CCGS Samuel Risley is a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker and buoy tender assigned to the Great Lakes area. Lead ship of her class, the vessel is named after Samuel Risley, the 19th century maritime inspector and first head of Board of Steamship Inspectors for Upper Canada and Ontario. Based in the Great Lakes, CCGS Samuel Risley is responsible for keeping an ice-free passage between Port Colborne, Ontario and Thunder Bay, Ontario.
CCGS Limnos is a Canadian Coast Guard coastal research and survey vessel and it is named after the Greek island of Limnos which itself derived from "limni", the Greek word for lake. The ship entered service in 1968 and is currently active. The ship is based on the Great Lakes at the Coast Guard Base in Burlington, Ontario and is used for hydrographic and limnological research.
HMCS Arleux was one of twelve Battle-class naval trawlers used by the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). Entering service in 1918 near the end of the First World War, the vessel had a short career with the RCN, being transferred to the Department of Marine and Fisheries in 1922. Arleux was used for fisheries patrol off the east coast of Canada until 1939, when the ship was reacquired by the RCN at the onset of the Second World War. Used as a gate vessel during the war and designated Gate Vessel 16, the ship was sold for mercantile purposes following the war. The ship foundered in 1948 off the coast of Nova Scotia.
HMCS Loos was one of twelve Battle-class naval trawlers used by the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). Built by the Kingston Shipbuilding Company and launched in September 1917, she was commissioned in August 1918. Decommissioned in 1920, Loos was transferred to the Department of Marine and Fisheries, where she was used as a lighthouse supply ship. Sold in 1937, she was re-acquired by the RCN in December 1940 and converted to a gate vessel, spending part of the war at Shelburne, Nova Scotia. Returned to Marine Industries Limited in 1945, Loos was broken up in 1949.
HMCS Gulnare was a Canadian government ship that served as a patrol boat and guard vessel for the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) during the First World War. Acquired by the Canadian government in 1902, Gulnare was used for fisheries patrol and hydrographic survey duties until 1914. Following the war, Gulnare was used to intercept smugglers. Returned to government service in 1920, the vessel was converted to a lightship in 1925 and sold in 1937 to private interests. The vessel was broken up for scrap in the late 1940s.
HMCS Laurentian was a commissioned patrol vessel of the Royal Canadian Navy that served in the First World War and postwar until 1919. Prior to Canadian naval service, the ship was used by the Canada Customs Preventative Service. Following the war, Laurentian was transferred to the Department of Marine and Fisheries and used as a buoy tender and lighthouse supply vessel until taken out of service in 1946 and broken up for scrap in 1947.
HMCS Newington was a commissioned patrol vessel of the Royal Canadian Navy that served in the First World War. Prior to the war, the ship served as a fishing trawler and lighthouse tender for the Canadian government. Following the war the vessel was returned to government service. Newington was converted to a tugboat in 1920. Sold to private interests in 1920 the ship sank on 26 August 1959 while laid up in Burrard Inlet, British Columbia.
CCGS C.P. Edwards was a Canadian Coast Guard ship. Entering into service as a coastal freighter in 1946 with the name Ottawa Mayhill, it was commissioned in 1947 as CGS C.P. Edwards for the Department of Transport's Marine Service, serving as a light vessel. C.P. Edwards was transferred into the newly created Canadian Coast Guard in 1962, and was decommissioned in 1972. The vessel was sold to private interests that year. An engine was acquired by Canadian Science and Technology Museum in 1976. The Canadian registry of the vessel was closed in 1979 and the ship was sold to U.S. interests.
CCGS Simcoe was a Canadian Coast Guard buoy tender and light icebreaker. The second vessel of the name in Canadian government service, Simcoe was in service from 1962 to 2007 based out of the Coast Guard base at Prescott, Ontario working the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence Seaway. In 2008 the ship was sold to commercial interests.
