MV Asterix and (the future) HMCS HARRY DEWOLF

Pre-commissioning trials continued this past week for the future HMCS HARRY DEWOLF, the first of the new Arctic/Offshore Patrol Vessels to enter RCN service, with the ship undertaking her first Replenishment-at-Sea (RAS) from the leased supply vessel MV Asterix. The trials began with the two ships sitting across from each other at Jetty NB, where I believe the hoses were first run across between the ships under controlled conditions. 

Unfortunately, I don't have a photos of the hoses actually run across, and didn't see it myself (so I'm guessing), but I believe this was also done with a frigate in the past when Asterix first arrived in Halifax.

Asterix headed out on Tuesday afternoon, with HARRY DEWOLF heading out later in the evening (I caught the former, but missed the latter).

HARRY DEWOLF returned to port briefly on Wednesday, before heading out again. I was able to catch her arrival from the ferry on my way home from work.

Whereas the frigates have permanently mounted kingposts to allow at-sea refueling operations, the AOPVs are not expected to undertake RAS operations on a regular basis, and they require a temporary kingpost to be set up on the flight deck to accept the cables that support the refueling lines from the tanker. The refueling connection point itself is located at the forward end of the flight deck just behind the orange lifeboat. Regardless, it is a useful capability for these ships to have.

HMCS SACKVILLE refit approaching an end

The last Flower-class corvette, HMCS SACKVILLE, has been in refit since autumn 2020 in the Navy's submarine maintenance facility at Fleet Maintenance Facility Cape Scott (FMFCS) within the Halifax Dockyard. This refit has seen the ship's entire hull below the waterline (plus selected areas above the waterline) clad in new 1/2" welded steel plate over top of her existing rivetted steel plate. The refit is approaching its conclusion, with only minor work remaining.

The hull has been completely repainted both above and below the waterline, with minor exceptions that I will describe in a moment. The deck was also being repainted when I visited on Thursday (April 1), and the painters were literally "painting themselves off the ship", so I was unable to board or go below - I would have left a trail of footprints in the paint that would have made me extremely unpopular. Also, walking the plank when the ship is high and dry is simply not survivable.

In the photo above, you will note that the ship's load lines at her stem have not been repainted - I'm told that the shipwrights of FMFCS must determine where these are to be placed after all the new steel has been added to the ship, and this isn't something that is simply repainted to replicate the old markings. 

The ship sits on a cradle of wood blocking that is laid out by those same shipwrights to ensure the ship is properly supported when she is out of the water, and at these locations the old rivetted steel plate is still visible. The ship will be undocked in mid-April, at which time the blocking will be reconfigured to support the ships in plated locations so that these remaining areas can be clad with new plate and painted. The ship will be redocked, and plating completed, and the ship is hoped to return to the waterfront before summer. You can also see the welds at the joints between the new plates in the above photo.

The ship's bottom may never look this good again - this view shows the rudder, propeller shaft, and bilge keels from aft. The bilge keels have been plated over in new plate, while the rudder will likely be the only portion below the ship's waterline still showing off the original rivets.

I'm told that the pitted piece of steel shown here where the propeller shaft (which itself is capped) exits the hull is a 30-ton component, and I wonder if this was part of the "thrust block" that transmitted the propeller's thrust to the ship. It is presumably original, and has not been clad in new steel.

The bolt shafts that will accept the ship's new sacrificial anodes are fitted, and await the installation of the anodes. The anodes were in very good shape when the ship was hauled out in September 2020, though they had only been in place since the end of the 2018 refit.

A full gallery of photos appears on my Smugmug website, including both refits during the period of 2018-2021. At the request of ship modelers on the ship's Facebook page, we have also taken advantage of the upper catwalk in the submarine shed to capture a number of detail photos from above.

Upcoming - Harry Dewolf Tour

Back in January I received a tour of the Royal Canadian Navy's future HMCS HARRY DEWOLF and had the opportunity to interview her Commanding Officer, Cdr Corey Gleason. I've been sitting on the photos for a while to avoid scooping my article appearing across two issues of Warships IFR magazine - Part 1 in the April edition, and Part 2 appearing in May. The April edition is already out in the UK, and will likely appear on shelves in Canada in the 3rd or 4th week of April, with the May edition following in late May. I typically pick up a copy at Atlantic News, but I believe Chapters also carries the magazine. The cover of the April issue looks like this:

Part 1 of the article uses three pages to discuss the Arctic/Offshore Patrol Vessel's (AOPV) capabilities and position within the RCN fleet, while Part 2 sprawls across four pages and describes the process by which a new ship (and indeed, a new class of ship) is brought into service. While I plan to show more of the photos here once the May edition is on shelves, I won't go into as much detail describing the ship as I have done in the magazine.