Fleet Week 2025

The Royal Canadian Navy's Fleet Week 2025 ran from June 19th to June 22nd on the Halifax Waterfront immediately after Exercise Cutlass Fury. The number of ships in attendance was much reduced from the 2023 edition, when the exercise followed Fleet Week, and several ships headed home directly after the exercise ended.

My photos of both Fleet Weeks are here. 

A sailor stands at the end of a wharf to greet ships performing the opening ceremony sailpast in the fog on Thursday morning.

Deserving Navy and Air Force personnel received awards during a ceremony on the jetty alongside HMCS Sackville on Friday morning. 

Awards ceremony on the jetty alongside HMCS Sackville. 

HMCS Charlottetown was awarded a battle honour for her service off the coast of Libya in 2011 during a ceremony beside the ship on Friday afternoon.

Former HMCS Charlottetown CO Craig Skjerpen and Lieutenant-Governor Mike Savage unveil the update battle honours board for HMCS Charlottetown.

Group photo of serving and past crew members of HMCS Charlottetown with the updated battle honours board.

There was also a drone light show over George's Island on Saturday night.

My photos of both 2025 and 2023 Fleet Weeks are here. 

The RCN's future River Class destroyers

Back on June 28th, the Halifax Shipyard hosted a ceremonial steel cutting for the new River Class of destroyers that are being built for the Royal Canadian Navy. I attended the event and wrote a piece that is appearing in the September 2024 issue of Warships International Fleet Review - which should be hitting Canadian shelves shortly, if not already. Atlantic News in Halifax usually carries the magazine, as Chapters/Indigo often has it as well. The cover looks like this:

My story appears on Pages 32 through 34:

The new ships will look something like this, based on this rendering provided courtesy of the RCN:

My article covers some of the challenges faced by the program and how they are being addressed. If you are interested, please check it out!

Ceremonial cutting of steel for the first River Class destroyer and the first Canadian Coast Guard AOPV.

Deployment for Op Projection

HMCS Montreal and MV Asterix departed on Sunday for Operation Projection in the Indo-Pacific. This is the first time an East Coast frigate will deploy for this operation, although Asterix has participated before. The weather for departure was cold and wet and will hopefully allow the crews to look forward to their southern deployment.

Montreal departing HMC Dockyard.

MV Asterix departing from HMC Dockyard.

Montreal is expected to be away until October 2023, while Asterix may stay longer and join up with the next two (West Coast) ships that will join Op Projection.

Early Morning Ships Passing in the Night

The morning and evening commute is a bit dark at this time of year, especially on overcast days, and I managed to capture some ships coming and going in the pre-dawn on Friday. To start, HMCS Charlottetown arrived in port and later went alongside MV Asterix to refuel. Modern cameras are capable of shooting at higher ISOs, and despite from a bit of grain or noise, the images still look great when shot without a tripod.

HMCS Charlottetown inbound.

As Charlottetown was arriving, ACL's Atlantic Star was departing from the Fairview Container Terminal in Bedford Basin.

Atlantic Star outbound.

As a result, I got a nice photo of the two ships passing in the harbour.

Atlantic Star outbound passing the inbound HMCS Charlottetown.

I don't think I typically see a ship's passing at this particular location in the harbour.

Departure and Arrival of MV Asterix

MV Asterix made a trip from Halifax to Norfolk and back this week, departing on Tuesday January 3 and returning on Sunday January 8. I managed to capture both departure and arrival, from King's Wharf and the Macdonald Bridge respectively.

MV Asterix departing Halifax.

MV Asterix departing Halifax.

MV Asterix departing Halifax.

MV Asterix returning to Halifax.

MV Asterix returning to Halifax.

MV Asterix returning to Halifax.

Asterix had already released the tug when I captured her departure, but was helped back alongside by a single tug from Atlantic Towing.

Launch of the future HMCS William Hall

The fourth of six new AOPVs to be built for the Royal Canadian Navy, the future HMCS William Hall, was launched by Irving Shipbuilding on Sunday. I caught her being towed back to the shipyard after launching. Halifax Shipping News has photos of the actual launch process.

Only a week before, the ship was still on land and looking like she wasn't going anywhere fast.

Two slightly modified additional ships (making a total of eight) will be built for the Canadian Coast Guard, once the ships for the Navy are complete.

Launching the future HMCS MAX BERNAYS

As hinted in my last post, the future HMCS MAX BERNAYS was rolled onto Boa Barge 37 on Friday in advance of her launch on Saturday. (For brevity, I will just refer to her as MAX BERNAYS from now on.)

As noted in my previous post, the red wheeled transporters in the foreground are positioned under the ship's cradles, and the entire assembly of ship and cradles is rolled out onto the Boa Barge 37.

I will start with a photo from a week or so ago, showing the ship up on the land level transfer area, prior to the transfer. She was located under the tower crane and next to the elevator tower.

MAX BERNAYS up "on the hard" prior to the transfer.

On Friday, the transfer began and the ship was moved backwards onto the barge. I nipped down over my lunch hour to grab a few photos.

MAX BERNAYS moving back onto the barge. Boa Barge 37 is the red barge with the white superstructure in this photo.

It has been noted on Twitter, where I first posted these photos, that MAX BERNAYS is the first of the AOPVs to be painted with a blue antifouling paint. The previous ships were painted with a red bottom, with a suggestion (not verified by me) that the red paint was the same as that used by the Canadian Coast Guard on their icebreakers. No word yet on whether this blue paint is a new product that will also be good in ice, or if it has been decided that the ship doesn't need the red paint.

