CCGS ''Sir Humphrey Gilbert'' was a

Canadian Coast Guard The Canadian Coast Guard (CCG; french: links=no, Garde côtière canadienne, GCC) is the coast guard of Canada. Formed in 1962, the coast guard is tasked with marine search and rescue (SAR), communication, navigation, and transportation issues ...

light icebreaker and

buoy tender A buoy tender is a type of vessel used to maintain and replace navigational buoys. This term can also apply to an actual person who does this work. The United States Coast Guard uses buoy tenders to accomplish one of its primary missions of main ...

and now a privately owned Arctic icebreaker ''Polar Prince''. The ship entered service with the Department of Transport Marine Service in 1959 and transferred to the newly created

in 1962, active until 1986. The icebreaker was sold to private interests in Newfoundland and the ship sat idle after 2001 until resold in 2009 to GTX Technology Canada Limited and renamed ''Polar Prince''. Rebuilt, the icebreaker is now plying the waters of the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

. In 2017, the vessel was temporarily rechristened ''Canada C3'' and used for a high-profile voyage around Canada's three maritime coasts as part of the nation's 150th anniversary.

Design and description

The icebreaker is

long overall __NOTOC__ Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, an ...

with a beam of and a draught of . The ship has a fully loaded displacement of and a gross register tonnage (GRT) of 2,153 and as built. The vessel is powered by diesel-electric engines (DC/DC) driving two shafts turning fixed-pitch propellers creating . This gives the vessel a maximum speed of . The vessel can carry of

diesel fuel Diesel fuel , also called diesel oil, is any liquid fuel specifically designed for use in a diesel engine, a type of internal combustion engine in which fuel ignition takes place without a spark as a result of compression of the inlet air and ...

and had a range of at and could stay at sea for up to 30 days. The vessel was remeasured as with a in 1985.

Construction and career

Government service

The icebreaker was constructed by

Davie Shipbuilding Davie Shipbuilding is a historic shipbuilding company located in Lauzon, Quebec, Canada. The facility is now operating as Chantier Davie Canada Inc. and is the oldest continually operating shipbuilder in North America. History The Davie shipyard ...

at their yard in Lauzon,

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

with the

yard number __NOTOC__ M ...

614 and was launched on 29 October 1958. ''Sir Humphrey Gilbert'', named for an early explorer of the

Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The eastern route along the Arc ...

, was commissioned into the

Department of Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The d ...

's Marine Service in June 1959. In 1962, all Marine Service icebreakers were transferred to the newly formed Canadian Coast Guard. The vessel was registered in Ottawa,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

and homeported at St. John's,

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic Canada, Atlantic region. The province comprises t ...

in the Newfoundland Region. On 20 December 1963, the French vessel ''Douala'' transmitted a distress signal off the coast of Newfoundland. ''Sir Humphrey Gilbert'' had already been detailed to aid a fishing vessel in the Atlantic, but was redirected to ''Douala'' as the French ship was in danger of foundering. While heading to ''Douala'' a

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...

broke loose aboard the Coast Guard vessel, causing damage to the ship and it was some time before the barge could be secured due to icing conditions. The Coast Guard vessel was delayed in arriving on the scene by the barge and on 21 December, ''Douala'' sank. 19 crew members of ''Douala'' were rescued on 22 December, of which two died while returning to Newfoundland. 13 members of the crew died in the water. In 1983, ''Sir Humphrey Gilbert'' became the test vessel for the Coast Guard's lay day crewing system. Under the lay day system, each ship has two crews which rotate on a 28-day interval. While on board the ship, the crew perform 12-hour work shifts, seven days a week. At the end of the 28-day interval, the crew rotates off the ship for a four-week break. The trials proved a success and the system was adopted fleet-wide.

Post government service

The ship was taken out of service in 2001 and handed over to Crown Assets Distribution. The vessel was renamed ''2001–06'' in 2001 and in 2002 ''Gilbert 1''.

''Polar Prince''

In 2002, the icebreaker was sold to Puddister Trading Co. Ltd of St. John's and renamed ''Polar Prince''. In 2002, the vessel was acquired by Star Line Inc. In 2005, the vessel was laid up at

Clarenville, Newfoundland and Labrador Clarenville is a town on the east coast of Newfoundland in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Clarenville was incorporated in 1951. It is located in the Shoal Harbour valley, fronting an arm of the Atlantic Ocean called Random S ...

and put up for sale by Star Line on

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...

. The vessel was later sold to GX Technologies of Calgary,

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

in 2009 and modernized.

Canada C3

In 2017, ''Polar Prince'' was chartered and (temporarily) rechristened ''Canada C3'' for a high-profile summer-long, 15-leg cruise around Canada in celebration of Canada's 150th anniversary. The ship departed on 1 July from

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

, Ontario, and sailed down the

Saint Lawrence Seaway The St. Lawrence Seaway (french: la Voie Maritime du Saint-Laurent) is a system of locks, canals, and channels in Canada and the United States that permits oceangoing vessels to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes of North Ameri ...

and

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348 ...

via the

Northumberland Strait The Northumberland Strait (French: ''détroit de Northumberland'') is a strait in the southern part of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in eastern Canada. The strait is formed by Prince Edward Island and the gulf's eastern, southern, and western sh ...

and the

Canso Canal The Canso Canal is a short canal located in Nova Scotia, Canada. Canal location The Canso Canal is in the Strait of Canso, on the eastern side of the Canso Causeway, a rock-fill causeway which opened in 1955 to carry a 2-lane highway and a si ...

, then travelled north around Newfoundland, the Labrador coast, around Baffin Island and through the Northwest Passage, then around Alaska and down the Pacific coast through the

Inside Passage The Inside Passage (french: Passage Intérieur) is a coastal route for ships and boats along a network of passages which weave through the islands on the Pacific Northwest coast of the North American Fjordland. The route extends from southeaste ...

, to

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. The ...

. The journey lasted 150 days and included stops at numerous Aboriginal communities along the way.

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

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External links

Vessel at ''shipspotting.com''

Canada C3 - Coast to Coast to Coast
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sir Humphrey Gilbert, CCGS

Sir Humphrey Gilbert Sir Humphrey Gilbert (c. 1539 – 9 September 1583) was an English adventurer, explorer, member of parliament and soldier who served during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and was a pioneer of the English colonial empire in North America ...

Ships built in Quebec 1958 ships