Preserver departs for ship-breakers

The former HMCS PRESERVER departed Halifax this morning under tow of the tug Lois M., destined for a ship-breaking yard in Ontario. She was the RCN's last operational AOR (Auxiliary Oiler Replenishment), and her retirement leaves the RCN currently without a native replenishment capability (although this will hopefully be rectified soon with the addition of a leased vessel, the MV Asterix). 

Preserver's last morning alongside at HMC Dockyard in Halifax, with Lois M. tucked in behind her stern. Preserver's anchor chains have been rigged into a towing bridle, and a backup tow line is rigged along the starboard side for use if the main line breaks.

I wasn't able to make it down to the waterfront to catch her departure, so I had to make do with this shot from the office balcony, framed by some buildings.

Preserver departs Halifax, under tow by the barely visible Lois M. and with a Glen class tug alongside.

Back in the winter of 2015, after her removal from service but before she was formally paid off and stripped of her equipment, the Navy allowed me to tour her inside and out and document her with lots of photos. I have previously presented these photos here:

Bridge and Ops Room Tour

Jungle Deck and Cargo Handling

Interior Crew Spaces

Electrical Power Generation and Bow Thruster

Engine Room Tour

HMCS PRESERVER paid off

HMCS PRESERVER paid off

HMCS PRESERVER was paid off during a ceremony on Friday afternoon, October 21, 2016. Unfortunately, I missed it almost entirely, and only arrived as the Stadacona Band were marching off the jetty.

Stadacona Band marching off the jetty.

The former HMCS PRESERVER.

PRESERVER will presumably be stripped and sold to be broken up in the near future. She and her previously sold sistership PROTECTEUR (currently being broken up in Liverpool, NS) are due to be replaced by two ships of the QUEENSTON class which are to be built by SeaSpan on the west coast, however, they are several years away and construction has not yet begun. An interim supply ship is being converted from the civilian cargo ship MS Asterix as part of Project Resolve, which will enter service earlier.

HMCS PRESERVER: Interior Crew Spaces

To complete the tour of PRESERVER's interior spaces, I will cover a collection of crew spaces. 

PRESERVER's forward superstructure is home not only to the bridge (on No. 4 deck), but also various other spaces to support the ship's company. Starting on No. 3 deck immediately below the bridge is the cabins for the CO and SO (Senior Officer). 

PRESERVER's CO, LCDR Hutt, does paperwork in his day cabin.

The CO's night cabin (sleeping quarters) and head are on the port side, with his day cabin between these cabins and the centreline. The table and chairs are in a conference room located on the centreline of the ship, with the SO's day cabin beyond. 

Conference room looking to starboard.

SO's day cabin.

SO's cabin on the starboard side is presumably a mirror image of the CO's (just messier). The window to the left overlooks the foc'st'le, while the window on the right looks to starboard. 

Immediately below on No. 2 deck is the wardroom, or officer's mess. The wardroom runs the full width of the forward end of the forward superstructure. This is where the ship's officers relax and dine.

Wardroom looking to port.

Wardroom looking to starboard from the ship's centreline.

Wardroom also looking to starboard, but from the port side.

One deck below, on No. 1 deck, is the medical bay including a surgery, dental hospital, and treatment areas.

Operating Room looking to starboard. 

This ward has four beds, and sits on the ship's port side.

The ship also has x-ray facilities.

The dental hospital had a patient in it during my visit, so I couldn't go in, and don't have any photos of it.

Also on No. 1 deck, but in the aft superstructure under the helicopter hangar, is the ship's main galley. 

Main galley looking to starboard and forward.

Opposite the main galley, on the ship's port side, is the Chief's and Petty Officer's recreation space. Just aft of this, still on the port side, is the Chief's and Petty Officer's cafeteria. 

Chief's and Petty Officer's cafeteria, looking aft.

Opposite this, back on the starboard side, is the Crew's cafeteria (forward) and recreation space (aft). When I entered the cafeteria, backs were turned to the door, and the flash from my camera took some of them by surprise!

Crew's cafeteria.

This carved plaque of PRESERVER greets you as you enter the crew's recreation space.

Crew's recreation space looking aft. 

