Washington Marine Group
Encyclopedia
Seaspan Marine Corporation provides marine-related services to the Pacific Northwest
. Within the Group are three shipyard
s, an intermodal ferry
business, and a tug and barge
transportation company that serves both domestic and international markets. Seaspan Marine Corporation is part of the Washington Companies, owned by Dennis Washington
. Seaspan Marine Corporation was formerly known as Washington Marine Group.
and barge
fleet. Seaspan's barges haul materials from the forest (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.
service providing regularly scheduled transportation between British Columbia's Lower Mainland terminal and Vancouver Island's Nanaimo terminal. Based in Delta, B.C., Seaspan Ferries Corporation transports semi-trailer truck
s, containers
, and rail cars on self-propelled ferries
and integrated tug-barge
units.
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 Marine Corporation as we know it 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). In addition to being the largest tug and barge operation on the lower coast, Vancouver Tug also owned Vancouver Shipyards. In 1968 or 1969, 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.
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 North Vancouver waterfront. He expanded expanded into boatbuilding and repair and his tugs towed barges fo building stone and assisted ships in Burrard Inlet
. 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.
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. It was acquired by Vancouver Tug in 1954. In 1968 or 1969, 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 171 tugs, barges and ferries at the shipyard.
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 ship
s and vessels of the Canadian Navy
, including life-extension servicing of the five Halifax Class Frigates
based at CFB Esquimalt
and the four Victoria Class submarines. It built the Orca class patrol vessel fleet for the 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.
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
. Within the Group are three shipyard
Shipyard
Shipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance and basing activities than shipyards, which are sometimes associated more with initial...
s, an intermodal ferry
Ferry
A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...
business, and a tug and barge
Barge
A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and need to be towed by tugboats or pushed by towboats...
transportation company that serves both domestic and international markets. Seaspan Marine Corporation is part of the Washington Companies, owned by Dennis Washington
Dennis Washington
Dennis R. Washington is a Montana-based industrialist and philanthropist who owns, or co-owns controlling interest in, a large consortium of privately held companies collectively known as the Washington Companies and, in Canada, another collection of companies known as the Washington Marine Group...
. Seaspan Marine Corporation was formerly known as Washington Marine Group.
Seaspan Marine Corporation
Seaspan Marine Corporation has evolved into a prominent marine transportation company serving the West Coast of North America with a large tugboatTugboat
A tugboat is a boat that maneuvers vessels by pushing or towing them. Tugs move vessels that either should not move themselves, such as ships in a crowded harbor or a narrow canal,or those that cannot move by themselves, such as barges, disabled ships, or oil platforms. Tugboats are powerful for...
and barge
Barge
A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and need to be towed by tugboats or pushed by towboats...
fleet. Seaspan's barges haul materials from the forest (logs, wood chips
Woodchips
Woodchips are a medium-sized solid material made by cutting, or chipping, larger pieces of wood. Woodchips may be used as a biomass solid fuel. They may also be used as an organic mulch in gardening, landscaping, restoration ecology and mushroom cultivation...
, hog fuel, lumber
Lumber
Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....
, pulp
Pulp (paper)
Pulp is a lignocellulosic fibrous material prepared by chemically or mechanically separating cellulose fibres from wood, fibre crops or waste paper. Wood pulp is the most common raw material in papermaking.-History:...
, paper
Paper
Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, drawing or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
and newsprint
Newsprint
Newsprint is a low-cost, non-archival paper most commonly used to print newspapers, and other publications and advertising material. It usually has an off-white cast and distinctive feel. It is designed for use in printing presses that employ a long web of paper rather than individual sheets of...
), minerals (construction aggregate
Construction Aggregate
Construction aggregate, or simply "aggregate", is a broad category of coarse particulate material used in construction, including sand, gravel, crushed stone, slag, recycled concrete and geosynthetic aggregates. Aggregates are the most mined material in the world...
and limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
), 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 ferryFerry
A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...
service providing regularly scheduled transportation between British Columbia's Lower Mainland terminal and Vancouver Island's Nanaimo terminal. Based in Delta, B.C., Seaspan Ferries Corporation transports semi-trailer truck
Semi-trailer truck
A semi-trailer truck, also known as a semi, tractor-trailer, or articulated truck or articulated lorry, is an articulated vehicle consisting of a towing engine , and a semi-trailer A semi-trailer truck, also known as a semi, tractor-trailer, or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) articulated truck...
s, containers
Intermodal container
An intermodal container is a standardized reusable steel box used for the safe, efficient and secure storage and movement of materials and products within a global containerized intermodal freight transport system...
