Seaspan Raven


Seaspan Marine Corp., the largest tugboat operation in the Vancouver, B.C. area on Canada's West Coast, has taken delivery of the first of four new tugs built in Turkey, with others either soon to arrive or on the way.

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{C} Seaspan Raven, the newest tug in the fleet of Seaspan Marine Corp., cruises in front of the Vancouver, B.C., waterfront. (Photo courtesy Seaspan Marine Corp.)

 
The company's newest tug, Seaspan Raven, ex-Terminal III, arrived on its own bottom in January, after a 10,000-mile voyage from Turkey. Three others in the four-boat series are due to arrive this summer and later this year.
 
These are 92-foot tugs with 5,000 hp and approximately 80 tons of bollard pull. They are described as RAstar 2800 escort and shipdocking tugs designed by Robert Allan Ltd., of Vancouver, and built at the Sanmar Denizcilik shipyard in Istanbul, Turkey.
 
Arrival of Seaspan Raven followed the arrival of another new tug, Seaspan Resolution, also a Robert Allan design, but that one built at J.M. Martinac Shipbuilding in Tacoma, Wash. Resolution is also larger at 98 feet, and more powerful at 6,000 hp with 82 tons bollard pull, than the Turkish-built newcomers. These new tugs are dramatic additions to Seaspan's fleet of roughly a dozen ship-assist tugs including seven ASD tractor-style tugs. Seaspan, a century-old company, is presently owned by The Washington Companies, a large Canadian conglomerate.
 
The company's new RAstar 2800 tugs currently arriving from Turkey are intended for ship-assist and escort work involving the Roberts Bank Superport in Delta, B.C. This newly-expanded facility, located about 20 miles from Vancouver's inner port, serves as both a busy container port and a sizable coal export facility. These tugs are the first in the Seaspan fleet to be set up for full FiFi-1 firefighting capability with firefighting equipment supplied by FFS AS of Norway. They also carry both Rolls-Royce bow-mounted hawser winches and Rolls-Royce towing winches on their sterns.

Seaspan Raven, at right, works with Seaspan Resolution, another new ASD tractor-style tug delivered last year. (Photo courtesy Seaspan Marine Corp.)

 
The new Turkish-built tugs were given temporary names while in the building and delivery phases — Seaspan Terminal III, IV, V and VI — and are then to be renamed, beginning with Seaspan Raven, upon re-documentation in Canada. The next tug from Turkey will be named Seaspan Eagle.
By Professional Mariner Staff