Is there life after death? Well, I believe there is simply from an out of life experience that happened to me about 10 years ago and I'd be happy to tell you about it but this is a boat blog eh! However one thing I will say right now about that subject is for a ship that's currently about half way across the Atlantic Ocean on her way to Turkey for dismantling and had been technically sitting on "death-row" in Montreal since early 2016, the classic straight-decker
MANITOBA certainly appeared to be full of life when I snapped her at Loyalist Park near the St. Lawrence River hamlet of Mariatown and at Iroquois Lock on May 19, 2013.
Sitting high in ballast and kicking up a nice wake as the advancing
MANITOBA motored against a strong current which made her to appear to be eager to get back on up and into the Great Lakes to pick up another load of grain and then motoring her cargo back down to a lower St. Lawrence River grain elevator in Sorel, or Quebec City, an ongoing activity for the gearless bulk carrier since going into service over 50 years ago.
When she was built in 1966 at Collingwood Shipyards in Collingwood, Ontario, her name was
MANTADOC, and the second vessel to bear that name for owner N.M. Paterson & Sons of Thunder Bay, Ontario. With the exception of the company's next new-build, the 736.5' stern-ender
PATERSON in 1985, and the 605'
SENATOR OF CANADA, which also honoured the company founder who became a member of the Canadian Senate in 1940, the Paterson vessel's names all honoured various Canadian cities and provinces followed by the suffix
"DOC" for "
Dominion
Of
Canada". The
MANTADOC honoured the province the Paterson family eventually settled in, Portage La Prairie, Manitoba and where N.M. Paterson grew his grain trading business. In the late 60's, she was just one of several straight-deck bulk carriers with her wheelhouse forward that plied the Great Lakes but the
MANTADOC she was especially unique because with an overall length of just under 608', her size allowed her to manoeuvre windy rivers and service smaller port where the seaway-max'ers couldn't go.
When Canada Steamship Lines took over the Paterson fleet in 2002 her name was changed to
TEAKGLEN, and then her name was changed again to
MARITIME TRADER in 2005 when she was purchased by Voyager Maritime Trading. She joined the Lower Lakes Towing of Port Dover's fleet in 2011 and was named
MANITOBA, which in the Ojibwa language,
"manidoobaa" means the
"straits of Manitou", - the Great Spirit".
This wasn't the first time that the 607'11' bulk carrier sat idle at the Port of Montreal with an uncertain future. While named
TEAKGLEN for CSL, she was laid up in Montreal for most of 2002 until finally in the fall she picked up a load of grain at Quebec City for Goderich. Her layup days technically continued while being used for grain storage for the Goderich Grain Elevator Ltd. for a few more years. In 2005 it looked like her sailing days were over for good when while being towed by the veteran tug
EVANS McKEIL to the then IMS ship-boneyard in Port Maitland for dismantling, the scrap-tow's journey ended at Sarnia where she was hooked up to the Purvis Marine tug
AVENGER II and taken to Thunder Bay. At Thunder Bay she was put into dry dock for her 5 year inspection and after a fresh coat of blue paint was applied to her hull, the veteran bulk carrier returned to service as the
MARITIME TRADER for new owner, Voyager Marine Trading of Ridgeville, Ontario..
Of course when I took these snaps, she was wearing the Lower Lakes Towing Company's colours, however the Voyager Maritime blue is very much visible in my close-ups above and below where the LLT's grey hull had been rubbed off from making contact with approach walls, a common occurrence for most ships while transiting Welland Canal and St. Lawrence Seaway locks like Iroquois here.
And away she goes !!!
https://youtu.be/KsydyuHaaD4
She seemed to be full of vigour eleven months later when I snapped the
MANITOBA for the last time and also at Loyalist Park on April 19, 2014. Almost two years later to the day and after wintering in Hamilton, the classic grey lady again looked eager to get her new shipping season underway, when my ship-watching friend James Chapman, of Massena, NY captured the
MANITOBA in this wonderful series of photos while approaching Eisenhower Lock near the Copeland Cut and further down below on the Wiley-Donero canal on April 17, 2016.
