Bring Back the Crow

 

With the current trade uncertainty due to tariffs on southbound Canadian crops and those headed to China, Shipfax takes a look back and offers a recommendation to both alleviate the pain for Canadian farmers and to make use of an underutilized asset of the Port of Halifax.

In 1897 the Canadian Government subsidized extension of the Canadian Pacific Railway from Southern Alberta to British Columbia using a route through the mountainous terrain by way of the Crow's Nest Pass. By artificially lowering the freight rates to transport grain to eastern ports by matching the rate through the Crow's Nest Pass, the government also promoted growth of industry in eastern Canada at the expense of western development. The program, known as the Crow Rate, was very unpopular in western Canada due to a perceived bias against western interests (what's new), and was eventually repealed in 1992. Grain exports through Halifax dropped away to near nil as a result. A new Western Grain Transportation Act was introduced in 1993 and promoted grain shipments southward by rail and by the Mississippi River system.

The backlogs to load grain at Vancouver was not improved despite government grain car programs. The railroads then discovered winter as a new excuse for slow westward grain movement.

Present day politicians (in election mode) are now funding renovation of the Port of Churchill, Manitoba, to ship more prairie grain via Hudson Bay to Europe, the Middle East and Africa. While that redevelopment may make sense on paper, it is just a way to pour more money down the throat of a white elephant that has failed to live up to its promise since the1930s. (Construction of the Port started in the early 1900s, was delayed by World War I, and the Great Depression, finally opening for business in 1931. It was also shut down during World War II and from 2016 to 2019 due to rail line washout.) Now privately owned, the port and rail line, apparently cannot fund its own maintenance.

Why spend tax payers' money on a port with shallow water, a short ice free navigation season of only four months or so (even with global warming and an open Northwest Passage it will still be only seasonal) and a rail line built on melting muskeg (global warming cuts both ways) when the Port of Halifax is the very opposite?  With deep water, ice free and a stable rail line (the Isthmus of Chignecto can be reinforced for a competitive cost) the Port of Halifax is all that Churchill is not. Not only that but Halifax has a huge grain elevator and grain handling facilities that are seriously underused.

 

The 365 silos in the Port of Halifax grain elevator can hold 5,152,000 bushels of grain and can load out 50,000 bushels per hour. The installation is a Halifax landmark.

 Shipfax is calling for a competitive rail system to move grain from the prairies to Halifax. The two so-called Canadian railways need to be reminded that they owe their existance to the Canadian government's largesse and promotion. Both have huge networks into the US, but should now be directing traffic, tariff free, through Halifax and on to the rest of the world.

 The grain importing facility at Pier 25-26 consists of a "grain leg" that can offload 500 tonnes per hour from ships. A bucket loop contraption, it is rarely used anymore as grain now arrives, usually from the Lakehead,  on self-unloaders. Most of that inbound grain is for local consumption.

 

The Nanticoke used the grain leg until a hopper was built to allow it to self-unload.

 

The hopper can receive 1,000 tonnes per hour from self-unloading ships, such as the Nanticoke (built in 1980, but since retired and scrapped in 2020 after ten years mostly carrying salt and re-named Salarium).

 Grain exporting galleries are now located at Pier 28, but once extended out from Pier 25 to the end of Pier 26, and presumably could be expanded again if the basin between piers A and A-1 is filled in.

In 1970 Elder Dempster's Dunkwa could load grain from spouts at pier 24 and, as shown, at Pier 26, but that section of the gallery was removed in the mid-1970s when the Pier 28 gallery was built.

Despite the look of the three-master Star of the Pacific , this photo was not taken in the age of sail, but also in 1970, showing a bit of the old grain export gallery at Pier 23 (right side of photo) and the old maze of conveyor systems. Who knew?
 

 The "new" export gallery at Pier 28 dates from the mid-1970s:

 An April Fool's Day event in ice-free Halifax harbour in 1987. Broken ice from the Gulf of St.Lawrence drifted down the coast and, driven by wind and tide, flowed into Halifax choking the harbour for a few days. The bulker Common Venture was loading grain at Pier 28, and suspended operations for a time. The event has not been repeated on subsequent April Firsts.

Nowadays the Pier 28 facility remains idle for months at a time, with only the occasional load of soy or wood pellets passing through the huge facility. It could be put to much more use if there were a present day equivalent subsidy or incentive, such as the infamous Crow Rate.

