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. 

Update: My piece appears in the September 2025 issue of Warships IFR magazine.

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

(Note: A previous version of this blog post incorrectly indicated that the WILLIAM HALL was rolled out, however, it is actually the MAX BERNAYS. The keel for the WILLIAM HALL was laid recently, hence my confusion on the subject. The quickest way to find the answer to something is to post the incorrect answer on the internet.)

The future HMCS WILLIAM HALL MAX BERNAYS is taking shape at the Halifax Shipyard, with the stern and midships sections having rolled out of the building hall within the last few months, and having recently been joined together. MAX BERNAYS will be the third Arctic and Offshore Patrol Vessel (AOPV) to enter service in the Royal Canadian Navy. The first, HARRY DEWOLF, is currently undergoing sea trials and has recently operated in ice off Baffin Island. She will commission into the RCN later this year.

The arrangement of the building yard, storage for snow, ship's cradles, and high fencing does not make for easy photography, but one manages.

The opening for the port stabilizer can be seen just to the right of the yellow debris chute - it is retracted into the hull, as it would be when the ship is operating in ice or coming alongside. Icebreaking hulls are not known for great handling in rough sea conditions, and these stabilizers will help to make the ships a little more comfortable and prevent excessive rolling.

Photography from the ferry at dusk is similarly not easy, as it is taken from a distance at high ISO levels, but it can certainly be pretty. I need to find a better vantage point for this sort of night time image.

For those interested, I have a two-part article on these ships coming out in the April and May editions of Warships International Fleet Review magazine, and these articles greatly benefitted from an interview with the commander of HMCS HARRY DEWOLF.

HMCS HARRY DEWOLF (AOPV 430) returns from her circum-Newfoundland cruise

Upon seeing that HARRY DEWOLF was entering Halifax Harbour yesterday morning, and not having any meetings on my calendar, I was able to nip down to Alderney Landing to take a few photos. The weather did not cooperate, starting off with light fog and ending with actual rain.

HARRY DEWOLF just rounding George's Island with McNab's Island in the background and a Canadian Coast Guard Bell 412 helicopter in the background.

One of the Glen tugs approaches HARRY DEWOLF as a CCG RHIB speeds by in the foreground.

HARRY DEWOLF with George's Island in the background.

It was at this point that the rain started, which supplanted the fog in degrading my image quality.

At this point, I think I got a single shot off before rain coated my front filter, and I had to retreat to the back of the car to clean it off.

HARRY DEWOLF passing in front of MV Asterix.

As the first of a new class of Arctic and Offshore Patrol Vessels (AOPV), the Navy has been putting HARRY DEWOLF through her paces both in Bedford Basin and at sea, with her most recent cruise a counterclockwise circumnavigation of Newfoundland that also took her into the Northumberland Strait where she had a photo op with the Confederation Bridge. With a planned Arctic passage in 2021, all her systems need to be certified and the crew needs to be well familiar with the ship. It is also a time to root out any inevitable bugs and deficiencies, like some recent fuel pump failures, which presumably need to be fixed under warranty by the shipyard. 

Future HMCS HARRY DEWOLF undergoes acceptance trials

Note: I'm still having trouble with image links breaking in a previous post on the blog, regarding the salvage of the Manchester City. I'm going to try again in this new post, and if I continue to have issues with images, I will need to work out a new way to display them.

The first of the Royal Canadian Navy's new Arctic and Offshore Patrol Vessels (AOPVs) has been undergoing final acceptance trials prior to acceptance by, and handover to, the Navy. As such, the future HMCS HARRY DEWOLF was underway at sea off the coast of Halifax last weekend, and I caught her on her return on Sunday evening.

HARRY DEWOLF returned to the inner harbour under her own power, before being joined by two tugs in the vicinity of George's Island and proceeding to her berth at the shipyard. 

These trials follow the builder's trials held by Irving Shipbuilding starting in November 2019. According to Irving, members of the future crew complement also spent some time at sea in the ship last weekend for training purposes.

For more information on the acceptance of warships from the builders hands, check out this article on the RUSI(NS) website.

RUSI(NS) also has an article on the full lifetime of a warship program, from inception to disposal of assets.

I have yet to see an announcement on when the Navy expects to take over and commission the ship, although circumstances around COVID-19 may be delaying the process.

Launching of AOPS #2 and rumoured trials for AOPS #1

(Note: Since writing this, I have received some further input from Colin Darlington at RUSI(NS) which I am using to fix errors and incorporate into this post. All errors remain mine.)