I will finish off this tour with a shot inside one of the messing, or accommodation, areas. This particular compartment was, I believe, the mess for the HELIDET (HELIcopter DETachment) personnel. With PRESERVER alongside and no helicopter embarked, it was therefore empty and I was table to take photos.

HELIDET mess with bunks stacked three high.

HMCS PRESERVER: Helicopter Hangar tour

If one ignores the three aircraft carriers, the RCN ships with the largest helicopter hangars (each for three CH-124 Sea Kings) were the three AORs collectively in service from the 1960's through to the 2010's: HMC Ships PROVIDER, PROTECTEUR, and PRESERVER. Unlike the earlier PROVIDER which had a single funnel on the ship's centreline, splitting the hangar in two and requiring two hangar doors to port and starboard, the later PROTECTEUR and PRESERVER had twin funnels port and starboard which allowed one large uninterrupted hangar space and a single hangar door. 

Looking aft from a platform at the forward end of the hangar, with the hangar door in the background.

PRESERVER's hangar has a narrow throat aft at the hangar door, and widens out as it goes forward. Storage for a full complement of three Sea Kings would have two helicopters port and starboard at the forward end of the hangar, and a single Sea King aft. 

Hangar from deck level looking aft.

The hangar was mostly given over to exercise equipment during my visit, and it will almost certainly never see a Sea King again.

Helicopter tractor in front of the hangar door.

The AOR's were big enough that they did not require the Beartrap helicopter hauldown system (presumably the hangar configuration and helicopter stowage positions would have complicated things anyway), and they instead required a tractor to haul a Sea King back and forth from the hangar to the landing deck. To the left of the photo, behind the door, is the ladder up to the FLYCO office on the starboard side of the hangar. The FLYCO office is effectively the ship's Air Traffic Control tower for helicopter flight operations.

FLYCO office looking aft.

The port side of the FLYCO office looking aft.

View from FLYCO.

View to starboard from FLYCO.

The view out the starboard window is partially blocked by one of the Hepburn cranes, and the starboard LCVP is visible to the bottom left of the photo.

Nova Dock departure

To follow up on my previous posting on Nova Dock, after she was towed from the Halifax Shipyard to the Woodside pier, I captured some photos of the now-cut-in-two Nova Dock being loaded onto Boa Barge 33 - well, at least part of it was loaded.

As a post-Panamax floating drydock, Nova Dock was easily ably to swallow the largest ships capable of transiting the Panama Canal while at Halifax Shipyard. Shown here, it accommodated HMCS PRESERVER with room to spare:

HMCS PRESERVER in Nova Dock during her final refit in 2010.

As an aside, during passage through the narrows after this refit, PRESERVER attempted a 180 degree turn and lost power, coming into contact with Nova Dock and damaging both ship and drydock.

Once, when I was living directly across the harbour from Nova Dock, it lifted both of the Canadian Coast Guard heavy icebreakers - Louis S. St. Laurent and Terry Fox - at the same time, with the two ships end-to-end. I have photos of that somewhere too, but of course, can't find them at the moment.

After being towed to Woodside, however, Nova Dock was cut in two in order to be shipped to Florida for a new owner. The ends where it was cut were plated in, and it will be shipped to Florida in two parts. The "aft" end (the part without the two cranes mounted), for lack of a better description, is going first.

On Monday afternoon, the semi-submersible barge Boa Barge 33 was towed from Halterm out to an anchorage in the harbour, in front of the former Canadian Coast Guard base.

Boa Barge 33 being towed out into the harbour.

On Tuesday morning, the deck of Boa Barge 33 (accompanied by tug Boa Odin) was submerged to allow Nova Dock to be floated on.

Boa Odin standing by the partially submerged Boa Odin 33.

Boa Odin then headed over to Woodside to float the "aft" section of Nova Dock over top of Boa Barge 33, apparently with some help from Dominion Diving vessels.

Boa Odin alongside one section of Nova Dock.

Nova Dock floating over the still submerged Boa Barge 33.

Once Nova Dock was in place, Boa Barge 33 was refloated underneath it, until Nova Dock was no longer floating on its own accord (though I didn't manage to photograph this until Wednesday morning).

Nova Dock now on the deck of Boa Odin 33.

Nova Dock was then fastened to the deck of Boa Barge 33 to ensure it doesn't shift during the tow to Florida. With luck, I might catch this tow as it leaves the harbour.

