen Islands. To make back haul voyages more profitable the ship hauls gypsum and other products, but rarely grain. Salt is very destructive, and despite lining the holds with special composites, the cargo does take its toll, and cleaning for grain handling must be hard work. It did deliver grain here in Septmber 2011.

At first Salarium did carry some grain cargoes, but has not done so for some time.

Renamed Salarium (the word describes "payment in salt", from which the word salary derives) [I used to be paid peanuts, now I just get the salt] the ship commonly runs the St.Lawrence River and into the Seaway, with occasional forays as far as the Great Lakes. It has also loaded gypsum in Halifax from time to time. Once the Seaway closes for the winter the ship can be seen on the aforementioned Atlantic seaboard delivering road salt.

A Mines Saleines logo was added to the CSL funnel.

The battle against rust must be constant when carrying salt.

When Halifax Shipyard was in the repair business, Salarium was a refit customer, and looked quite splendid when it emerged with its fresh paint.

Now the ship generally works year round and only drydocks for its five year renewals. With a big one coming up in 2022, one has to wonder how much longer the ship will remain in service.

Plowing its usual furrow on the St.Lawrence, Salarium spends the summer supplying stockpiles of road salt for the coming winter.

Kitikemeot W.

Coastal Shipping's tanker Kitikmeot W. is due to sail this afternoon, and as speculated the ship has been reflagged to the Marshal Islands for winter trading internationally.

Algonorth

On January 1, Algonorth shifted from Imperial Oil dock 4 to anchor. Because Salarium was occupying the lower harbour anchorage, Algonorth went to Bedford Basin. The ship may just be waiting out weather or possibly will be there for a longer term.

Thorco Liva

The general cargo ship Thorco Liva arrived this morning and tied up at pier 9c. This is the ship's third visit to Halifax. In October 2016 it was fitted with steel frames to carry fibreoptic cable. The prefabricated frames were loaded aboard and assembled here, and the ship loaded the cable in Newington, NH where it is manufactured. The ship returned to Halifax in January 2017, presumably loaded with cable, and anchored for nearly a month before sailing for Spain.

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Salarium - we will need it soon

The self-unloading bulk carrier Salarium made one of its infrequent visits to Halifax today. The Canada Steamships Lines ship is on long term charter to Mines Seleine to carry salt from the Magdelan Islands salt mine to various ports in the region. It has just delivered a load to Saint John, NB and will load gypsum in Halifax as a back haul to Montreal. It makes few empty trips, so is always looking for cargoes other than salt to keep it busy.

Salarium makes its way inbound passing the foot of Sackville St. My eye is only about 15 feet above sea level today, as opposed to yesterday's photo. I will make it to the waterfront eventually!

The ship was built by Collingwood Shipyard in 1980 as Nanticoke, a "Nova St.Lawrence" class ship, intended to trade the Great Lakes and east coast, carrying bulk cargoes such as ore, coal and grain. It was named for a Lake Ontario port, site of a large Ontario Hydro coal fired generating station and a steel plant.


In 2009 the ship was assigned to the salt trade and renamed, including a new funnel mark, which represents K+S Windsor Salt Ltd's Mines Seleine subsidiary.


We will soon be requiring road salt in Halifax in view of the weather forecast, and the occasional sight of flurries offshore.

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Schedule disarray - Quebec Report #8

The temporary speed restriction in the Gulf of St.Lawrence is having an effect on the whales it is intended to protect and on ship schedules.

No ship strikes have been reported, and no dead whales have been found since the ban was instituted. The fallout for shipping has been predictable.

Some inane suggestions about helicopter escorts, special sonar and other speculations on how to speed up ships and save whales have been proposed by some in the shipping industry. If these geniuses would turn their minds to the environment instead of the bottom line for a few moments, they might realize that they and their customers will just have to pay for the privilege of sharing this planet with whales.

Oceanex Connaigra used to be a daytime Saturday sighting, now it passes at night.

The effect on domestic shipping has seen Oceanex introduce a temporary fuel charge to pay for the higher speeds required in other areas to make up for the five hours of slow steaming in the Gulf. Oceanex competes with trucks and Marine Atlantic on what is a far from level playing field, and any change of schedule or costs would certainly hurt them.

 CTMA Vacançier is back to early Thursday mornings.

C.T.M.A., which serves the Magdalen Islands, has curtailed stops in Gaspé in order to keep their cruise ferry CTMA Vacançier on schedule. After a couple of weeks of trying to maintain the schedule, the ship is now reaching Quebec and Montreal on close to the old timetable.

MSC Kim was hurry up then wait on Tuesday afternoon.

Foreign flag container ships are making up the time at sea, but there has been some increase in speed on the river too. I note reported speeds in excess of 18 knots, which is a pretty good clip.  Schedules however seem to be in some sort of disarray, as the MSC Kim, charged past my place at 18.6 knots, but then anchored off Pointe-au-Pic for about four hours. Perhaps they were overly enthusiastic about opening up the throttles and had to back off so as not reach Montreal too early.

 OOCL Belgium made up its time at sea, but was still moving at a good rate this afternoon.

Non-scheduled Great Lakes ships are effected too. Even though the speed reduction does not bother many of them, since they do not go that far into the Gulf (the zone extends as far west as the eastern tip of Anticosti Island) their speed would only be reduced by a knot or two.

 Algoma's newest ship, Algoma Strongfield does not venture far enough east to be effected by the speed limit.

However with a limited shipping season, they need to get in as many trips as possible. Salarium carries salt from the Magdalen Islands, right in the middle of the zone, and it would be difficult to make up lost time in its relatively short trips.

Salarium transits the zone on every trip with salt.

So far I have not heard of any violations of the speed limit.

To add the container shipping misery however, the container carrier Maersk Pembroke was disabled by fire west of the Lizard Point, in the Celtic Sea, August 21. It appears that the ship, which was en route from Antwerp to Montreal, will have to be towed to back to a European port. That will certainly throw a wrench in the weekly service operated by Maersk and CMA CGM.

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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.

Highlanders off to North Sydney, Salarium to go too

1. Tugs assist Highlanders out of the Novadock, but the ship is using its own thrusters to do most of the work turning south.

2. The ship has a broad stern ramp and bow doors.

The Marine Atlantic Inc ferry Highlanders left the Novadock floating drydock late this afternoon. After doing a compass swing south of George's Island the ship headed home to North Sydney to resume operations between North Sydney and Port aux Basques.
Her spot in the Novadock will apparently be taken by sister ship Blue Puttees in a few days.

The ship arrived in Halifax on April 10 after less than a year in service with MAI.

The ship was due to leave the drydock at 0800 hrs this morning. The harbour was fairly busy all day, so it may have been availability of tugs that caused that time to be changed to 1400. By 1400 however, with tugs standing by, and presumably a pilot aboard, why did it take until 1530 for the pilot to call for clearance, and 1600 before the lines were let go? One would hate to suggest that shipyard workers were looking for overtime, but it is an all to obvious conclusion.

The shipyard has come in for criticism (unjustified in my opinion) in the last few days for laying off eighty some workers on completion of work on the Highlanders and Salarium. The critics think that because the yard received government money that workers should be kept on even if there is no work for them to do. Sorry but the money was to improve the yard and carry out the defence work, not to provide featherbed accommodation.

3. Salarium is now ballasted down and was to sail this afternoon. It is now scheduled to go at midnight.

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!]

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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.