Saint Lawrence Workboats

Catching up . . . it’s a never-ending task, but a useful one.  Let’s start with these two tugboats still under wraps at Isle aux Coudres Ocean shipyard. It’s not the best image, but with the wind, it was the best I could get. Anyone help with identification?

RF Grant is a 1934 tug up on a marine railway on Île d’Orléans, just downstream from Quebec City.

At the main Ocean Group yard, it’s Ocean’s Taiga and Tundra, and Clovis T.

Ocean Henry Bain is on the inland side.

Quebec is inseparable with their blue.

Cue the next day and farther upstream, it’s Aldo H.

Boatmen 6 and more at their dock.

Nearer the port, it’s Ocean Serge Genois and Ocean Bertrand Jeansonne.

Excuse the blurred shot, but it’s Ocean Pierre Julien and Ocean Jupiter.  Particulars on all the Ocean boats can be found here. 

As we climb higher up the Saint Lawrence, we get to the US DOT boats, Robinson Bay and the brand new

brand-spanking-new Seaway Trident.

For our last boat today, it’s Seaway Joan, a Lake Michigan 1952 boat, a great name and great little boat.

All photos taken in May 2023, WVD.

LL Charlottetown to Montreal

This post encompasses two legs, but WiFi has not been cooperative.

Minimal comment:  this is the eight-mile Confederation Bridge.  Toll to cross by car:  $CD 50.

Bridge Lady is pilot boat to retrieve the pilot who departed with us at Charlottetown.

After a rough passage north along the Gaspé coastline, we enter the lower estuary, where a cold welcome awaited. 

Near Les Éboulements aka “the landslides,” this tug Felicia still adorns the shore.

From the ferry dock near there, Svanoy shuttled over to  Isle aux Coudres. 

As we approached the end of that first leg at QC, Ocean Guide came by to exchange pilots.

Kitikmeot W, Nordic Orion, and Spruceglen were in port.

as were the two powerhouses, Ocean Taiga and Ocean Tundra.

Departing I had my first opportunity to see Vincent Massey.  Four years ago she was undergoing transformation here.

Torm Timothy headed for sea.

A pilot exchange happened just downstream from Montreal, 

where Uhl Fast was in port.

All photos, any errors, WVD.

Seats of Power 2

Edda Fram runs back and forth, it seems, from shore (Scotland)  to various oil platforms in the North Sea.  Rough weather operation necessitates seats hard to fall out of.

Solomon T, once operated by Elbert Felton (shown), is a 1938 restored inside the Outer Banks fishing vessel, with seat and wheel appropriate to 1938.

MV Argyle is a ferry that operates on the Firth of Clyde.

T-ATF 172 USNS Apache has a spacious bridge.

Tug Mississippi, in service doing commercial work since 1916 (102 years!!) has a “bar stool” and a tiller.  It was repowered from steam to diesel electric in 1957.

Converted Bering Sea crabber Ocearch has wide bridge.  Here’s an article I did on their shark research program a year and a half ago.  Follow individuals of different species of shark around  the ocean in real time here.

A seat on an ATB? here’s the spacious wheelhouse of Paul T Moran.

Lake Express is a fast ferry that crosses Lake Michigan several times a day from Milwaukee to Muskegon.  One of these days, I’ll cross the lake fast.

Here’s another fast ferry, Athena,  sometimes serving Block Island.

Kaori is a 2004 tug operating in New Caledonia.

I’ll close out this post with the seat of power in the powerful Ocean Taiga.  For an article I wrote on this St. Lawrence tug, click here.

To protect the anonymity of some folks who sent along these photos, let me just give a tip of the hat to all the photographers.  Unless you send along more photos or unless I take some more, this’ll be the last in this series.  Any seats out there in strange colors?

Carnavalons 1

To start out, here’s the Groupe Océan dock in the old port of Quebec.   The large tug to the left is Ocean Taiga; its twin Ocean Tundra is to its right.  Here’s my article on the 8200 hp twins (118′ loa x 42′) in February 2018 issue of ProfessionalMariner.

