Coastal Shipping Ltd - update

 Kitikmeot W getting under way from anchorage for Argentia with a chemical cargo.

 Since making yesterday's post on Coastal Shipping Ltd's latest acquisition, the tanker Kitikmeot W, I have learned that the company has acquired three tankers, not two. I mentioned that a sister of Kitikmeot W, the Icdas-11 has been purchased, but not delivered yet, nor renamed as far as I know.

The third tanker is to be named Tuvaq W. It is currently sailing under the Swiss flag as San Pietro. Built in 2012 by Taixing Ganghua as Bering it was acquired and renamed by the current owners in 2013. It is a small ship of 5422 grt, 7598 dwt, and will be used to supply some of the ports that larger ships cannot service.

Once again the ship's new name has significance for Coastal Shipping and the Woodward Group, recalling a previous ship named Tuvaq and using the letter "W" for Woodward.

The first Tuvaq was an impressive ice breaking tanker, built in 1977 by Werft Nobiskrug in Rendsburg, Denmark, for Neste O/Y of Finland. Neste was a pioneer in winter navigation in the Baltic and the ship was built to operate without icebreaker assistance when the Baltic was iced in. It was named Tiira by Neste and measured 10,929 grt, 15,954 dwt and was powered by two V-12 Atlas engines delivering 15,600 bhp through controllable pitch propellers. Neste thought enough of the ship to re-engine it in 1997 with new MaK engines giving 15,999 bhp. Such a major expenditure is unusual in a twenty year old ship.   

Coastal Shipping purchased the ship in the autumn of 2002 for delivering their own petroleum products, but also for chartering out to others. It was registered in St.John's, NL February 14, 2003 and named Tuvaq. The word means edge of the ice, an important interface in the arctic where sea life is abundant. Under Canadian registry the ship measured 11,290 grt.

The ship made many northern trips for Coastal, but also did charter work with Ultramar and likely others, and made some trips to the Great Lakes.

Some of its calls in Halifax were documented here in 2009 and 2012.

In early 2013 Coastal sold the ship to Panama flag owners called Tuvaq International Inc, and the Canadian register was closed June 11, 2013. Identified as a crude oil carrier by this time, the ship's movements have been difficult to trace, but by October 2015 it was laid up in Magdalene River, Barranquilla, Columbia, apparently abandoned.

The new Tuvaq W has sailed from the Netherlands as San Pietro and is due in St.John's, NL next week where it will be brought under Canadian flag and renamed.
Icdas-11 is reported anchored in Singapore.

To make room for all these ships in the fleet, Coastal has recently sold Nanny (register closed March 9, 2018) and Travestern (registry closed March 19, 2018). These follow the sale of Alsterstern in April 2017 and Havelstern in October 2017.

Of these one recent caller here was Nanny, which brought in several loads for Wilson's Fuel from Come by Chance in 2015 and 2016.

Built in 1993 by Hyundai Ulsan, as Natalie Sif, the 6544 grt, 9176 dwt ship also called in Halifax in 1998 under its original name and Danish flag.  After leaving the Coastal fleet it sailed to Taipei, Taiwan.

The Coastal fleet also includes the Sten Fjord, 8882 grt, 13,670 dwt, built in 2004 as Falcon by Jiangyang, Shanghai, which joined the fleet in June 2017. It has been chartered out over the winter, and is en route from Montreal to Estonia but is expected back in Canada in time for summer arctic work.

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Optimism rules

Thanks to the Asian Gyspy Moth for cheering up Halifax today. Amongst the usual run  of ships with businesslike names, we had Eternal Sunshine and Lucky Trader.

Eternal Sunshine was built as Pioneer Sunshine in 2004 by Shin Kurushima Onsihi Shipyard in Imabari, Japan to typical handy tanker dimensions of 28,059 grt, 45,915 dwt. It was acquired by current owners Product Shipping + Trading of Athens in 2013 and took on its cheery name and Marshall Islands registry.  It was only in port long enough for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to do its inspection, and sailed in bright sunshine.


The sunshine was not eternal as it turned out, for the arrival of Lucky Trader was under greying skies.

It was built in 1996 by Saiki Jukogyo KK of Saiki, Japan as Oriente Noble for Panamanian owners. Bischoff Reederei of Bremen acquired the ship last fall and registered it in Antigua and Barbuda. It is a handy size vessel as well, but a bulk carrier of 14,746 grt, 23,522 dwt, and fitted with four 30 tonne cranes. Its last port was Dakar.

Not to be outdone by the moth, Imperial Oil welcomed Bright Fortune today (it anchored in the Basin yesterday) and the more functionally named Elbtank Germany.

