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Chronicle Herald
BRIDGEWATER — A retired Canadian diving ship is at the centre of a nasty legal battle that includes allegations of an onboard drug lab and storage of toxic waste.
The case has just erupted with a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the operator of the Bridgewater wharf where the Cormorant is tied up.
Dominion Shipping Inc. of Brownsville, Texas, owns the ship and it is docked behind the former HMCS Fraser, which is also the subject of a legal battle, involving tax assessments.
Dominion Shipping is suing the Artificial Reef Society of Nova Scotia for $1.7 million and society chairman Rick Welsford for $1.4 million, claiming they failed to ensure the ship was properly protected and cared for. The action is in response to a suit the Artificial Reef Society filed against the Cormorant’s owner for unpaid wharf fees.
The society claims in court documents that as of July 15, the Cormorant’s owner had failed to pay $22,800 in wharfage fees. That figure goes up by about $3,000 each month, Mr. Welsford said Friday.
He said he is not in the least concerned about Dominion Shipping’s lawsuit against the society or him personally. He said the society is caught in a dispute between Dominion Shipping and Dominion Diving, a Dartmouth company that once took care of the Cormorant.
Mr. Welsford said he has worked with both sides to sort things out and the lawsuit came out of the blue.
"We sure don’t understand where they’re coming from," he said, but the society will launch "a very aggressive response" in court in the coming days.
Dominion Shipping says in court documents that it bought the Cormorant, along with a deep-diving submersible, spare parts and equipment, in June 1998 and had it towed to Shelburne. The ship was moved to Bridgewater in the spring of 2002.
Dominion Shipping hired Dominion Diving to take care of the vessel, but the ship’s agent, Bill Kenney, has filed a detailed affidavit against Dominion Diving rife with allegations of unpaid invoices, overcharging of fees, inadequate protection and maintenance of the ship and an unexplained disappearance of fuel. He said he also found evidence of an illegal drug lab.
Mr. Kenney also alleges that many of the $2-million worth of spare parts for the Cormorant and parts for the deep-diving submersible were taken off the ship while it was under Dominion Diving’s care.
He said he became concerned about the Cormorant when he was repeatedly stonewalled in his efforts to inspect the ship. He said he finally got to do that inspection in October 2004 and wrote that he was "shocked and appalled by the condition in which I found her. It was filthy, had much of its equipment missing, and many systems were disassembled and left in a state of disarray all over the ship."
There were "active nests of vermin, mounds of bird feces and an assortment of animal and bird carcasses inside the engine room, galley and accommodations area," Mr. Kenney wrote.
Equipment was missing and the ship was not secured, he said, so he bought locks himself at a hardware store.
Mr. Kenney went back for three more days of inspection.
"During that time, I discovered the residuals of a drug manufacturing operation that had been cleaned up and left in boxes and trash bags located in the galley of the ship."
He said he told the RCMP and Bridgewater police of his findings.
Mr. Kenney said he also found that 177,000 litres of fuel was missing and "toxic liquid waste" was in the fuel cells.
He wrote in his affidavit that "certain illegal activities took place on board the ship" while it was under Dominion Diving’s management. "They included the manufacturing of drugs without knowledge or consent of the owners. It also included the depositing of toxic waste in the fuel tanks that will cost many thousands of dollars to clean up and remove."
Mr. Kenney also wrote that he found a number of items from the ship hanging in homes owned by friends of an officer of Dominion Diving, including military war plaques, porthole hatch interior cover plates, Defence Department bed linens, polished brass naval artifacts and diving equipment.
Other Cormorant items ended up at a diving institute in South Carolina, he alleges, including a diving bell, decompression chamber, gauges and valves.
Dominion Shipping says it owes nothing to the Artificial Reef Society for wharfage fees because the society failed to protect and secure the vessel. The company says the society was supposed to provide power, water and a night watchman and took no steps to stop equipment being taken from the vessel.