That's enough April 1 crowing. (Yes the gist of the above was inspired by April 1.)

 

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End of the Road for Salarium

 The bulker Salarium has reached Aliaga, Turkey today on the end of a tow line and will soon be reduced to scrap. Renamed Sal for the trip across the Atlantic, the ship left Montreal October 27 in tow of the tug/supplier Thor I.

Emerging from drydock at Halifax Shipyard, with a fresh coat of paint, the ship's unusual bulbpous bow is fully exposed.

 The ship was a periodic caller in Halifax from the time it was built in 1980 as Nanticoke until 2009 when it took on a charter to carry salt and became Salarium. It then stopped carrying grain, and its visits here were less frequent.

Unloading grain the old fashioned way, using the grain leg.There is now a hopper arrangement that allows self-unloaders to use their own equipment.

Salarium made its last visit in November 2019. It was laid up in December 2019, and aside from one last non-revenue trip from Toronto to Montreal earlier this year. Its last paying cargo was the load of gypsum out of Halifax for Hamilton, ON.

 The ship's last load out of Halifax, and its last cargo, was taken on at Natkional Gypsum, just over a year ago.

Although thoroughly modern when built, The ship was replaced by the Trillium class ships which have greater carrying capacity and are more efficient . Salarium was among the dwindling number of Canadian built merchant ships.

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Salarium to the scrappers

 A ship with a long connection to Halifax has been retired and designated for scrap.

Built in 1980 as Nanticoke the ship was among Canada Steamship Line's "salty lakers". These were ships of maximum size for the St.Lawrence Seaway, but also designed to make short forays into ocean waters. A self-unloading bulk carrier, it had a maximum capacity of 35,100 tons.

Nanticoke was built by Canadian Shipbuilding + Engineering at Collingwood, ON, and measured  21,870 grt, 35,686 dwt. It brought grain to Halifax from the Lakes, and usually loaded gypsum as a backhaul.

In the first years the Halifax grain elevator did not have a way for self-unloaders to unload. The grain leg was used until a hopper could be added to the unloading tower.

In 1997 the ship participated with two of its CSL fleet mates in a very unusual operation. The ships were fitted with special unloading gear to carry a heavy aggregate called magnetite from the quarry in Newfoundland to the offshore location of the Hibernia oil field. There the ships discharged the material, as a slurry, into the Hibernia gravity base, ballasting it down to its permanent location. The ships were fitted out in Dartmouth and returned to Dartmouth to have the gear removed.

Temporary unloading gear was mounted on the ship's bow.

In 2009 Nanticoke entered into a long term charter arrangement with the operators of the Magdalen Islands salt mines. It then took the distinctive name Salarium. In ancient times salt was used as currency, and a payment in salt was termed "salarium", from which our present day word salary is derived. By that time CSL's self-unloading bulk carriers in domestic service were repainted in CSL's traditional red. (Self-unloaders had previously been painted black, which was thought to be more serviceable because of the amount of coal they carried.)

As Salarium the ship then spent most of its time carrying salt to ports in the Great Lakes / St.Lawrence, but occasionally ranging as far as Saint John, NB. It still carried gypsum or other cargo from time to time as a backhaul, but its grain carrying days were over. 

Salt is a notoriously destructive cargo, and despite maintenance it will take a toll on metal. And so eventually time caught up with Salarium. In December 2019 it was laid up in Toronto for the last time. In April if 2020 it was moved to Montreal but did not re-enter service.

Salarium taking its last load of gypsum at National Gypsum's dock in Bedford Basin.

On October 15, 2020 the ship was due to leave Montreal for the last time in tow of the tug Thor 1 for Turkey where it was to be broken up. Interestingly the tug has a Canadian and Halifax connection - as it is the former Maersk Challenger.

However Transport Canada's ship safety inspectors denied clearance for the ship to go to sea. It is thought that corrosion was so severe that the ship might break up at sea. Perhaps the inspectors recall some previous incidents where ships in tow for the scrappers have been lost or run aground with huge costs to scrap in place.

Some sort of repair has apparently been made to allow the ship to go and it is now scheduled to depart Montreal in tow on October 27.

For more photos and history of the ship see: http://shipfax.blogspot.com/2019/01/ringing-in-new-year.html

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It was a quiet week...

