CCGS Jean Goodwill tour

I had the opportunity for a quick tour of CCGS Jean Goodwill last week. This ship is the former Balder Viking, an icebreaking Anchor Handling Tug Supply (AHTS) vessel that was built for offshore oil and gas service in 2000 and taken up from trade by the Canadian Coast Guard in 2020. There is a Wikipedia page on her here.  

CCGS Jean Goodwill alongside at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography (BIO).

The ship is alongside at BIO for a maintenance period.

CCGS Jean Goodwill alongside at BIO.

The tour was necessarily brief, and started by heading up to the bridge.

The ship has stairs both inside and outside the superstructure.

The bridge itself is located at the top of the superstructure and wraps around with full 360 degrees of view. The primary helm station has two chairs and is on the forward starboard side, while there is a secondary helm station inside the port bridge wing.

Primary helm station on the starboard side. Personnel are provided with numerous screens to show input from the various sensors, navigation system, and ship's systems.

Primary helm station viewed from port.

Primary helm station.

Secondary helm station on the port side - possibly for redundancy, to provide a better view when approaching ships or structures on the port side, or both.

Secondary helm station on the port side. The primary helm station on the starboard side is visible in the background of this image.

Looking aft on the starboard side of the bridge over the chart table and towards two more workstations. 

Built as an AHTS for supporting the oil & gas industry with a large working deck and a Dynamic Positioning System (DPS) to maintaining station, there are two workstations at the aft end of the bridge - presumably for working with loading and offloading supplies (or handling anchors) from oil rigs (but I didn't have the chance to ask what the Coast Guard might use these for). 

Upon purchasing these ships, the CCG added an accommodation module to the back end of the bridge superstructure, the top of which can be seen above with the railing around it (and which obscures the view of the working deck). 

After the bridge, we got a quick look at the galley and cafeteria.

The galley is on the left (port side) and the cafeteria is on the right (starboard side) of this image.

Looking to port into the galley.

Looking to starboard into the cafeteria.

Next, the tour went down to the engineering spaces, starting with the Machinery Control Room (MCR).

The MCR is located immediately forward of the engine room, and itself faces forward.

Built as an oil & gas tug, but with icebreaking capability and a DPS, the ship has a suitable powerplant and engineering setup.

This schematic appears on the bridge at the primary helm station, and illustrates the layout of the engineering systems.

Propulsion is provided by two sets of diesels, two 8-cylinder engines (inboard, Main Engines 2 and 3) and two 6-cylinder engines (outboard, Main Engines 1 and 4). Each pair is mated to their own gearbox (port and starboard) and propeller shaft. There are Shaft Generators (shown as SG1 and SG2) on each shaft just aft of the gearboxes to generate electricity, along with two separate diesel generators at the forward end of the engine room (shown here as DG1 and DG2). Electricity is generated both for ship's power as well as to power the three thrusters - fixed bow (BOW) and stern (STERN) thrusters, plus a retractable azimuthing (AZI) bow thruster.

Port side diesel engines, Main Engine 4 (left) and Main Engine 3 (right). The port gearbox is out of sight to the left of the image, and exhaust trunking can be seen in the distance. 

Port diesel generator located just forward of the engine room. 

The starboard diesel generator was disassembled at the time of our tour, and the pistons were sitting on the deck.

The working deck looking forward.

Unfortunately our tour was over at this point, and I didn't capture the sunset at its most spectacular due to the smoke from wildfires out west.

To my untrained eye, the ship looked in pretty good condition for a 25-year-old tugboat taken up from trade. 

Thanks to the various crew members who facilitated our tour!

HMCS Margaret Brooke returns from deployment to southern seas

Arctic and Offshore Patrol Vessel HMCS Margaret Brooke (AOPV 431) returned to Halifax on 9 May 2025 from a 4-month deployment to Antarctica and a circumnavigation of South America. 

HMCS Margaret Brooke approaching Jetty NJ in the Dockyard.

I plan to write a piece for Warships IFR magazine on the deployment and mission.

Dartmouth Ice Festival 2025

It was a cold day in downtown Dartmouth today, which was probably just as well for the 2025 edition of the Dartmouth Ice Festival underway on Portland Street and outside the Alderney Ferry Terminal from January 31st to February 2nd. I've gone down the last two years to try my hand at capturing some of the ice sculptures.

The black & white medium seemed to suit most of these images - I needed to boost the contrast to bring out the features of most of the ice sculpture - although I did process a few in colour.

This bear sculpture is wearing a blanket of light snow from earlier in the day. 

Every time I look at this particular sculpture I can't help but think that ET is making a rude gesture at the record store in the background.

I was fortunate to time this image with the passage of a child in a colourful winter jacket behind the sculpture.

There were several bears.

