By Jeremy Hull
The Royal Canadian Navy “paid off” five Maritime Coastal Defence Vessels (MCDVs) in a ceremony at His Majesty’s Canadian Dockyard, Halifax on Friday, October 3rd.
Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee, Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy and crew members of the five Kingston-class ships were in attendance for the ceremony.
READ: Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee – Feature Interview
Topshee said he only sailed in frigates on the Atlantic coast including the HMCS Brandon, which the Navy decommissioned on Sept. 29, but he said the Kingston-class were great ships.
“They had this incredible energy to them and they could do anything we asked of them,” Topshee said. “All the way from the Arctic to Africa.”
The honoured vessels included His Majesty’s Canadian Ships (HMCS) Kingston, Glace Bay, Goose Bay, Shawinigan and Summerside. Speakers highlighted the significant contributions each ship made during its time at sea.
“Their versatility and endurance enabled vital missions at home and abroad – from coastal surveillance and sovereignty patrols to multinational exercises and humanitarian operations,” said Rear-Admiral David Patchell, in a news release.
Chief Petty Officer, First Class Keegan Dawson served aboard Kingston-class ships from the time he began sailing full-time in 2003.
“You find out pretty quickly if you get seasick on a ship the size of a Kingston-class,” Dawson said. “You also find out very quickly the camaraderie and the friendship that we developed. Some of those people I met more than 20 years ago are still my best friends on the planet now.”
Dawson said small ships mean small crews that do everything together and rely on each other. He said the ceremony was like a high school reunion.
“Larger ships, you’ll have sections, groups, departments that have that feeling but maybe not the entirety of a 250-person crew ship,” Dawson said. “Whereas here, 40-something sailors, you really have that sense of family. It sounds cheesy but it’s true.”
Kingston-class ships served as the training ground for countless sailors since the Navy commissioned them in 1996, said the release.
“For three decades, Kingston-class vessels have patrolled Canada’s maritime approaches, supported international operations, and contributed to generating naval personnel in occupation of both the Regular Force and Naval Reserve,” said Rear-Admiral Joseé Kurtz.
READ: CDR EMBEDDED – Rear-Admiral Josée Kurtz
DECOMISSIONING CEREMONY
The five ships are among the first the Navy will phase out during a divestment that will see it retire 12 ships over the next three years. The decommissioning ceremony took place the day after DEFSEC Atlantic where industry and military leaders were talking about increased procurement and production and emphasized the need to modernize Canadian defence.
READ: DEFSEC Atlantic 2025: Highlights
“Each vessel has a statement of structural integrity,” said Topshee. “These ships were reaching their end of their life and so it’s going to take a lot of money for us to reset them.”
MCDVs are multi-role minor war vessels whose primary mission is coastal surveillance and patrol, said the release. Topshee said the vessels didn’t possess a critical capability that the Navy needed to sustain.
“The mine countermeasures can be delivered by other platforms,” Topshee said. Fleet diving units and remote packages that can be deployed by any ship have taken on those countermeasures including surveying, detecting and reacting, he said.
“The Harry DeWolfe-class will be one of the ships that we’ll use for that.”
Topshee said coastguard vessels or other ships of opportunity could carry that capability now that they have joined the Department of Defence.
IMPACT ON TRAINING
“The biggest loss for us is the training days,” Topshee said. “They trained a lot of sailors.”
Topshee said the Navy will enhance their Orca-class fleet to do some of the training that took place on the retired Kingston-class ships.
“It’s a tremendous legacy in terms of the generations of sailors they’ve trained and then the record of service.”
Topshee said the Navy deployed the small ships on both coasts and sailed them all the way to the high Arctic and down to South America.
“What an impressive range for a small ship,” he said.
The remaining four Kingston-class ships are deployed with operation reassurance, reacting to threats and emergencies in and around the Baltic Sea, said Topshee. Looking to future, he said he was excited to see the finished River-class destroyers under construction at the shipyards in Halifax.
“I think that’s going to be an incredible capability for Canada,” he said.
DND is building a land-based test facility and new submarine facility on the east coast that promises new jobs and growth for Atlantic Canada, said Topshee.
“There will be equivalent facilities on both coasts,” he said.
“Paying off” refers to the British practice of paying a crew upon the completion of a voyage. The RCN continues the tradition with a ceremony before the crew departs the ship for the last time. The vessels are no longer referred to as His Majesty’s Canadian Ship after the paying off ceremony.
Jeremy Hull is CDR’s Halifax Correspondent
