Saturday, January 14, 2012

The CSL Niagara

So my next ship was the CSL Niagara.  I would like to say that she is making her debut on this blog but that is not true as I have a picture of her earlier.  I wasn't sure what ship it was, so I didn't do the history of her at that time.
 The CSL Niagara started off life as the J.W. McGiffin and was built for the Canadian Steamship Lines.  She was constructed in 1971 at the Collingwood Shipyards in Collingwood, Ontario.  She was the beginning of a new class of ships for the fleet.
 As constructed, she was 730 feet long and could carry almost 34,000 tons of cargo.  She was powered by two Pielstick engines with a total of 9,000 horsepower.  She is equipped with a bow thruster.
 At first, she was mostly carrying coal but later diversified.  She's had a few accidents in her life.
 She also distinguished herself when her crew answered the distress call of a pleasure craft on Lake Erie.  Despite the rough sea conditions, they were able to rescue the three people on the boat.
In 1998, she was renovated to be 9 feet longer and could carry about 4,000 tons more of cargo.  As a result of this, she was given her current name.

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