CORPORAL MCLAREN M.M

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Damaged ship to be broken up

The Canadian Coast Guard has finally contracted a metal recycler to dispose of the CCGS 'Corporal McLaren', six years after vandals damaged the ship. The contract was awarded under an amendment to a contract first awarded to the Marine Recycling Corporation of Port Colborne, Ontario. Awarded in Oct 2024, the contract is valued at C$412,467.25, stipulating a “requirement to recycle, through ship breaking, the CCGS Corporal McLaren M.M.V. The contractor will be required to prepare the vessel for transportation, transport the vessel to the approved site and subsequently break and recycle the vessel in an efficient and environmentally responsible manner.” The vessel had laid at various Nova Scotia shipyards for the past six years while the Coast Guard worked to determine its fate and the Canadian government pursued a lawsuit related to the November 2018 incident in which the ship was damaged. The vessel was sent to the Canadian Maritime Engineering shipyard in Nov 2018 for an overhaul. Workers arriving at the shipyard on Nov 18 found the vessel out of its cradle and lying partially submerged. An investigation into how it had become dislodged from the cradle quickly discovered guidelines appeared to be cut and the Halifax Police later declared it an act of vandalism. The shipyard did not have a security fence and the closed-circuit cameras proved unreliable. The police believed the vandals used power tools to cut the two main wires. The remaining anchors snapped, with power cables being torn from the vessel as it slid into the water. The police were unable to identify the perpetrators but believed vandals entered the yard and cut the cables. The vessel remained submerged for a week before it was salvaged. Subsequent reports set the estimated repair costs at C$11 million. The survey showed the electrical systems had all been damaged and would require replacement. A contract was initially set for the remediation of mold and contamination from oil on the interior of the vessel. After being patched up it was moved to different shipyards.. The determination was finally made in 2024 that the cost of the repairs was too high and the vessel should be disposed of by recycling. Report with photo: https://maritime-executive.com/article/canada-sells-vandalized-coast-guard-ship-for-scrap

Patrol boat to be repaired after sabotage

The "Coprporal McLaren" will undergo expensive and lengthy repairs after it was sabotaged nine months ago. The patrol boat has been patched up and towed to Halifax, where it was now berthed at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography as it waited to be repaired. In November 2018 ot was cut from its moorings at a dockyard in Sambro, N.S., where it was meant to be undergoing a month-long refit. The vessel slipped from its cradle, crashing into the ocean floor and coming to rest partially submerged in the icy water of Sambro Harbour. Power cables were torn from the vessel as it slid into the water. Multiple compartments on the vessel were filled with icy seawater, damaging computer equipment and rendering wiring useless. Officials were quick to determine the act was sabotage. Severed lines and snapped anchors reportedly indicated that someone had taken a power tool — possibly an angle grinder — to the cables holding it in place. No arrests had been made and no one had been charged. Halifax Regional Police have since taken over the investigation. Everything that was damaged must now be replaced or refurbished. The federal government is still formulating its repair plan and will have to tender any work that needs to be done. Preliminary estimates put a $5-million price tag on the project. The alternative would be to build a new ship entirely. But Canada is already committed to the National Shipbuilding Strategy, which would require a shipyard to build a “one-off vessel,” a project that would be both more expensive and take years.

Ship slipping from cradle was sabotage

The damage caused to the "Corporal McLaren" in November 2018 was the result of sabotage, according to 349 pages of internal emails, photographs, and reports released by the DFO under the federal government’s access-to-information law. Officials would come to understand that sometime over the night of Nov. 16, the primary cable and a backup line responsible for keeping CCGS McLaren in its berth had been cut — possibly by an angle grinder — with the remaining anchors snapping under the ship’s weight. Power cables were torn from the vessel as it slid into the water. Multiple compartments on the vessel were filled with icy seawater, damaging computer equipment and rendering wiring useless. The damage, according to preliminary estimates, could cost as much as $5 million to repair. Five months later, the vessel remained in Sambro, N.S. Repairs have yet to begin and the DFO has confirmed that a complete cost estimate must be carried out before they do. As of April 11, there was no date for when a cost estimate will be complete. No arrests have been made and no one has been charged.