The First Upbound FEDERAL KUMANO

It's a spectacular interaction that can't be overlooked or unheard when open to the elements along the St. Lawrence River in early spring. It's nature versus man. Though somewhat traumatic, it's a clash that causes no pain or injury but the outcome from its participate's fear and anxiousness is as resounding and echoing as a sudden death overtime goal in a packed Olympic hockey arena or the gleeful outcry by a massive gallery when a deemed has been wins another green jacket after the sinking of his final putt.

CCGS PIERRE RADISSON near Upper Canada Village - March 22, 2019

Tranquility becomes a chain reaction of horror as thousands of waterfowl which had been resting in the cold blue or ice covered waters of the St. Lawrence while on their annual trek north to the high Arctic to breed, abruptly takes to the sky frightened by the distant chugging diesel engine and the ever rolling white wake at the bow of the onward approaching red hulled vessel. There are beautiful white-feathered Snows and long slender-necked Canada geese, mallards, mergansers, and wigeon ducks and swans, all screeching with all their might "whoak, whoak, whoak, whoak," as they skim, and then climb, and then circle back to where they came from moments before, and back to eating and resting like nothing ever happened.

CCGS MARTHA L. BLACK from Dr. Stevens Drive east of Iroquois Lock - March 27, 2019

Receiving the honking waterfowl flypast on March 27th, above Loyalist Park near the old river hamlet of Mariatown, was the 656' FEDERAL KUMANO and though she was given the honours of being the first upbound of the new 2019 shipping season, the first vessel was actually the medium size Arctic icebreaker CCGS PIERRE RADISSON which I caught with her feathered escort near Morrisburg on March 22nd. Because the big icebreaker is needed to break open ice covered channels on the St. Lawrence and Great Lakes, no "Top 🎩 Hat", the award given to the first upbounds and downbounds on the Welland Canal, was given to the very deserving PIERRE RADISSON nor to the actual second upbound and KUMANO's escort, the light icebreaker MARTHA L. BLACK which had just aroused a flock of geese near Flagg Creek when I snapped her approaching to Iroquois Lock.

In fact despite all the hoopla at St. Lambert Lock with Canada's Transport Minister and former astronaut, Marc Garneau there to mark the 60th Anniversary of the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, the skipper of the Laker-class bulk carrier FEDERAL KUMANO also didn't receive an opportunity to don a "Top 🎩 Hat" either. However along with being the first upbound, the KUMANO was also the first saltie to receive the acknowledgement since the heavy lift cargo vessel BELUGA EMOTION opened the season while on her way to Valleyfield with a load of cement pipes in 2006.

I really enjoy photographing at Loyalist Park which is situated about 5 kilometres west of Morrisburg on Lakeshore Drive which originally was old Highway #2. As the St. Lawrence Seaway was being constructed, a navigable channel over the Long Sault Rapids was needed. Dams and locks were  created and when the area was flooded in July 1958, an artificial lake between Iroquois, Ontario in the west, and Cornwall, Ontario and Massena, New York at the east end was formed and named Lake St. Lawrence. The inundation of the river caused ten villages in Ontario, since known as the "Lost Villages" to be flooded over forever.  The little park is an ideal location to watch as vessels make several turns while following the original flow of the St. Lawrence River, and passing over lost villages, farmland, previous canal channels and locks, and roadways below.

Though owned by Federal Navigation (FedNav) of Montreal, FEDERAL KUMANO bound for Ashtabula, Ohio on Lake Erie flies the flag of the Marshall Islands with Majuro as her homeport. Built in 2003 at Oshima, Japan, the KUMANO is equipped with three 30 metric-tonne electro hydraulic cranes with a grab capacity of 10 tons to load and unload up to 36,563 gross tonnes of cargo in her six holds.

FEDERAL KUMANO was flagged Hong Kong when my sister Karin snapped her passing beneath the Burlington Skyway in the fall of 2014. Read all about it: https://carlzboats.blogspot.com/2014/11/bulk-carrier-federal-kumano.html 

Whether it's seeing tulips popping out of the ground, the "V" formation of Snows and Canadas flying northerly, or a boatnerd photographing the first upbound in a navy-blue suit after work, the signs of spring can be many different things for many different people here in the Great White North. It's a season that brings back life and renewed commercial opportunities like for the FEDERAL KUMANO which has already returned overseas with a load Canadian grain to a community in Norway. It's a great time of year for all. c):-D  

SLSDC Tug ROBINSON BAY

My plan last Wednesday afternoon was to catch the Pierre Radisson-class icebreaker DES GROSELLIERS as she made her upbound trek to the Great Lakes just like her sisters, the PIERRE RADISSON and AMUNDSEN had done before her. With the massive DES GROSELLIERS just entering Eisenhower Lock at about 5 pm, it looked like I was also going to be able snap for the first time, the 656' Laker-class bulk carrier FEDERAL OSHIMA near Iroquois Lock, and the classic hard working Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation tug, ROBINSON BAY which according to the Marine Traffic app, appeared to be tied off for the evening across from the old Windmill Lighthouse at the Port of Ogdensburg, New York.

