Imedghassen move

 The broken down ship Imedghassen has been occupying the space at Pier 34 since its arrival here on January 9. That berth is seldom used for cargo work these days, and is usually reserved for ships under repair, and the CSL bulker Baie St.Paul is due here tomorrow, and has been assigned to the pier.

Therefore Imedghassen moved this afternoon, with assistance of the tug Atlantic Willow, to Pier 9C. The ship's name does not appear on future schedules for Melfi Lines, so apparently it will not be going to work for the Cuba run. With container carrying ships in short supply and shipping rates at an all time high, the owners must be eager to get the ship back to work. For whatever reason however, the ship is still stuck in Halifax.

Longshore workers attend to the mooring lines at Pier 9C .

The Arabic script on the ship's bow reminds me that Algerian ships in particular are rare callers here. The last one I can recall is the cargo ship Biban which spent the Christmas to New Year period in Halifax in 1979-1980.

I told the story of the Biban in a Tugfax post in 2015.

To summarize, the ship Biban, built in 1977 by Marine Industries Ltd in Sorel, QC*,  and owned buy the Algerian state shipping company, had a main engine breakdown in Duluth, Minnesota in June 1979. It was towed down through the Great Lakes to Montreal in July, where it languished until December when the legendary French tug Abeille 30 came to fetch it. The tow line parted in the Gulf of St.Lawrence, causing some damage to the ship, which resulted in tug and tow coming to Halifax where the ship was drydocked for hull repair.

Biban in  Halifax - another distressed Algerian.

With the ship out of drydock December 31, 1979 the tug lost no time in rigging the tow again, and they sailed January 1, 1980. The ship's engine was repaired in Europe and it returned to service until early 2003 when it was broken up in India.

 The Abeille 30 has the Biban in tow again, heading for Europe on New Year's Day 1980.

To my recollection Biban was the first, last and until recently the only Algerian ship to call in Halifax.

*The now vanished Marine Industries Ltd (MIL) shipyard in Sorel-Tracy, QC was a major Canadian shipbuilder, with upwards of 400 ships to its credit, including numerous naval craft. In the mid 1970s they built a series of cargo ships for Polish, French and Greek owners, plus two for Algeria: Biban and sister Babor.

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Abeille 30 from the shoebox

On January 1, 1980 the tug Abeille 30 sailed from Halifax with the Algerian cargo ship Biban in tow. [See previous post]

More info on the Abeille 30:

She was built in 1944 by Levingston Shipbuilding of Orange, Texas as LT 538 one of a large number of standard Large Tugs [LT] for the US Navy. These were ocean going, 2250 bhp vessels intended for towing anywhere in the world.

Following the war she was acquired by Moller Towage of Hong Kong and renamed Margaret Moller.

In 1951, the famous French towing outfit Société de Remorquage et Sauvetage "Les Abeilles" [the bees] bought her and she worked for them as Abeille No.10 until 1972. At that time she was completely rebuilt and repowered, with 5400 bhp, and renamed Abeille 30.

She was a single screw vessel with a Towmaster propulsion system and bow thruster.

Following her transatlantic tow with Biban, she remained with Les Abeilles (now known as Abeille International) until 1983 when they sold her to Spanish owners, Biscay Towing Inc. and she was renamed Biscay 30 under the Panamanian flag.

In early 1985 she was sent to the Mississippi River to tow the vessel Master Petros 22,391/69 , but something went wrong. She was towing the ship downbound on the Mississippi on January 14, 1985 when the tow overran the tug, sinking her, with the loss of one life.

Although she was raised, she was broken up in October of 1985.

A variation of this post will appear on my new blog Tugfax, which will from hereon cover tug events in Halifax. Shipfax will continue to cover shipping in general with some tug info from time to time.

Oldies from the Shoebox: Biban and Abeille 30

The cargo ship Biban arrived in Halifax December 21, 1979 in tow of the French tug Abeille 30. Biban was built by Marine Industries Ltd of Sorel QC in 1977 for the Algerian state shipping company. She often traded to the Great Lakes, and it was on one such voyage in June 1979 when she had a catastrophic engine breakdown at Duluth MN.

American tugs South Carolina, Maryland, and Superior, assisted by Lenny B towed the ship to Montreal, arriving July 29, 1979. She sat there until December 11 when she left for Halifax in tow of Abeille 30. The pair tied up at Halifax Shipyard over Christmas.

On January 1, 1980 they set out for Europe where the ship was eventually repaired. She was sold and renamed Mariam 1 in 2002 but arrived in Alang, India January 12, 2003 where she was scrapped.

The tug Abeille 30 had an interesting history, which I will add to this post in a few days.