Capsize of the Transatlantic

On April 10, 1965, the Poseidon Lines freighter Transatlantic was inbound on the St. Lawrence Seaway just below Sorel. Having just departed Sorel, the outgoing freighter Hermes made way for the incoming Transatlantic in the Lac Saint-Pierre area, but Hermes seems to have strayed into shallow water. The latter's stern got sucked toward the shore, which sent her bow out into the incoming channel and caused her to strike Transatlantic on the port side. 

Photo of Transatlantic, © Frans Kerkhof, from Shipspotting.com.

According to Shipspotting.com, "Transatlantic was heavily damaged, burst into flames, and was soon on the bottom of the river. Three lives were lost on the latter ship while Hermes suffered considerable bow damage and ultimately had to go to Montreal for bow repairs."  

Viewed from astern, the now burning Transatlantic is under the care of  two tugs, with Marine Industries Ltd.'s Capitaine Simard in the foreground. The tug in the background is probably George M. McKee. Firefighters can be seen here working aft of the superstructure.

The tugs in the above photo belong to Marine Industries Limited (MIL), and Mac Mackay had mentioned them in his Tugfax blog here (Capitaine Simard) and here (George M McKee).

Efforts to save the ship were unsuccessful, and Transatlantic ended up capsizing to port, and sank to the bottom with her starboard side exposed above the surface. 

Transatlantic lying on her port side with the passing Saguenay Lines freighter Sunrise in the background. You can see the fire-charred paint on the bridge of the former. There is a petroleum slick enveloping the bow of the ship.

Viewed from forward, the ship's bilge keels and a set of empty lifeboat davits can be seen.

This time viewed from aft, the empty lifeboat davits can also be seen in this photo.

Looking forward from the bridge, you can see a deck cargo of drums, which may explain why the ship caught on fire after the collision (or maybe the just contributed to the fire). 

A man stands forward of the bridge on the side of the capsized ship, with fire-charred paint on the superstructure visible to the left of the photo.

A group of men stands on the side of the bridge superstructure.

Tugs in the background appear to be approaching the capsized Transatlantic.

Looking at the photos on the Mariner's Weather Log website, the bow of Hermes was fairly sharp and protruded well beyond the waterline, and the post-salvage photo shows there is significant damage to Transatlantic's superstructure. In addition, where the post-salvage photo does not clearly show damage to the hull (though any hole may have been patched in order to refloat the ship) and the pre-sinking photo above shows the ship initially heeling to starboard, I wonder if it was the firefighting efforts that caused the capsize to port.

While the photos in this post (except where indicated) are from the Foundation Maritime / AECON collection, I have been unable to determine if Foundation Maritime was actually involved in the salvage operation, and I have not even found mention of any firm connected with the work. Transatlantic herself was determined to be a constructive total loss, and she was broken up in Sorel in 1967. 

For more information, the websites listed below have additional information on the incident and its aftermath, along with more photos of the ship both before and after the sinking. In addition, the Bowling Green State University site has information on the tug Capitaine Simard.

Additional Sources:

Mariner's Weather Log website

Shipspotting.com

Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, Bowling Green State University

Salvage of the Maurienne

On the 7th of February in 1942, the master of the 3,259 GRT freighter Maurienne was dealing with some frozen pipes in one of the holds. He subsequently directed a worker to use an acetylene torch to thaw said pipes, and a fire later erupted in that same location. When conventional efforts to extinguish the fire were unsuccessful, the master ordered the scuttling of his vessel, which in turn resulted in the almost total loss of the cargo after she capsized at the pier (as noted on page 21 of International Maritime Conventions: Volume 1, which also details a legal action brought against the shipping firm by the owners of three crates and one drum of shoe leather). 

Built in Denmark in 1938 as a refrigerated vessel to transport bananas, and only taken over by the Canadian Government at the beginning of the war, Maurienne was a new vessel . Coupled with the fact that the 324-foot vessel was also blocking the use of a portion of Pier 27/28 in the wartime Port of Halifax, her salvage would presumably have been a priority, and therefore she was subsequently salvaged by Foundation Maritime. 

The capsized freighter Maurienne.

Another view of the capsized ship, with the superstructure facing the pier. I'm assuming these photos were taken right after the sinking, such that reserve air in the hull was keeping the hull barely afloat, as later images suggest the hull was farther below the surface during the salvage work, and these photos do not appear to me to have been taken at low tide.

