Canada Steamship Lines Decommissions 41-Year-old Bulker
Canada Steamship Lines' 41-year-old self-unloading bulk carrier Salarium has reached the end of its service life and will be dismantled at a ship recycling yard in Turkey, CSL Group announced.
The long-serving 35,656 DWT bulker made its final voyage at the end of 2019, loading salt in Bécancour, Que. on December 19 for discharge it in Oshawa, Ont. on December 27. The vessel was then laid up in Toronto until April 2020 when it was moved to Montreal.
A CSL Group spokesperson told MarineLink the company will finalize the ship recycling yard in Turkey next week, noting the dismantling will be performed in accordance with local legislation, international conventions and CSL’s Ship Recycling Policy.
Originally named Nanticoke, the 222.5-meter-long ship was built by CSL at Collingwood Shipyards and launched in December 1979. The vessel was designed and built to be able to service coastal trades.
During her maiden year of service in 1980, the vessel took part in the first-ever direct transhipment of coal to an ocean-going ship while at sea.
During the 1997 navigation season, Nanticoke along with sister ships, Atlantic Huron and Atlantic Erie, participated in the complex Hibernia offshore oil and gas project where the ships discharged magnetite ore to ballast the production platform to the ocean floor.
In April 2009, Nanticoke was chartered by Societé Québecoise d'Exploration Minière and renamed Salarium as a nod to the salt trades to which she would be primarily dedicated. The ship mainly transported salt between the Magdalene Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and ports along the lower St. Lawrence River, the Great Lakes and the East Coast of North America.
Between 2015 and 2020, the Salarium crew was involved in a whale sighting program initiated by the Marine Mammal Observation Network aiming to better understand the marine mammal distribution in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and protect and preserve the ecosystem.