Though the ROBINSON BAY has worked the waters of the Upper St. Lawrence River for over 60 years, she’s seldom seen by most of us Canadian ship and tug enthusiasts because she’s more often working closer to the American Seaway locks, Eisenhower and Snell or tied off at her dock on the Wiley Dondero Canal, the "pond" or body of water between the locks just north of Massena Center, New York. At spring or fall though you may luck out and see this unique looking tug laying idle in a Seaway channel as crews busily place or remove navigation aids or as she's briskly underway pushing the Seaway’s buoy laden barge to her next drop site.

The 103' ROBBY BAY, as she's also known as, was designed by the naval architect, Merritt Demarest of Jersey City, New Jersey and built in 1958 at the Christy Corp. shipyard at Sturgeon Bay, Wiscousin as a Class 1A icebreaking tug. Cutting ice was an activity I recall seeing her completing daily on my MarineTraffic app a few weeks back, making tracks and flushing ice away from the entrances of the two American locks and the canal that was froze over solid due to the harsh winter, in preparation for the new shipping season. The upper wheelhouse which offered increased visibility and safety when operational was added when the ROBINSON BAY was re-powered in 1991 in Cleveland, Ohio with a Caterpillar 3606 diesel-electric engine.

 Waisting no time downbound towards Eisenhower Lock from Loyalist Park near Mariatown - April 19, 2014

TundRA 3600 tug OCEAN TUNDRA at Copeland's Cut pushing it to assist

the grounded tanker CHEM NORMA at Morrisburg. Nice pic, Chuck!!

Seeing the little toot last Wednesday was especially timely since soon the ROBINSON BAY's career on the Seaway will be ending. Though she's completed her multi-tasks admirable over the years, cost to maintain her has continued to increase over recent years. It is what it is and next fall, a new tug, a 118' TundRA 3600-class similar to Quebec City based,  OCEAN TUNDRA, (seen in Chuck Larrabee of Massena's photo to the right on June 3, 2018), will be taking over the Seaway's navigation aids replacing and icebreaking duties.

Days are also numbered for smaller tug PERFORMANCE 

Designed by Vancouver-based Robert Allan Ltd., the new Ice Class 1A tug which will be named SEAWAY GUARDIAN is currently being built by Gulf Island Fabrication at their shipyard in Houma, Louisiana and will be powered by a pair of EPA Tier compliant engines that will deliver a bollard pull of approximately 65 long tons via controllable pitch Z-drive propulsion units. The vessel will also be equipped with a heavy duty deck crane, a stern roller, shark jaws tug-pins and a tugger winch for ease of handling navigation aids on the aft working deck. She'll be equipped with barge winches and push knees on her forward deck along with a towing winch within an enclosed house aft to allow the tug to handle barges off the bow or stern.

Homebound ROBINSON BAY after some TLC at Heddle Marine in Hamilton

- November 18, 2015. See the former CCGS SIMCOE in background. 

While the raised bridge on the ROBBY BAY was a great improvement, the SEAWAY GUARDIAN's high glassed-in wheelhouse will provide a commanding view while pushing the buoy barge ahead or observing activities below on the work deck. The complement will be 4-6 crew, however comfortable accommodations will be provided for up to 14 persons for extended buoy run missions.

Those "extended buoy run missions" or better known as overnight port stop at Ogdensburg and Clayton, has been a twice a year activity since 1963 when the ROBINSON BAY took over the responsibility of managing the navigational aids to Lake Ontario from the U.S. Coast Guard 56 years ago. While ending those visits will in itself will be a significant savings for the SLSDC, it will be missed by those two communities economically and by local ship watchers looking for that easy close up pic. Fortunately for me, I captured a few the classic's last for you. Timing is everything.

Hey, I've been chatting with the ROBINSON BAY's Chief Engineer, Nathan Jarvis on Facebook and he's informed me that the new tug, SEAWAY GUARDIAN will continue to do overnight port stops in Odgensburg and Clayton. Great News and looking forward to those continued photo ops at both of those pretty communities of the new American Seaway tug for many years to come. Thanks again for the update Nathan and I wish you and everyone on board your fine vessel "All the Best" on the ROBBY BAY's final spring commissioning of navigation aids. 👍⚓👍

Articulated Tug & Barge WILF SEYMOUR & ALOUETTE SPIRIT

Photo by Nathan Attard - February 10, 2019

One of the first things I said to Nathan Attard, my boat watching friend in Port Colborne after he sent me a photo on Messenger on February 10th of a tug and barge at the old grain terminal where I worked unloading ships and boxcars in the early 1970's, was "I've never seen a barge so high in ballast". Oddly enough I said the same thing to my son Drew last Sunday when quite by accident the towering raised hull of the McKeil Marine deck barge ALOUETTE SPIRIT caught my eye while we playing with my grandson, Jose at H.H. Knoll - Lakeview Park across the bay. For those not aware, "in ballast" means the ship is laden only in ballast or water to give it stability which prevents the vessel from capsizing.

