Taïga Desgagnés in for a safe landing

 The general cargo  / heavy lift shift Taïga Desgagnés arrived at Pier 9C this morning, June 3 and tied up without tug assistance.

The ship was built in 2007 by Tianjin Xingang Shipbuilding Heavy Industry Co, and launched as Hatzum but was completed as BBC Amazon. A 12,936 gt, 17,936 dwt ship, it carries three 80 tonne SWL cranes that can be operated in pairs for a 160 tonne lift. In 2017 Transport Desgagnés of Quebec acquired the ship and renamed it Taïga Desgagnés.

The ship operates on Arctic Sealift from June to November loading from Quebec ports such as Cote-Ste-Cathereine and delivering cargo to northern Quebec and the high arctic while registered in Canada. For the remainder of the year the ship is bareboat chartered out to BBC Chartering and operates world wide under the Barbados flag.

This year the ship was operating in the Pacific until March 16 when it transitted the Panama Canal and made its way to Baton Rouge then Izmir, Turkey and onward to Germany, Sweden and Finland. Its final call on the European side of the Atlantic was Belfast, Northern Ireland. There it loaded an aircraft fuselage from the Spirit AeroSystems facility for (reportedly) Boeing, which it off loaded directly to a truck trailer in Halifax, using its own cranes.

 

A worker in gray coveralls appears to give the baseball umpire's signal for "safe" as the component is landed on a trombone trailer.

 Aircraft components, including fuselages, wings and tail sections manufactured in Belfast have been transported to Liverpool where Atlantic Container Line loaded them as RoRo cargo and off loaded in Halifax. I understand that Boeing in particular, and perhaps other aircraft manufacturers are now chartering ships and air freighters instead. It's not clear why the Taïga Desgagnés opted to unload in Halifax. It may have come down to ease of truck access and transit time. Halifax has ready access to a major highway network, even for the 60 ft 8 in unit.

The Halifax company Total Transport and Rigging hauls the loaded trailer from Pier 9C Richmond Terminal to their yard, outside the built-up urban area. A long distance trucking contractor then takes over the haul which will be on controlled access divided highway all the way to the Quebec border - about an 8 hour trip. Different regulations apply in Quebec, and there may still be a section of undivided road to transit, but delivery to the Montreal area is well within 24 hours versus several days by sea. 

(Boeing's Canadian manufacturing plant is in Winnipeg, and I understand that they have high demand for fast just in time delivery of components.)

 

The one piece appears to have been the only cargo that the ship was carrying and it sailed in the late afternoon for Montreal. It is scheduled to sail June 24 from Côte-Sainte-Catherine to James Bay ports on its first northern supply trip of the year. A trip to the extreme far north is scheduled in August.

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