Cape Cod Canal News

American Cruise Lines introduced its first new Coastal Cat, American Eagle, during a christening ceremony in at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy campus on Buzzards Bay last week.Carol Robertson, wife of American Cruise Lines’ founder the late Charles A. Robertson, served as godmother for the ship and christened the 100-passenger American Eagle with one of her handmade, ribbon-wrapped champagne bottles. The American Eagle is named after the first American Cruise Lines’ ship, which the couple launched in the 1970s.The ceremony began with remarks from Robertson…

U.S. Moose Boats, a boat designer and manufacturer in the San Francisco Bay Area, announced two recent vessel deliveries: a M2-35 Catamaran Patrol Boat to the Placer County Sheriff’s Office in Carnelian Bay, Calif., and a M2-38’ 3,000GPM Fire Rescue Catamaran to the Bellingham Fire Department in Bellingham, Wash. The builder has received an additional order to build a M2-38 Catamaran CBRNE Emergency Response and Recovery Vessel for the New Bedford Fire Department in Massachusetts.

Commissioned last week the new Tug Buckley McAllister is one of the most advanced Tractor Tug (ASD) on the U.S. East Coast. The new vessel is complimented with JonRie Winches fore and aft. The new tug a Jensen design is name after the fifth generation of McAllister’s and new President Buckley McAllister. The vessel is a Tier III 5,150 HP along with an ABS Escort Service along with FiFi1. The vessel 92’ long with a beam of 36’ will be in service on the Cape Cod Canal. The vessel…

Massachusetts’ Cape Cod Canal will remain closed daily from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Friday, February 7, 2014 to permit maintenance work on the vertical life railroad bridge across the canal. The Canal may be open on Saturday, February 1 and/or Sunday, February 2 if repair operations permit. A bulletin on January 14 originally announced that the Cape Cod Canal would resume normal operations on January 31, but unavoidable delays prolonged maintenance work.

Mass. Maritime responds to industry demand, reloads with cutting edge Transas equipment, and moves to the head of the brown water training queue. It was a dark and stormy night with choppy seas. I didn’t hit anything, but I did run aground twice while at the helm of the tug boat simulator at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy (MMA) in Buzzards Bay. But then that’s the point – to let students safely make mistakes and get the closest thing to the real-life experience they need – and would have a limited shot at otherwise on the equipment they’ll be handling where the jobs are today…

The Coast Guard issued a news release stating that it responded to an allision between a tug and barge taking on water near the Cape Cod Canal Wednesday. At 11:28 p.m. Tuesday, watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England were notified from the crew of the 112-foot tug Doris Morian, homeported in Wilmington, Del., that they had reportedly lost power while towing the 410-foot barge Alexander and the two allided. The Doris Morian crew was able to tow the Alexander outside of the Canal into Buzzards Bay to an anchorage approximately two miles east of West Island. The barge is taking on approximately five-feet of water and pumps are keeping up with the water. The barge is carrying cement and was en route to New York. There has been no reported impact to the environment.

Massachusetts Maritime Academy unveils new simulation facilities in newly opened American Bureau of Shipping Information Commons Building. Massachusetts Maritime Academy (MMA) recently hosted the grand opening ceremony for the start-of-the-art, American Bureau of Shipping Information Commons Building, which houses the Academy’s new cutting-edge Full Mission Ship Simulator, supplied by Transas USA Inc. The 42,000 square foot academic building combines maritime tradition with the latest technology in maritime training…

Chief Petty Officer Robert Devoy, the executive petty officer Station Cape Cod Canal, awards an athlete a gold medal during the Massachusetts Special Olympics, Friday, Sept. 24, 2010. The Cape Cod Chief Petty Officer's Association has hosted the Special Olympics for 22 years since its creation. U.S. Coast Guard photo/Petty Officer 3rd Class Luke Clayton.

Tideland Signal is proud to have worked with the Sandy Neck Lighthouse Committee, supplying them with a new ML-300 SolaChan and MaxiHALO-60 LED light source to bring the Sandy Neck Lighthouse back to life. First constructed in 1857, the Sandy Neck Lighthouse is located on the Sandy Neck Peninsula, just over eight miles away from Cape Cod Canal, a major artery for outgoing and incoming ocean tonnage. Decommissioned by the United States Coast Guard in 1932, a restoration committee was formed in 2004 with the aim of restoring the lighthouse in time for its 150th birthday. After years of hard work, the Sandy Neck Lighthouse Restoration Committee raised enough money to restore the Lantern Room, reopening it in 2007 using an optic with a 4 nautical mile visual range.

