Kathryn Spirit - another scrapping

A ship that has been in a sort of limbo for five years will finally be scrapped this winter. The Kathryn Spirit was to be broken up at Beauharnois, QC, just below the Seaway locks in 2011. However the buyer, Groupe Saint Pierre Inc was denied permission to scrap it and the barge Jean-Raymond at that location due to environmental concerns and objections by nearby residents.


The buyer then sold the ship to a Mexican scrapper, but the tug that was sent to get it got no farther than Halifax (and is still here.)The Craig Trans has been covered in Tugfax. See: Craig Trans


As the Kathryn Spirit remained in Beauharnois until the new owner, Reciclages Ecologicos Maritimos renounced ownership earlier this year. After local pressure, authorities finally stepped in to secure the ship. Although they removed some hazardous material, it continued to fill with rain water and it began to list dangerously. It was secured some more, and a Groupe Océan scow was brought in to keep it in place. The ship is in such a deteriorated condition that it cannot be moved.

At the Beauharnois scrapyard of Groupe Saint Pierre, with a former industrial site under demolition in the background. The ship is very close to the tail race of the Beauharnois power dam, which would spread contaminants over a wide area.

Now the government has decided that they must scrap the ship in situ and will build a coffer dam around it. Once that is completed the ship will be broken up over this winter and the cofferdam removed in time for the opening of navigation in the spring.


Kathryn Spirit will be remembered in Halifax as the ship that brought the first ever domestic cargo shipped from Churchill, MB. The ship arrived September 30, 2007 with grain for Dover Mills (now P+H Milling). That ill-fated port on Hudson Bay has been closed by its owner Omnitrax and may never re-open. Grain exports were no longer sustaining the port, and the operator has also closed its reduced freight service on its rail line from The Pas to once a week. (VIA Rail still runs the Polar Bear Express three times a week)* Some of the original supplies needed to build Churchill, and its predecessor at York Factory were shipped out of Halifax in the early decades of the 20th century. * REVISION 2016-11-06

Some of the following is a repeat of my ealier post in January:
http://shipfax.blogspot.ca/2016/01/kathryn-spirit-more-trouble-for.html


Kathryn Spirit
The ship began its life in 1967 when it was delivered by Lindolmens Varv in Goteborg as Holmsund as a 9261 grt forest product carrier. It was equipped with two 20 tonne capacity traveling gantries on deck to handled baled pulp, lumber and other unwieldy cargo packages. The gantries were roofed over, allowing cargo work in rainy weather. The ship had five hatches over five box shaped holds.
In 1997 the ship was renamed Menominee by the same owners and made many trips to the Great Lakes and eastern Canada ports such as Pictou, NS.

At Pictou, NS with some of its five hatches open, the gantries are positioned with their outriggers extended to load baled paper pulp.

In late 2006 McKeil Ships Ltd of Hamilton, ON bought the ship and renamed it Kathryn Spirit. Their first foray into ship owning, the tug and barge owners found work for the ship hauling aluminum out of Sept-Iles and delivering supplies to the such northern ports as Deception Bay. The fitted the ship with a big crawler crane to handle a small tug and a lightering barges.

 The small tug Flo-Mac and a scow sit on deck as the ship heads north with cargo. The crawler crane will handle cargo that the gantries can't manage. The ship's fine hull shape, sharp bow and spoon stern are sure signs of Swedish design.

Later in 2007 in arrived in Halifax with the aforementioned grain cargo. In April 2008 it also arrived in Halifax with an oversize cargo. Not long after the ship was laid up in Sorel, QC.

In layup at Sorel, with the crawler crane lande on the adjacent pier.

It remained in Sorel until 2011 when it was sold to Groupe Saint Pierre and towed by the tugs  Salvor and Jarret M to Beauharnois August 26, 2011.

The sale to Mexican interests took place in 2012 and the saga of the Craig Trans unfolded.

Jean-Raymond
Not mentioned in the most recent news is the barge Jean-Raymond that is tied up between the ship and the shore. It will be within the proposed coffer dam and likely will be scrapped at the same time.

It is also mentioned in my January 2016 post.

.

