Carlz Boats: Straight Decker ALGOMA QUEBECOIS

Carlz Boats: Straight Decker ALGOMA QUEBECOIS: The wind was howling real good when I snapped the bow and stern sections of the 730' straight deck bulk carrier ALGOMA QUEBECOIS whi...

Straightdecker ALGOMA QUEBECOIS (Revisited)

The wind was howling real good when I snapped the bow and stern sections of the 730' straight deck bulk carrier ALGOMA QUEBECOIS which was sitting proud and high in the water at Hamilton, Ontario's Pier 4 earlier this month. Launched in 1963 for Papachristidis Co. of Montreal as QUEBECOIS, she was sold to Upper Lake Shipping of Toronto in 1972 along with other fleet mates including her sistership MONTREALAIS (http://carlzboats.blogspot.ca/2012/08/straight-deck-algoma-montrealais.html).
Both ships continued to sail with their original names until they were sold to Algoma Central in 2012, who re-registered each ship with the the parent name 'ALGOMA' added to the names that they sailed with for almost 50 years.

Despite proving their usefulness for all those year, the sailing days for both steam powered classic straightdeckers would soon come to an end, as Algoma Central introduced their built in China, fuel efficient Equinox-class gearless bulk carriers as part of their fleet renewal program.     

Photo by Nathan Attard

Photo by Nathan Attard

The ALGOMA QUEBECOIS scrap-tow from Toronto, arrived at the International Marine Salvage dock in PortColborne on November 21, 2013. Dismantling the then nameless straightdecker was well on it way when my friend, Nathan Attard snapped these photos of her during the early winter months of 2014. As the she continued to be broken apart, piece by piece thoughout 2014, her strong Canadian-made steel would go on to be used to build other products, thereby allowing all kinds of Canadian companies to grow and progress.

Photo by Nathan Attard

Photo by Nathan Attard

As for ALGOMA MONTREALAIS, a late shipping season opening  and a glut on prairie grain needing to get to market, allowed her to continue to sail thoughout 2014 despite her being powered by a less efficient steam turbine engine. However in May 2015, she was renamed MONT, and scrap-towed to Turkey where she was dismantled. What will be, will be. 

Carlz Boats: Oil/Chemical Tanker LIA C

Carlz Boats: Oil/Chemical Tanker LIA C: No, it's not a diving submarine or a ship in distress taking on water, big time. It's just part of the daily sail past of a variety of...

Oil/Chemical Tanker LIA C

No, it's not a diving submarine or a ship in distress taking on water, big time.

It's just part of the daily sail past of a variety of ships speedily making their way along the busy Straits of Florida to destinations unknown while we banked rays along the shores of Playas del Este, Cuba. There were tankers, container ships, bulk and car carriers and what looked to be a 'factory' fishing trawler and almost every one passed by just a little too far to make out her name.

However with a little enhancing here and there, & checking other sites, I was able to identify the tanker below as the 577' LIA C. Built in 1985 in Japan and though she's registered and flies the flag of Panama, she's actually owned by Caroil Transport Marine of Havana, Cuba. Let me see, a Cuban company owning a ship to haul Venezuelan crude to the Havana oil refinery. Hmm, sounds like capitalism to me. I guess times have started to change for Cubans, or not.

Carlz Boats: Self Unloader CAPT. HENRY JACKMAN

Carlz Boats: Self Unloader CAPT. HENRY JACKMAN: I had no idea when I snapped the 730' Algoma Central self unloader CAPT HENRY JACKMAN as she passed us by and then the bulk carrier S...

Self Unloader CAPT. HENRY JACKMAN (Revisited)

I had no idea when I snapped the 730' Algoma Central self unloader CAPT HENRY JACKMAN as she passed us and then the bulk carrier SAGUENAY (below) midstream near Mariatown on Boxing Day that the JACKMAN would be the last upbound to transit the Welland Canal for 2012 and be berthed for the winter in Port Colborne. So she was a must see, along with my mother, of course during last week's 'Short but Sweet' tour to Port Colborne. It was awfully nice of Janice & Tanner to pose for at least one snapshot as CAPT HENRY JACKMAN sat moored below Lock 8 by the stone dock.

