The Norwegian frigate ROALD AMUNDSEN arrived this afternoon for a visit to HMC Dockyard. The ship is the second in a class of 5 Fridtjof Nansen class frigates, fitted with Aegis combat systems and built in Spain for service in NATO's permanent Atlantic force. All ships are named for Norwegian explorers.
Although intended for the North Atlantic, the name ship of the class will see service in the EU's Gulf of Aden anti-piracy task force. FRIDTJOF NANSEN will be joining the task force in August.
The third ship in the class, OTTO SVERDUP was delivered last year, and the subsequent ships, HELGE INGSTAD and THOR HEYERDAHL, will be delivered in 2009 and 2010.

TUG TRIALS

The newest Groupe Ocean tug, OCEAN BERTRAND JEANSONNE arrived yesterday morning for trials. The tug was built by Irving Shipbuilding at their East Isle shipyard in Georgetown, PEI and is the fifth in a similar series for Groupe Ocean.

She is a 5,000 bhp ice class fire fighting tug and is a sister to two tugs delivered in 2o06, OCEAN HENRY BAIN and OCEAN RAYMOND LEMAY.

Groupe Ocean is the largest tug operator on the St.Lawrence River, with tugs based in Quebec City, Trois-Rivieres, Sorel, Montreal and Hamilton, Ontario. They also operate a large fleet of marine construction and dredging vessels and provide tug and towing services in the Gulf of St.Lawrence, in the arctic and off Newfoundland. In addition they also have a shipyard at Ile-aux-Coudres, Quebec where they build and repair smaller ships and tugs.

Irving Shipbuilding's East Isle yard has produced a steady stream of tugs, based on a similar design, but with special features depending on the operator's requirements. Once the tugs are ready for service they come to Halifax for trials, including bollard pull tests. These tests, which measure the pulling power of the tug, are part of the performance criteria established by the owners and which the builders are required to meet as part of their contract. The tug's power rating also has to be established for insurance and documentation purposes. The bollard pull tests have to be performed in deep water, and free from interference, and the the corner of pier 22/ pier 23 is an ideal location.

Groupe Ocean is expecting another tug in this class from East Isle, and they are building two smaller tugs at their own shipyard.

NT Dartmouth - now in RED!

Halifax's bunkering tanker NT DARTMOUTH returned to port this evening, sporting her new red and black paint scheme. It certainly is a distinctive change from her familiar green. I was still getting used to the green scheme!

Here is the story:

The tanker was built in 1970 at Collingwood, Ontario as the IMPERIAL DARTMOUTH, for Imperial Oil. At that time Imperial had a large tanker fleet, and this ship was built to replace a series of bunkering barges used in Halifax. Those barges required tugs to move around the harbour and were costly to operate. IMPERIAL DARTMOUTH was intended to work only inside Halifax Harbour, but she had to make the trip from Collingwood- and that was quite an adventure. She left Collingwood on December 2, 1970 and immediately encountered a fierce winter storm in Georgian Bay, during which she lost her anchor and her radio antenna. Repairs were carried out in Sarnia and she went on to Lauzon, Quebec where more repairs were carried out and some finishing work.

She was then towed to Halifax by the tug FOUNDATION VALOUR, finally arriving December 23 through more storms and with an icebreaker escort through the Gulf of St.Lawrence.

Since that time she has rarely left the confines of Halifax harbour. Twice she did go out to sea to refuel an attempted transatlantic speed record crossing. I know that in 1994 she was towed to Liverpool for drydocking.

Another adventure was during Hurrican Juan in September 2003 when she was moved to the Fairview Cove container terminal to shelter from the wind. However she was showered with debris, including some containers or parts of containers. A large gas station style illuminated "Esso" sign that she carried on her deck was swept overboard, never to be seen again.

In 2006, after Imperial Oil sold all its other tankers to Algoma, they sold IMPERIAL DARTMOUTH to Northern Transportation Ltd of Hay River, and she became NT DARTMOUTH. Her blue hull became green at that time, replacing the traditional Imperial Oil blue.

Northern Transportation Ltd was founded in 1934 and is now owned by the Unuvialuit of the western Arctic and the Inuit of Nunavuk. They specialize in Mackenzie River navigation but also operate tugs and supply vessels on this coast, mostly out of St.John's.

NT DARMOUTH has been away for the better part of a week, so I assume she went to Lunenburg for this refit and repainting, making the trip on her own, possibly the first time she has made such a trip (other than the two refueling at sea operations for the speed records.)

Rigs and More Rigs

May 25

SEAJACKS KRAKEN returned to port this morning for trials in the harbour. The new liftboat left port on Friday ostensibly for Sable Island, but apparently spent most of the weekend close to Halifax, with the launch CAPTAIN JIM shuttling technicians and others back and forth to town.

As a brand new, and untried vessel, she must be working out the bugs before she can work at Deep Panuke. Her work is associated with ROWAN GORILLA III and the development of the Deep Panuke gas field, so here they are both together again.

More bad news
Thanks to Armchair Captain for giving the heads up on Melfi Line's decision to skip Halifax. The Cuban line is the successor to Coral and other lines that have served Cuba from Canada over the years. It is essentially a Cuban owned container line, but it also carries other types of cargo.
Over the years they have loaded innumerable used trucks, busses and other vehicles for Cuba (but most of these have orginated in Quebec.)
The last ship to call will be MELFI IBERIA June 11- June 12. After that date, the ships will sail from Montreal direct to Cuba.
Agents for Melfi are Protos Shipping Ltd.

BAD NEWS

As the Halifax Chronicle Herald Reported on Friday, Pearl Mist Cruises have cancelled the rest of the 2009 season for their ship PEARL MIST, built by Halifax Shipyards. The much delayed ship, and the US economy (where cruise companies are struggling) are both factors in this bad news.

The ship left Halifax Friday, despite reported deficiencies, and possibly still incomplete.

The photo shows her returning from one of her sea trials trips.

I hope we will see her next year when she is scheduled (for now) on a series of east coast and Great Lakes tours.

Seajacks Kraken

The liftboat SEAJACKS KRAKEN sailed on Friday May 22 to work on the Deep Panuke gas field off Sable Island. The veesel made a trials trip earlier in the week (she is brand new.)

She is seen here with the tugs ATLANTIC OAK and ATLANTIC SPRUCE assisting with steering.