, and rail cars on self-propelled ferries
Train ferry
A train ferry is a ship designed to carry railway vehicles. Typically, one level of the ship is fitted with railway tracks, and the vessel has a door at the front and/or rear to give access to the wharves. In the United States, train ferries are sometimes referred to as "car ferries", as...
and integrated tug-barge
Car float
A railroad car float or rail barge is an unpowered barge with rail tracks mounted on its deck. It is used to move railroad cars across water obstacles, or to locations they could not otherwise go, and is pushed by a towboat or towed by a tugboat...
units.
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 DockBurrard Dry Dock
Burrard Dry Dock Ltd. was a Canadian shipbuilding company headquartered in North Vancouver, British Columbia . Together with the neighboring North Van Ship Repair yard and the Yarrows Ltd...
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.
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 1200 tonnes.Victoria Shipyards
Utilizing the Esquimalt Graving Dock, owned and operated by Public Works and Government Services of 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.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
Note: There are many differences in dates between the Seaspan corporate history web page and other references; in such cases, the dates stated in the most reliable reference and on the Seaspan corporate history web page are both given.Seaspan Marine Corporation as we know it 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). In addition to being the largest tug and barge operation on the lower coast, Vancouver Tug also owned Vancouver Shipyards. In 1968 or 1969, 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.
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 North Vancouver waterfront. He expanded expanded into boatbuilding and repair and his tugs towed barges fo building stone and assisted ships in Burrard Inlet
Burrard Inlet
Burrard Inlet is a relatively shallow-sided coastal fjord in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Formed during the last Ice Age, it separates the City of Vancouver and the rest of the low-lying Burrard Peninsula from the slopes of the North Shore Mountains, home to the communities of West...
. 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.
Vancouver Shipyard was founded in 1902 at the foot of Denman Street in Vancouver's Coal Harbour
Coal Harbour
Coal Harbour is the name for a section of Burrard Inlet lying between Vancouver, Canada's downtown peninsula and the Brockton Peninsula of Stanley Park...
. Primarily a builder of small fishing and pleasure boats, the company built two minesweepers for the Royal Canadian Navy
Royal Canadian Navy
The history of the Royal Canadian Navy goes back to 1910, when the naval force was created as the Naval Service of Canada and renamed a year later by King George V. The Royal Canadian Navy is one of the three environmental commands of the Canadian Forces...
during the Second World War. It was acquired by Vancouver Tug in 1954. In 1968 or 1969, 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 171 tugs, barges and ferries at the shipyard.
Seaspan acquired many of the assets of the former Versatile Pacific Shipyards
Burrard Dry Dock
Burrard Dry Dock Ltd. was a Canadian shipbuilding company headquartered in North Vancouver, British Columbia . Together with the neighboring North Van Ship Repair yard and the Yarrows Ltd...
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 ship
Cruise ship
A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way...
s and vessels of the Canadian Navy
Canadian Forces Maritime Command
The Royal Canadian Navy , is the naval force of Canada. The RCN is one of three environmental commands within the unified Canadian Forces. Operating 33 warships and several auxiliary vessels, the Royal Canadian Navy consists of 8,500 Regular Force and 5,100 Primary Reserve sailors, supported by...
