Canadian firm closes on ship for short sea service

Canadian firm closes on ship for short sea service    Great Lakes Feeder Lines said it has concluded a deal for a vessel it plans to use in a short sea service connecting Halifax and Montreal and possibly other ports.
   The company said it signed a deal for the multipurpose ship Dutch Runner Tuesday in Bremen, Germany.
   It said the ship is in Spain undergoing maintenance and repairs before making her way to Canada where she will operate on the St. Lawrence and Great Lakes starting in May.
   The 3,056-deadweight-ton ship has both roll-on/roll-off and lift-on/lift-off capabilities, is ice classed and has its own cranes. It has a container capacity of 221 TEUs.
   'There have been many obstacles beyond our control which delayed this day, but we never doubted it would come to pass and now look forward to raising the Canadian flag on her and operate this fine vessel in pursuit of the much talked about short sea shipping markets in Canada and the United States,' said Aldert van Nieuwkoop, the company's president.
   A former director of market development for the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp. in 2003-2006, van Nieuwkoop is a native of the Netherlands.
   So while Dutch Runner may seem a peculiar moniker for a ship in the Canadian coastal trade, he thought it fit the bill: 'I've been running around for over a year to get this service started.'