Yes, she was sight to behold especially when observing the lighter tone below her hull's waterline, the huge starboard rudder and notch-guards, and not to mention the tall steel box cargo frame and a hangar-like structure that were added above the main deck of this motorless vessel (a.k.a, a barge). Built at Gulfport Shipbuilding in Port Arthur, Texas in 1969, she started her usefulness as a single-hulled oil tanker and named KTC 135. In 2004 after she was removed from the oil trade, the 425' barge was bought by McKeil Marine of Hamilton and converted to transport dry bulk goods while paired with the 122' former harbour tug WILF SEYMOUR, tied off just to her stern. 

The twin screw 73 tonne bollard pull tug was also built at Gulfport Shipbuilding in 1961 and worked for the Moran Towing Company of New York City as the M. MORAN. I don't know about you but I still recall photos in boat books at the library of huge ocean liners like Cunard's QUEEN MARY or the United States Lines' AMERICA being berthed by immaculate and stalwart looking "Moran" tugs with their burgundy red wheelhouses and big white "M" on a black stack. It's the kind of work the M. MORAN with her 5,750 bhp engines would have been tasked with while working on the Hudson River for the first part of her career. In 1970 her name was changed to PORT ARTHUR and then back to M. MORAN two years later. When flagged Canadian, her name first became known as SALVAGER when McKeil Marine bought her in 2000. In 2004 she was renamed WILFRED SEYMOUR and then shortened to WILF SEYMOUR soon after. In 2006 the 122' SEYMOUR was installed with a raised upper wheelhouse for improved visibility and a Bludworth coupler pin welded into her bow which when locked into the ALOUETTE SPIRIT's notched stern, it would offer greater control when pushing the barge through the locks and many winding channels along the Seaway and Great Lakes.

While there's no sign of the Bludworth coupling pin at WILF SEYMOUR's bow in this snap, you can see her starboard side expanding pad near amidships and below her wheelhouse.

Being tucked behind the tall walls of Port Colborne Grain Terminal is a much better place to be laid up at than where the hard working tandem spent last winter. While motoring up the St. Lawrence River laden with aluminum ingots from Pointe Noire, Quebec destined for the Oswego, New York on Lake Ontario, an electrical fault in the SEYMOUR's navigation equipment, caused the ATB (articulated tug & barge) to divert from the channel and run hard aground on Lac Saint-Pierre near Louisville at 06:45 on December 25, 2018.

The upbound ATB approaching Iroquois Lock - May 10, 2016 by Helen Mott

It was definitely not the gift anyone would want to receive on Christmas morning but the situation worsened for the crew of the WILF SEYMOUR and her charge when after 4 days of trying to free the heavy barge on her own because no icebreaker or other tugs were available to assist, it was decided to abandon the ALOUETTE SPIRIT on her perch surrounded in ice until spring. With assistance of fleetmate LOIS M. the lightened ALOUETTE SPIRIT was refloated 3 month to the day of her grounding and finally delivered her load aluminum ingots to Oswego on or about April 1st. No fooling!!

Accidents happen and deliveries sometimes get delayed but since the ALOUETTE SPIRIT made her maiden voyage in 2004, more than 1,500,000 tonnes of aluminum ingots and sows have been shipped to many destinations. Whether she's carrying Quebec-made aluminum ingots to Oswego or steel slabs from Hamilton to Cleveland, her hydraulic bow ramp as seen in ship watching friend, Helen Mott's photo above, makes it easy to "ro/ro" (roll on/roll off) cargoes from dockside forklifts. When taking on grain which the ALOUETTE SPIRIT has been known to do at the Port Colborne Grain Terminal, the barge's retractable roof panels keeps the cargos dry for their transit.
A new cycle of usefulness is about to begin for the 50+ year-old WILF SEYMOUR and ALOUETTE SPIRIT as a new shipping season begins in less than a month on the Welland Canal and soon after at the Soo Locks and on the St. Lawrence section of the Seaway.
Like the other "in ballast" bulk carriers and tankers that have laid-up high and in plain sight for the winter in ports throughout the Great Lakes, they'll will be laden with a cargo and making our countries prosperous and great again. And it couldn't come at a better time.
   

