Seaspan ULC explained

Seaspan ULC
Area Served:Pacific Northwest
Industry:Shipbuilding, Towing, and Short sea shipping
Num Employees:2,800
Predecessor:Seaspan Marine Corporation
Parent:Washington Companies
Homepage:www.seaspan.com

Seaspan ULC (formerly Seaspan Marine Corporation) provides marine-related services to the Pacific Northwest. Within the Group are three (3) shipyards, an intermodal ferry and car float business, along with a tug and barge transportation company that serves both domestic and international markets. Seaspan, is part of the Washington Companies that are owned by Dennis Washington. Kyle Washington (son of Dennis Washington), is the Executive Chairman of Seaspan, who has become a Canadian citizen.[1]

Seaspan ULC was formerly known as Seaspan Marine Corporation, and prior to that Washington Marine Group.[2]

Marine transportation

Seaspan ULC

Seaspan ULC evolved into a prominent marine transportation company serving the West Coast of North America with a large tugboat and barge fleet. Seaspan's barges haul forestry materials (logs, wood chips, hog fuel, lumber, pulp, paper and newsprint), minerals (construction aggregate and limestone), railcars, plus machinery, fuel and supplies to coastal communities. Seaspan also provides ship docking services to the Ports of Vancouver, Victoria, Esquimalt and other BC out ports.

Seaspan Ferries Corporation

Seaspan Ferries Corporation is a commercial roll on - roll off ferry service providing regularly scheduled transportation between British Columbia's Lower Mainland terminal in Delta and Vancouver Island's Nanaimo and Swartz Bayterminals.[3] Based in Delta, B.C., Seaspan Ferries Corporation transports semi-trailer trucks, containers, and rail cars on self-propelled ferries and integrated tug-barge units.[3] The train ferry is the link between the railways on the British Columbia mainland and the Southern Railway of Vancouver Island at Nanaimo.

Ships

Ocean tugs

Coastal tugs

Ship assist & escort tugs

River tugs

Ferries

Development in progress

Former vessels

Shipyards

Near to Pacific Northwest shipping lanes, Seaspan Shipyards are a resource for the region's important marine industry. The Group's operations consist of three shipyards.

Vancouver Drydock

Located on the north shore of Vancouver Harbour at the eastern end of the former Burrard Dry Dock site, Vancouver Drydock operates two floating drydocks with lifting capacities of 36,000 tonnes in a Panamax beam dock, and 30,000 tonnes in a self-contained deployable dock.

Seaspan plans to extend the Vancouver Drydock a further into Burrard Inlet, and then add three more smaller dry docks to increase its ship repair capacity at this site, to allow for increased shipbuilding efforts at its other sites.[7]

Vancouver Shipyards

Vancouver Shipyards designs, constructs, maintains, and repairs all types of vessels. The yard's facilities include a major steel forming shop, a large fabrication and assembly hall, a totally enclosed paint facility, and a SyncroLift capable of lifting vessels up to 1,200 tonnes.One of west coasts only LBTS (land based test site) is set up at Vancouver shipyards to test and integrate ship based systems prior to installation on ships.

Victoria Shipyards

Utilizing the Esquimalt Graving Dock, owned and operated by Public Services and Procurement Canada (formerly Public Works and Government Services Canada), Victoria Shipyards can drydock and repair vessels up to 100,000 DWT. Victoria Shipyards is the largest ship repair company on Canada's Pacific coast.

Other services

Marine Petrobulk

For over a quarter of a century, Marine Petrobulk has supplied all grades of bunker fuels to vessels entering the ports of Vancouver, New Westminster, Victoria, Prince Rupert, Kitimat and Nanaimo.

History

Seaspan, as it is known today, is the product of a series of acquisitions and mergers in the coastal marine transportation and shipbuilding/ship repair business. Seaspan was created in 1970 by the merger of two prominent coastal towing firms: Vancouver Tug Boat Company (formed in 1898 by Harry A Jones) and Island Tug & Barge (formed in 1924 by Harold Elworthy).[8] In addition to being the largest tug and barge operation on the lower coast, Vancouver Tug also owned Vancouver Shipyards. In 1968 or 1969,[8] Vancouver Tug was acquired by the construction firm Dillingham Corporation, while Island Tug & Barge was acquired by Genstar Ltd. in 1969. The following year, Genstar joined with Dillingham to merge Island Tug and Vancouver Tug into a new corporation, Seaspan International Ltd. (In 1993 the name "Island Tug and Barge" was sold to the Shields family, of Shields Navigation, and the current Island Tug and Barge is not affiliated with Seaspan.)

