On Saturday, August 9, Canada’s most iconic icebreaker, the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent set off on an important mission to the Arctic to continue mapping Canada’s continental shelf. The CCGSTerry Fox will be breaking ice ahead of the Louis S. St-Laurent to allow for the mapping work to take place.
The CCGS Terry Fox is a heavy icebreaker acquired by the Canadian Coast Guard in 1992. The Fox is deployed to break ice and assist shipping in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, from Cape Ray, Newfoundland to Québec City, Québec, including the Cabot Strait, Cape Breton Island, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick.
During the summer and fall, the Fox is deployed to the Arctic to carry out northern operations, including assistance to shipping, delivering bulk cargo to isolated communities, sovereignty patrol, search and rescue and Northern Awareness programs.
The Fox is equipped with a 40 tonne crane for lifting heavy items, a cargo crane, a fast rescue craft for search and rescue, a small zodiac and a forklift for cargo operations.
The Fox’s specifications are as follows:
CCGS Terry Fox
Class: Heavy Icebreaker
Home port: St. John’s, Nfld.
Length: 88 m Beam: 17.8
Gross tonnage: 4234 t
Crew/officer capacity: 23
Cruising speed: 13.5 kts
The CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent (affectionately known as the Louis) is Canada's largest and most capable icebreaker. The Louis is a highly adaptable multi-tasked ship with capacities for icebreaking in the Arctic as well as the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence Seaway and Atlantic coast.
Since joining the Canadian Coast Guard fleet in 1969, the Louis has been expertly maintained and has provided icebreaking services and other activities such as scientific research, search and rescue support, and delivery of essential supplies to remote communities.
In the spring of 2014, the Louis underwent regulatory maintenance to the propulsion systems, hull, auxiliary/domestic systems and the navigation and communications systems.
At the same time, the Louis was also equipped with a state-of-the-art multi-beam sonar technology to ensure Canada has the latest technological capacity to collect data needed for Canada’s Arctic continental shelf submission. The Louis’ specifications are as follows:
CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent
Class: Heavy Icebreaker
Home port: Argentia, Nfld.
Length: 119.0 m Beam: 24.4 m
Gross tonnage: 11345 t
Crew/officer capacity: 42
Cruising speed: 16 kts
Significant modifications were made to the Louis to support the hydrographic aspects of the UNCLOS mission. The echosounder is comprised of two transducer arrays.