An overall view of ship and Boa Barge 37 with the shipyard shed in the background.

When I returned later in the afternoon, the ship was entirely on the barge. 

If you look closely, you can see the red transporters under the cradles.

On Saturday morning, the Boa Barge 37 and MAX BERNAYS were towed out into Bedford Basin. The semi-submersible Boa Barge 37 was sunk underneath MAX, and the latter floated off around 4pm. I missed the actual launch, but managed to catch MAX's return to the shipyard in the early evening.

MAX was towed as a dead ship from the launch location back to the shipyard, under the command of two tugs.

The ship was turned before going alongside at the shipyard.

The ship is by no means finished, and work will continue for a number of months to complete the ship's interior and to commission it various equipment and systems. Various pieces of equipment also still need to be installed, such as sensors and the main gun. The ship is scheduled to be handed over to the Navy sometime in 2022, and won't likely commission until 2023 at the earliest after the Navy's own process of handover and familiarization. 

Future HMCS Max Bernays

The future HMCS MAX BERNAYS, the RCN's next-to-launch Arctic and Offshore Patrol Vessel (AOPV), continues to take shape at the Halifax Shipyard - with some speculation that she may be ready to launch in the near future. Personally, it looks to me that there is some final painting of the hull that should be done prior to launch, but in any case I thought it would be a good opportunity to take some photos of the ship out of the water.

The future HMCS MAX BERNAYS sitting on land at the Halifax Shipyard prior to launch.

Interestingly, the antifouling paint on the MAX BERNAYS is the traditional blue that we tend to sea on the HALIFAX-class frigates, whereas, I believe the two previous ships (HARRY DEWOLF and MARGARET BROOKE) were both launched with red antifouling. 

The red wheeled platforms in the foreground are the transporters that will lift the cradles upon which the ship is supported, and will move the ship onto the semi-submersible launching barge (Boa Barge 37) when the time comes. The barge's white superstructure can be seen in the background, behind the ship's stern.

This view shows well the icebreaking profile of the ship's bow.

Updated: According to Halifax Shipping News, MAX BERNAYS will be rolled onto Boa Barge 37 on Friday October 22 in order to be launched on Saturday, October 23, 2021.

RCN Imagery of 2020

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic curtailed my daily walk to work for much of 2020, and I didn't go into the office at all during the period of mid-March to mid-September. This greatly reduced my opportunities for photographing the ships of the Royal Canadian Navy in Halifax Harbour, as I didn't get my daily ferry ride. Nevertheless, I did manage to capture some of the comings and goings.

Two RCN ships are currently painted in Second World War camouflage schemes, including REGINA on the West Coast and MONCTON on the East Coast (pictured below).

Early in 2020, TORONTO was up on the Syncrolift for maintenance, and I took the opportunity to capture the ship in a variety of lighting conditions.

The depths of winter are usually favourable to capture sea smoke, and fortunately I caught at least one instance before I stopped travelling into the office. Below, M/V Asterix is seen at the new jetty intended for the Harry Dewolf-class ships.

HARRY DEWOLF herself started the year still alongside at Halifax Shipyard, but went on to pass a number of key milestones during 2020 in advance of her formal commissioning in 2021.

SUMMERSIDE underway before lockdown.

In June, SACKVILLE made an assisted sailpast of the waterfront, dressed overall in signal flags. Although not open to visitors, SACKVILLE went alongside in her customary berth on the waterfront near the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, and staff were available to interpret the ship from the shore. In addition, the ship went into refit in the autumn.

HARRY DEWOLF underwent sea trials over the summer in advance of being delivered to the Navy.

The RCAF's Cyclone helicopters resumed flying operations after the tragic crash in the Ionian Sea in April.

At the end of July, HMCS TORONTO departed Halifax to relieve FREDERICTON on NATO duty in Europe.

A few days later, FREDERICTON herself was led into Halifax by Bluenose II and HMCS ORIOLE.

HARRY DEWOLF was handed over to the Navy, and began the Navy's own set of sea trials. 

In September, with her mast already removed in advance of her upcoming refit, SACKVILLE hosted the committal ceremony for a number of veterans, including Sub-Lt. Abbigail Cowbrough (a victim of the April 2020 Cyclone crash) and the ship's own former CO, Jim Reddy.

Asterix returning to port:

Usually alongside at the dedicated AOPV jetty, I took the opportunity to get this shot of HARRY DEWOLF amidst the other ships in Dockyard on November 11th. 

Earlier trials presumably having gone well, HARRY DEWOLF ventured further afield and rounded Newfoundland, before I caught her on her return to Halifax.

I was lucky to capture FREDERICTON hoisting anchor and heading out of Halifax one day in early December.

After 193 days deployed, TORONTO returned to Halifax two days before Christmas. 

Most of these images, and more, can be found on my Smugmug website.

Starting in September, SACKVILLE entered a refit period at HMC Dockyard after being lifted out of the water on the Syncrolift, and being moved into the Submarine Maintenance Shed.

The current refit is seeing the existing hull plating recladded with new 1/4" steel plating below the waterline.

The refit is expected to last until April 2021, and it is expected that the recladding will buy the ship another 10 years while fundraising proceeds for future work that is required to reskin the entire hull below the waterline with new plating. The refit is being documented in photos here.