The Navig8 Saiph paid a visit to the city Tuesday

Kevin P. O'Connor Herald News Staff Reporter @HNKPO

FALL RIVER – The Navig8 Saiph paid a visit to the city Tuesday.

The 525-foot tanker spent most of the day tied to the pier at Borden & Remington, 56 Water St., dropping off a delivery of sodium hydroxide.

It is not the biggest ship to tie up at the plant, but it was noticed.

“We’ve been taking in vessels for 40 years,” said Robert Bogan, president of Borden & Remington. “This was about normal size for us.

“People probably noticed because it was higher than normal.”

Sodium hydroxide is taken in by Borden & Remington, packaged and then sent out to municipal drinking water and waste water treatment plants. Customers include the Fall River plants.

The pier at Borden & Remington is more easily seen now, since Borden Light Marina, its next door neighbor, took down the 8-foot tall concrete wall and the oil tanks that used to be on Ferry Street.

Without the tanks and the wall, there is an unobstructed view now of the water if you are on Ferry Street, heading toward the marina, or on Almond Street, heading toward Ferry Street.

On Tuesday the view was of the stern of the tanker. The hull rose at least 50 feet from the water and the helm station was five stories above that. The smokestacks and radar tower rose even higher.

Navig8 Saiph is a tanker for chemicals and oil products. It is registered in Majuro, the capital of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. It has the capacity for 16,084 long tons of cargo, a total of 36 million pounds.

It arrived in Fall River from Germany after stops in France and Holland. It started back down the Mount Hope Bay at 6:30 a.m. and was past Block Island and heading south, just past Long Island, at noon. Its next stop is Savannah, Georgia.

And its delivery to Fall River will be packaged and shipped out, keeping workers busy at Borden & Remington.

“So it is a good thing for Fall River,” Bogan said.

Email Kevin P. O’Connor at koconnor@heraldnews.com.