Sealift company expands fleet with 2 more vessels
Desgagnés says it has spent $100 million in last 12 months expanding operations
A sealift crew removes cargo from a Desgagnés ship last summer. It was the first sealift company to bring cargo directly to the dock at Iqaluit’s new deepsea port. (Photo by Jorge Antunes)
Sealift company Desgagnés has added two new cargo ships to its fleet of vessels.
The addition of the two ships will create more than 80 direct jobs and “further improve maritime service to northern communities … which [the company] has been serving for nearly 60 years,” Louis-Marie Beaulieu, chairman and CEO of Desgagnés, said in a release Monday.
The first vessel was to dock at the port of Trois-Rivières on June 10 to start its Arctic season. The second ship will be delivered to a port in Gdansk, Poland, during the week of June 17.
From there, it will then head into international waters, the news release said.
The ships are each 147 metres long and are each equipped with two 250- tonne cranes.
Desgagnés, based in Quebec, serves Nunavut and Nunavik by providing much-needed goods during the summer and early fall.
The two ships were acquired from Desgagnés’ long-term German business partner, Briese Schiffahrts, also known as BBC Chartering.
The news release said that “to highlight the contribution of women who often acted in the background,” the ships — currently named BBC Arkhangelsk and BBC Russia — will be renamed.
The ships’ new names will be Annette A. Desgagnés and Berthe A. Desgagnés, respectively, “in tribute to the wives of two of the three founders” of the company: Annette Bouchard, wife of Maurice Desgagnés, and Berthe Tremblay, wife of Joseph-Arthur Desgagnés.
Desgagnés operates a fleet of 23 vessels that travel through Canada’s eastern Arctic, the St. Lawrence-Great Lakes system and the east coasts of Canada and the U.S., and “all the seas of the world,” the release said.
Money, money, money, lNunavut, monopoly, monopoly, bigger ,better service on our terms, and no say in our rate increases, thank you
Work instead of having holidays.
Would be excellent training opportunities for young Nunavutmiut for different postions in this area such as first mate, deck hands , equipment operator even go for Captains License alot of training available in St.Johns Newfoundland
I hope the next vessel addition will be named the Rosaire Desgagnes. Capitaine Rosaire worked his heart out for many years negotiating annual charters with FCNQ and helping those of us in the co-op movement regularly get our sealifts delivered before the HBC could deliver theirs!
Does this mean we will have additional sealift this summer? Trying to book room for a vehicle last month and there is no room already with the two companies.
That photo doesn’t look like they’re “removing cargo” from the ship, unless someone has a business storing and treating contaminated soil in Iqaluit. I suspect those bags were filled here and are going to a facility in the south.