Boat-Hunting in Hamilton
This is the third blog post thus far recounting the events of Saturday, February 23rd. I began in Port Colborne, then made a shorter stop in Port Weller before arriving in Hamilton at about 10:30 AM. My first destination in Hamilton? The entrance drive outside of an RV dealership that leads to Richardson Grain, among a few other businesses. It’s the Eastport Area of Hamilton, an area not especially friendly to boatwatchers.
But I hunt boats, and I’ll do whatever it takes to get a half-decent shot (as long as I’m not knowingly breaking any laws). What you see here is the Provmar Fuels fleet, now the Sterling Fuels fleet, at Pier 24. The barge up front is McAsphalt 401, the storage replacement for the Provmar Terminal II that was featured in Sunday’s post at the Port Colborne scrapyard. Behind is Provmar Terminal, which serves as the other storage barge. Rafter alongside is the soon-to-be-replaced bunkering tanker Hamilton Energy.
The strange self-unloader Algoma Navigator sits in winter lay-up at Pier 22. This is not a pretty shot but it’s better than any other view of this dock.
At Pier 25, aka Richardson Grain, the little bulk carrier Manitoba sits in winter lay-up with the larger Algoma Discovery just ahead. Even further ahead on the right side of the photo is the Algoma Spirit, a near-sister to the Discovery.
I also went out to the Burlington Piers for a long-distance view of the Eastport area… on the right is the Algoma Transport at Pier 26 and to her left is the Algoma Navigator at 22.
The Transport was drydocked and repainted in Thunder Bay last Spring, but it’s not so easy to tell that her paint job is recent.
Something I don’t usually do is pull over on the road and shoot out of an open car window, but it proved advantageous in this case. Like I said, you’ve gotta try some different things to get even half-decent pictures over here.
Now I’m out of Eastport, past the two steel mills, and over at Pier 15, aka the Heddle Shipyard. At this point I’m just “spyshotting” through a fence, similar to the kind of shooting I have to do in Toledo. The black and yellow barge is the cement barge St. Marys Cement which was inactive in 2012 due to a lack of cargoes. The blue tank barge is the Hannah 5101, which is for sale and has been since around 2009.
A pair of big tugs sits inactive at the shipyard. Petite Forte, on the left, is the tug for the St. Marys Cement, and like her barge, she is simply waiting for cargoes to pick up. On the right, the tug Pacific Standard has been for sale for some time now and there appears to be no future for this tug.
The Torontonian passenger vessel Aurora Borealis sits at the shipyard. She appears to have just received her five-year survey in drydock.
In the next slip over, the powered sectional ferry barge Viateur’s Spirit sits in winter lay-up. This interesting vessel is part of the McKeil Marine fleet, but I’m not sure where she operates. This is the first time I’ve ever seen her. She could be in Hamilton for drydocking. Interestingly enough, she can be shipped by road as she is a fully sectional barge. I wonder if that’s how she arrived in Hamilton this winter.
At the end of the slip, the tug Evans McKeil sits, with articulated tug Salvor and her barge Lambert Spirit just behind.
Evans is typically assigned to the cement barge Metis seen in this post from Friday, but when that barge is inactive she spends her time on a variety of towing jobs such as this with the barge PML 2501 from back in December.
Hiding behind the McKeil vessels is the 1962-built steamer Algoma Montrealais. The oldest active vessel in the Algoma Central fleet, she is preparing for her 51st season.
Down in the Bunge Slip, fleetmates Cuyahoga and Robert S. Pierson enjoy winter rest together.
Cuyahoga is loaded with a storage cargo for Bunge. I’m not sure what that whitish smudge is on her stern, but it’s definitely on the boat and not my lens!
That concludes the first of two posts from Hamilton! By the time I was done with this portion of the harbor it was about 11:30 AM and the day was progressing faster and faster. I’m over halfway done yet I still have a lot to do! Stay tuned for the second Hamilton post and the remainder of this saga…
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