HMCS Preserver (AOR 510)

HMCS Preserver during New York fleet week 2009
Career (Canada)
Name: Preserver
Ordered: early 1960s
Builder: Saint John Shipbuilding
Laid down: 17 October 1967
Launched: 29 May 1969
Commissioned: 7 August 1970[1][2]
Motto: Le Coeur de la Flotte
("The Heart of the Fleet")
Honours and
awards:		 Arabian Sea [3]
Status: Commissioned (soon to be decommissioned)[4]
Badge: Azure a life preserver Argent cabled Or charged on the centre chief point with a maple leaf slipped Gules and within the ring a starburst also Argent.[2]
General characteristics
Class and type:Protecteur-class auxiliary vessel
Displacement:24,550 t (24,162 long tons) full load
Length:172 m (564 ft 4 in)
Beam:23 m (75 ft 6 in)
Draught:10 m (32 ft 10 in)
Propulsion:2 × Babcock and Wilcox boilers
1 × General Electric steam turbine engine
Speed:20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Complement:290 officers and crew (men and women) including air detachment when embarked
Armament:2 × 20mm Phalanx CIWS (Close-In Weapons System)
6 × M2HB .50 cal (12.7mm) HMGs (Heavy Machine Guns)[5]
Aircraft carried:3 × CH-124 Sea King helicopters[6]

HMCS Preserver was a Canadian Protecteur-class auxiliary oiler replenishment of the Royal Canadian Navy commissioned in 1970.

Built by Saint John Shipbuilding in Saint John, New Brunswick, she underwent a major refit in 2005, after the ship was plagued by electrical problems.

She was the second ship to bear the name Preserver. Commissioned 11 July 1942, the first HMCS Preserver served in the Second World War as a Fairmile motor launch base supply ship under the East Coast's 'Newfoundland Force'. She was paid off 6 November 1945.

Service history

Preserver was commissioned at Saint John, New Brunswick and was assigned to the east coast fleet. In 1971 she carried the Governor-General of Canada, Roland Michener to Europe, hosting the heads of state of Belgium and Netherlands. In June of that year, the ship took part in the first-ever refueling of a hydrofoil at sea, replenishing HMCS Bras d'Or. As part of Canada's contribution to the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus, Preserver supported Canadian troops through 1974-75.[7]

The ship served Canada's fleet in domestic and international exercises in the 1980s and 1990s. In December 1992, she took part in Operation Deliverance, the ill-fated Canadian Forces operation the turned into the Somalia Affair. In 1994, Preserver was part of the multinational force enforcing sanctions on the former Yugoslavia. The vessel returned to that force in May-June 1995. In September 1998, she was part of the Canadian naval response to the crash of Swissair Flight 111 off the coast of Nova Scotia. The ship sailed for Afghanistan in October 2001, as part of Operation Apollo, Canada's initial response to the Global War on Terror. She returned from that duty in April 2002.[7]

Preserver underwent a major refit in 2005, after the ship was plagued by electrical problems. Electrical problems have yet to be resolved for all ships in the class.[8] In 2010 while refueling she spilled several cubic metres of fuel in Halifax harbour.[9] On 4 November 2011, the ship smashed into a dock in Halifax harbour suffering damage above the waterline on the starboard bow after returning from sea trials.[10] The commanding officer of the ship was later removed from his post as a result of the crash.[11] The cost of the repairs to the damage sustained during the incident was $497,442.[12]

Retirement

On 19 September 2014, Vice-Admiral Mark Norman of the Royal Canadian Navy announced the retirement of both Preserver, along with sister ship HMCS Protecteur and the Iroquois-class destroyers HMCS Iroquois and HMCS Algonquin. General wear and tear notwithstanding, corrosion problems were found on Preserver in recent months. The Royal Canadian Navy is looking at other options to fill the supply gap until the arrival of the two Queenston-class auxiliary vessel in 2019 at the earliest.[13]

No longer able to sail at sea, Preserver is providing a fueling service for the Atlantic Fleet at Halifax.[14]

Departments

See also

References

  1. ↑ Canada's Navy: HMCS Preserver - About the Ship
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Volume 2, Part 1: Extant Commissioned Ships - HMCS Preserver". National Defence and the Canadian Forces. 7 July 2006. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  3. ↑ "South-West Asia Theatre Honours". Prime Minister of Canada. Retrieved 9 May 2014.
  4. ↑ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/canadian-navy-to-retire-4-cold-war-era-ships-1.2771385
  5. ↑
  6. ↑ Canadian Navy: The Fleet
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Macpherson, Ken; Barrie, Ron (2002). The Ships of Canada's Naval Forces, 1910-2002 (3 ed.). St. Catharines: Vanwell Publishing Limited. p. 280. ISBN 1551250721.
  8. ↑ "HMCS Protecteur's electrical system flagged as 'dangerous and unsafe'". CBC News. 31 July 2014. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  9. ↑ "Ship leaked fuel into N.S. for hours due to "procedural errors"". CBC News. 22 September 2012. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  10. ↑ "HMCS Preserver smashes into dock". The Chronicle Herald. 5 November 2011. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  11. ↑ "Preserver commander relieved of duties after crash". The Chronicle Herald. 22 March 2012. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  12. ↑ "HMCS Preserver Crash leaves $500K Repair Bill". The Huffington Post Canada. 24 April 2012. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  13. ↑ "Navy sending four Cold War era ships into retirement". CTV News. 19 September 2014. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  14. ↑ Pugliese, David (24 April 2015). "Paying off ceremonies to be held for two destroyers, one replenishment ship – fourth ship to be paid off at a later date". Defence Watch (Ottawa Citizen). Retrieved 24 April 2015.

External links

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