Ambassador takes another load of gypsum

Things must be picking up a bit at National Gypsum with two ships in a week. Ambassador arrived late Sunday night and sailed this morning for Burlington, NJ. The ship was built in 1983 at Port Weller Dry Dock as Canadian Ambassador and the full name still appears on the ship's hull in welded letters.
It has not carried that name since 1986 however, because in that year it was flagged out to Vanuatu when it left the Upper Lakes Shipping domestic fleet for Marbulk.
Aside from a brief interlude from April to December 2000 when it was renamed Algosea and reflagged Canadian, it has been foreign flagged ever since.

 1. Ambassador has passed under the A. Murray MacKay bridge and is southbound in the Narrows off pier 9B, bound for sea.

2. The ship's previous name still appears on the hull, but there is little likelihood that it will ever be used again.

Upper Lakes Shipping sold its share of Marbulk in 2000 and has now exited shipping altogether, selling out to Algoma. Its ships which had the prefix "Canadian" have now been renamed. Algoma has been a co-owner of Marbulk since 1997 but are not likely to bring this older ship back to Canada, so the "Canadian" prefix is history. The ship operates within the CSL self-unloader pool.

Ambassador has appeared on this blog before - see previous posts for more info.

Knock Sheen -a comparison

The fully loaded crude oil tanker Knock Sheen arrived this afternoon. It provides an interesting contrast to the tanker Godavari Spirit that arrived in ballast last week for bunkers (see below)

1. Knock Sheen creeps in past Meagher's Beach with escort tug Atlantic Oak on a stern line. Its extreme breadth is 157 ft (48m)

2. At 898 ft (274m) long it dwarfs other boats. If fully loaded it would draw 52'-6" (16m).

Knock Sheen was built by Daewoo Heavy Industries in Koje, South Korea in 1998 as Astro Canopus. It was acquired by present owners and renamed in 2006. Knock Tankers Ltd, Oslo, Norway is one of the companies in the First Olsen Group, which includes Fred Olsen Lines, owners of the cruise ship Balmoral that visited in April. Despite its Norwegian ownrship it is registered in Singapore.
The ship is a double hulled tanker of 79,714 gross tons and 159,899 deadweight. Its dimensions are 274m x 48m x 23.2 depth, 16m draft.
This compares to Godavari Spirt, built by Hyundai Heavy Industries of Ulsan, South Korea, with dimensions of 274m x 48m x 23.1m depth, 16m draft. It is 81,074 gross, 159,106 deadweight.
Both are considered to be Suezmax types.

Atlantic Huron - back on the job

The crew clears dust from the ship's deck as it leaves Bedford Basin bound for Montreal.

The CSL self unloader Atlantic Huron made a quick turn around in Halifax this weekend. The ship arrived Friday morning with a load of grains from Thunder Bay and completed unloading last evening. It then shifted to National Gypsum where it took on a cargo for Montreal and sailed this afternoon.

This has been a regular routine for the ship for several years. The grain is for domestic use in milling and animal feed and the gypsum will be used in the production of building products.

Built in 1984 by Canadian Shipbuilding & Engineering Ltd in Collingwood, ON, as a gearless bulker called Prairie Harvest, it was converted to self-unloader at Port Weller Dry Dock in 1989 and became Atlantic Huron. From 1994 to 1997 it carried the name Melvin H. Baker II while on contract with National Gypsum, running out of their Dartmouth facility. It was also flagged out to the Bahamas from 1990 to 1992. It returned to its current name in 1997

Then in 2002 it went to the Port Weller Dry Dock again for rebuilding of its cargo section to take advantage of new Seaway regulations which allowed slightly wider ships. The widening (which can be seen on the hull where it steps out below the main deck) increased its carrying capacity by more than 2,000 tonnes.

Caribbean Princess - early start

Caribbean Princess heading in for pier 22. The container ship Marwan is anchored outside the harbour, well beyond the Meagher's Beach lighthouse.

Caribbean Princess arrived early this morning - too early for most of the passengers by the look of it - I could only spot two deck. The ship carries more than 3,000, and some of them did stir once the ship was berthed by 0700.

The ship took as slightly different course into pier 22. To allow room to pass the outbound Ocean Sanderling, she kept to the east of the channel, and so had to make more turn to come alongside pier 22.

Private Robertson VC, one step closer to launch

The new CCGS Private Robertson VC is one step closer to launch today as the ship was rotated on the turntable to align with the launch way.
The boat's sleek lines show off much better from this angle than from the previously published stern shots. The shelter forward of the bridge is temporary!

Blue Puttees in the drydock

The second of the new Marine Atlantic Inc ferries arrived this morning and entered the Novadock at Halifax Shipyard. Built in 2006 as Stena Trader, it was the first of the Seabridger class vessels acquired by MAI. It was shortened and had additional passenger capacity added to suit it for the North Sydney-Port aux Basques route.
It entered service in March 2011, as Blue Puttees a few months before sister ship Highlanders which completed its drydocking on Monday.
Once the Blue Puttees comes out of drydock in a few weeks, it will return to service allowing fleet mate Atlantic Vision to start the North Sydney to Argentia seasonal service.

AFL New England - paper does some homework-but more to do

1. AFL New England - not stranded but detained.

Following my mini rant the other day, a local newspaper did some more homework and spoke to both the International Transport Workers Federation inspector and the Mission to Seafarers (as I suggested) and confirmed that the crew had been paid.
Nevertheless the paper insists on using the word stranded. Well you can't win 'em all.
However there is more homework that I might suggest. I hear that there are maritime liens against the ship placed by a crown agency and a pier operator. This means that the ship is effectively detained in Halifax until the liens are lifted. They could be lifted by paying outstanding bills or posting a bond to cover eventual settlement.
This sounds to me as if the operators (but not the ship's owners) have not been paying their bills, and the only recourse by debtors is to lien the ship. So the question remains, what is the status of American Feeder Lines? Are they in creditor protection, bankrupt or what? Do they owe money to others as well. If so, that would useful information in the Business section of a newspaper.
This could turn nasty for all if the operators turn out to have shallow pockets and no assets. The ship might get caught in the middle.