UPDATE: 11.09.2023  - Sorel-Tracy, QC

  

Though primarily known for carrying aluminum ingots and slabs produced by her Sept-Iles, Quebec based namesake, Aluminerie Alouette Inc, the 425' deck barge ALOUETTE SPIRIT can carry other dry bulk cargoes in her tall retracable roofed steel hopper. It appeared grain was the cargo being haul when I caught the barge being guided to the Sorel's Richardson International Terminal wall by the 122' veteran tug WILF SEYMOUR with her slender raised wheelhouse. Easy as she goes, skipper and crew.

Veteran Tug SEAHOUND

Though I was at Toronto's Port Lands between Christmas and New Years, I just didn't have enough time to get any close up snaps of the MCKEIL SPIRIT which is a unique vessel that was built as a gearless bulk carrier and then converted into a self unloading cement carrier. Now there's an interesting story to tell about her and I'll get into it in an upcoming blogpost but on a very cold last Sunday  morning while trying to get a full length pic of her from a high berm that was covered in scrubs along Unwin Avenue and beyond mountains of road salt and concrete rumble, I was especially surprised to see tied off to the SPIRIT was the cute little toot, the 65' veteran tug SEAHOUND.

Most other times when I snapped the SEAHOUND, she'd also be laying in wait but more often tied off above the pilot master's shack and boat J.W. COOPER along West Street in Port Colborne like in these shots on November 19, 2015.

I saw on MarineTraffic that the 1000 hp twin screw SEAHOUND was active last winter  working with other McKeil tugs and barges on the wind turbine project on Amherst Island across from Bath on Lake Ontario, but any other winter when I was in Port Colborne to visit my mother, I would see her, (the tug that is)  at the same spot and ready to conduct icebreaking duties when required.

Built at Equitable Equipment in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1941, the then named MAJOR WM. E. WARNER was one of 600  ST's (Small Tugs) that were built at shipyards all over America including the Great Lakes to support the U.S.Army's  transportation services. While I could not find out where the MAJOR WM. E. WARNER was based, some ST's were involved or destroyed in WWII battle theatres like Normandy, and during the Korean and Viet Nam conflicts. She became flagged Canadian and started a new lease on life on the Great Lakes working in marine construction and dredging when she was sold to McNamara Construction Equipment of Whitby in 1957 while named "SEA HOUND" and then as CAROLYN JO when she was acquired by Pitt Engineering Construction of Toronto in 1980. Her name was returned to SEAHOUND a year after she was sold to Nadro Marine of Port Dover, Ontario, a subsidiary of McKeil Marine in 1999.
In her proud Canadian red with white trim Nadro colours and company logo displayed on her black stack with a white and red banner, the twin screw, 1000 horsepower SEAHOUND has been captured by more than just my camera lens during her work and rest breaks on the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence River and Seaway, and Welland Canal.

Michel Gosselin of St. Catharines caught the SEAHOUND assisting fleetmate LAC MANITOBA on the Welland Canal while delivering the former RCN Oberon-class submarine HMCS OJIBWA to her final home and duty as a museum at Port Burwell on Lake Erie. - November 18, 2012   

After a work project went terribly wrong in a swift hydro canal in Cornwall, Ontario, SEAHOUND was also there to bring the LAC MANITOBA home along with the McKeil tug SHARON M 1 as caught in this sad photo taken by Prescott's Helen Mott at Iroquois Lock on October 6, 2015.      

Joanne Crack, the administrator for the Facebook group, The Prescott Anchor, snapped the SEAHOUND on October 2, 2015 when moored in Prescott for supplies.

Lots of action in this photo taken December 31, 2017 by Michel Gosselin as the SEAHOUND clears a path through an unusually ice covered basin above Lock 1 in preparation for the arrival of Lower Lakes self unloader CUYAHOGA which would winter at Port Weller Dry Dock for an inspection and repairs    

Like in Michel's photo, all that remained of the Nadro Marine identity was their initials on her stack, that's barely visible  above the scrap tow, AMERICAN VICTORY's rudder as the SEAHOUND wedged herself beneath the stern and the lower Beauharnois lock wall in this pic to the right on June 27, 2018.

http://carlzboats.blogspot.com/2018/08/classic-laker-american-victory-her.html

Regardless of her new McKeil Marine strips and colour scheme, her unique size and ten tonne bollard pull were the qualities that were needed most when tasked to assist this other former World War Two veteran,  the 730' AMERICAN VICTORY to Montreal during her last voyage out of the Great Lakes  early last summer. Such is true for any job the SEAHOUND has done in her 78 years in service and proof positive that just because you're getting old it doesn't mean you don't have what it takes to get the job done. Rest when you can and give it your all when called upon. If it can work for this little pooch, it can work for us all too.
Oh YAAA!! c):-D