As Garrison Keillor used to say every week on the Prairie Home Companion (NPR Radio in the USA)- It was a quiet week in Lake Wobegon.
Halifax harbour somewhat resembled Lake Wobegon this past week. There was the usual traffic of regular callers, but nothing too much to catch the eye. Some different tugs (see Tugfax) but that was about it.
In cases such as this it is time to dip into the shoebox for some older things. I have pretty much played out 1986, so skipping ahead a decade, here are some choice images from 1996.

Northern Progress sails in ballast. 

Among the regular winter and spring callers were the ships of Alcan Aluminum (now Rio-TintoAlcan). These were ice class ships, that ran year round to Port Alfred (now La Baie). They made frequent stops in Halifax for ice advisers and bunkers to and from their loading ports in Jamaica or Brazil.
Northern Progress was purpose and built in 1989 by Nippon Kokan KK in Tsu, along with sister Northern Venture and  measured 21,69 grt, 36,445 dwt. They sailed under the Bermuda flag until January 2002 when both were drydocked and renamed in Halifax upon sale to Fednav. They became Federal Progress and Federal Venture under the Hong Kong flag and continued in the alumina trade, but no longer exclusive to Alcan. They extended their range to Camsar, Guinea.
In March 2013 the pair were sold to Greek owners and renamed Progress and Adventure in Montreal.
They did not last long under those names. In July 2014 Progress arrived in Gadani Beach and was broken up starting July 26. Adventure followed and was broken up starting September 3.

When cruise ships were more often converted passenger liners, they really looked like ships.

IslandBreeze started out life in 1961at the John Brown + Co shipyard in Clydebank as RMS (Royal Mail Ship) Transvaal Castle for the Union-Castle Line. One of the last of world's truly great liners, it operated at 22.5 knots powered by steam turbines delivering 44,000 shp to twin screws. It was also one class, operating more like a hotel, the only (passenger) ship in the fleet that did not have first class accommodation.

It became S.A.Vaal in 1966 under Safmarine ownership, but continued running from Southampton to Durban via Capetown until September 1977 when it was the last of the line to follow that route, sailing from Southampton, returning October 10.  Passenger ships like her were hit by increasing air travel for passengers and mail, but also the loss of cargo to containers. Her 11 1/2 day run to South Africa was no match for a 12 hour plane ride.

Carnival Cruises bought the ship, renamd it Festivale and carried out a reconfiguration at Kawaski HI that nearly doubled passenger capacity from 728 to 1432, by fitting decks in the cargo holds and adding superstructure. Fortunately these did not utterly spoil the ship's handsome profile.

As new ships were brought in Carnival sold it off to Dolphin Cruise Line in 1996. Renamed IslandBreeze [one word, but with a capital B in the middle] it was chartered to Thomson Cruises and called in Halifax twenty times (one more was cancelled due to weather) in 1996 only, including the infamous Titanic cruise. On that occasion scores of Titanic buffs and three actual survivors (one at age 102) observed the recovery of a 10 tonne hunk of hull plate by flotation bagfrom the recently located wreck.

The ship was sold again in 1998, this time to Premier Cruise Line and renamed The Big Red Boat III . After suffering that indignity for two years, Premier went broke and the ship was laid up until 2003. It was finally renamed The Big Boat for the trip to the scrappers, arriving Alang, India July 9, 2003. 

 Nanticoke self-unloads a grain cargo at pier 25. Ships from the lakes usually work all night to discharge.

Built in 1980 by Collingwood Shipyard, the ship was one of  the new breed of Lakers that could also go to sea. It was originally to be called Gleneagles, after a previous CSLer, but became Nanticoke to recognize the port on Lake Erie that was, at the time, a major destination for coal and iron ore. 

The ship often called in Halifax with grain and loaded gypsum for the return trip to the Great Lakes.  As a self-unloader, it discharged directly into a hopper and its cargo was transferred by conveyor to the grain elevator. 

In May 1997  it was one of the three CSLers converted in Dartmouth to carry magnetite for ballasting the Hibernia gravity base off Newfoundland.

In March 209 it was renamed Salarium when it took up a long term charter to carry salt from the les Mines Salines in the Magdalen Islands. It is still doing that work, but is probably soon due for replacement.

 CCGS Parizeau looks quite smart as it sails out on another research trip.

