Canadian Coast Guard’s Louis St-Laurent to head home

This photo, taken this past August, shows the United States Coast Guard icebreaker, the Healy, linked up with Canada’s Coast Guard icebreaker, the Louis St. Laurent. The two ships were collaborating on a joint seismic mapping project. When the Louis St-Laurent’s propeller broke Sept. 19, the Healy followed the ship out of ice-choked waters. (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE US COAST GUARD)

CAMBRIDGE BAY — The Canadian Coast Guard’s Louis St-Laurent icebreaker, which had been stuck off Cambridge Bay in western Nunavut since Sept. 27, will be head home later this week.

The decision to sail the 111.5-metre icebreaker back through the Northwest Passage to its home port of St. John’s, Newfoundland, came Oct. 11, a day after Nunatsiaqonline.ca reported that the flagship of the Coast Guard’s icebreaker fleet was undergoing repairs for damage to one of its propellers.

“After significant efforts to make the necessary repair, it has been determined the repair cannot be completed while the vessel is in the water,” said Brian LeBlanc, the regional fleet director for the Canadian Coast Guard in the Arctic.

The Louis St-Laurent will now return home on its own power, LeBlanc said.

The impact of the broken propeller on the ship’s speed will be “minimal.”

Equipped with three propellers on three separate shafts, only the centre propeller, usually used for additional thrust in heavy ice conditions, is “non-operational,” LeBlanc said.

The ship can still “transit and manoeuvre” on the two remaining shafts and propellers, he said, noting that Canada’s other icebreakers only have two propellers.

“A transit in ice-free waters can safely be accomplished on two shafts only, as can any other icebreaker,” LeBlanc said. “It is anticipated to be a relatively ice-free transit through the Northwest Passage.”

Before the Louis St-Laurent is fit to sail, five divers and experts from the Vancouver-based underwater maintenance company, Subsea Solutions Alliance, will secure the ship’s centre shaft for travel.

“They are being assisted by the ships officers and crew,” LeBlanc said.

Conditions in Cambridge Bay Oct. 11 were cool, with a wind chill of -12 C and brisk winds raising white caps on the waters of the bay.

LeBlanc couldn’t say what exact route the ship will take on its trip back, but it should arrive by the end of October.

Although three other ships are now operating in Canadian Arctic waters, the Amundsen, the Henry Larsen, and the Pierre Radisson, the Louis St-Laurent will travel alone because LeBlanc said “an escort is not required.”

When the propeller damage was discovered, the U.S. icebreaker, the Healy, which was working with the Louis St-Laurent on its seismic mapping, did accompany the crippled ship out of heavy ice so it could make its way to Cambridge Bay.