, including life-extension servicing of the five Halifax Class Frigates
Halifax class frigate
The Halifax-class frigate is a class of multi-role patrol frigates that have served the Royal Canadian Navy since 1992...
based at CFB Esquimalt
CFB Esquimalt
Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt is Canada's Pacific Coast naval base and home port to Maritime Forces Pacific and Joint Task Force Pacific Headquarters....
and the four Victoria Class submarines. It built the Orca class patrol vessel fleet for the Canadian Navy, constructed over two dozen search and rescue lifeboats
Lifeboat (rescue)
A rescue lifeboat is a boat rescue craft which is used to attend a vessel in distress, or its survivors, to rescue crewmen and passengers. It can be hand pulled, sail powered or powered by an engine...
for the canadian coast guard
Canadian Coast Guard
The Canadian Coast Guard is the coast guard of Canada. It is a federal agency responsible for providing maritime search and rescue , aids to navigation, marine pollution response, marine radio, and icebreaking...
, and assembled and launched the newest Seabus
SeaBus
The SeaBus is a passenger-only ferry service in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It crosses Burrard Inlet to connect the cities of Vancouver and North Vancouver. The SeaBus is owned and operated by the Coast Mountain Bus Company and is an important part of TransLink's integrated public...
, the Burrard Pacific Breeze.
Chronological History of Seaspan
( except where noted)- 1972 - Seaspan acquires F.M. Yorke & Sons Ltd
- 1973 - Genstar purchased Dillingham's interest and obtained full ownership of Seaspan
- 1977 - Seaspan acquires Gulf of Georgia Towing
- 1980 - Marine Petrobulk Ltd (50% owned by Seaspan) is created to provide fuelling services to vessels in the ports of Vancouver, New Westminster, Victoria, Nanaimo, Kitimat and Prince Rupert.
- 1986 - Imasco Ltd. acquired Genstar and gains controlling interest in Seaspan, then sells Seaspan to McLuan Capital Group later that year
- 1992 - Dennis Washington makes his first investment in British Columbia's marine industry by purchasing C. H. Cates & Sons Towing and its subsidiary Seaforth Towing.
- 1995 - Washington acquires Norsk Towing from Fletcher Challenge.
- 1996 - Washington purchases Seaspan.
- 1997 - Washington purchases Kingcome Navigation from MacMillan Bloedel. Kingcome's roots go back to 1912 when it was formed to tow logs from logging camps to the paper mill in Powell River, British ColumbiaPowell River, British ColumbiaPowell River is a city on the northern Sunshine Coast of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Most of its population lives near the eastern shores of Malaspina Strait, that part of the larger Georgia Strait between Texada Island and the Mainland...
. - 1998 - Washington purchases the rail and truck ferry service of Coastal Marine Operations from the Canadian Pacific RailwayCanadian Pacific RailwayThe Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
; it becomes a subsidiary of Seaspan and is renamed Seaspan Coastal Intermodal. - 1999 - Seaspan, Cates, Seaforth, Norsk and Kingcome are all amalgamated into Seaspan International. Dennis Washington sets up Washington Marine Group with separate divisions for towing, shipbuilding and ship repair, coastal intermodal, and bunkering services.
- 2010 - Vancouver Shipyards is shortlisted for the Federal Government's National Shipbulding Procurement Strategy (NSPS). The program, worth CAD$35 billion, is planned to build replacement ships for the Canadian Navy and Coast Guard over a 30 year period. Two Canadian shipyards will be selected, one to build combat vessels, the other non-combat vessels.
- 2011 - In a corporate restructuring, Washington Marine Group is renamed Seaspan Marine Corporation; the shipbuilding, coastal ferries and bunkering services become subsidiaries of the towing division.
- 2011 - As the winning bidder of the $8 billion non-combat package of a $35 billion federal shipbuilding contract on 19 October 2011, Seaspan Marine will build 7 and possibly 8 vessels for the Canadian Coast Guard and Department of National Defence. These will include science vessels, fisheries vessles, polar icebreaker CCGS John G. Diefenbaker, and 2 or 3 support vesselsJoint Support Ship ProjectThe Joint Support Ship Project is a project undertaken by the Canadian Forces to provide Canada with three multirole naval vessels. The Joint Support Ship will enable a Naval Task Group to remain at sea for up to six times longer than is currently possible...
for the Royal Canadian NavyRoyal Canadian NavyThe history of the Royal Canadian Navy goes back to 1910, when the naval force was created as the Naval Service of Canada and renamed a year later by King George V. The Royal Canadian Navy is one of the three environmental commands of the Canadian Forces...
.