Another prominent branch of the family tree was C H Cates & Sons Towing, generally known as Cates Towing, which was the primary shipdocking tug outfit in the Port of Vancouver for much of the 20th Century. Captain Charles Henry Cates arrived from Machias, Maine in 1885 and built the first cargo-handling wharf on the North Vancouver waterfront. He expanded into boatbuilding and repair and his tugs towed barges of building stone and assisted ships in Burrard Inlet.[9] In 1913 he formed C H Cates Towing, then joined with his three sons, all master mariners, to incorporate the company as CH Cates and Sons Limited in 1921.[10]

Vancouver Shipyard was founded in 1902 at the foot of Denman Street in Vancouver's Coal Harbour. Primarily a builder of small fishing and pleasure boats, the company built two minesweepers for the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War.[11] It was acquired by Vancouver Tug in 1954. In 1968[11] or 1969,[8] both Vancouver Tug and Vancouver Shipyards were acquired by Dillingham Corporation and moved to their present site at the foot of Pemberton Avenue in North Vancouver, where a larger shipyard was established. Since that time the company has constructed, outfitted, or converted 192 tugs, barges and ferries at the shipyard.[11]

Seaspan acquired many of the assets of the former Versatile Pacific Shipyards in two separate transactions. First, Seaspan and Allied Shipbuilders formed a partnership and, with assistance from both Federal and Provincial governments, created Vancouver Drydock Company to acquire the floating drydocks and some onshore facilities in North Vancouver from the defunct firm. Seaspan later acquired Allied's interest in the company.

Meanwhile, in 1994 Vancouver Shipyards (Esquimalt) Ltd. (now Victoria Shipyards) was created at the Esquimalt Graving Dock to fill the void left when the Yarrows shipyard in Esquimalt went bankrupt. Since then, Victoria Shipyards has become prominent in refitting and repair of cruise ships and vessels of the Royal Canadian Navy, including life-extension servicing of the five s based at CFB Esquimalt and the four Victoria-class submarines. It built the fleet for the Royal Canadian Navy, constructed over two dozen search and rescue lifeboats for the Canadian Coast Guard, and assembled and launched the newest Seabus, the Burrard Pacific Breeze.[12]

Chronological history of Seaspan

([8] except where noted)

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Safe Harbour. 26 May 2012. The Globe and Mail. 25 May 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20160113060044/https://secure.globeadvisor.com/servlet/ArticleNews/story/gam/20120525/ROBMAG_JUNE2012_P32_33_34_35_36_38_39_40. 13 January 2016. dead.
  2. News: Marine corporation revives Seaspan. North Shore News. 6 February 2011.
  3. Web site: Commercial Ferry - Seaspan . seaspan.com . 24 August 2014 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20131115023102/http://www.seaspan.com/commercial_ferry.php . 15 November 2013.
  4. Web site: Path to zero emissions? Leave room for larger batteries . Riviera . En . 21 March 2023.
  5. https://www.flickr.com/photos/37908073@N04/3661243327 Greg George
  6. Web site: Joint support ship (JSS) . 13 March 2013 .
  7. Web site: Seaspan plan to expand North Van dry dock ruffles its waterfront neighbours . Vancouver Sun . Penner . Derrick . 25 July 2021 . 4 August 2021 .
  8. Web site: Seaspan . History . 15 June 2011.
  9. Web site: Burrard Inlet's North Shore . 15 June 2011 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110723012631/http://www.seaspan.com/docs/new%20docs/Western%20Mariner%20-%20July%202007%20-%20WMG,%20SIL,%20VSY.pdf . 23 July 2011 .
  10. Web site: Cates Towing . District of North Vancouver Socio-Historical Service Infrastructure . 15 June 2011.
  11. Web site: Tim . Colton . Vancouver Shipyard . 15 June 2011 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110827044608/http://shipbuildinghistory.com/history/canada/vancouver.htm . 27 August 2011.
  12. Web site: Tim . Colton . Victoria Shipyard . 15 June 2011 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110827044740/http://shipbuildinghistory.com/history/canada/victoria.htm . 27 August 2011.
  13. Web site: Marine Petrobulk Ltd (Head Office) - Operators & Charterers - Ship Operation - Global Maritime Directory. www.globmaritime.com . https://web.archive.org/web/20120324112051/http://www.globmaritime.com/directory/ship-operation/operators-and-charterers/marine-petrobulk-ltd-head-office.html . 24 March 2012.
  14. Web site: Seaspan Ferries Corporation . Seaspan . 24 August 2014.
  15. http://www.seaspan.com/_global/_content/docs/vsy1013.pdf Retrieved 15 June 2011
  16. News: Jubilation as Halifax Shipyard awarded contract . CBC News . 19 October 2011 . 21 October 2011.
  17. News: East, West coasts win shipbuilding contracts, Quebec frozen out . Vancouver Sun . 19 October 2011 . 21 October 2011.
  18. News: Shipyard Modernization Project . North Shore News . 21 October 2012 . 18 May 2017.
  19. News: Canada's largest permanent gantry crane arrives at Seaspan's Vancouver Shipyards. BC Shipping News . 21 October 2012 . 19 May 2017.
  20. Web site: Victoria Shipyards to share in $7-billion ship project . Times Colonist . Kines . Lindsay . The Canadian Press . 2 November 2018 . 4 August 2021 .

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