Question:  As the temperature range at this location this past weekend was a high of 12 F to a low of -6 F, is that ice safe to walk on?  Quebec has 12′ tides.

The photo above shows the entrance to Bassin Louise.  Below, Ocean Clovis T enters the bassin from the River after assisting a ship into the commercial port.  Note the straight-line break in the ice and the open water there?  To the left of that line, the ice is still;  to its right, the flood tide moves the ice upstream.  Interestingly, Ocean Clovis T used to be called Stevns Icequeen.

Now I digress, but I’ll get back to the icy river soon.  I went to Quebec for Winter Carnaval– Carnaval de Québec, originally celebrated in 1894 and then annually since 1955.  When you see “-ons” at the end of a French word, often it’s a verb and makes a suggestion.  Dansons means let’s dance.  Carnavalons means let’s carnival . . . sort of like Mardi Gras, that other pre-Lenten festival, just in a different climate.  Allons!

Above and below, the red-hatted guy is the mascot of the Carnaval, aka bonhomme carnaval, and his image is everywhere . . . like Santa Claus but it unrelated to Christmas.  He’s a snowman, i.e., a bonhomme de neige.  The snow sculpture is just called toboggan.   And notice the belt, aka ceinture fléchée, or arrow sash.

Here a sash-wearing inuksuk of ice blocks greets a statue of Champlain.  A variation of the inuksuk was the logo of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

But let’s go back to the River, where tugster meets the duchesses of Carnaval.  See the Chateau Frontenac in the distance in the upper city to the right?  We all have warm smiles for 4 degrees F, eh?

The man dressed like a logger . . . he’s the narrator for the events down by the river;  the vuvuzela bearers on either side, their answering his quiz questions, or trying to.  That’s the River behind them.

So the question .  . could you walk over the ice piles here?  They’ve just been broken up by Ocean Clovis T and,

right behind, Ocean Raynald T (ex- Stevns Iceflower ) after they assisted aptly-named Arctic into a berth in the cargo port.  I posted a photo of the spoon-bowed Arctic here (scroll;  it’s almost the last one) in November.  Ask me and I’ll post more photos of her.

Well, the sauvetage nautique  (water rescue) truck is there next to the pilots’ station.

And farther into the bassin, over by the lock, there ARE folks on the ice setting cones.

More tomorrow.  All photos by Will Van Dorp, except the one with the duchesses.  Any misread of the events is my fault alone.

Océan Blue 5

Here are the previous in this series.

As we depart downstream on this rainy day, Ocean Pierre Julien  heads upstream.

Ocean Intrepide stands by Silver Manoora and Mars S.

 

Over alongside Sorel-Tracy, Ocean Jupiter heads upstream for reasons beyond my ken.

 

The twins wait in Quebec City, and

Ocean Serge Genois, farther upstream.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Océan Blue 2

Where has the time gone since I did Ocean Blue 1?  Well, it’s not been wasted.   Ocean blue seems at least as ubiquitous on the lower Saint Lawrence as  green-red G-tugs are to the upper Great Lakes watershed.

I took all these photos near their Quebec City base, nestled beneath the illuminated G3 grain elevators so reminiscent of the ones in Buffalo.

Right up front and center is Ocean Tundra, with Ocean Taiga looking over its starboard shoulder.  Are they still the most powerful Canada-built tugs at over 8000 hp?  I’m going to have to invest in winter layers so that I can come up in January and see these machines in ice mode.

Ocean Charlie docks here too.

Just in from an assist, Ocean Ross Gaudreault and Ocean Henry Bain return to base.   Click here for the particulars on all the Ocean vessels.

 

Here Ocean Ross Gaudreault and Ocean K. Rusby assist a heavily laden Garganey.

 

In the distance beyond Ocean Stevns, is that Jacques Cartier National Park?

And what blue-hulled vessel is that in the distance at the shipyard?

Ocean Guide does pilot exchange round the clock.

 

 

 

More Ocean vessels tomorrow.  All these photos by Will Van Dorp, who’s eager to return to Quebec.