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| Photo by James Chapman |
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| Photo by James Chapman |
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| Photo by James Chapman |
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| Photo by James Chapman |
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| Photo by James Chapman |
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| Photo by James Chapman |
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| Photo by James Chapman |
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| Photo by Joanne Crack - June 10, 2017 |
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| Photo by Joanne Crack - June 10, 2017 |
The
MANITOBA arrived at Montreal later on April 17, 2016, but there was not a lot of information as to why she would start a long term layup near the Old Port's Section 26. Over the years it has not been uncommon to see a former hardworking laker, tie-off at that same dock and within days have her company identity and name painted over in preparation for a long scrap-tow journey to Turkey for dismantling. Such was not the case for the
MANITOBA then or when Joanne Crack of the Facebook ship-watching group,
The Prescott Anchor snapped her from the deck of the St. Lawrence Cruise Lines ship,
CANADIAN EMPRESS over a year later on June 10, 2017, still sitting high and proud in name and Lower Lakes Towing's colours and emblem on her stack just above the tall and long span of the Jacques Cartier Bridge.
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| Photo by René Beauchamp - March 2018 |
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| Photo by Stéphane Marceau - July 15, 2018 |
Ditto that when St
éphane Marceau snapped her behind the CSL gearless sternender
OAKGLEN which sat idle all summer waiting for the mad dash to commence to transport prairie grain down to St. Lawrence River elevators before the shipping season ended.
There appeared to be some hope for the
MANITOBA when it was announced other veteran long term layup carriers were given a new lease on life like the wheelhouse forward self unloader
CSL TADOUSSAC which just returned to service this shipping season after being laid up in Thunder Bay since January 2015. Even former American Steamship Company self unloader,
ADAM E. CORNELIUS which after also being laid up since January 2015 at Huron, Ohio, has returned to service this season as the
ALGOMA COMPASS when purchased by Algoma Central last winter.
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| Photo by René Beauchamp - August 3, 2018 |
However luck and time ran out for the MANITOBA and her proud Paterson fleet past, when her Canadian registry was officially closed on July 31st. Three days later, two Group Océan tugs towed her to the port's Section 56, the old Canadian Vickers Shipbuilding dry docks to prepare for her oversea journey to Turkey for dismantling.
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| Photo René Beauchamp - October 14, 2018 |
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| Photo René Beauchamp - October 14, 2018 |
Another classic laker makes her way to her end as Ren
é Beauchamp captured the scrap-tow
NITO near Sorel-Tracy on October 14th with the tug
OCEAN DELTA in the lead position and
OCEAN ECHO II at her stern. Hats off to her Panamanian owner for simply whiting-out her former name at the bow and wheelhouse instead block it all out including her First Nation's peoples unique emblem on her stack with hideous black paint. Her departure leaves us with couple of "only ones" - "Only One" former Paterson fleetmate remaining, the CSL owned
CEDARGLEN, and "Only One" gearless straight-decker remaining operational on the Great Lakes, her former fleetmate
OJIBWAY. As time goes on, soon there will be none.
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| Photo René Beauchamp - October 14, 2018 |
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My Tanner and the MANITOBA at Mariatown on March 29, 2013
- both gone but not forgotten.
Thank you James Chapman, Joanne Crack, Stéphane Marceau and René Beauchamp for allowing me to use your photos in this post. You're being there at the right time has been so helpful time and time again.
We all know that the internet is great resource for so many things but if you want real backgrounder information about ships sometimes it's a book that really tells you what you want to know and more.
The Ships of the Paterson Fleet
By Gene Onchulenko and Skip Gillham is a treasure chest of information that was news to me like the MANITOBA's predecessor, the MANTADOC (1) was also laid up and used for grain storage in Goderich. There's also great snapshots by photographers that are still showing off their photographic skills today on many Facebook ship-watching groups like René Beauchamp, Marc Deese, and Ron Beaupre just to name a few. If you see a copy in a new or used book store, snap it up or to check out it's availability and price at Amazon, click here (https://www.amazon.ca/ships-Paterson-fleet-Gene-Onchulenko/dp/0969760647/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1540876343&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Ships+of+the+Paterson+Fleet) You'll be glad you did c):-D
Page Viewers Photo 👍📷 👍Gallery:
I fully understand Meghan Moran Swenson's love for this favourite ship of hers, which while named the MARITIME TRADER, is seen photo 📷 bombing 👋 her wedding picture taken beneath the Thousand Islands Bridge on Wellesley Island on August 12, 2006. I love 💖 it and also like Ol' Glory fluttering in background too in this wonderful photo and memory. Thanks again for sharing Meghan.
....And thanks Nathan Attard for snapping the upbound MANITOBA at Port Colborne while making her way to Lake Erie and then probably on her way to Thunder Bay for another load of grain. Nice pics Nathan as always 👍📷👍!!
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Good work Carl. I really love your stories.
ReplyDeleteThis ship was my best sailing around here.
But there is nothing we can do. 👍