Welcome home Mariner
Canada’s newest ship, is fully loaded with its first cargo of iron ore, and proceeding up the St Lawrence Seaway onto Hamilton. We passed the Algoma Mariner shortly before lunch today, just upstream of Quebec City.
A new ship is always an impressive sight, especially since it is so rare in these parts. The ship’s genesis came about a few years back, when Algoma decided to rebuilt two older ship, using the same stern, but putting on new fore bodies. With the first ship, the Algobay, everything went smooth and as planned. With the Algoport, things went sour, when she sank on her tow to China. With the fore body already built, and waiting at the shipyard, and an subsequent insurance payout, Algoma found it favourable to build a new stern section, and complete a whole new ship.
The new ship was completed by the Chengxi Shipyard Co, situated on the Yangtze River in China, on May 31, 2011. The shipyard located in Jiangyin city, Jiangsu province, built 26 similar ships in 2010.
With a refuelling stop in the Philippines and Panama, the Mariner transited the Panama canal, and made her way to Port Cartier in Quebec, to load her first cargo, iron ore, bound for the steel mills in Hamilton, Ontario. The self unloading bulk carrier is expected in Hamilton, late afternoon of August 8, 2011, where she try her unloading gear for the first time.
Pictured above, by yours truly, taken this morning on the St Lawrence; below, from Algoma Central Corp. You can find the official press release from Algoma here, with interesting comments, boasting the crew accommodations standards – mmmm. Here’s another news bit. You can find tons of pictures from the shipyard, and its journey home on Mariner Project blog.
Algoma Mariner
IMO: 9587893
Call Sign: CFN5517
Owner : Algoma Central Corporation
Operator : Seaway Marine Transport
Delivered : May 31, 2011
Shipyard : Chengxi Shipyard Co, Jiangyin, China
Class : Lloyd’s Register – SOLAS, UMS
Flag : Canada
Type : Self discharging bulk carrier
Lenght : 740′ (225.564 m)
Breadth : 78′ (23.7 m)
Depth : 49′ (14.9m)
Gross Tonnage : 32,000
Cargo Capacity : six cargo holds, 35,500 DWT
Machinery : (?) 1x 2 stroke slow speed, with CPP
Speed recorded (Max / Average): 16.9 / 16.4 knots
Update, August 09 – Professional Mariner Magazine just released a short story on the final tow of the Algoport and what happened, from the tug’s perspective.