Like the SAGUENAY, she was launched as a gearless bulk carrier in 1981 in Collingwood, Ontario. Owned then by Nipigon Transports Ltd., her name then was LAKE WABUSH and she was active in hauling prairie grain from Thunder Bay however her primary focus was to transport iron ore that originated in the Lake Wabush region of southern Labrador from ports near the mouth of the St. Lawrence. In fact according to Alan Wooller, who currently sails on the Algoma fleetmate,  RADCLIFFE L. LATIMER, to remain profitable, LAKE WABUSH had to make at least four ore trips a month to the Great Lakes steel mills. Algoma Central acquired her in 1986 and in the following year changed her name to CAPT HENRY JACKMAN  after a former skipper and part-owner of a fleet of schooners that hauled grain on Lake Ontario in the mid 1800's. Great namesake but after the JACKMAN was converted into a self unloader in 1996 and she’s been more known to carry anything but grain. Amongst a variety cargoes, the CAPT HENRY JACKMAN has carried is road salt like her fleetmate, PETER R. CRESSWELL dropped off earlier at the Rideau Bulk Terminal dock in the background of the bottom photo. You can check out those photos and story in the Oct 15th Carlz Boats,  http://carlzboats.blogspot.ca/2012/10/self-unloader-peter-r-cresswell.html or Not!

Road salt from the PETER R. CRESSWELL can still be seen piled high at the Rideau Bulk Terminal west of Mariatown in this rendezvous pic of the former bulk carrier SAGUENAY and the CAPT on December 26. 2012

Update - Feb. 20/20:
She was at the same location though pointed downbound when I photographed the CAPT  again at the stone dock below Lock 8 on November 18, 2018. Due to engine problems, the crew of the then 37 year old self unloader was preparing her for a premature winter layup.

While the hardworking girl's appearance may have suggested her days were numbered when I snapped her along the stone dock wall, it was her virtual twin sister PETER R. CRESSWELL who became the sacrificial lamb, literally and prepared for dismantling that winter in Port Colborne with the removal of various engine parts including an camshaft for the ailing fleetmate. It was a blessing in disguise that kept the CAPT HENRY JACKMAN active for a couple more seasons. She was probably taking on a load of cement clinker at the St. Mary's Cement plant in Bowmanville on Lake Ontario when I snapped her for the last time on June 18, 2018. She arrived under her own power at Montreal on December 27 that year but when she left in the following May, she'd be tied to the deepsea tug V.B. HISPANIA and undertow to Turkey for dismantling while named ENRY.

Former CAPT HENRY JACKMAN awaits the breaker's tourch at Aliaga, Turkey June 29, 2019 - Photo by Salim San

Carlz Boats: Push Boat NIKKI-JO-C

Carlz Boats: Push Boat NIKKI-JO-C: The shipping season maybe over due to winter along the St. Lawrence Seaway, Great Lakes and upper Mississippi and Missouri rive...

Tow Boat NIKKI-JO-C (Revisited)

The light blue markings are tugs underway (triangles)
or stopped (squares) - MarineTraffic 17.12.20@09:30

The shipping season maybe over on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway due to winter, but it's business as usual along the Mississippi, its tributaries like the Missouri, and Ohio and the other American inland waterways. Just like the tow boat NIKKI-JO-C and her barges photographed by my good friend Jim Moyer of Salisbury, Maryland, the inland trade moved more than 760 million tons of products in 2017, for $33.8 billion in revenue. The 60' NIKKI-JO-C was built in 1980 and according to Jim, "she is pushing a barge full of grain, probably corn, maybe soybean, up the winding Wicomico River about 10 miles yet to go to the port of Salisbury, the second largest port on Maryland. The Wicomico River is a 25 mile tidal river, from the Chesapeake Bay, and the depth and volume of water is not affected by the drought (like the Mississippi and other waterways in the central US). Only the salinity level of the upper reaches of the river is affected by drought, or excess rain. The grain carrying barges also known as 'hoppers' originate weekly, mostly in Virginia near Norfolk, at the lower end of the Chesapeake, about 90 miles away. The grain is then off loaded onto trucks and carried 5 miles to a huge processing plant to make feed for the large chicken industry centred in Salisbury". 

