Bedford Basin - re-visit

After yesterday's lengthy post about Bedford Basin there is some follow up and some additional traffic to mention.

The tanker BSL Elsa sailed this morning (November 3) for Southwest Pass, Louisiana. One of the channels at the mouth of the Mississippi River, Southwest Pass is a convenient destination for ships that may be redirected to one of several oil ports in the region.

 As BSL Elsa cleared the Basin, the Royal Canadian Navy's chartered supply ship Asterix was on the move back to HMC Dockyard from the Bedford Magazine ammunition dock.

The Asterix returned to port October 26 after exercising with NATO ships and the USS Gerald R. Ford. It made the brief trip to the Bedford Magazine (Jetty November November in Navy lingo) this morning, presumably to off load some ordnance.

As a non-navy ship (with civilian crew) the Asterix uses civilian tugs when manoeuvering in the port.

These ship moves were carefully orchestrated with an arriving ship, so as to avoid meeting in the Narrows.

With the tugs Atlantic Cedar (forward) and Atlantic Fir aft, the autocarrier Don Carlos has just passed Pier 9C, and is about to pass beneath the A. Murray MacKay bridge and enter the Bedford Basin to turn and come back alongside Pier 9C. Once it unloads RoRo traffic (except cars) it will  move to Autoport to discharge cars. This is the reverse of its pattern on June 11, 2022 [qv].

Built 1997 by Daewo Okpo, the ship was lengthened 8.6m in 2006 by Hyundai Vinashin and now measures 227.9m long, 67,141 gt, 28,147 dwt, with a capacity of 7,194 (RT43) autos.

Also in the Basin the bulker Rt. Hon Paul E. Martin [see yesterday] completed loading at Gold Bond (formerly National Gypsum) and sailed about mid-day for Savannah, GA.

The ship does not load to its full capacity at Gold Bond due to draft restrictions alongside the dock. When National Gypsum built the facility in 1956 there was adequate water depth for ships of the era, but ships have grown!

In the lower harbour the tanker East Coast anchored on arrival. It moved to the Woodside terminal late in the afternoon.

On long term charter to Irving Oil, the 23,552 gt, 37,515 dwt ship was built in 2005 by Hyundai Mipo, Ulsan, and carried the name Nor'Easter under Marshal Islands flag until 2014 when it was brought into Canadian registry. Its Dutch based owners, Vroon, display the letter "V" in a shield on the ship's bow. Vroon also opeates offshore suppliers (under the VOS name) and other tankers (under the Iver name).

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