Random Ships 62

An unlikely duo, and now separated . . .

Feng Huang Ao had no intention of being here . . . .

but it experienced an engine room fire over a month ago and was towed here for repairs.  Don’t those look like scorch marks?

LSD-51 aka Oak Hill has since left for missions unadvertised.

Ypapanti is a fairly new crude tanker . . .  .

Read this in case you wondered about the name . . .   “presentation of Christ.”  This angle here reminds me of the sentry boxes in San Juan.

Here’s a satellite grab of vessels waiting to be scrapped in Aliaga, Turkey.  See the three self-unloaders?

Ocean Delta is soon to arrive in Aliaga with a soon-to-be scrapped laker . . .

in tow, Manitoba, launched in 1966 in Collingwood ON, seen here a year ago at the Molson plant in Montreal. We in the US associate Molson with beer, but John Molson was the Robert Fulton of Canada.

I wonder if Ocean Delta herself will return . . . from Turkey, given that she flies the Jamaican flag.

At this same moment, Stephen B. Roman is heading under her own power to the breaking yards,

in Spain.  Later today she’ll be passing Gaspe.  What must this last ride be like?

A year ago I got this photo of the 1965-launch entering Oswego NY to discharge cement.

I always loved that logo!!  Here are previous Roman posts.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

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.

Other People’s Fotos 17

I suppose I could call this “random and gorgeous tug fotos I wish I’d taken.”

Thanks to John Skelson for this one of Coastline Bay Star.  I’ve seen this vessel only once in this incarnation of her, but it was in Belt traffic from which a foto was impossible.  John nails it here.  What a beaut!!

The rest come from Birk Thomas.  This series I just find stunning:  Gramma Lee T turns out after escorting her Nth vessel.  I’m wondering if there’s an actual count of assists for her decade of service since her June 2002 delivery.  Happy Decade 1 celebration.

Birk got this foto off New London: Allison Crosby looks like a Vane boat, whose series she post-dates, but for ocean towing, she has a 10,500 hp plant in the engine room.

Buster Bouchard has been around since 1979, but I saw her in the sixth boro for the first time only this spring.

The newest twins in the boro . . . Discovery Coast and Chesapeake Coast.

Also, by Birk, Ocean Delta, Norway-built, moving more parts for the nickel mining operation in Newfoundland.

Ocean Delta (ex-Sistella)  is a 1973 UT 505 design from the Ulstein Group.   Click here for a snowy/icy foto of Ocean Delta.

Thanks to Birk and John for these fotos.