Cape Breton's Magazine

BERTHING OF SUPERTANKERS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4 Tug Captain Anstey (Point Melford): There is no specific special training for the tugs that handle supertankers. We found ourselves that we'd handled vessels in Cana? da up to 150,000 tons and this was no great difference to what we'd already done. It's not so much special training as experience over a number of years. The pilots do go to a special school in France but they haven't got a school for tugs. You're brought up on tugs. Our responsibility is to be there in time to meet the ship, and to put our tug in the position the pilot wants. Then we put ourselves under his or? ders for docking. We do not do anything on our own. The only time that we can work contrary to the pilot is when we see our tug in danger. fToui/'iG- ' H(c To KooKL Tug Captain Chaisson (Point Tupper): We've never had difficulty with a supertanker. We've had difficulty, such as high winds and a light tanker, A 20,000 ton tanker coming in is coming in for cargo. They draw only about 15 feet back aft and about 9 forward. So you haven't got the draft and the least little thing on the wind and it just goes sideways. If the ship is about stopped like a supertanker, we have only the weight of the tug and the horsepower • but with a smaller vessel we're being towed through the water • and all that comes on the line. With a small ship every? thing happens quicker • when we push them they go like all heck. A full speed push on a supertanker of over 200,000 tons takes time to come into effect. Pilot Roy Bennett: The small ships are a danger because they're often worn out. They maybe sailed under the Norwegian, British, Dutch, United States flag • and they sell them and they come up with a Lyberian flag more often than not • flying a flag of convenience. What I brought in last night was 60,200 and some deadweight tons; that would be 420,000 barrels of crude. Gulf doesn't consider that a large ship. The a- gent at Point Tupper, John Shaw, has a tanker register book • and it's amazing the number of ships of over 200 and over 300 tons today. But I think the ecological problem is with the smaller tankers, ships upward of 20,000 tons-'same as the Arrow a few years ago. That type of ship if it's operating under a flag of convenience, hard to find out who the owner is, the navigational aids are malfunctioning • that was the report on the Arrow. But the ship came up from Venezuela and made the turn into the bay • it was a clear day • there was just a slip-up somewhere. But as far as the pilot is concerned, you handle the humblest of ships with as much caution as you handle the greatest. You have radar and other aids. Since this past winter the Eddy Pbint Traffic Regulating System is there. And you have your clues: We watch the bouys. You can see the tidal effect on the bouys, the swirling • that's a good clue. When I'm docking the ship I get various objects ashore in transit to give me an idea of how rapidly the ship is going sideways when I'm going sideways. You must do that. You can't just look at a fixed object. It must be two in transit. You'll see if you ?? ..-./ ' Cape Breton's Maga2ine/21