We rolled into town on the last train north, arriving Portland, Maine at 2:00 a.m. Half an hour later we were at the dock, hauling our kit - and when Marine News travels light, we're like Hannibal crossing the Alps - over silent tugs resting abreast: Captain Bill, Justine McAllister, Stamford. On the phone a few days before, Capt. Brian Fournier had said something about leaving a light in Stamford's forward port cabin, and there, finally, it shone. But something brighter had caught our eye, and could we believe it? Last time we saw something like it, it was in Aberdeen, Scotland. Now, from Stamford's starboard rail, it loomed and glistened four hundred feet away - rising nearly as high - a pair of deep-sea drilling platforms, afloat waters barely up to their ankles.

April 27, 2004, marks one year since the Bouchard tank barge B. No. 120 ran aground and spilled approximately 55,000 gallons of Number 6 fuel oil in Buzzards Bay. Coast Guard Marine Safety Office (MSO) Providence has been working with several of its partners the past year to clean up the spill and to implement changes that can help prevent a similar disaster in the future. To date, more than $40 million has been spent on cleanup efforts. 99.8 percent of the shoreline areas that were oiled as a result of the spill have been cleaned, inspected by a combined team representing federal, state, local, and responsible party representatives, and found to meet the cleanup criteria under Massachusetts state law.

When was the last time 15 ocean ships docked almost all at once in New York, and undocked again, and sometimes redocked in-between, all in a week? In the near-400 years since the Dutch first arrived, there have been events even larger. But not many of them lately. Lately, large get-togethers of harbor craft in the most visible parts of the port - upper bay and lower North River - usually surround festive celebrations like the Tug Races and their accompanying games, great entertainment for young and old. But more stirring to watch than tugs at play are tugs at work. Barges go up and down the rivers regularly, but shipdocking, the lively part of tugboating, is concealed from the public eye off the remote corners of Staten Island and the containerports of Newark Bay.

At press time, the Coast Guard approved a repair and transport plan for the Bouchard Transportation B-120 barge responsible for the Buzzard's Bay oil spill. The swift current in the Cape Cod Canal prevents divers from installing a patch at the current location. The barge will be moved from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Bourne, Mass., to the Esco fuel terminal in Sandwich, Mass., for temporary repairs before continuing to New York. The Coast Guard and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts continue to direct the clean up operations in the Buzzard's Bay oil spill. -- More than 750 people are involved in shoreline clean up and spill management operations. -- An estimated 175 volunteers are involved in wildlife rehabilitation and related activities.

The Executive Office of Environmental Affairs (EOEA) for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has modified the scope of an application for the designation of a "no-discharge zone." In 1998, the EOEA submitted a proposal to the EPA for a "no-discharge" designation encompassing all coastal waters within the jurisdiction of the state. In 1999, the application was withdrawn due to the substantial costs associated with providing the requisite pump-out facilities and strong opposition from local communities. The EOEA has now decided to pursue "no-discharge" designations for individual embayments and/or areas of particular environmental concern. The agency is preparing an application for Buttermilk Bay, located at the southern end of the Cape Cod Canal.

The USCG has established a temporary regulated navigation area for U.S. and foreign flag vessels transiting the Cape Cod Canal during the peak Y2K risk period of February 27-29, 2000 (the regulations were also in effect from December 30, 1999 to January 1, 2000). U.S. vessels are required to notify the Captain of the Port (COTP), Marine Safety Office, Providence, R.I., 24 hours in advance of transiting the canal. Foreign flag vessel owners are also required to notify and report Y2K preparedness to the COTP 24 hours in advance of transiting the Cape Cod Canal. An interim rule published in July 1999 requiring all vessels to notify the USCG of arrival at ports did not include vessel transits of the Cape Cod Canal.

Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company has been notified its project team for the Boston Harbor Navigation Improvement Project has been named to receive a Hammer Award from Vice-President Al Gore. The Hammer Awards are presented by Gore's National Partnership for Reinventing Government to recognize achievements in partnerships between governmental agencies and the private sector. The team honored is comprised of Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company, Massachusetts Port Authority, the USACE, the Massachusettes Department of Environmental Protection and the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management. The team is being honored for its approach to dredging two major shipping channels - Boston Harbor and the Cape Cod Canal - which resulted in a direct savings of $1.5 million to taxpayers…

Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company has been notified its project team for the Boston Harbor Navigation Improvement Project has been named to receive a Hammer Award from Vice-President Al Gore. The Hammer Awards are presented by Gore's National Partnership for Reinventing Government to recognize achievements in partnerships between governmental agencies and the private sector. The team honored is comprised of Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company, Massachusetts Port Authority, the USACE, the Massachusettes Department of Environmental Protection and the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management. The team is being honored for its approach to dredging two major shipping channels - Boston Harbor and the Cape Cod Canal - which resulted in a direct savings of $1.5 million to taxpayers…