With AOPS #1 (the future HMCS HARRY DEWOLF, AOPV 430) approaching completion and the start of her pre-acceptance trials, AOPS #2 (the future HMCS MARGARET BROOKE, AOPV 431) was rolled onto her launch platform, BoaBarg37, over the weekend at the Halifax Shipyard.

A note on convention: my personal convention here is to capitalize the names of commissioned naval vessels, while italicizing the names of non-commissioned and civilian vessels. While Harry DeWolf as been officially named, she is not yet commissioned. The future HMCS MARGARET BROOKE, on the other hand, has been neither named or commissioned and is likely properly referred to simply as AOPS2. 

With BoaBarge37 in position, the future HMCS MARGARET BROOKE (under the crane boom) sits on the hard at the shipyard, waiting to be backed onto the barge. Harry DeWolf is in the water at right.

AOPS2 was on the barge by 11:00 or so on Saturday.

The semi-submersible BoaBarge37 was then towed out into Bedford Basin, and AOPS2 was lowered into the water beginning early on Sunday morning. The latter was towed and returned to the pier alongside the shipyard during the morning.

AOPS2 (left) and Harry DeWolf (right) alongside at the Halifax Shipyard.

Closeup of AOPS2, the future HMCS MARGARET BROOKE.

Closeup of AOPS2, the future HMCS MARGARET BROOKE.

While the program to build these ships is referred to AOPS (Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship), the ships themselves will be classified as AOPV (Arctic and Offshore Patrol Vessel), and it is these latter letters that will be associated with the ship's pennant (or pendant) number (the number that appears painted on the hull of RCN vessels - for example, AOPV 430 for the future HMCS HARRY DEWOLF). The RCN currently uses different hundred-series pennant numbers for each class of ship:

1. 100 series: Mine Warfare (e.g. 1950s Bay-class, plus Anticosti-class auxiliary minesweeper)
2. 200 series: Destroyers
3. 300 series: Frigates
4. 400 series: Patrol (e.g. Harry DeWolf-class)
5. 500 series: Replenishment (Support) and Auxiliaries (harbour tugs)
6. 600 series: Harbour Support (diving tenders, etc.)
7. 700 series: Coastal Patrol (e.g. Kingston-class MM aka MCDV)
8. 800 series: Submarines

Cruisers and aircraft carriers (capital ships) have carried numbering under 100 for pennant numbers, as did HMCS LABRADOR. The Oberon class submarines also carried pennant numbers below 100, but would today bear 800-series numbers.

Though pennant numbers are sometimes referred to as "hull numbers", this is incorrect nomenclature for the RCN - as their hulls themselves are not numbered. The USN, by contrast, does use hull numbers - for instance, USS ARLEIGH BURKE (DDG-51), is indeed the 51st guided-missile destroyer (DDG) commissioned into the US Navy.

Closeup of HARRY DEWOLF.

Rumour has it that Harry DeWolf will soon begin trials. I am told by the folks at RUSI(NS) that trials for Royal Canadian Navy vessels now consist of Pre-Acceptance and Post-Acceptance trials.  Personally, while these may be correct, I find this to be somewhat less than specific without further component definitions. 

I should preface these following comments by stating that I have no inside knowledge whatsoever on the trials and acceptance process. 

I am assuming that Pre-Acceptance trials consist of both "Builder's Trials" (trials carried out by the shipyard to confirm all systems are operational and identifying deficiencies that need to be rectified in this and future ships) and "Acceptance Trials" (carried out under the supervision of the Owner to confirm the ship meets the agreed Statement of Requirements (SOR) to which the shipyard was contracted to build the ship to). If the "Acceptance Trials" are successful and the ship is judged to be compliant with the SOR with remaining defects numbering few to none, then presumably the ship is accepted  by the owner (i.e. the owner takes possession).

Post-Acceptance trials, I assume, would consist of operational trials undertaken by the Navy to train the crew, confirm (or write) operational procedures, and ensure the ship (as designed) can accomplish the missions intended for her. It is possible for a ship to entirely meet the Statement of Requirements laid down in the contract and yet still fail to be able to undertake her stated mission - in this case, it can be assumed that the Statement of Requirements itself is deficient.

Somewhere in the latter stages of this process, the ship needs to be commissioned before she can be referred to as Her Majesty's Canadian Ship (HMCS) - hence the "future HMCS MARGARET BROOKE" nomenclature.

I look forward to seeing these ships underway in Halifax Harbour in the near future.