BRIDGEWATER — A retired Canadian diving ship is at the centre of a nasty legal battle that includes allegations of an onboard drug lab and storage of toxic waste.
The case has just erupted with a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the operator of the Bridgewater wharf where the Cormorant is tied up.
Dominion Shipping Inc. of Brownsville, Texas, owns the ship and it is docked behind the former HMCS Fraser, which is also the subject of a legal battle, involving tax assessments.
Dominion Shipping is suing the Artificial Reef Society of Nova Scotia for $1.7 million and society chairman Rick Welsford for $1.4 million, claiming they failed to ensure the ship was properly protected and cared for. The action is in response to a suit the Artificial Reef Society filed against the Cormorant’s owner for unpaid wharf fees.
The society claims in court documents that as of July 15, the Cormorant’s owner had failed to pay $22,800 in wharfage fees. That figure goes up by about $3,000 each month, Mr. Welsford said Friday.
He said he is not in the least concerned about Dominion Shipping’s lawsuit against the society or him personally. He said the society is caught in a dispute between Dominion Shipping and Dominion Diving, a Dartmouth company that once took care of the Cormorant.
Mr. Welsford said he has worked with both sides to sort things out and the lawsuit came out of the blue.
"We sure don’t understand where they’re coming from," he said, but the society will launch "a very aggressive response" in court in the coming days.
Dominion Shipping says in court documents that it bought the Cormorant, along with a deep-diving submersible, spare parts and equipment, in June 1998 and had it towed to Shelburne. The ship was moved to Bridgewater in the spring of 2002.
Dominion Shipping hired Dominion Diving to take care of the vessel, but the ship’s agent, Bill Kenney, has filed a detailed affidavit against Dominion Diving rife with allegations of unpaid invoices, overcharging of fees, inadequate protection and maintenance of the ship and an unexplained disappearance of fuel. He said he also found evidence of an illegal drug lab.
Mr. Kenney also alleges that many of the $2-million worth of spare parts for the Cormorant and parts for the deep-diving submersible were taken off the ship while it was under Dominion Diving’s care.
He said he became concerned about the Cormorant when he was repeatedly stonewalled in his efforts to inspect the ship. He said he finally got to do that inspection in October 2004 and wrote that he was "shocked and appalled by the condition in which I found her. It was filthy, had much of its equipment missing, and many systems were disassembled and left in a state of disarray all over the ship."
There were "active nests of vermin, mounds of bird feces and an assortment of animal and bird carcasses inside the engine room, galley and accommodations area," Mr. Kenney wrote.
Equipment was missing and the ship was not secured, he said, so he bought locks himself at a hardware store.
Mr. Kenney went back for three more days of inspection.
"During that time, I discovered the residuals of a drug manufacturing operation that had been cleaned up and left in boxes and trash bags located in the galley of the ship."
He said he told the RCMP and Bridgewater police of his findings.
Mr. Kenney said he also found that 177,000 litres of fuel was missing and "toxic liquid waste" was in the fuel cells.
He wrote in his affidavit that "certain illegal activities took place on board the ship" while it was under Dominion Diving’s management. "They included the manufacturing of drugs without knowledge or consent of the owners. It also included the depositing of toxic waste in the fuel tanks that will cost many thousands of dollars to clean up and remove."
Mr. Kenney also wrote that he found a number of items from the ship hanging in homes owned by friends of an officer of Dominion Diving, including military war plaques, porthole hatch interior cover plates, Defence Department bed linens, polished brass naval artifacts and diving equipment.
Other Cormorant items ended up at a diving institute in South Carolina, he alleges, including a diving bell, decompression chamber, gauges and valves.
Dominion Shipping says it owes nothing to the Artificial Reef Society for wharfage fees because the society failed to protect and secure the vessel. The company says the society was supposed to provide power, water and a night watchman and took no steps to stop equipment being taken from the vessel.
