CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent
 The icebreaker and flagship of the Canadian Coast Guard, CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent under way in Halifax Harbour with a MARLANT tugboat in the foreground. |
|
| Career (Canada) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent |
| Namesake: | Louis S. St-Laurent |
| Owner: | Government of Canada |
| Operator: | Canadian Coast Guard |
| Port of registry: | Ottawa, Ontario |
| Route: | Atlantic coastline and eastern Arctic |
| Builder: | Canadian Vickers, Montreal |
| Yard number: | 328095 |
| Commissioned: | 1969 |
| In service: | 1969-present |
| Refit: | 1988–1993 (Halifax Shipyards) |
| Homeport: | CCG Base St. John's, NL (Newfoundland and Labrador Region) |
| Identification: | CGBN |
| Status: | in active service, as of 2012[update] |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Class PC 1 |
| Displacement: | 11,441 tonnes (12,611.54 short tons) |
| Tons burthen: | 5,370 tonnes (5,919.41 short tons) |
| Length: | 119.8 m (393.04 ft) |
| Beam: | 24.38 m (79.99 ft) |
| Draught: | 9.91 m (32.51 ft) |
| Ice class: | (Polar Class 1 (PC-1)) |
| Installed power: | 20,142 kilowatts (27,010.87 bhp) |
| Propulsion: | 3 GE direct current motors powered by 5 x Krupp Mak 16M453C |
| Speed: | 16 knots (30 km/h) |
| Range: | 23,000 nautical miles (43,000 km) |
| Endurance: | 205 days |
| Boats and landing craft carried: |
|
| Capacity: | 4800 m³ |
| Complement: | 46 |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
|
| Aircraft carried: | 2 x MBB Bo 105 or equivalent |
| Aviation facilities: | yes |
CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent is a Canadian Coast Guard Heavy Arctic Icebreaker.
Named after the twelfth Prime Minister of Canada, The Right Honourable Louis St. Laurent, PC CC QC LLD DCL LLL BA. The vessel is classed a "Heavy Arctic Icebreaker" and is the largest icebreaker and flagship of the CCG. It carries a polar class of PC-1.
Built in 1969 by Canadian Vickers Ltd. in Montreal, Quebec, CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent underwent an extensive and costly modernization at Halifax Shipyard Ltd. in Halifax, Nova Scotia between 1988-1993 which saw her hull lengthened as well as new propulsion and navigation equipment installed.
The modernization program was controversial as the government of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney had initially proposed building a class of mega icebreakers (the Polar 8 Project) for promoting Canadian sovereignty in territorial waters claimed by Canada; the USCGC Polar Sea had made an unauthorized transit of Canada's Northwest Passage in 1985 early in Mulroney's administration, provoking a strong nationalist out-cry across the country. However, budget cuts in the late 1980s saw proposed expansions of the coast guard and armed forces scrapped. In compensation to the coast guard, the government opted to modernize the largest icebreaker in its fleet, the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent.
She was based at CCG Base Dartmouth in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia for a large majority of her career, but has recently been transferred to St. Johns, Newfoundland and Labrador. The vessel's current operation tempo consists of summer voyages to Canada's Arctic where she supports the annual Arctic sealift to various coastal communities and carries out multi-disciplinary scientific expeditions. During the winter months, CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent sometimes operates in the Gulf of St. Lawrence to aid ships in transiting to Montreal, Quebec, although she usually only serves this assignment during particularly heavy ice years. On 22 August 1994 Louis S. St-Laurent and USCGC Polar Sea (WAGB-11) became the first North American surface vessels to reach the North Pole.
In the summer of 2006, CBC TV's The National broadcast from the Louis S. St-Laurent in a special series focused on climate change.[1]
The vessel was originally scheduled to be decommissioned in 2000 however a refit extended the decommissioning date to 2017. In the February 26, 2008 federal budget, the Government of Canada announced it was funding a $721 million "Polar Class Icebreaker" (named CCGS John G. Diefenbaker) as a replacement vessel for CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]
[edit] CGS St. John's
Vessels at this base:
- CCGS Pierre Radisson - icebreaker
- CCGS Leonard J. Cowley - multi role
- CCGS Cygnus - patrol vessel
- CCGS Henry Larsen - icebreaker
- CCGS George R. Pearkes - icebreaker
- CCGS Ann Harvey
- CCGS Sir Wilfred Grenfell
- CCGS Terry Fox
- CCGS Wilfred Templeman
[edit] References
- ^ "The National visits Canada's North". CBC News. October 27, 2006. http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/northwest-passage/communities.html.
- ^ "Budget 2008: Chapter 4 - Leadership at Home and Abroad". Government of Canada. February 27, 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-03-02. http://web.archive.org/web/20080302045925/http://www.budget.gc.ca/2008/plan/chap4a-eng.asp#sovereignty. Retrieved 2008-03-04.
- ^ "Arctic icebreaker, fishing port, tax break a start: northerners". CBC News. February 27, 2008. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2008/02/27/north-reax.html. Retrieved 2008-03-04.
- ^ Chris Windeyer (February 29, 2008). "Feds to replace old icebreaker". Nunatsiaq News. Archived from the original on 2008-03-03. http://web.archive.org/web/20080303122736/http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/80229_964.html. Retrieved 2008-03-04. "Ottawa will put aside $720 million this year to commission the icebreaker, which the government says will have better ice breaking capability than the Louis St. Laurent, considered the workhorse of the Coast Guard."
- ^ Lee Berthiaume (February 27, 2008). "Icebreaker Replacement Deadline Looms: Despite $720 million in yesterday's federal budget, procurement for a new polar icebreaker will take eight to 10 years". Embassy, Canada's Foreign Policy Newsletter. http://www.embassymag.ca/html/index.php?display=story&full_path=/2008/february/27/icebreaker_deadline/. Retrieved 2008-03-04. "Despite setting aside $720 million in yesterday's budget to purchase a new polar class icebreaker, the government will be cutting things close if it wants to decommission the ageing Louis St. Laurent heavy icebreaker as scheduled by 2017, according to Canadian Coast Guard commissioner George Da Pont."
- ^ Brodie Thomas (March 3, 2008). "Reaction mixed on fed's budget". Northern News Services. http://nnsl.com/northern-news-services/stories/papers/mar3_08bud.html. Retrieved 2008-03-04.
- ^ Tara Mullowney (March 4, 2008). "Feds fall short: Ottawa must do more, politicians say". Southern Gazette. http://www.southerngazette.ca/index.cfm?sid=113576&sc=382. Retrieved 2008-03-04. "...and $720 million in funding for the Coast Guard will translate into a polar class ice-breaker that will be based in Newfoundland... ...“This is a bigger boat, so you can add to that.”"
- ^ Bartley Kives (February 28, 2008). "Red Amundsen our flag in white Arctic". Winnipeg Free Press. http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/story/4132923p-4725670c.html. Retrieved 2008-03-01.[dead link]