The ship's red paint was barely dry, having been applied in September 1996, covering its previously white hull. The s 1328 grt survey ship was built in 1967 by Burrard Dry Dock in North Vancouver and transferred to the east coast in 1992. It was laid up in 2000 at BIO, renamed 2001-04 and eventually posted for sale.

In late 2003 it was sold, but it was not until 2005 that the new name Destiny Empress was scrawled on its hull. It remained under Canadian registry and sailed for Shelburne and then headed south, only to return after engine trouble near Bermuda. It eventually made its way south again and was resold perhaps more than once. 

On December 22, 2009 it was seized off the Spanish coast carrying a tonne of cocaine and its crew of seven (including one Canadian) were arrested, along with 16 people on shore. The ship was sold for scrap and arrived in Aliaga, Turkey July 19, 2011.

So many ex Canadian government ships have been implicated in drug smuggling, one wonders how the government can justify the paltry returns it gets from surplus sales. Many of the ships were fit only for scrap anyway, so there was really no need to go to all the trouble of selling them.

Halifax Shipyard was busy cranking out coastal defence vessels in 1996. Shawinigan was preparing to launch in November.

The major shipbuilding program by Irving Shipbuilding Inc delivered 12 ships over the span of three years. All were stern launched in the traditional manner, with only one launching ship itself ahead of time!  The MCMDVs continue to serve the RCN, in a variety of roles. HMCS Kingston has just returned from the Caribbean from drug patrol work.

In the background of the photo is HMCS Endeavour AGOR 171. The survey ship was transferred to Halifax in 1995, and was finally decommissioned in 1999 (after being decommissioned for a time in 1998 and 1999). It left Halifax in October 2001, classed as a yacht. It was last seen in Green Cove Springs, Florida in 2002 where a planned luxury yacht conversion had stalled. 

Veendam sails under a glowering sky. The black clouds overhead compliment the ship's black hull. In the background the tanker Irving Eskimo unloads at Irving Oil's Woodside terminal, which after many years of inactivity, has been re-opened in 2016.

Veendam was brand new in 1996, delivered by the Fincanitieri yard in Venice, and is still sailing, although much modified. Two passenger decks were added in the stern during a 2009 refit. It had another refit in 2012, but had serious engine problems in 2014 and was forced to cancel cruises for a three week drydocking.
For several years it was paired with twin sister ship Maasdam as regular Halifax callers. This year Maasdam was replaced by Rotterdam, but Veendam made twenty during the 2016 cruise season, including the inaugural cruise ship call April 30 .

The cable ship Sir Eric Sharp sails on a repair job.

The ship was named for the Chairman and Chief Executive of Cable + Wireless plc from 1980 to 1990, Sir Eric Sharp, later Eric Sharp, Baron of Grimsdyke (b.1916-d.1994). He oversaw the re-privatization of the company which had been nationalized in 1947 and placed under the control of the (British) Post Office. The ship was built in 1989 by Swan Hunter, Wallsend, a company with several Halifax connections, most notably as builder CSS Acadia, the flag ship of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.

Cable and Wireless reconfigured itself many times over after 1990, but the ship was acquired in 2005 by IT International Telecom, the Canadian communications operator. Renamed IT Intrepid and placed under Barbados flag, it continues to carry out cable work, primarily in eastern North America, often working from Halifax.

I pictured it in this blog on October 6 when it arrived for a refit at pier 9. With that work nearly done, the ship is due to sail this week to repair a cable break on the St.Lawrence River between Pointe-à-Santerre and Forestville.

Aside from the twin stacks, it is very much in the traditional style of cable ships

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Salarium sails - finally!

The bulk carrier Salarium finally sailed this afternoon after countless delays stretching over a period of weeks. The big CSLer, formerly Nanticoke is headed for the Magdalen Islands to resume her salt carrying contract after completing a refit.
The ship was finally ballasted down on Sunday, but departure times were cancelled yesterday and today. Even the 1600 sailing was delayed when the pilot boarded and had to order a tug. Atlantic Oak stayed with the ship on a stern line until she was down harbour. The tug was certainly necessary to get the ship out of her tight space at pier 9A, but apparently had not been ordered in advance.

