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(Final) Bye-bye Ex-HMCS Terra Nova, Gatineau
- Thread starter The Bread Guy
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I will say bye bye when they are finally towed out of Halifax harbour because guess what, they are still here.
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For ten years or so, according to the attachment.Ex-Dragoon said:
Let's see how long this'll take, then....
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Sailed on the Gatineau from 1979 - 1981 and on the Spaceship from 1984-88. Both good girls.
Eye In The Sky
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Didn't the Navy take one of them back from Bridgewater? I drove by it earlier this spring while down there, she wasn't in very good shape at all. IIRC, they couldn't maintain it and whatever they had planned for it didn't pan out.
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I had a friend who was in that area a couple of weeks ago and he said they were still there. Several years ago a group bought Frazer and had her towed to the Government warf in Bridgewater. The plan was to bring her back to how she was in her glory days and make a bed and breakfast out of her. They were going to have it just like it was when commissoned. Sleep in the mess, eat in Cafeteria, etc. They even went as far as to try to get a whaler and a motor workboat to hang in davits with the possiblity of trips down the Lahave River. Well so far the ship is there and as far as I know not one "guest" has ever set foot on board. Too bad though it was a different idea. I don't think I would have paid to stay there. I guess the novelty has worn off for me.
So until someone has a better idea or they need an artifical reef off the Lahave I guess she'll sit there a monument to the Cold War and sailors long past.
So until someone has a better idea or they need an artifical reef off the Lahave I guess she'll sit there a monument to the Cold War and sailors long past.
Eye In The Sky
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FDO said:
http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/83591.0.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMCS_Fraser_(DDH_233)
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AC 011 said:
According to the Brockville Recorder about a month ago....
There may be even more paperwork than they first thought now.... ;D
Colin Parkinson
Army.ca Myth
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Just visited HMCS Annapolis yesterday as part of my review for a permit to sink her. Interesting butkind of sad seeing the state of the vessel.
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It is Fraser or even Frasier but never Frazer.
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As it was named for the British Columbia, FRASER is the correct spelling.
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You are correct it is FRASER. I don't know why I put in the "Z". Add to that I didn't know the CF took her back. You spend a couple of years out of the area and they start to make decisons without consulting you. I hate when that happens. I guess there is no word on Cormorant and what is to become of her?
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....it seems two out of the three stakeholders are keen to see the ship move to Brockville and sunk - shared in accordance with the "fair dealing" provisions, Section 29, of the Copyright Act.
Bid to sink warship treading water
Ian Elliot, Kingston Whig-Standard, 24 Sept 09
Article link
The federal government would love to see the decommissioned HMCS Terra Nova sold to a local diving group that wants to turn it into a diving attraction.
The diving group would love to have it.
But plans to sink the 112-metre anti-submarine destroyer escort near Gananoque are facing an opponent more formidable than anything the ship faced on active service: provincial regulations.
Michael Ryan is a member of the Eastern Ontario Artificial Reef Association, a group of divers that has been trying to turn the boat into a diving attraction for several years.
He says the biggest holdup to date has been the Ontario government, and the maze of agencies that need to be consulted for the plan to proceed.
"We are still very interested in having it," he said yesterday, "but there isn't a policy for this sort of thing in Ontario, and we're having a hard time with all the agencies we have to consult to get permission to do this."
Most ships that are deliberately sunk are done so in salt water, not in the Great Lakes. Scuttling a ship at sea is not always easy, but there is a procedure in place.
While there are many wrecks in this area regularly explored by divers, they got there by accident over the years, not as a result of a planned sinking.
The diving group not only has to consult with the Ministry of Environment and other agencies with a mandate to preserve the ecosystem and aquatic life, but also with agencies such as the culture ministry.
"They want to make sure we're not dropping it on something else that might be on the bottom of the lake," Ryan explained.
The old destroyer would be cleaned up so it does not present an environmental dangers, have its interior cut apart so it doesn't present any hazards a diver could get snagged on, and then sunk in a place and in a depth of water where it wouldn't present a hazard to other boats.
The area being looked at for the Terra Nova is just east of Gananoque, in about 130 feet of water four kilometres east of Brown's Bay.
The $2-million project has the enthusiastic support of local politicians who are eager to reap its economic benefits, and number of area councils have passed resolutions supporting the idea.
Proponents have said it could attract up to 6,000 divers annually, generating $8 million a year for the region's tourism economy.
The Department of National Defence, which reissued tender papers for the Terra Nova and a decommissioned sister ship this week, also wants the ship gone.
