In the Navy

MIRIAM HILL

It’s a bright, sunny day in Iqaluit, and members of the public have lined up for hours to get an up-close and personal look at HMCS Goose Bay, the first Canadian Navy ship to enter Arctic waters in 13 years.

Lt.-Cmdr. Tim O’Leary towers over the group of people standing near him. O’Leary, the executive officer of the ship, is well over six feet tall and strikes an imposing figure in his navy uniform.

The group waits on the breakwater to be shuttled out to the ship, which is one of 12 vessels built for the Canadian Navy to provide coastal surveillance and mine sweeping.

The ship is staffed mainly by reservists. It was built in Halifax and commissioned as a Navy warship in 1998.

“The ship isn’t meant to go through any significant amount of ice,” O’Leary says. It was escorted into Frobisher Bay by an icebreaker.

As the group moves toward the fo’c’sle, or business end of the ship, O’Leary points to a big gun mounted under the bridge windows. It’s a 40-millimeter automatic cannon, he says, that can fire shells the size of his forearm at a rate of 120 per minute. There are also two 50-calibre heavy machine guns on board.

But while the ship is armed, its specialty is maneuvering in tights spaces, or hard to access areas, finding other ships and surprising them. The ship is built, he says, to go slowly and pick its way through mine fields. Its maximum speed is about 15 knots, but it can turn on a dime.

“Let’s go upstairs to where the shiny stuff is,” O’Leary suggests, leading the group up a flight of metal stairs to the bridge. Inside, computer screens show radar images and a rug on the floor shows the insignia of the Goose Bay.

O’Leary points to the mine warfare control system, the radar screens and a number of high-frequency radios.

“Even though we have the most up-to-date technology here,” he says, the navy still relies on tools used hundreds of years ago.

Lamps are attached outside the bridge that can be lit and flashed to communicate in Morse code, and flags are often used to send messages to other ships.

“We still use basic navigation maps,” he says, leaning on a table where a map of Frobisher Bay and Koojesse Inlet has been placed under plastic.

A man in uniform appears on the bridge and reaches for a whistle. A pattern of notes ring out and the man calls out something about lunch.

“That’s a boatswain’s call,” O’Leary explains, another survivor of past days. The different pitches of the pipe signal different things, he says, from bed times to meal times.

O’Leary takes the group from the bridge area in the depths of the ship where crew members sleep four to a room.

“This is fairly luxurious living for a ship this size,” O’Leary says.

At the end of the tour, the commander of the ship, Lt.-Cmdr Chris Ross, explains why the ship has travelled to Iqaluit. It is here, he says, to offer training to junior officers on board, re-establish Canada’s navy presence in the Arctic by doing a sovereignty patrol and show how the navy works with other branches of the Department of National Defence, the Coast Guard and the Canadian Rangers.

As part of exercise Narwhal Ranger, the Goose Bay and another ship, the HMCS Summerside left Iqaluit Aug. 2 with 25 Canadian Rangers and an RCMP officer and go to Resolution Island, where the army and air force will test their communications systems. Personnel were airlifted off the island on Sunday.

Ross says the biggest challenge so far has been limited water use. The waste water from laundry, showers and dish washing is referred to as “grey water” and cannot be dumped by navy vessels North of 60. A 25-cubic metre storage tank holds the water until the ship reaches more southern latitudes.

“This 10-day trip will push the limit [of the ship’s storage capacity],” Ross says. Crew members are not using the laundry facilities, are using paper plates and have their showers strictly timed.

“You pretty much stand there, get wet, turn off the water and lather up before turning it back on to rinse,” Ross says.
The public tour offered Joetanie Davidee an opportunity to set foot on a navy ship for the first time, although he went through pre-recruit training camp in Edmonton when he was 17.

“I just wanted to see what one of these looked like,” he says, enjoying the sun on the ship deck. “I was surprised by all the guns they have stored in the bridge, but I was hoping to see some torpedoes.”

Caroline Jonah and 11-year-old Lucy Curley were all smiles as they waited for a shuttle boat to bring them back to the breakwater.

“Oh, I loved it,” Jonah says. She had been on the ferry that travels between Vancouver and Victoria, B.C., and says the boats are quite different.

“I liked the captain’s chair,” she says, grinning.