In The Spirit of the Day, I present this link to the Top 10 Ghost Ships. The List includes Some well known stories, as well as the Story of the Young Teazer, which was an American Privateer Schooner preying on sea trade of the British Empire off the coast of Halifax. She met he end in Mahone Bay.
For More on the Young Teazer See:
In shallow waters: The final resting place of the Young Teazer
and
Wikipedia
With Atlantic Compass entering the Narrows outbound, OOCL Antwerp and Oakland Express Had to wait in the inner harbour for her to pass. Large vessels are restricted one direction at a time due to the Narrow passage to avoid collisions. (This rule came into effect as a result of the 1916 Halifax Explosion)
At Anchor, Bedford Basin
Tanker barges are a common sight in US waters but much less common elsewhere. US Crewing regulations require a much larger crew fro a tanker of similar size, However a Tug requires a much smaller crew, and the barge, an even small crew then the tug. LoopHole…
Towing the barge in.
Turning.
Taking the barge up on the hip.
Tieing up at the Dock.
AFL New England and Sichem Beijing Both arrived and went directly to anchor.
Presumably the winds were too high to Tie up.
OOCL Hong Kong, being considerably larger was able to tie up Without Issue.
The ferry Dartmouth III Now Carries AIS. you can now watch her ply the crossing Between Halifax And Woodside. Besides now being visible on our ship tracker, Dartmouth III Will be more visible to incoming and outgoing commercial traffic – a big safety/collision avoidance benefit.
Dartmouth III Went in for periodic Maintenance and inspections Beginning Sept 19.
UPDATE: Looks like all 3 Ferries are getting the upgrade. Ferry Woodside 1 showed up last night on AIS.
The tug Point Vim arrived this evening an tied up at Woodside.
Point Vim was a tug stationed in Halifax for many years at ECtug, and was sold several years ago, and now operates with the same name out of Newfoundland. Her sister Point Vigour, now operates out of Quebec as Molly M1.
She Sailed at 1700 for Bay Bulls NF. It looks as though she delivered so cargo to Woodside.
The Nova Scotia Government Spent $600 thousand dollars on the recent Ships Start Here campaign, with the Irving’s and others spending another $500 thousand. Recent comments by the Defence Minister Peter Mackay, indicate he believes that the Ships Start Here campaign was a waste of money because it did not influence the national ship building procurement strategy bid process. This is true. All parties seem to believe the process was fair, and contracts were awarded on merit, however, perhaps influencing the Decision makers was not the main purpose of the campaign…
Nova Scotia has a long history of shipbuilding. The Halifax Shipyard has existed, in some form, at its present location for over 100 years. Nova Scotia Built the Bluenose, Ships built there were involved in every major conflict of the 20th Century, But in our current times, shipbuilding is viewed as a quaint activity from our past – A sunset industry, in the eyes of the previous Liberal Government.
The ships start here campaign brought to the forefront of every Nova Scotian’s mind that we are maritimers, and we build ships. It didn’t matter if you are a banker in an office tower or a Clerk at a connivence store, the lawn signs, stickers and pins turned us all into shipbuilders, and we all wanted the prize. The Campaign United us all – people who never thought or cared about shipbuilding now wanted to win, and win badly. Not only did Nova Scotian’s Embrace the campaign, but so did people from across the country. Canadians from sea to sea to sea were pulling for us.
In the end Nova Scotia won. We beat the competitors, and came out on top. We beat them fairly and without political influence or meddling. Our product, our people, and our facilities were judged to be the best and most capable. And now the entire province celebrates, United, as we are Are Nova Scotians, and we are Built to Build Ships.
The first ships to be built in Halifax are the 3 Arctic Offshore Vesssels.
As this procurement program was begun several years ago, and Contracts for design work awarded in 2008, Presumably there is a design sitting in an office in Ottawa somewhere. The rendering above Comes from the DND project office, and represents the working design of the vessel.
