Happy New Year Y'all

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The Dieselduck
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Happy New Year Y'all

Post by The Dieselduck »

I'm back at work with McKeil; flew east a couple days ago. Working on the Evans McKeil, a riveted hull tug built in the mid 1930s. Considering its age, its in impressive shape. Kinda neat to see the riveted structure of the ship, a sight I haven't seen since my first job aboard a ship, the 1956 built MV Anscomb, now at the bottom of Kootenay Lake.

A former Fednav ship, Orsula ran aground just after Christmas, near Cape Vincent on Lake Ontario (beginning of the St Lawrence) the ship was pulled off, after lightering the ship of 2100 tons of wheat onto a barge, now we just have to get the barge to Hamilton. Anyways, last minute job notice, so always something interesting in this business. Wishing you all the best since we will be out of Internet range soon...

Thank all for making this community a great place to share and learn. Happy new 2014, wow, is it really 2014 already, where does the time go?
Martin Leduc
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http://www.dieselduck.net
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JK
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Re: Happy New Year Y'all

Post by JK »

I hope you brought your fur-lined drawers-winter is rolling in ahead of schedule this year.
If the Gulf of St Lawrence freezes like the 70s and 80s, it will be interesting watching the icebreakers try to cope.

Happy New Year Martin and to the rest of the regulars here.
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JollyJack
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Re: Happy New Year Y'all

Post by JollyJack »

Think of all that tax money wasted on keeping Montreal open, all these schools which won't get built because of "austerity", the hospital beds which will close because of "restraint", what a waste. There's perfectly good container port in Halifax and a pipeline from Portland, both of which can feed cargo to Montreal faster and cheaper than breaking ice. Both are controlled from.......Montreal!! I wonder if things will change now Rissuto is in the ground?
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Re: Happy New Year Y'all

Post by Aavenger »

Happy New Year To You Mr.Leduc Really enjoy your museings................
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JK
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Re: Happy New Year Y'all

Post by JK »

JollyJack when I was a kid, Saint John NB did a roaring break bulk trade with ships in and out of the harbour daily with a sugar refinery, refinery, pulp mills and a shipyard. There were paper shipments, potatoes, timbers and forest products going out. In the mid 70s a container pier was built and break bulk dwindled. I am not sure of dates, but once ships could get into Montreal and above, year around, Saint John, once a very busy port, became a ghost town.

The money pumped by the Federal Government into the St Lawrence Seaway and the support to keep it open in the winter must be astronomical
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JollyJack
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Re: Happy New Year Y'all

Post by JollyJack »

and it all flows down the golden pipeline from Ottawa to Quebec City. Whenever "separation!" is yelled, the valve is opened a bit more.

I worked in St John Shipbuilding when all that was going strong. Canaport is still operating, the pulp mill still stinks but both shipyard and sugar refinery are closed. Not sure why the refinery closed, but the shipyard closure was teamwork between aggressive, muttonheaded Unions and aggressive, greedy empire-builders. (same empire builders who have used NS gov money to drive piles in Halifax shipyard for condo towers) I don't see Halifax shipyard having a lot of Union problems though.
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JK
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Re: Happy New Year Y'all

Post by JK »

Well the hole is still there in Saint John, though the cranes are gone. I darn near cried when they dynamited them. They were probably past their best-by date by then. Who knows if it will ever resurrect. My brother worked at the site for several years as part of the Point Lapreau retubing, they were using the buildings.
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