Elbtank Germany tied up at number 3 dock this morning. It is a 1999 product of Daewoo Shipbuilding +Marine Engineering of Geoje, South Korea, wth handysize measurements of 22,848 grt, 35,407 dwt. It carried the names Seine to 2007 and Beas Spirit to 2008. It is currently operated by Tb Marine Ship Management of Hamburg, and flies the flag of Maderia, an offshore registry of Portugal. It arrived from Paldiski, the port of Tallin, Estonia.

Bright Fortune was brought alongside number 4 dock late this afternoon. It measures 28,777 gross tons and 48,008 deadweight, just fitting under the nominal 50,000 dwt maximum for handysize tankers. It arrived from Houston. Built in 2010  by a yard I had never heard of before: Iwagi Shipbuilding of Kamijima, Japan, it flies the Panamanian flag for Shoei Kisen of Imabari, Japan. Its last port was Houston.

To round out the positive name parade, the Canadian tanker Travestern arrived, bunkered and sailed, headed for Cape Dorset in the far north.

Breaking from the habit of many shipowners Woodward Group and its tanker subsidiary Coastal Shipping Ltd has not renamed its current tankers. They continue to bear the names given them by prior owners. Perhaps the old marine superstition that it is unlucky to rename a ship prevails in their case.

Woodward purchased its three most recent tankers from Rigel Shiffahrts of Germany. Named for a prominent star, the company names most of its ships to include the world "Star" (in English) in their names. These three however use the suffix "stern" (which means star in German) and are prefixed by the names of three German rivers, thus: Alsterstern, Havelstern and Travestern.

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Tankers, tankers, more tankers

Despite the loss of big tankers coming into Halifax with the closure of Esso's refining operation, there are still lots of tankers calling in Halifax. Today there were three in port

1.   Freshly out of drydock (see yesterday's post) Travestern is tied up at pier 34 completing its refit. Crews were busy working on the ship's free fall lifeboat. It normally nests in the orange cradle just above the anchor.

2.   Energy Protector arrived this morning and went to anchor in Bedford Basin. It was last here December 12 with refined product for Esso's tank farm, and presumably has some more on this trip.

3.  Irving Oil's Nor'easter (flying the Marshal Islands flag) is a rare caller in Halifax. Since the end of refining in Dartmouth, Irving tankers have been much more frequent visitors. Irving now has to supply its Halifax area needs from Saint John, instead of buying it from Esso, so their only Canadian flag tanker Acadian is running hard to meet demand.  It was therefore necessary to apply for a coasting license for Nor'easter to fill in. The license application was for the period December 4 to 17, but may have been extended.

Rumours are now emerging that Irving Oil will be reactivating its own dock in Woodside. Long abandoned when Irving Oil joined its Woodside tank farm with Esso by pipeline, they may now be finding that there is no advantage to that connection. Today a core drilling barge was working off the old Woodside dock, a sure sing that some engineering may soon begin on the design for a new pier.

 4.  On a day almost as foggy as today, but in June 1977, Irvingstream was tied up at the Irving Woodside pier. It was a small "L" shaped structure, and took some imaginative line handling to several points on the shore to secure a large ship.

5.   Despite its small size, the pier could accommodate quite a crowd.In this 1984 view Irving Canada has just sailed from the outside of the pier (with the assistance of Point Vigour), the barge Irving Dolphin is on the inside and Irvingwood is on the north side. The spindly wood structure of the pier was eventually condemned, but remains in place.

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Travestern - now in full Woodward paint scheme

This afternoon Travestern left the Novadock floating drydock at Halifax Shipyard, showing of its new Woodward paint job.

1. With Atlantic Larch pulling on the bow, Atlantic Oak guiding the stern and the ship using its own power, Travestern left the drydock this afternoon.

After one month to the day in the drydock, the ship was "on her tank tops" - with minimal ballast, and her prop was thrashing about high out of the water. The two tugs took the ship to pier 34 where it will complete its refit.

The most recent addition to the Coastal Shipping fleet arrived in Lewisporte, NL in March and was soon in service, running from Saint John, NB with oil products to Newfoundland and the north. There was no time to apply the Woodward paint colours to the hull, and the distinctive "Woodward Group" banner near the stern until now.

2. The banner name near the stern is a distinctive Woodward feature.

As previously reported, Travestern is one of three sister ships in the Coastal Shipping fleet, all acquired from Rigel Shipping in Germany.

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Travestern in the Novadock

1. Travestern has just entered Novadock.

The Coastal Shipping Ltd tanker Travestern arrived yesterday (in thick fog) and anchored in the harbour until this morning when it entered the Novadock floating drydock at Halifax Shipyard.