CCGS D'Iberville was a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker that was in service from 1952 to 1983 and was Canada's first modern icebreaker. The ship commissioned as CGS D'Iberville for the Department of Transport's Marine Service, using the prefix "Canadian Government Ship", D'Iberville was transferred into the newly-created Canadian Coast Guard in 1962. When launched, she was the largest icebreaker in use by Canada post-World War II until CCGS John A. Macdonald was put in service. In 1984, the icebreaker was renamed Phillip O'Hara before returning to her old name in 1988. In 1989 the vessel was sold for scrap and broken up at Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
CCGS Earl Grey is a Samuel Risley-class light icebreaker and buoy tender in the Canadian Coast Guard. Constructed in 1986, the vessel serves a variety of roles, including light ice-breaking and buoy tending, as well as being strengthened for navigation in ice to perform tasking along the shores off the Atlantic coast of Canada. Like her sister ship, CCGS Samuel Risley, she carries a large and powerful crane on her long low afterdeck for manipulating buoys. Earl Grey is the second icebreaker in Canadian service to carry the name.
CGS Vigilant was a Fisheries Protection patrol vessel employed on the Canadian Great Lakes. Completed in 1904, the vessel remained in service on the Great Lakes until 1924. The vessel was then chartered by the Canadian Customs Preventive Service until 1929 for service on the East Coast of Canada. The ship was sold to private interests and converted to a barge. She remained in service until 1956 when the vessel was broken up.
CGS Aberdeen was a Canadian Government Ship launched in 1894, which served as a lighthouse supply and buoy vessel. The vessel served on the East Coast of Canada until 1923, when the vessel ran aground on Seal Island, Nova Scotia.
CGS Acadia was a fisheries patrol vessel of the Canadian Department of Marine and Fisheries from 1885 to 1909. The ship began life as the yacht Yosemite, constructed in the United States in 1880. After being acquired in 1885 by Canada and renamed Acadia, the ship served in the Atlantic fisheries, enforcing fisheries regulations in Canadian waters. The ship was taken out of service in 1909 and sold for scrap and Acadia's registry was closed in 1910.
CCGS Provo Wallis is a Provo Wallis-class buoy tender that served with the Canadian Coast Guard. The vessel entered service in 1969 and was classed as a Medium-endurance Multi-tasked Vessel. Provo Wallis spent the majority of her career on the Atlantic Coast of Canada before transferring to the West Coast. Ice-strengthened, the ship was used mainly for maintaining navaids in shipping lanes. The vessel was taken out of service in 2011 and laid up.
CGS Stanley has been described as Canada's first effective icebreaker. She was launched in 1888, and remained in service until 1935. Constructed in the United Kingdom, Stanley was deployed along the East Coast of Canada for use as a ferry and lighthouse and buoy supply vessel and was used for icebreaking during winter months.
CGS Minto was one of the Government of Canada's first icebreakers. She was modeled after CGS Stanley, Canada's first effective icebreaker, but was slightly longer and more powerful. Like her predecessor, her primary winter duties were keeping Prince Edward Island connected to the mainland—one of the conditions under which the province had entered Confederation. The ship entered service in 1899 and remained on the East Coast of Canada until 1915, when Minto was sold to the Russian Empire. Transferred in November, she became Ivan Susanin, and was tasked with keeping northern ports open during the war. Her name was changed to Leitenant Dreyer in 1920 after being taken over the Soviet Navy and Skuratov in 1921. The ship was wrecked in the Barents Sea in 1922.
CGS Kestrel was employed as a Government of Canada Fisheries Protection vessel on the Pacific Coast. Completed in 1899 by Alfred Wallace shipyards in Vancouver, British Columbia she entered into service in 1903 and remained in government service after the creation of the Royal Canadian Navy in 1910 until she was sold in 1912. The vessel was broken up in 1931.
CCGS Ernest Lapointe was a Canadian Coast Guard light icebreaker that served for 37 years. Completed in 1941, Ernest Lapointe was taken out of service in 1978. The ship was active along the East Coast of Canada and in the Saint Lawrence River. In 1980, the vessel was turned into a museum ship in Quebec.
The Samuel Risley-class icebreakers are a class of two icebreakers and buoy tenders constructed for and operated by the Canadian Coast Guard. The two ships are based on offshore supply tugboat design and entered service in the 1980s. Samuel Risley is deployed to the Central Region, operating mainly on the Great Lakes of North America, while Earl Grey is posted to Atlantic Canada, working off the east coast of Canada.
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