Kathryn Spirit - more trouble for troubled ship

Kathryn Spirit, an occasional visitor to Halifax and long a derelict in Quebec, appears be in for more trouble.
The ship has been tied up in Beauharnois, QC since 2011 where it was to be broken up. Local citizens were up in arms and the work was halted. Plans to move or remove it have come to naught. The site, just below the lower Beauharnois Lock of the St.Lawrence Seaway is a sensitive ecological zone, and the source of drinking water, only adding to the complexities.

Kathryn Spirit in June 2015.

The ship was built in 1967 by Lindolmens Shipyard in Gothenburg, Sweden as Holmsund as a forest product carrier, fitted with two traveling gantry cranes. Measuring 9,261 grt, the ship was a longtime caller to the St.Lawrence and Great Lakes where it often loaded paper pulp. In 1997 it was renamed Menominee after the Wisconsin port of the same name. It continued in the same trade to ports including Pictou, NS.

Loading paper pulp in Pictou, with its gantry arms extended.

In 2006 Canadian owners McKeil Marine bought the ship and gave it the name Kathryn Spirit. They used the ship to carry aluminum from Sept-Iles to Trois-Rivières and for northern supply. On September 30, 2007 it arrived in Halifax with the first ever domestic shipment of grain out of Churchill, MB for Dover Mills. It was back again in April 2008 with an oversize cargo.

Work became hard to find and the ship was laid up in Sorel, QC. In August 2011 it was towed to Beauharnois where it was tied up alongside the barge Jean-Raymond where Groupe Saint-Pierre had plans to scrap the ship. When this activity was forbidden Saint-Pierre sold the ship to Reciclajes Ecologicos Maritimos of Mexico.


It was that company that hired the tug Craig Trans to fetch the ship and tow it out of the Seaway. In December 2012 the tug got as far as Halifax where it was eventually abandoned by its owner and sold at auction. It is still laid up at the old Gulf Oil pier in Wright's Cove (Lower Burnside).
In June 2013 it was announced that CAI Logistics had the contract to tow the ship to Mexico, but their tug Chaulk Determination (ex Commdore Strait, ex Haida Brave - built at Halifax Shipyard in 1966) had engine trouble and eventually sank at its berth in Trois-Rivières. It was abandoned by the owner and raised at great expense with government funds and sent for scrap.

This week it was revealed that Kathryn Spirit's Mexican owners have renounced ownership [I'm not sure how that is done]. They informed Groupe Saint-Pierre, who have been maintaining the ship on their behalf, that they would no longer pay to have pumps running. The mayor of Beauharnois has stated that it is only a matter of time before the ship sinks and its contents of oily waste will spill into the waters of Lac-St-Louis.

With this disaster in the making it is high time governments stop squabbling between themselves and step in and remove the ship. Now that the Seaway is closed for the season and Lac St-Louis likely frozen over, this will not be an easy task.

Kathryn Spirit and Jean-Raymond at the site of the banned scrap yard in Beauharnois.

Alongside Kathryn Spirit, the barge Jean-Raymond has a long and very peculiar history. It needs to be scrapped too.

Construction on the barge started in 1939 at the US Naval Shipyard in Philadelphia. It was finally completed late in 1941 as Catapult Lighter No.1. Intended to launch very large amphibious aircraft (that program was cancelled), then to train pilots, its catapult was unreliable and was instead used for trials. In 1956 the US Navy sold it for scrap but it was instead converted to carry pulpwood from the Bahamas to Jacksonville, FL. as Pulpwood No.1.

When that service ended, it was sold to Canadian owners Reed Maritime and it arrived in Halifax June 24, 1979 in tow of the tug Point Carroll. Renamed Jean-Raymond it was towed out of Halifax by the tug Laval (now Océan Echo II) and went to work carrying pulpwood between Forestville and Quebec City.
It moved on to ownership by Techno-Maritime and McKeil, carrying pulpwood or wood chips between such places as Anticosti Island and Cacouna and Trois-Rivières  among others, and large project cargoes.

 
Finally in 2011 it was again sold for scrap to Groupe Saint-Pierre - this time apparently for keeps and was beached at Beauharnois. It was to be used as a work platform for breaking up Kathryn Spirit, then would be scrapped itself.

Although it is not likely to be a source of much pollution, its removal would have to be part of the program to demolish Kathryn Spirit.

.