Canadian navy returns to the Arctic after long absence

MIRIAM HILL

Last Saturday, just off the tip of Frobisher Bay, two ships, one red and white, the other gun-metal grey, pulled up alongside each other, marking a number of firsts for both the military and the Canadian Coast Guard.

HMCS Goose Bay, a navy minesweeper carrying four Canadian Rangers from Iqaluit, as well as navy and Canadian Forces personnel, met with Canadian Coast Guard ice breaker Pierre Radisson to refuel before sailing off to Resolution Island.

The refueling was part of Exercise Narwhal Ranger, a joint project with the navy and air force, to try and get the branches of the armed forces working together and re-establish Canadian sovereignty in the North.

“I’ve never seen you guys in the Arctic,” called a crew member of the Coast Guard ship across to someone on the navy ship. “You come up here a lot?”

“It’s the first time in 13 years,” a navy worker answered. It was the first time a navy ship of its class had been north of 60.

More than 750 people toured the ship while it was anchored near Iqaluit. They would have had more, but the tides limited visiting opportunities.

Lt.-Cmdr. Chris Ross, the commanding officer of the Goose Bay, stood beaming near a make-shift walkway that had been established between the two vessels while the Radisson pumped 40-cubic-metres of gasoline into the Goose Bay’s tank.

“We’ve never done this before,” he said. A warship like the Goose Bay has never refueled from a Coast Guard ship north of 60. “We’re just drifting in Frobisher Bay.”

Usually navy ships refuel at a jetty, but these two ships were tethered together drifting toward the coastline. Once the fueling was completed, the crews began to detach the ships.

“Thanks, eh?” a sailor from the Goose Bay called. “Hey, we work for the same company,” answered a Coast Guard crew member.

The Goose Bay would go on to follow the Radisson through ice fields to Resolution Island, where the four Rangers from Iqaluit met up with two rangers from Kimmirut who had travelled on the navy ship HMCS Summerside.

The Rangers were armed with .303 rifles and were on a 24-hour bear patrol around the camp.

High on Resolution Island, near the airstrip, military personnel set up a communications antennae to test whether signals could be sent easily between branches of the Forces north of 60.

The weather was uncooperative, as pieces of a portable antennae were fitted together and the generator fired up to help broadcast the signal in the rain and wind.

Capt. Ryan Walker said they were able to make contact with the Iqaluit Coast Guard on the radio and then pressed the link button to scan the airwaves and see what station it could pick up. They hit one almost immediately. Walker said it was the Goose Bay.

“It’s so we have a safety net if something happens here,” Walker said. “And to exercise interoperability. With the navy and Canadian Forces, we can pass voice messages or send e-mails, or digital photo attachments over HF radio.”

With Arctic shipping lanes free of ice for longer periods each year, the military is concerned about maintaining Canadian control. Exercises like Narwhal Ranger show the military has a presence in the North and can conduct training and communications there.

Ranger Dino Tikivik, of Iqaluit, said working with other branches of the Canadian Forces was just like any other exercise he’s been on.

“I think it’s important to be able to be part of it and show our people we’re there to help them,” he said. Some of the exercise members from the South were surprised at how adept the Rangers were at spotting animals on the land and in the water.
“I yelled ‘Bear!’ before the bear banger even went off,” Tikivik said, smiling.