Other coverage can be found on Shipfax (here and here) and Halifax Shipping News.

HMCS PRESERVER: Jungle Deck and Cargo Handling

Replenishment vessels (AORs in RCN parlance, which stands for Auxiliary Oiler Replenishment) are the quasi-cargo vessels that keep the fleet at sea for extended periods, by providing the necessary fuel, munitions, supplies, and other consumables that Navy vessels require to remain combat capable. In some better funded navies, the fuel and munitions are delegated to different classes of ships, but the RCN can only afford to maintain and man a single small class of such vessels that must combine these functions. 

The first of the RCN's dedicated AOR fleet was HMCS PROVIDER, built in the early 1960s as a one-off design. She was built with three "goal posts" (the single one forward of the bridge was later removed) for transferring fuel and supplies to ships at sea, and also incorporated a helicopter landing deck and hangar for three Sea Kings, which could also be used for transferring supplies at sea through a process known as VERTREP (Vertical Replenishment). PROVIDER served the RCN well for over 30 years (she was my father-in-law's favourite ship), but she did have her shortcomings, notably her open "jungle deck" which made service on the North Atlantic rather unpleasant (hence her transfer to the West Coast for most of her career).

At the end of the 1960's, two more ships were built along the same basic lines of PROVIDER, but with various improvements based on the lessons learned with PROVIDER. A larger bridge superstructure up front, and an enclosed jungle deck were two of the more obvious visual cues. PROTECTEUR and PRESERVER both ended up serving for more than 40 years. 

Which brings me to the subject of this blog post: having covered some of the other internal spaces, I should probably spend some time reviewing their raison d'être, the cargo handling areas within the ship (I will cover the goal posts and other above-deck hardware in a separate post). 

The first area to cover is the "jungle deck" on No. 1 Deck. The largest tenant of the internal volume of the ship is the vast tankage below the jungle deck, used for storing the various bunker and aviation fuels required to keep the fleet underway at sea. The "jungle deck" sits above these tanks, one level below the main deck, and its footprint covers the majority of this tankage. The number of non-tankage internal spaces that go deeper than the jungle deck within the ship are limited to the engine and boiler rooms, a pump room, the various spaces ahead of the jungle deck, and the dry stores hold (aft) and ammunition hold (forward) that are situated in the middle of the tankage area. 

The forward end of the jungle deck, looking to starboard. This space is located under the forward end of the bridge superstructure.

The photo above shows one of the few areas of the jungle deck that runs uninterrupted from the port to starboard sides. This particular space apparently was used as a temporary morgue during the Swissair 111 disaster recovery in 1998. The circular hatch near the centre of the photo is the top of a blackwater tank, with the hatch for JP5 Tank #1 towards the back right of the photo. The hatches are about the only visible indicator in any of my photos of the vast tankage below this area. Fuel tanks and electronics do not mix, so I wasn't offered the change of taking photos down into any of the tanks. 

Whereas PROVIDER's jungle deck was completely open, PRESERVER's access to the open air is limited to these openings which have covers that can be closed when not required to be open:

One of PRESERVER's starboard side jungle deck hatches.

Looking aft in PRESERVER's starboard jungle deck.

A multitude of piping can be seen in the photo above, all necessary to transfer the various fuels up to the hoses of the goal posts, and then on to a receiving ship. Some more tank top hatches can be seen, such as the one on the right of this photo for FFO Tank #3. 

Situated along the centreline of the jungle deck, between the bridge superstructure and hangar, is the dry cargo handling stores, and one deck above that (Main Deck level) is the Holding & Dispersing Area.

Looking aft in the Holding & Dispersing area. Behind the firefighting gear is the ammunition hoist, one of two hoists in the ship. The Stores lift is to the left in the background of the photo. 

The Stores lift on No. 1 Deck, one deck below the photo above. The hatch for No.4 tank (on the starboard jungle deck) can be seen through the hatch to the right of the photo.

Dry stores lift winch on No. 1 Deck. 

Dry stores (looking down the Stores lift).

Dry stores. The green netting presumably keeps everything in the racks when at sea.

I should probably show a photo of PRESERVER's exterior to help people visualize where some of these spaces are.

