Canadian Navy's Halifax Makes A Big Impression
By Scott A. Sumner
Thunder Bay Business
If you were one of the 7000 who boarded the Halifax war ship at the Thunder Bay waterfront recently you probably had an impression like me. WOW! This $1 billion frigate, thats right billion, was here on whats called the Great Lakes Deployment. It is a way to bring Canada's Navy to areas who don't see it as often. The Halifax started in Montreal went to Kingston, Toronto, Oshawa, Hamilton, Ottawa, Port Weller and then to Thunder Bay before going back to Marathon, Windsor and finally Quebec City.
It has been quite a while since we have had a ship up here. People are quite excited about it. We have 12 frigates all named after Canadian cities- 7 based in Halifax and 5 in Victoria. They are the work horse of the navy doing fishery patrols, sovereignty patrols and exercises with other foreign navies, says Jeri Jurykoski, Public Affairs Officer. The ship has just come along side and the dignatories will go board. Halifax was the first ship to go over and work in the embargo in the gulf. When they have a Sea King helicopter on board they have a crew of 225. Without the helicopter they have 209. On the great lakes we normally don't take a helicopter as we have so many visitors.
The navy is in a recruiting mode as there are over 100 different career choices in the Armed Forces. The crew comes from all over including the Thunder Bay area.They are on the ship from 2 weeks to 6 month's at a time for a 2 to 4 year period. Rember to call the Halifax
a ship, not boat. You can put a boat on a ship but you can't put a ship on a ship. We typically call submarines boats as I had a habit of calling the Halifax a boat and was promptly corrected by Commodore Bob Davidson in charge of the Fleet Atlantic. The ship is 5000 tons in
weight, 134 meters long and has a width of 33 meters. It will travel at 30 knots or about 33 miles per hour.
The Halifax was commissioned 15 years ago and is world class. I would put it up against any similar sized ship in the world. This ship has been south to Africa, to the persion Gulf, the Meddeteranian, Europe and up down the North American sea boards and the Great Lakes,
notes Commodore Bob Davidson Fleet Atlantic. We haven't been in proper combat in the last 20 years but have been overseas where they are under risk. We enforce economic sanctions and deploy our ships to the Persian Gulf as part of our role in the fight against global
terrorism.
There are 8600 people in the Canadian Navy and we are looking for more technicians and operators. There are a lot of computers and high tech equipment on these ships. We will pay for some education and give a good wage. The ship with all the weapons systems simulators
represents about a $1 billion investment. It is state of the art. We are about to start an updating program in communications and updates to the missiles. We are updating the ships as well to take the new Cyclone helicopter, that will replace the Sea Kings. states Commodore Bob
Davidson.
Debbie Disan was on hand to assist in a special ceromony. Smudging is a cleansing of our medicine and a prayer for the veterans. After the smudging we did an honouring ceremony to honour the Aboriginals on board with an eagle feather. We have 1200 aboriginals in the Armed
Forces.
Barry Miller has been a Marine Engineering mechanic for 2 years and is from Thunder Bay. I have been on this ship for 1 year and travelled to Norfolk, St John's, Fort Lauderdale and the Great Lakes.
The trade I am in in great in the navy. Our main engines are gas turbine engines just like on a 747 jet that produce 25,000 HP each. At full power we burn 11,000 liters of fuel per hour. There is also a cruise diesel engine.
Dominic Brabrowski, Lieftenant was my tour guide of the Halifax. When the ship sails in deployment the Sea King helps extend the range of the ship. We have surface to surface missiles . The missile is fired in the air and finds it's target automatically. There are also anti
air missiles used against planes as well. The harpoon missile is probably our most dangerous weapon. Our main gun is a 57 mm gun and it can be used against surface to air targets. It is the only gun on board except for the gatlin gun.