Coastal (part of ther Woodward Group of Goose Bay, NL) acquired the tanker in March of this year from Rigel Shiffahrts of Bremen, Germany.
It arrived in Lewisporte March 11 after waiting several days for icebreaker assistance, and was registered in Canada on March 15. A chemical / product tanker of 11,423 gross tons and 17,080 deadweight, it was built in 1995 by MTW Schiffwerft in Wismar, Germany.
It is one of three sister ships  bought by Woodward (Alsterstern and Havelstern inn 2011) to replace older units of the fleet. The ships have been very busy this summer running from Saint John to destinations in Newfoundland and the far north.

Coastal has recently taken to keeping ships names from previous owners, however in their earlier ships they did select family or local names.

Among those names was Sibyl W., used twice for Woodward Group ships.

Sybil W. (i) was the former Imperial Quebec. Built by Collingwood Shipyard, it was launched August 21,
1957 and delivered in December. At 375' x 52' x 27' depth, it was too large to transit the old St.Lawrence canals, so was confined to the Lakes until the St.Lawrence Seaway was opened in 1959. It was then fitted with a bulbous bow and saw service on the coast and as far afield as Frobisher Bay and Venezuela, based out of Halifax.

2. Imperial Quebec alongside pier 23 in Halifax March 21, 1983 for some minor repairs, the ship shows off her bulbous bow.

The ship started life with the traditional Imperial Oil black hull and red superstructure, but looked far better with the blue and cream scheme. It was also smaller than the newer ships at 4,679 gross tons, 6150 deadweight. With those larger fleetmates working more efficiently and some mechanical problems, Imperial sold the ship to Woodward in 1987.

3. In 1982 she was starting to have some engine issues and was easily identified from a great distance by her smoke plume.

Renamed Sibyl W. by Woodward, the ship served Atlantic Canada and the north until March 1992 when she was sold to the Panamanian company SSS Trading and renamed Panama Trader. She was later re-flagged to Belize, but she was laid up in 1995 and scrapped at Guyamas, Mexico in May 1996.

Woodward meanwhile had added Sibyl W. (ii) to the fleet. It was also a former Imperial tanker, the much smaller Imperial Tofino, built in 1973 by McKenzie Barge & Marine Ways of North Vancouver. Designed to serve small coastal communities it originally measured only 650 gross tons. In 1979 it was lengthened 24 feet to about 170 ft loa and re-measured at 764 gross tons. 

The ship made its first call in Halifax  September 1, 1992 and called here about once a year for a few years, but was mostly confined to Newfoundland and Labradorian waters.

4. The second Sybil W. in Halifax in 1995.

In 2009 as the fleet expanded again, Coastal Shipping sold the second Sibyl W. to Honduras Aero Marine S de RL of Atlantide, Honduras. They did not rename the ship and she is reportedly still in service as a bunkering tanker in the Atlantic anchorage off Panama.

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Coastal Shipping's Travestern - hat trick for Woodward

The third of Coastal Shipping's trio of former Rigel tankers arrived today and anchored in the lower harbour. Travestern  is the latest acquisition by Woodward Group's tanker fleet, and just arrived this spring from former German owners.It was registered in St.John's March 15, about the time of its arrival in Lewisporte.
Alsterstern (posted here June 13) and Havelstern have both been in port but loaded cargo in Saint John, NB.

This ship was built in 1995 by MTW Schiffswerft in Wismar, Germany. It measures 11,423 gross tons and 17,080 deadweight.
Thanks to an anonymous reader, we have a succinct explanation of their names:

"- Alster, Havel and Trave are rivers in Germany. Their names commonly are associated with larger German cities: Alster & Hamburg, Trave & Lübeck/Kiel, Havel & Berlin.
- Stern means Star, so the ships' names would be Star of Havel,..."

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Alsterstern for bunkers [corrected]

Corrected version (I had the ship's name wrong as Havelstern on first posting):

The Woodward Group, Coastal Shipping Ltd tanker Alsterstern arrived for bunkers and anchored in Bedford Basin this morning, June 13. The ship is one of three sisters acquired by Woodward to transport fuel in Newfoundland, Labrador and the far north. All three were acquired form Rigel Tankers in Germany, first to arrive was Alsterstern in July 2001, then Havelstern in September 2011 and Travestern in March of this year. At 11,423 gross tons and 17,080 deadweight, they are able to reach many of the smaller ports.
They generally work seasonally and layup for the winter, and are reactivated in spring for northern work. Last year Alsterstern arrived in Halifax on June 14, docking at Ultramar in Eastern Passage. It is likely to load there again this year before sailing.

Alsterstern anchored off Rockingham, 2013-06-14 waiting for a berth.

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