Requirements (from DND)
Its worth noting that these vessels displace 5780 tonnes compared to the Halifax class frigate’s 4750 t, and at 98m are not much smaller (aprox. 30m). The extra weight is Due to the ice class Hull. The top speed of 17 Knots, is not much faster then the Current MCDV’s top speed of 15. The Mcdv’s slow speed is what planers say make it unsuitable for Coastal Patrol, so these AOPS will likely be limited to the Arctic Area of Operations. For more, See:The Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ship (AOPS) Projectand CASR
Just after 5 pm the winners of the National Shipbuilding procurement strategy were announced.
Halifax Shipyard won the $25 billion Combat Ship contract, and Seaspan in BC won the Non-Combat ship contract.
Irving Shipbuilding gets to build 3 destroyers, 12 frigates and 3 arctic patrol vessels.
SeaSpan Gets the work on 2 support ships a polar icebreaker, and hydrographic survey ship.
The 3 Destroyers Are intended to replace the Current Tribals, It is very likely that these will again be Area Air Defence Destroyers, though there could be a role for a command and control vessel. I would expect these to look very much like Current destroyers being built in Europe, as Canada has invested in the development of many of the newer combat technologies used by Nato countries, but currently lacks a ship that can support them. As well US ITARS (International Trafficking in Arms Regulations) makes using US technology a pain. I would expect these vessels to be built after the Arctic patrol vessels, as the current Tribals are nearing the end of their lives (built in the 1970’s), and one west coast tribal has already be decommissioned.
The 12 frigates will be the last ships built. The current Halifax Class is just beginning there midlife refit, and should have another 15-20 years of life out of them.
The Arctic Patrol vessels are an interesting project. Though various plans have called for armed
icebreakers, I would expect that in the end, these ships will end up as Ice Class Patrol vessels similar to the Danish Knud Rasmussen class patrol vessels. These vessels are a complete warship, with air, anti submarine and surface weapons. A big advantage to a design like this is the small compliment -the Knud Rasmussen class has a maximum crew size of 43 which makes the ships cheaper to operate and easier to staff. These vessels could then also be used in non arctic regions, where the MCDV’s have proven to be too slow. Mac Mackay of Shipfax advocates a tug like vessel, like Icelands Thor – based on a Offshore tug design while this idea has merit, I suspect the navy has limited interest in towing (Coast Guard Job), and such a vessel would simply be too unconventional.
The SeaSpan contract Calls for 4 ships, all of which are needed in fairly short order. The Polar icebreaker is a replacement for the Louis St. Laurent, The Research Vessel is a replacement for the Hudson, and of course the 2 Replenishment ships.
The Replenishment ships have been a pain, as Navy commanders want a ship that can do Everything
– from command and control, Helicopter operations and replenishment at sea. The Command and control requirement should be built into the New Destroyers.. Such a ship would work Very much like the Danish Absalon Class ships. These ships are built for command and control, and are also armed similarly to the current Tribal Destroyers, as well as carrying two helicopters.
With the Command role removed, We should then end up building Something like a British Bay class.
The Bay Class is actually an Amphibious assault ship capable of carrying vehicles, cargo, helicopters and landing craft to deploy them. Canada would make excellent use of a vessel of this type. Now when disaster strikes somewhere in the world (think earthquake in Haiti), we would have a vessel that could transport and land relief supplies to an area, operate a hospital, and not be dependant on outside resources to offer assistance. To Fulfill the replenishment at sea role, Ensure sufficient Space for Aviation Fuel and Bunker fuel for warships – its unlikely such a vessel would need to fulfill both roles simultaneously.
You will note I used 2 Classes of Danish ships in my examples.. why? because they have similar requirements and operating environment to Canada. Im not saying we run out and build danish designs, but we should look at what our allies have, and Design our own to meet our needs.
Congratulations Irving Shipbuilding. Good Job.