The salvage of the Maurienne was undertaken by Foundation Maritime in two main phases: righting, and then refloating. To begin, at least two cofferdams were constructed on the side of the ship to allow work to continue in the dry - two righting masts had to be attached to the side of the ship.

By June 24, 1942, Cofferdam #2 was ready to accept the righting mast. The two legs of the righting mast will go into the two openings marked with an "X". The "No.1" in the corner of the image refers to the image number, and not that of the cofferdam (which I got from the image caption).

A pontoon supports a diving platform alongside Cofferdam #2 - the platform seems to be slung from the two arms. At least two divers sit in their suits on the platform. 

Cofferdam #1 (background, with mast installed) and Cofferdam #2 (foreground). A support pontoon lies alongside each cofferdam, presumably carrying the pumps to keep each cofferdam dry. Foundation Scarboro, without her shear legs installed, is to the left of the image.

Foundation Scarboro starting to lift the righting mast into place in Cofferdam #2.

The righting mast being installed in Cofferdam #2.

Workers help drop the righting mast into place within Cofferdam #2, as seen from atop the rotating crane cab on Foundation Scarboro.

Cofferdam #1 with the righting mast installed. A bridge (without railings!) extends back to the Pier at the right of the photo. So much for Health and Safety.

Righting masts installed, but with cofferdams removed, to show how the masts are attached to the side of the ship.

By July 26, 1942, the ship was ready to be righted. Tension was taken up on the cables attached to the two righting masts, and the ship was slowly righted. Presumably the hull was anchored to the bottom in some manner to ensure the hull rotated, and was not simply pulled away from the pier. 

Note: Mac Mackay of Shipfax was kind enough to tell me that this type of salvage is properly referred to as "parbuckle salvage", or "parbuckling". The "righting masts" as I call them above are properly called "bents".

Righting the Maurienne.

Just past 45 degrees.

Once righted, there was a release of air trapped in the ship.

Righted, but not yet refloated.

Believe it or not, this appears to have been the easy part of the salvage. Maurienne was still sitting on the bottom of Halifax Harbour, and needed to be refloated. Foundation Maritime elected to build a new, larger, cofferdam around the majority of the ship's deck. The cofferdam extended above the surface of the water at high tide (you can see the stains from the tidal cycles on the side of the cofferdam) so that the interior of the ship could be pumped out. 

Construction of the new cofferdam proceeds around a forward mast, ahead of the bridge which appears to the left of the image.

The view from inside the cofferdam, taken looking forward from aft of the funnel. To the right is a wooden frame that appears to be used to handle a couple of pumps. This may have been positioned over one of the ship's holds. 

The view from the deck of the ship itself, within the cofferdam.

Two of the Jaeger engines used during the salvage - I'm assuming these were diesel engines used to power centrifugal pumps.

The pumping operation is underway, and a deckhouse at the stern has just broken the surface.

Pumps running from inside a cofferdam to bring Maurienne to the surface.

Pumping continues. Taken on the port side this time, the ship's nameboards can be seen displaying "Maurienne". 

The cofferdam support framework on the starboard side next to the funnel, with the pumps running.

Some of the array of pumps that was used to bring Maurienne back to the surface. 

In conjunction with the pumping operation, barges with shear legs also appear to have been lifting at the bow, ahead of the cofferdam. These may have helped to keep the ship on an even keel during the refloating operation.

Pumps running from the cofferdam, with the bow gunwale appearing to the right. The barges with shear legs can also been seen lifting here. 

Returning to the surface, though still with a list to starboard.

With pumps still running, Maurienne arriving at the surface. The deckhouse from Image #120 above can be seen here, just behind the cofferdam.

In November of 1942, while Maurienne was once again afloat, work was ongoing and the ship still looked much the worse for wear.

The refloated Maurienne. What I assume are the remains of the attachments for Righting Mast #1 can be seen just above the waterline just forward of the bridge.

Maurienne from aft.

After the war ended, Maurienne was returned to her original owners and refitted once against for refrigerated cargo. She was sold several times after 1953 (and renamed), and suffered another fire in 1963 in Hong Kong that led to her scrapping.

The entire gallery of photos of the salvage operation can be seen here:

https://smcclearn.smugmug.com/Nautical/Foundation-Maritime-storage/4064-Maurienne/n-xh3bMC/i-4WGpSCS/A

Some of the photos appearing here came with captions explaining the procedure, but most did not, and I have interpreted (e.g. guessed) them to the best of my ability.

