Storied Canadian science vessel CCGS Hudson has reached the end of the line
CBC
It's the end of the line for one of Canada's most storied ships.
The 59-year old research vessel CCGS Hudson is set to be decommissioned, according to a statement from the Canadian Coast Guard released Wednesday.
The release stated that the Coast Guard had deemed the ship "beyond economical repair" following a catastrophic mechanical failure last fall.
The 90-metre long oceanographic science ship has been tied up in St. John's since Nov. 5, when a starboard propulsion motor failed as it came into port.
The Coast Guard has determined repairs would be too costly and too time consuming.
Even before the motor failure, it said Hudson was going to be out of service for the first six months of 2022 for other maintenance to meet safety standards.
"We would end up having to take that large electrical motor out of the ship and to rewind it in a lab setting. And that would take the ship out of service all summer as well. So basically, we'd be removing the ship for the next two years out of service to carry out work," said Gary Ivany, assistant commissioner Atlantic region.
"To get the Hudson back in the water in a timely manner, in a reliable manner, it wouldn't happen."
Crew members were told Wednesday.
In the coming weeks, Hudson will return to its base at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Halifax.
In announcing the decommissioning Wednesday the Coast Guard also revealed that delivery of Hudson's replacement from the Seaspan Shipyard in Vancouver has been pushed back by another year to 2025.
The Government of Canada Shipbuilding Strategy website still estimates delivery in 2024.
Since 2017, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has spent over $25 million on "life extension" refits for the Hudson in an effort to keep the workhorse at sea. It has been collecting scientific data on the east coast for decades.
The programs that benefited from those trips include the Atlantic Zone Monitoring Program, which gathers data used to track changing ocean climate — information that affects people and marine species.