The lights in the business establishment behind this sculpture added some yellow light to the mix so I kept this one in colour.

Alleyway horse.

Peace sign.

This particular sculpture provided the novel opportunity of capturing the sculptor himself working away behind the block of ice. 

Ultimately, I hope my photographs do justice to the various sculptures that I captured, and many thanks to the sculptors themselves for providing the subject matter! The images can also be found in a gallery on my Smugmug site here. 

Bluenose II on the slip

Bluenose II was undergoing her 10-year American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) inspection on the slip in Lunenburg in December and was still on the slip during the holidays. It was a somewhat rare opportunity to see the schooner out of the water, let alone out of the water in the snow.

Blessing Electron's Keel

Almost 6 years ago, I posted about a new project being undertaken by Eamon Doorly at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic - the rebuilding of the sloop "Electron".

Progress on the new boat at the time was minimal - only the stem, keel, and transom were erected, and only for display purposes, as other projects required Eamon's attention.

Construction of the boat is once again underway, and the Museum held a keel laying ceremony on December 12th to mark the occasion. 

Frames and gunwhales have been added to the Electron's keel as construction continues. 

A crowd gathered in the boatshed on the wharf in front of the museum in the early evening to hear about the project and see Captain Phil Watson, the current skipper of Bluenose II, perform a blessing of Electron's keel. 

Boatbuilder Eamon Doorly (glasses, facing camera) speaks with Captain Phil Watson (back to camera, also visible between the boat's frames) during the event. Holiday lighting provides the green and red hues to the boat's frame, even more appropriate when one considers the Red and Green colour scheme for Port and Starboard running lights and channel markers.

Construction of Electron will continue throughout 2025 with an expected launch date sometime in 2026 - the project will provide an opportunity for students of the Museum's boatbuilding school to try their hand at a project somewhat larger than the typical small rowboats that they build.

A view of the mast step and the hole in the deck where the mast will pass through. 

Another view of the boat's interior with the party ongoing in the background.

In the meantime, the ongoing construction will also afford visitors to the museum with a better appreciation of Nova Scotia's boatbuilding heritage. 

Remembrance Day 2024 - Natural Hazards of the Battle of the Atlantic

Eighty years ago the Second World War was still in full swing, and the Port of Halifax was humming with wartime activity as convoys and their escorts came and went during their efforts to supply Europe in the face of attacks by U-boats. The enemy wasn't the only hazard, as the North Atlantic had a few tricks up its sleeve as well. 

These photos of HMS Leamington entering what I believe is Halifax Harbour illustrate the natural hazards that the ships were subjected to. These photos were scanned and supplied to me probably 20 years ago by Bill Croshaw, and we believe they were all taken by Gord Condie who provided them to Bill. Gord served in HMCS Gananoque, which coincidentally was commanded for a time during the war by a relative of mine. 

HMS Leamington returning to port covered in ice. The rail of another ship is visible in the bottom of the image.

Ice build up on warships in the North Atlantic was a serious problem, as it could lead to stability problems, and sometimes the capsize of the ship. Leamington was one of the First World War era "flush deck" destroyers given to the RN and RCN under the US Lend/Lease program, similar to the ships of the RCN Town-class, and these ships already suffered from stability shortfalls especially after some of the new equipment (like radar) was installed to modernize these ships for service in the Second World War. The Type 271 radar especially would have contributed to the added topweight issues where it was installed so high in the ship, above and behind the bridge and just ahead of the mast.

Closeup of Leamington's bridge superstructure covered in ice.

As Leamington pulls alongside the jetty you can see that the entire bridge superstructure is encased in ice, and presumably the crew have been active with axes to keep the bridge itself habitable. The 4" gun on the foc'st'le is rendered unserviceable by ice, sections of railing have collapsed due to the weight of the ice, and the cable running from the deck up to the bridge has greatly increased in diameter through ice buildup. The RDF antenna on the front of the bridge is also encased in ice, and even the lantern of the Type 271 radar above and behind the bridge is encased. All of this would have impacted the operational readiness and effectiveness of Leamington as a warship trying to defend a convoy against Uboats. 

The crew works to remove ice from the foc'st'le of Leamington while preparing to secure lines as the ship comes alongside the jetty. 

The view of the bow shows more damage to the railing from the weight of the ice and possibly the action of the seas. Interestingly, the lantern for the Type 271 radar above the bridge and just forward of the mast appears to be most heavily encased in ice on the forward 180 degrees with less buildup on the aft 180 degrees - and the cables behind the bridge are protected and bare. The North Atlantic could be unkind to ships in various ways as the rust and paint issues around the bow indicate. 

Just image trying to shepherd a convoy of freighters and tankers across the Atlantic and trying to keep them safe from Uboats while also battling elements that are simultaneously trying to sink the ship. 

Lest we forget.