The shipping season is underway and as busy as anyone can remember.
Up to 14 ships are expected to arrive in the city in the next few days, the start of what Guy Jarvis says looks like a promising year at the Thunder Bay Port Authority.
“We’re looking forward to grain shipments. We’re also looking forward to more project cargo going through Keefer Terminal. The economy of western Canada, especially the oil sands and the wind projects are in high demand and we’re enthusiastic,” said Jarvis, the port authority’s harbour master.
“We’re going to get considerable shipments of grain for the spring. We’re also looking at windmill cargoes in April for Keefer Terminal.”
In the 2011 shipping season, the port enjoyed a bit of a resurgence after three years of falling tonnage levels.
More than 6.2 million tonnes of grain was processed last year, with total cargo weighing in at 7.6 million. In 2010 the port handled 5.2 million tonnes of grain and 6.8 million tonnes of cargo overall. The numbers are a far cry from 1983’s record-setting year when 17.6 million tonnes of grain and 23 million tonnes of cargo were processed.
Jarvis is hoping the upward trend will continue in 2012.
“We’re very optimistic that those growth projections will continue,” said Jarvis, who on Tuesday provided over the annual top hat ceremony welcoming the first ship of the season into the city.
Capt. Don Anderson piloted the 45-year-old Canadian vessel MV Tim S. Dool into the harbour on Tuesday morning, docking at Mission Terminal where it’s scheduled to take on 25,000 tonnes of durum wheat, bound next for Baie Comeau, Que.
It was the first of three ships to arrive in port on Tuesday, followed closely behind by the Kaministiqua and the Pineglen.
Anderson, who began his journey in Toronto on March 23, said they made their way up the Welland Canal, stopped in Sarnia, Ont. to refuel and made it into Thunder Bay at 3:40 a.m. He wasn’t expecting the reception he got, presented the ceremonial top hat and welcoming gifts from the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce.
“It was a bit of surprise knowing we were the first ship, but it’s always nice to be first sometimes, instead of bringing the rear as you do a lot of times in your shipping career,” said Anderson, who’s been on the waters since 1963 and plans to retire on June 1.
The ceremony was a great way to start his final season at the helm.
“It’s nice. It’s tradition and it brings a bit of uniqueness to a town that’s on the water.”
The top hat tradition began on the Welland Canal in the mid-19th century, when shipping magnates hung hats on the first ship of the season and on the first bridge.
The hats symbolize wealth, power and respect.