An anxious moment for the NIKKI-JO-C skipper for certain as a
fire truck on a call also waits for a Salisbury bridge to open.
   

Like the Wicomico, there are approximately 12,000 miles of navigable waterways used by domestic shipping in the United States, not including the Great Lakes and according to the American Waterway Operators, with 5,500 tugboats and towboats and 31,000 barges hauling anything from dry cargo goods, oil, petroleum products, stone, cement and more. Regardless of the cargo and meandering passageways, these versatile little ships just keep motoring along doing what's required to keep the American economy going and it's people working. Keep up the Good Work boys & girls!!.

Carlz Boats: Self Unloader ALGOLAKE

Carlz Boats: Self Unloader ALGOLAKE: While heading out of the 'big smoke' last Sunday on our 'Short but Sweet' tour to Port Colborne to visit family and check out what boa...

Self Unloader ALGOLAKE (Revisited)

While heading out of the 'big smoke' last Sunday on our 'Short but Sweet' tour to Port Colborne to visit family and check out what boats were laid up down there for the winter, I couldn't help but swing by Toronto's Harbourfont district to see what if anything was berthed for winter there too.  Well to quote Gomer Pyle, I was 'Surprise, Surprise, Surprise'd to see the 730' self unloader ALGOLAKE sitting high and tied off for winter near Toronto's main terminal wharf off Cherry Street.  Got a really great snap of her, above, with CN Tower and impressive skyline in the background reflecting like a mirror on the smoothly iced over harbour.  She's a beauty, eh?

The ALGOLAKE was built in 1977 for Algoma Central Corp at the former Collingwood Shipyards in Collingwood ON located on the south shore of Lake Huron's, Georgian Bay. Her cargo capacity of 32,807 gross tonnes and the ALGOLAKE has been known to carry anything from coal, aggregates, slag, fertilizer, grain, gypsum, iron ore/oxides to even road salt like we saw her fleetmate, PETER R. CRESSWELL unloading near Mariatown last fall (http://carlzboats.blogspot.ca/2012/10/self-unloader-peter-r-cresswell.html).

ALGOLAKE was much lower in the water and making good time as she passed us by for the first time on the St. Lawrence River near Prescott on August 24, 2012. She's a very photogenic subject regardless of the season or location I might add!! c):-b

Update: 13/03/2020

Having just unloaded sand at the CRH Portland Cement dock, the ALGOLAKE was at the right place at the right time to capture her and the Toronto Island based Royal Canadian Yacht Club launch KWASIND motoring towards her channel dock near the Port's bascule bridge.

ALGOLAKE continued to impress my lens while slowing motoring by the original Galop Canal Iroquois Lock and then passing through of the current Seaway lock during my last rendezvous with her October 18, 2015.

After an unexpected wintering at Valleyfield, on the Beauharnois Canal the hardworking ALGOLAKE's end was near arriving in Montreal April 11, 2018 and then leaving under tow as the GOLA for dismantling in Turkey about 6 weeks later. Another beauty gone but not forgotten, c):-(

Vierwer's Photo 📷 Gallery:

Here's a great shot by Kevin Stern of the ALGOLAKE entering Milwaukee, Wisconsin on May 18, 2016 with a load of salt. Thanks Kevin 👍📷👍

Carlz Boats: Bulk Carrier SAGUENAY

Carlz Boats: Bulk Carrier SAGUENAY: 'It's 40 below and I don't give a #@*%'... Hey!! This a family blog but if don't know the rest of the lyrics for the 'Rodeo Song', goo...