Bibliography & Acknowledgements:

Berlingieri, Francesco. (2014). "International Maritime Conventions: Volume 1 - The Carriage of Goods and Passengers by Sea". Informa Law, New York.

Bertke, Donald A; Smith, Gordon; Kindell, Don. (2013). "World War II Sea War - Volume 5". Bertke Publications, Dayton, Ohio, USA. Viewed online.

Nova Scotia Marine Heritage Wreck Database

Wrecksite.eu https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?35482

Photos from the AECON collection.

Heavy Lifting

Over the last twenty years or so, Halifax has hosted visits by several heavy lift platforms associated with the Sable Offshore Energy Project (SOEP). In fact, the second largest of these platforms in the world, Thialf (Halifax Shipping News has written a piece here) is sitting offshore of Halifax Harbour as I write this. Like Thialf, the modern generation of heavy lift platform, such as the Saipem 7000 (currently the world's third largest) is designed (among other things) to transport and place jackets and topsides for offshore oil and gas exploration and production platforms. I have yet to take any photos of Thialf due to the current COVID-19 quarantine, but I have previously written about the visits of Saipem 7000 (1998) and Heerema's Hermod (2003).

Saipem 7000 approaching the jetty in Woodside, with two SOEP jackets onshore to the left of the image.

Saipem 7000 now alongside and with the two jackets lifted onboard.

Shown here in Halifax in 2003, Hermod has since been scrapped. Heerema replaced her, and presumably her older sister Balder, with the new platforms Sleipnir and Thialf.

The history of floating crane platforms lifting heavy loads in Halifax Harbour goes back much further than the last twenty years, however, with (admittedly much smaller) heavy lifts occurring at least as far back as the Second World War. For use in their marine construction and salvage operations, the Foundation Company of Canada and their marine arm, Foundation Maritime, operated several such platforms bearing names such as Foundation Masson, Foundation Mersey, Foundation Scarboro, and Foundation Shipshaw (among others). The heaviest lifter of this bunch was Foundation Scarboro, with a lifting capacity of 230 tons on her shear legs.

One particular operation in 1945 or so involved lifting a number of small wooden tugboats onto a freighter to take them overseas. 

Foundation Scarboro lifting the tug CT65 onto a freighter, which appears to be the Fort Moose. 

"Under Tow" by Donal M. Baird recounts that twenty-two of these small 50-60 ton tugs of the Tanac-class were built of wood in small east coast boat yards, and many were shipped overseas as deckloads, with Britain and the Mediterranean as some of the destinations - one made it as far as Australia. Some remained in, or were repatriated to, Canada and served as late as the 1990s for companies such as Atlantic Towing.

In place of a name, the Tanacs initially carried the letters CT (for Canadian Tug) and a number. CT61 through CT65 were built on the South Shore of Nova Scotia by Industrial Shipping Co. Ltd. in Mahone Bay (61 through 63) and by Smith & Rhuland in Lunenburg (64 and 65). The Shipbuilding History website indicates that CT65 ended up in Italy under the name Tenax. 

Foundation Scarboro underway in Halifax with CT63 on the hook.

Lifting CT65.

Foundation Scarboro started off life with just the two shear legs fitted, but was later refitted to include a rotating derrick crane for more flexible but lighter lifting.

A close-up of the connection detail between the spreader bar and the tug.

A close-up of the connection detail between the spreader bar and the tug.

A close-up of the connection detail between the spreader bar and the tug.

A steel cable wrapped in padding passes down from the spreader bar and under the hull of the tug.

Presumably CT63 on board a freighter.

CT61 and another Tanac tug on-board their freighter. I'm not sure how many of these tugs a freighter could carry at once, but it was at least two at a time. In the top right of the image, just to the left of the bridge of the tug on the right, is what I assume is one of the old Halifax Harbour ferries.

CT64 onboard a freighter.

These tugs were build for the Ministry of War, who ultimately distributed them as needed. According to the Shipbuilding History website, a total of 265 of these tugs were built in Canada between approximately 1943 and 1946. Interestingly, as one of the hundreds of cargo vessels built in Canada during the war, Fort Moose was also built in Canada, at Montreal in 1943.

As it turns out, Foundation Maritime also operated a Tanac tug for a few years after the war, the Foundation Alice. She was built as CT262 at Smith & Rhuland in 1945, but was sold on from Foundation in 1948.

Foundation Alice.