Salarium out of drydock

1. Salarium emerges from drydock with fresh new paint.

2. At 22 years of age, the ship shows a few signs of hard knocks received over the years.

3. In 1997 the ship was fitted with special gear to ballast the Hibernia gravity base.

4. In its first year of service, the ship unloads grain at pier 26. Since then the port has installed a hopper, allowing the ship to use its own self-unloading gear. The old grain leg was much slower and is rarely used anymore.

The self-unloading bulk carrier Salarium left the Novadock floating drydock this morning - not under its own power, but with the tugs Atlantic Oak and Atlantic Larch in control. The ship was then berthed at Pier 9A to continue its refit.

Built in 1980 By Collingwood Shipyard, the ship was originally to have been called "Gleneagles" a traditional name for Canada Steamship Lines, but that was changed to Nanticoke in recognition of CSL's customer the Steel Company of Canada (Stelco). They had just built a new steel mill in Nanticoke, ON and the ship was expected to deliver cargoes of coal and iron ore to the mill.

Built as a maximum size for the St.Lawrence Seaway, it was also built to go to sea, with restricted voyages along the Atlantic seaboard.

It started to do these from the start, often arriving in Halifax with grain and loading gypsum for the return trip.

Originally the ship was painted with a black hull, the usual hull colour for CSL self-unloaders, which carried a lot of coal. The black paint was better at concealing the inevitable residues of those cargoes than CSL's distinctive red hull colour.

In 1997 Nanticoke and fleet mates Atlantic Huron and Atlantic Erie were temporarily modified for a special project. The work took place in Dartmouth at the IEL dock adjacent to the Woodside ferry terminal. The ships were fitted with pumps and bow un-loading gear so that they could be used to fill the gravity base of the Hibernia oil field's offshore production centre.

The huge structure was towed out to sea and once in position the three ships pumped a slurry of magnetite (a heavy ore) into the gravity base's cells, to gradually sink it in place. The extremely abrasive magnetite tore the pumps and pipes to shreds, but it was a one time project. Once completed the ships returned to Halifax where the gear was all removed and the ships returned to their normal lives.

Shortly after CSL began repainting their self-unloaders in red and in 1998 Nanticoke acquired the CSL colour which it has kept ever since.

In 2009 CSL signed a long term charter for the ship to carry salt form the Mines saleines in the Magdalen Islands and the ship was renamed Salarium, replacing the Saunière, which went for scrap. [The Latin world salarium meant a form of payment using salt as the currency, and it is from that word that our present day English word salary derives.]

Carrying salt is not necessarily a full time trade for the ship, so it is able to back haul other cargoes from time to time, but the salt must be stockpiled in advance for use on winter roads.

Salt can be a very destructive cargo for the ship's steel structure, and extra maintenance is usually required to keep the ship in condition. At 22* years of age the ship can expect a few more good years before the salt really takes its toll. [*=typo - should be 32 - thanks for the correction notices!]

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Salt for grain for gypsum

1. Salarium completes unloading a grain cargo at pier 26, September 7.

2. Loaded to Seaway draft with gypsum, the ship sails out through the Narrows this morning.

3. Rust streaks around the ship's unloading gear show the damage caused by salt. The Mines Seleine logo has been superimposed on the CSL funnel.

The CSL self-unloader Salarium brought in a load of grain this week, and unloaded at pier 26. Last evening it moved to National Gypsum and sailed this morning for Côte Ste-Catherine, QC. Due to St.Lawrence Seaway draft restrictions of just over 26 feet, this was not a full load for the ship.

Salarium was built in 1980 as Nanticoke, even though its intended name was to be Gleneagles, a traditional CSL one. It was named instead for the new steel mill at Nanticoke, ON, which the ship would service. Built in Collingwood, ON, it is similar to other ships of its type, able to make coastal ocean voyages, but is smaller in tonnage than the Atlantic Erie and Atlantic Superior and Atlantic Huron.

In 2009 it was placed on a long term charter to Mines Seleines (part of Windsor Salt) to carry salt from the Magdalen Islands to Great Lakes and east coast ports, and renamed Salarium. It replaced Algoma's Saunière, which had finally succumbed to the ravages of salt exposure and has since been scrapped. The charter does not preclude the ship from carrying other cargoes, if it can keep up with the demand for salt.

As an older ship, with the prospect of severe service ahead, and the impossibility of protecting it from its salty cargoes, it is fair to wonder how long the ship can be expected to last. It is certainly a pretty hard looking case now.