It has been tied up in Halifax for more than a decade while a new home for it is sought. As long as it stays there, besides the cost of stripping out asbestos and other components, Canadian taxpayers are footing bills for its storage, monitoring and regular hull repairs to fix leaks.
Documents on the state of the Terra Nova and HMCS Gatineau hint at the rough shape the vessels are in, citing hull leaks, rust, mould growth and possibly dangerous air quality below decks.
The divers won't buy the boat until they have what is known as a sink permit in hand from the government because the government requires that buyers tell them what they plan to do with the ship before they buy it as a condition of sale.
"We need to have that permit, because if we can't sink it, we're not allowed to really do anything else with it, and I don't really have a use for 450 tonnes of floating scrap steel," Ryan said.
The group will continue meeting with government officials and says such projects typically take at least four or five years to being to completion.
Article ID# 1766731
Bid to sink warship treading water
Ian Elliot, Kingston Whig-Standard, 24 Sept 09
Article link
The federal government would love to see the decommissioned HMCS Terra Nova sold to a local diving group that wants to turn it into a diving attraction.
The diving group would love to have it.
But plans to sink the 112-metre anti-submarine destroyer escort near Gananoque are facing an opponent more formidable than anything the ship faced on active service: provincial regulations.
Michael Ryan is a member of the Eastern Ontario Artificial Reef Association, a group of divers that has been trying to turn the boat into a diving attraction for several years.
He says the biggest holdup to date has been the Ontario government, and the maze of agencies that need to be consulted for the plan to proceed.
"We are still very interested in having it," he said yesterday, "but there isn't a policy for this sort of thing in Ontario, and we're having a hard time with all the agencies we have to consult to get permission to do this."
Most ships that are deliberately sunk are done so in salt water, not in the Great Lakes. Scuttling a ship at sea is not always easy, but there is a procedure in place.
While there are many wrecks in this area regularly explored by divers, they got there by accident over the years, not as a result of a planned sinking.
The diving group not only has to consult with the Ministry of Environment and other agencies with a mandate to preserve the ecosystem and aquatic life, but also with agencies such as the culture ministry.
"They want to make sure we're not dropping it on something else that might be on the bottom of the lake," Ryan explained.
The old destroyer would be cleaned up so it does not present an environmental dangers, have its interior cut apart so it doesn't present any hazards a diver could get snagged on, and then sunk in a place and in a depth of water where it wouldn't present a hazard to other boats.
The area being looked at for the Terra Nova is just east of Gananoque, in about 130 feet of water four kilometres east of Brown's Bay.
The $2-million project has the enthusiastic support of local politicians who are eager to reap its economic benefits, and number of area councils have passed resolutions supporting the idea.
Proponents have said it could attract up to 6,000 divers annually, generating $8 million a year for the region's tourism economy.
The Department of National Defence, which reissued tender papers for the Terra Nova and a decommissioned sister ship this week, also wants the ship gone.
It has been tied up in Halifax for more than a decade while a new home for it is sought. As long as it stays there, besides the cost of stripping out asbestos and other components, Canadian taxpayers are footing bills for its storage, monitoring and regular hull repairs to fix leaks.
Documents on the state of the Terra Nova and HMCS Gatineau hint at the rough shape the vessels are in, citing hull leaks, rust, mould growth and possibly dangerous air quality below decks.
The divers won't buy the boat until they have what is known as a sink permit in hand from the government because the government requires that buyers tell them what they plan to do with the ship before they buy it as a condition of sale.
"We need to have that permit, because if we can't sink it, we're not allowed to really do anything else with it, and I don't really have a use for 450 tonnes of floating scrap steel," Ryan said.
The group will continue meeting with government officials and says such projects typically take at least four or five years to being to completion.
Article ID# 1766731
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An article in yesterday's Chronicle Herald says they (GATINEAU and TERRA NOVA)are sold to a company in Pictou to be cut up for scrap. Hints at an attempt to retain as a museum piece and/or dive reef unsuccessful.
Nine years of my life (1987 - 1996) in the hallowed flats/messes/machinery spaces on GATINEAU.
Nine years of my life (1987 - 1996) in the hallowed flats/messes/machinery spaces on GATINEAU.
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kincanucks said:
Well perhaps a drive to Pictou is in order to say a last goodbye to the old girls. Think they will give me the port and stbd wings since I spent most of my freaking time out there?
Colin Parkinson
Army.ca Myth
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They certainly would if you were willing to pay. Buy the wheelhouse/bridge and Ops room and have it cut off and transported by barge to be used as cottage in some remote bay.
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Colin P said:
Excellent idea then I could give my wife and her mother watch rotations during holidays.
