Thanks to Marc Piché 3

I’ll start with a photo I took in Toronto in September.  I could read that it was called Coastal Titan, but I thought it was a floating dry dock confined to Toronto.  Then in October I saw a photo Marc had taken in July downstream of Montreal, showing

… the same Coastal Titan, pushed by what seemed an intriguingly-named but undersized Salvage Monarch.  And it’s not until today that I search the history of this unusual vessel.  Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine it was once a US-flagged heavy lift vessel named John Henry.   Click here for more of the history of this 1978 heavy lift ship and sister–Paul Bunyan–built by Peterson Builders in Sturgeon Bay WI. Coastal Titan is the survivor story here.

I believe Paul Bunyan, then James McHenry,  was scrapped in 2015; for a photo, see page 8 here.

Marc  also caught Eda (ex-Cedarglen) on her way to be scrapped at Aliaga, with Ocean Echo II on stern and

VB Hispania (2011 and Mangalia, Romania) on the bow.

Click here for previous photos by Marc, to whom I’m grateful for these photos that led me to the intriguing story of Coastal Titan.

 

 

Government Boats 52

. .  . starting with Canadian government boats, Coast Guard vessels and CCGS-to-be.  Tor Viking is the Davie Shipyard near Quebec City in Lévis, where she’ll be transformed into CCGS Vincent Massey,  a medium class icebreaker, following the wakes of sister ships into CCGS Molly Kool and CCGS Jean Goodwill.  Another CCGS, Sir Wilfred Grenfell, recently left Labrador for the long trip to British Columbia.

CCGS Sipu Muin has appeared here before with photos from her first pass.  Two days later she flew by even closer, determined to be seen.  That gull off her starboard looks spooked….

 

 

In the distance with the large green dome, that’s Canada’s largest church.

How about a US vessel–USS Indianapolis LCS-17–commissioned in Indiana less than a month ago, here transiting Quebec near the downstream end of the Saint Lawrence Seaway?  Here are my previous photos of LCS models  . . . and others’ photos are here.

And let’s conclude with local sixth boro NYPD marine crew monitoring something

on a red channel marker in the lower portion of the Upper Bay yesterday.

The USS Indianapolis photo comes with permission from Marc Piché, whose photos have appeared here previously.

All other photos by Will Van Dorp, who posted about NYPD boats previously here.

Thanks to Marc Piché 2

Thanks to Marc, I offer this post that could also be called Océan Blue 7.

Arranged chronologically, these photos nicely show the intrusion of ice on the Saint Lawrence.

Starting on October 12, 2017, it would be t-shirt weather on Ocean Duga

taken in port of Sorel-Tracy.  Duga (4000 hp from 2 Wichman 7-cylinder engines) was built in Lansten, Norway in 1977.  Notice laker Tecumseh at the grain dock;  I took photos from the river of Ojibway at that same dock less than a week earlier.

Hercule, taken on November 11, 2017, enjoys autumn warmth here.  Notice the Jamaican flag on her mast just below the conical roof of the silo?  She’s been sold out of the Ocean fleet, but here are all five of her former names, including a stint as a McAllister of Canada vessel.  Here’s more McAllister history.

Ocean Bravo was already scraping some ice on her hull on December 26, 2017.  Built in 1970 right across the river from Quebec City, the 110′ x 28′ tug is powered by 3900 hp.  I photographed her in Trois-Rivieres in October.

Ocean Bertrand Jeansonne is a 5000 hp tug built in PEI for Ocean in 2008.  This photo was

taken the day after Christmas.  Federal Tweed, as of this moment,  is anchored

off Sorel. This jetster photo nicely shows the Richelieu River, the outflow for Lake Champlain.

Ocean Delta is another vessel no longer in the Ocean fleet.  The 136′ 1973 tug is rated at 6464 hp, launched in Ulsteinvik, Norway.  Birk got a photo of her here in 2012.

taken the day after Christmas.  It appears that CCGS Tracy has been converted into a floating office for Ocean Group and renamed Ocean Tracy.  I got a photo of CCGS Tracy when she was for sale in October 2016 here.

On December 30, 2017 Ocean Tundra was heading upstream to help clear the last vessels out of the Seaway before it closed.  Recall the assistance Federal Biscay required to get out?   Note the sea smoke as the 8,046 hp vessel exposes the relatively warmer water to the seriously cooler air.

Imagine what all that ice does to the hull coatings, particularly at the bow.

And finally, we’re up to January 31, 2018, as La Prairie muscles through the ice.

I appreciate these “seasonal change” photos taken by Marc Piché, a glimpse of traffic in winter on the mighty Saint Lawrence.

Thanks to Marc Piché

Marc Piché has photos of St. Lawrence shipping in all seasons, and truth be told, I haven’t had time to look through all these 22,000 + shots, but I will.

Ocean A. Simard recently assisted in getting the last ships out of the Seaway before the end of the season.

Ocean Echo II has appeared on this blog once before.

Ocean Georgie Bain has been here before but without snow cover.

This is what Montreal looks like as the days shorten.  Ocean Jupiter has appeared here before also, but on a rainy fall day.

 

Also from Marc, have you seen this boat before?  He took it while visiting Boston in January 1978!

Here’s my best matching shot, one that I took at the mouth of the Rondout in June 2012.

Why not another . . . I took this along the Troy waterfront park in 2013.

Many thanks to Marc for use of his photos.