PRESERVER at anchor. One of her two cranes is deployed over the helo deck, and several jungle deck ports are open below the main deck. At main deck level, one deck above those open ports, the Holding & Dispersing area can be seen along the centreline between the bridge and hangar superstructures.

HMCS PRESERVER: Bridge and Ops Room Tour

As the largest ship (nominally) in commission with the RCN, it might not be a surprise that PRESERVER also has the largest bridge. Located at the top and forward end of the forward superstructure island, it spans the full 76 foot beam of the ship (if one includes the two bridge wings). 

Looking to port on the bridge of PRESERVER.

Perhaps due to its size, and because the AOR's don't have all the sensors and weapons found on the frigates and destroyers, PRESERVER's bridge is comparatively uncluttered. Up front are the chairs for the CO and XO, while immediately behind is the control console housing the steering and engine telegraph. I believe the XO's chair is shown here, on the starboard side.

This compass is located roughly on the ship's centreline.

The two grey boxes hanging on either side of the window above the compass indicate RPM (for the shaft I assume) and rudder position. 

Looking to port and slightly aft.

Looking to starboard. The grey console is (I think) the chart plotter, with the chart table to the right.

PRESERVER's Ops room is immediately aft of the bridge on the port side of the ship, and is home to various radar displays. For this reason, I suspect the grey box in the centre of the image above is the electronic chart plotter. Perhaps someone can correct me if I am wrong. I believe the CO's chair is on the port side, shown in the photo above. Beyond the chart plotter is the helm station.

Helm station.

Helm station, with the engine telegraph to the right, and a SHINCOM panel (black with blue, orange, and white buttons) below.

Above the helm station are what I suspect are two gyro compass readouts. Somewhere in here will be the controls for the bow thruster, either to the right or left of the helm, but I am not sure which. 

I suspect this panel repeats some of the information from the MCR regarding engine and boiler operation, but annoyingly the image is too blurry to zoom in and read the details.

In addition to the bridge shown above, there is also an open bridge on the deck above. Although previous generations of warships could be expected to be operated from the open bridge (indeed, many WWII warships had ONLY an open bridge), PRESERVER normally only staffs the open bridge with lookouts during Replenishment At Sea (RAS) operations. However, basic information displays are available (I suspect rudder position and RPM to match the ones on the bridge below, and probably a patch into the ship's comms, but I didn't get a good shot) so presumably the ship could be commanded from this position if necessary, although I suspect that any event that takes out the main bridge would also take out the open bridge directly above.

Looking forward on the port side of the open bridge. The port "big-eye" can be seen in the image centre.

The open bridge is accessed via the ladder to the left, coming up from the port bridge wing. There is an identical ladder on the starboard side. The platform to the right of the photo most recently supported the Phalanx CIWS, however, this was removed several years ago to reduce maintenance costs and manning requirements on these ships. 

Looking to starboard. A compass, and what I suspect are rudder position and RPM displays, are on the centreline. The starboard "big-eye" can also be seen in the background, along with a few searchlights.

The photo above shows how exposed the open bridge on PRESERVER is, much more so than ships where the open bridge was intended to be regularly used at sea, and would not have been a pleasant place to be in any sort of weather. I seem to remember being told that it was typically used mainly when coming into port, but I may be wrong and lookouts may be kept above more than that. The open bridge is used during RAS operations, while lookouts would normally be posted to the port and starboard bridge wings.

Ops room looking forward and to starboard. The bridge is through the door to the left.

The ops room is situated immediately aft of the bridge, and is home to displays for the various radars on the ship. Presumably the two local control panels for the Phalanx CIWS would have been installed here as well, before they were removed. The three radar displays from centre to left of the image are, from left to right, for the SPS 502 air/surface search, the masthead F-band navigation radar, and the I-band navigation radar (mid-mast). There is a fourth display partially obscured to the right, which is presumably for the bridge-mounted Furuno navigation radar.

PROTECTEUR and PRESERVER were originally fitted with ASW sonar domes which could be raised or lowered, however, the sonars themselves are not fitted (and may never have been fitted). Presumably the displays for the sonars would have been installed here if the sonars themselves were ever fitted.

On the modern frigates, the Ops room is several decks below the bridge, whereas PRESERVER's bridge crew has easy access without resorting to ladders.

As always, comments and corrections are welcome.