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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Nirint Zeelandia - hurry up and wait

1. Nirint Zeelandia idles off Bishop's Landing waiting for her berth to clear. Her anchor hawse pipes are being lubricated by sea water to keep elminate sparks (and wash dirt and rust from the chain) in case she needs to anchor.

2. Saudi Tabuk finally gets away and makes a run for the horizon.

It is hard to believe that Halifax has a shortage of berthing space, but that is the case, as only one open pier remains for ships with continaers not berthing at either of the container terminals. Specific piers are dedicated to other uses, and there are no other container handling cranes, and thus a lot of activity surrounds pier 31.

Today it was the Saudi Tabuk which arrived at the crack of dawn (in a raging snow storm) and was supposedly finished work at noon, with the Nirint Zeelandia due to tie up as soon as the Saudi had sailed.

In the meantime however there was a tanker and an autocarrier due at other berths and the tugs were quite busy with them, and the pilots were also kept hopping form one ship to the other. It was very windy, and altough the snow melted quickly, most harbour activity was slow.

Cargo work on the Saudi Tabuk was indeed competed at noon however, but it was not until 1630 that tugs and pilots could all be arranged to sail the ship. Then, with pilot aboard, and tugs alongside someone decided that there was more cargo to go on the Saudi! All this took an hour or more and so the Nirint Zeelandia stood by in the harbour ready to anchor again if need be. She could not go to any other pier since all her cargo was for pier 31, the only pier set up to take it.

Finally the Saudi got away about 1800 and the Nirint Zeelandia moved in.

Nirint Zeelandia is one of those odd ships registered in Switzerland. Operated by Enzian Shipmanagement of Zurich, it is on charter to Nirint, a Dutch company, running from Europe to Cuba and transhipping to the Caribbean. See http://www.nirint.ca/

Saudi Tabuk is operated the National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia -a crown corporation in the true meaning of the term. http://www.nscsa.com/

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Angelika for Eimskip

1. Angelika nears Halterm, with the tug Atlantic Oak nudged up to the starboard quarter. Note the hull sponsons, built out to give the ship the correct width to carry a full deck load of containers.

The German owned Angelika registered in Antigua and Barbuda arrived today for the Icelandic operators Eimskip.

Owned by Intersee Shiffs of Haren (Ems) Germany, it is one of nearly sixty ships in the fleet, most with women's names, ending in "a".

This one is a versatile multi-purpose vessel, built in 2004 and measuring 7769 gross tons, 10,500 deadweight. It is fitted with two 80 tonne cranes and can carry a wide variety of bulk and general cargoes or up to 675 TEU (only 421 loaded). Chief attraction for Eimskip with this ship would be the 60 reefer plugs, since much of Eimskip's export cargo is frozen fish.

See http://www.intersee.de/

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Cpl Kaeble VC - quick work at Halifax Shipyard [updated]

Update Saturday April 7 - now in red and white.

1. The raw hull sits outside the module shop early this afternoon.

2. By late afternoon the hull has been prime coated.

The second in the series of offshore patrol vessels saw the light of day for the first time when it was rolled out of the Halifax Shipyard Module Shop for painting.

After abrasive work this morning the hull had been prime painted by quiting time this afternoon.

Cpl Kaeble VC will be rolled back inside once painting has been completed, probably by the end of this weekend.

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Pvt Robertson VC - wrapped

The patrol vessel Pvt. Robertson VC has been completely wrapped in tarps at Halifax Shipyard. I believe this is anticipation of the roll out of the second vessel in the series, Cpl Kaeble VC which will be happening very soon.

The Robertson was painted outdoors and rolled back inside for more work. If the Kaeble is to follow the same routine, then this wrapping job is to keep the Robertson from being spattered with overspray.

The Robertson is apparently not going to be launched until it is virtually complete.

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Scotia Prince - end of the line

The ferry that once linked Yarmouth, NS with Portland, ME has been sold to shipbreakers in India. Scotia Prince provided an overnight cruise/ferry experience and competed with the shorter sea route Yarmouth/Bar Harbor, ME provided by the ferry Bluenose and later fast Cats.
1. Scotia Prince arrives in Halifax in April 1987 to prepare for a trade mission to Boston.

2. In April 1983 Scotia Prince (at left) is tied up at pier 6 Halifax Shipyards for refit. Meanwhile the newly renamed Bluenose is in the Graving Dock fitting out for its first season under that name. On the hull the word "Blue" has not yet been painted on.

Scotia Prince was built as Stena Olympia in 1971 in Brodo, Yugoslavia and could carry 1100 passengers (886 berths). It became Scotia Prince in 1982. It was lengthened in 1986-87 increasing passenger capacity to 178 cabin, 1078 berth and 446 deck passengers.

The ferry was withdrawn at the end of the 2004 season in a dispute with the Port of Portland. Although the Cat ferry tried to cover the route, it was not as successful. In the end the Cat ferry was also removed from service and so today there is no Nova Scotia/ US ferry service at all - a major blow to western Nova Scotia tourism.

The ship sometimes found winter work after the close of the summer tourist season. It ran for a time from Tampa FL to Progreso MX and later Tampa to Yucatan.

In 2005-2006 it provided emergency accommodation in New Orleans then worked in the Mediterranean. In 2011 it was sold to operate between Sri Lanka and India but was diverted on its delivery trip to evacuate 1200 Sri Lankan nationals from Libya.

After about a year in its duty free shopping excursion role between Tuticorin and Colombo the ship was laid up and has now been sold.

It was a similar ship to its competitor Bluenose ex Jutlandica, ex Stena Jutlandica, built in 1973 in Trogir, Yugoslavia. Bluenose was a smaller ship and did not need as many passenger cabins. It operated from 1993 to 1997 and was old for further service, also in the Mediterranean and scrapped in India in December 2010.

Provo Wallis - here we go again

1. CCGS Provo Wallis returns to Halifax with a deck load of buoys.

For the third time this year the vessel 2011-02 ex CCGS Provo Wallis is for sale. The 1969 built buoy tender was put up for bids late last year and in January a bid of $406,000 was received, but fell through. In February another bid of $425,000 was accepted but it now has also fallen through. Yesterday the ship was put up for bids again, with a closing date of April 20, and a minimum bid of $350,000 is required.

I received a fair amount of flack for my comments (and rant) the last time around, so I won't add much now, except that it's too bad that a good ship is allowed to deteriorate until becomes an expensive liability.

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