Firefighters respond to fire on McAsphalt Advantage
HAMILTON, ON – The Hamilton Fire Department and multiple other units responded to a reported ship fire Thursday night at Hamilton’s Pier 25 S, where the new asphalt/bitumen tanker McAsphalt Advantage was moored. There are no further details available, but as of Friday morning the fire appears to have been minor.
The 459-foot-long McAsphalt Advantage is owned by McAsphalt Industries Ltd. and recently arrived on the Great Lakes from her builder, Wuhu Shipyard Co. Ltd., Wuhu, China.
Video courtesy Ship Junkies: https://www.facebook.com/1624856879/videos/pcb.1306850814076269/1114699276260443
Theodore Tugboat replica “safely righted and refloated,” says owner
Theodore Too, the replica tugboat named after a years-long TV series, has been refloated in St. Catharines, Ont., after partially sinking this week, according to the boat’s owner.
Theodore Too “was safely righted and refloated” at about 3 p.m. ET on Thursday, said a statement from Breakwater Financial.
Blair McKeil, CEO of Breakwater Financial, said Wednesday that the tugboat took on water and was “gently resting on the bottom in the mud” near a deck.
The Theodore Too tugboat, a giant replica of a popular character on a CBC children’s series, is currently sitting at the bottom of the Welland Canal in St. Catharines, Ont. The vessel started sinking yesterday, at a shipyard where it is docked for the winter. CBC’s Greg Ross has more.
The company thanked Ontario Shipyards, where Theodore Too is located, for their “immediate assistance and expertise” in refloating it.
The statement said the Canadian Coast Guard’s Urgent Response Team provided equipment to mitigate “any environmental concerns while refloating the vessel.”
Theodore Tugboat was a children’s television show that aired on CBC from 1993 to 2001. Theodore Too was built in Dayspring, N.S., in 2000. Its official birthday is May 5.
Theodore Too left its province of origin in 2021 after being sold to McKeil to promote marine careers and raise awareness for the conservation of water resources.
Theodore Too started taking on water Tuesday night. A day later, McKeil said the cause of the “unfortunate incident” remained unclear.
Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said on social media that Theodore Too is a “true” icon of the province and he was “sad to see” the tugboat in “such a damaged state.”
“I’m happy to read the owner is committed to repairing Theodore and a safe and successful refloat,” he said in the post on X, formerly Twitter, earlier this week.
Listen to a news report from CBC here: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/theodore-tugboat-safely-righted-1.7415557
Share your boat-themed Christmas and holiday cards
Continuing a Boatnerd tradition, we invite you to share your boat-themed Christmas and holiday cards on our discussion board at https://newsearch.boatnerd.com/viewforum.php?f=6 (attachments must be under 2 MB. Please add to the existing thread.
MHSD’s Ahoy & Farewell III book
documents 30 years of laker history
Ahoy & Farewell III, the third installment of the Marine Historical Society of Detroit’s long-running series marking the MHSD’s 80th anniversary, is now available. The book documents the vessels we welcomed, and those to which we had to bid farewell, during the last 30 years. This 308-page, hardcover book features many color photos, with multiple images of each vessel referenced.
In a departure from the MHSD’s previous volumes, the nearly 308-page, hardcover book includes color photos, with multiple images of every vessel. The book’s authors are marine historians William Moran and Viktor Kaczkowski, and Know Your Ships publisher Roger LeLievre.
“Putting the book together has been a much greater challenge than any of us had expected,” Kaczkowski said. “With the influx of foreign-built new and used tonnage, writing the histories required a lot more research to ensure the information was correct, particularly due to the wide variety of languages that came into play.”
Order Ahoy & Farewell III now at MHSD.org.
