Random Ships 72

This Stella Polaris . . . a very common vessel name for obvious navigation reasons, is less than 400′ and about 20 years old.  The curious building off the bow is the Boldt Castle Power House and Clock Tower . . .  or BCPHCT.

Algoma Conveyor, SLSWmax, was still under construction a year ago in Jiangsu, China.

Narie is another recent Chinese built cargo ship

in the Great Lakes, I’ve read, for the first season, although other Polsteam boats have worked there for some years.

The oldest Great Lakes port in the US is Oswego, and it sees lakers like the Japan-built cement ship NACC Argonaut fairly frequently.

With the right vessel, one can travel from the Great Lakes directly to NYC, of course, and when we did, we ran into Disney Magic, Italian built, Bahamian flagged, and Spain overhauled.

Making this likely the most diverse “random ships” post ever, here’s P61, an Irish patrol vessel named for Samuel Beckett. Unless I’m mistaken, this “writers” class comprises the largest vessels in the Irish Naval Service. Here’s a photo of Beckett leaving town yesterday taken by frequent commenter Phil Gilson.

Cembay is another Japan built cement carrier, 1997, shuttling between the US and Port Daniel QC. 

And finally . . .  YM World is, as of this posting, steaming toward Savannah, after shifting boxes here in Bayonne.

All photos here by Will Van Dorp within the past 30 days.

North Bound 8

As we head upstream into Montreal, an orange dawn greets us from beyond Sainte-Anne de Varennes Basilica.

Closer to Montreal, a line of ships awaits, three at anchor and two down bound.

 

 

Ocean Intrepide switches the pilots.

If I’d been sleep-deprived, my first sense of Biosphere might have been a nearby planet beyond Buffalo-built  American Mariner. 

I recognized Balder immediately, new name notwithstanding.

And the raised metal confirmed my suspicion.

I was not expecting to learn of this direct link to a distant archipelago rich in lobsters and road salt, but one of these years, that’s a trip I’d love to do both for the destination--Îles de la Madeleine–and the journey.

I have no photos to prove it, but I wanted to experience Lachine Rapids, so I took a surprisingly enjoyable tour in one of these get-very-wet boats.

I wanted to see the rapids, because without this perceived barrier to reaching China from here, Montreal might not have become a city.

Because we tied up at Bickerdike terminal, we had the good fortune to see these Svitzer tugs and

 

Oceanex Connaigra, 

here passing the Clock Tower.

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who comes to the end of the actual trip with this post and who will now recap the same trip with some of the details left out.

Port of Hamilton

John van der Doe has contributed many photos from Hamilton over the years, like here and here.

The bunkering boat Sterling Energy after delivering fuel to the Dutch tanker Stella Polaris.  Wow . . . Sterling Energy is Turkish built in 2002.

Pusher-tug Victorious with her asphalt tanker-barge John J. Carrick.  Victorious was built in China in 2009.

Again, John, thanks for these photos and a glimpse of Hamilton and the vessels that work there.