Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Sep 20/02) - The Henry Kristoffersen is a workhorse ship -- pulling and pushing freight up and down the big MacKenzie river.

The ship is one of many owned by the Northern Transportation Company Ltd.

Chief engineer David Dalgliesh said has been with NTCL for six years working on a number of ships. He said the vessel is powered by four Caterpillar D-399 diesel engines producing 4,500 horsepower.

Built in 1973, by Yarrow Shipbuilders in Victoria, B.C., the Henry Kristoffersen is primarily a river tug, but does have a 50-mile off-shore limit.

"It's not an Arctic Class vessel, but we can go 50 miles off-shore. But we're usually working on the river," Dalgliesh said.

The ship's electricity flows from two Caterpillar 3306 generators that crank 115 kilowatts each.

Dalgliesh said the ship may be getting some new engines in two years, with Caterpillar 3512 replacement engines.

"They have more horsepower and they are more fuel efficient," he said.

The ship just completed a 60-day charter with Western Geco/Schlumberger, which conducted a two-dimensional seismic survey along the Mackenzie in three strips of 60-mile sections.

"Things worked out better than they'd expected," Dalgliesh said. "Last word I got was that they liked what happened this year and they were setting things up for next year."

Big crew needed

Captain Dave Machetchuk has been working with NTCL for 33 years and calls Gibbons, Alta., home.

He's steered a wide variety of ships in the fleet and says the Henry K is pretty much like any river ship.

Helping the captain navigate is river pilot Ernie Bouvier and a vast assortment of navigation aids that include a gyrocompass, a magnetic compass, two radars, a global positioning system, VHF, high frequency (HF), and sideband radios. She has a marine fax, an Internet connection, satellite and cell phone. The ship is normally staffed by a crew of 13, but during the seismic job this summer, they were pushing the NTCL camp barge and had 51 people aboard.

The ship sits at the Inuvik dock waiting for future instructions on how she'll spend the remaining days of the season, before heading up south to her Hay River winter home.