Bulk Carrier SAGUENAY

'It's 40 below and I don't give a #@*%'... Hey!! This a family blog but if you don't know the rest of the lyrics for the 'Rodeo Song', google it!! I square-dance to it all the time. Hee-Haa!! Yes it was a cold day when we tracked down the CSL 730' bulk carrier SAGUENAY making her way down-bound on December 26, but not as cold as right now here in Ottawa, the 'Coldest Capital in the WORLD', where it's -24C with a chill factor of -31. JEESH!! Anyhow, according to a groundhog or two, winter is almost over.  Meanwhile, when launched in 1981 in Hoboken, Belgium, the SAGUENAY was owned by Federal Navigation of Montreal and was named FEDERAL THAMES. If you zoom in on this photo of the SAGUENAY being walked through Iroquois Lock, you can see the ship's original name which appears to have been wielded or 'embossed' onto the hull, partially visible under her current name and the rust stained white paint.

Like when my dad was the lockmaster of Lock 8 in Port Colborne, unless there were high winds or supplies were being put on board, large ships like the SAGUENAY  would simply be 'walked' through with a seaway linesman pacing the ship's forward movement and once the water levels were adjusted, the approaching gate opened, the guard arrester (and sometimes bridge) raised, the ship is then 'flushed' out of the lock and into the next channel. Hey, when you got to go, and it's #@*% cold out, sometimes you do what you have to do to get the job done.

From another neat vantage point down river at Duncan Park in the hamlet of Mariatown, I snapped the SAGUENEY again this time motoring in the sea-fog just beyond a high pile of road salt at the Rideau Bulk terminal dock and passing the oncoming upbound, the 730' Algoma self unloader CAPT. HENRY JACKMAN. Now that's ship with an amazing past and you can read about her soon in an upcoming soon in Carlz Boats. I Know Can Hardly Wait!! c);-b

Post Update: February 9, 2020;

I may have had a whole different perspective of the day and my rendezvous with the gearless bulk carrier SAGUENAY had I known it would be the last time that I would be photographing her. Her next day arrival at Montreal on December 27, 2012 sadly marked the end of her trading days on the Great Lakes and overseas as a "saltie-laker". The former hardworking SAGUENEY arrived at Aliaga, Turkey for dismantling on November 30, 2013, just three months after her fleetmate and almost identical twin, RICHELIEU.
On a much warmer day, I caught the high in ballast, SAGUENAY making good speed upbound from Windmill Point, just east of Prescott, Ontario on September 2, 2012. As you can see, unlike this past shipping season, the water level was quite low on the St, Lawrence River back then. c):-D    

Carlz Boats: Car Carrier MORNING CONDUCTOR?

Carlz Boats: Car Carrier MORNING CONDUCTOR?: While I was doing my best 'Driver Dan' impression along the shores of Cuba's beautiful Playas del Este, Janice was snapping away at ...

Car Carrier MORNING CONDUCTOR?

While I was doing my best 'Driver Dan' impression along the shores of Cuba's beautiful Playas del Este, Janice was snapping away at this huge hulk that came lumbering along on the horizon from the east. When further out, her prominent white hull and superstructure suggested she might be a cruise ship which wasn't likely since Cuba isn't usually a port of call especially from the American liners based out of Florida. As she got closer she began to look like the livestock carrier, OCEAN DROVER http://carlzboats.blogspot.ca/2012/10/livestock-carrier-ocean-drover.html and the RO/RO TAIKO http://carlzboats.blogspot.ca/2012/11/roro-taiko.html?spref=bl. Actually she turned out to be a EUKOR Car Carriers based out of Seoul, South Korea. I'm not 100% certain, but this big boat appears to be the 656' car carrier MORNING CONDUCTOR.  EUKOR has 64 car carriers and transports over 4 million vehicles world-wide annually mostly for Hyundai and Kia. MORNING CONDUCTOR flies the flag of Panama and was built in 2008 at the Hyundai shipyards in Samho, South Korea. She can carry up to 6,645 vehicles which is perhaps enough to make a few Cubans happy since the State has just recently decided to allow Cubans the right to own cars. Sounds like change is in air over Cuba. 'bout time!
Meanwhile, Happy Birthday to my son, Andrew in Toronto and friend, Jim in Maryland. Have a GREAT DAY boys!!