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!

CCGS G. Peddle S.C.

The Wednesday morning ferry was perfectly timed with the departure of the Canadian Coast Guard inshore patrol vessel CCGS G. Peddle S.C., and I managed to get some good photos in the dawn lighting.

This vessel is tasked with Fisheries Patrol and a secondary mission of Search and Rescue.

Canadian Ice-breaking

I was having a short discussion on Twitter this week, and discovered that my admittedly limited knowledge of ice-breaking is apparently as obsolete as the Canadian Coast Guard's ice-breaking fleet is.

As noted in a previous post, CCGS Louis S. St. Laurent, the CCG's largest and arguably most capable icebreaker, was commissioned 50 years ago this year. Although she received an extensive refit that saw her outfitted with new engines and a longer bow with a bubbler system, she is reaching the end of her lifetime. 

CCGS Louis S. St. Laurent showing off her bubbler system.

The CCG's only other "Heavy Gulf" class icebreaker, the Terry Fox, is a ship taken up from commercial trade. She also has a bubbler system. Bubbler systems are designed to reduce the friction between the bow of the ship and the ice, allowing the ship to ride up higher on the ice to break it with the weight of the ship. Although newer than the Louis, the Terry Fox is far from young, as she dates from the 1980s.

Terry Fox, similarly showing off her bubbler system.

The CCG's heavy icebreakers are supplemented by a group of "Medium Gulf" icebreakers, the Type 1200 or Pierre Radisson class. With Pierre Radisson herself built in 1978, she is older than Terry Fox.

Pierre Radisson underway in Halifax Harbour.

Amundsen underway in Halifax Harbour

Henry Larsen departing Halifax Harbour

Henry Larsen arriving in Halifax at sunrise.

The dedicated icebreaker fleet is supplemented by a fleet of light ice-breaking aids-to-navigation tenders. I believe these ships are fairly conventional as icebreakers go.

CCGS Edward Cornwallis is one of a class of Type 1100 light icebreaker / major navaids tenders.

Earl Grey is one of two Type 1050 medium navaids tenders / light icebreakers.

All of these ships have a conventional arrangement of shafted propellers, and are intended to break ice with their bows in a forward direction.

The state-of-the-art in ice-breaking has changed, though. Newer designs incorporate azimuth thrusters, and many are designed to break ice with their sterns, and moving backwards through the ice. Even the fancy bubbler systems in "newer" Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers are now at least partially obsolete, replaced by modern paint coatings and the lubricating effect of the azimuth thrusters.

In response to some posts on Twitter between myself and Dr. Samuel McLean, Aker Arctic (their website features a video of one of their designs breaking ice in an aft-sideways direction) was kind enough to chime in with some expert information. The Twitter thread follows.

The shape of the icebreaker pictured above can be seen here, although good luck reading the text (you might have to get your browser to translate for you).

So there you have it - apparent even from this short thread, ice-breaking technology has moved on considerably.

The CCG's future heavy icebreaker, the John G. Diefenbaker, will be fitted with two conventional wing shafts with a single azimuth thruster in the middle - from the look of her, she is designed to break ice with her bow, and she will also be fitted with a bubbler system as well as two bow thrusters. Interestingly, Aker Arctic is a member of the design team. 

Although initially intended to incorporate azimuth thrusters for breaking ice going astern, the Navy's new HARRY DEWOLF class of Arctic/Offshore Patrol Vessels (AOPVs) are being built with conventional shafted propellers (with a bow thruster) to allow ice-breaking by the bow. I have no information to suggest whether they have been built with a bubbler system, but perhaps the bow thruster can help with that.

Future HMC Ships HARRY DEWOLF and MARGARET BROOKE under construction last weekend at the Halifax Shipyard.

Close-up of HARRY DEWOLF's conventional icebreaking bow and bow thruster.

HARRY DEWOLF's conventional twin shafted-propeller arrangement (propellers not fitted in this photo) and her twin rudders.