CCGS Captain Molly Kool

CCGS ''Captain Molly Kool'' is a Canadian Coast Guard converted medium class icebreaker. She was originally built as an icebreaking anchor handling tug ''Vidar Viking'' for Trans Viking Icebreaking & Offshore in 2001.

The vessel was acquired by the Canadian Coast Guard in August 2018 and was commissioned in May of the next year after refit. She is named after the Canadian sailor, Molly Kool.

CCGS ''Captain Molly Kool'' has two sister vessels, and , both of which are converted offshore vessels.

Design

CCGS ''Captain Molly Kool'' is long overall and between perpendiculars. Her hull has a beam of and moulded depth of . At design draught, she draws of water, but can be loaded to a maximum draught of which corresponds to a displacement of 6,872tons. Originally built to DNV ice class "ICE-10 Icebreaker", her hull structures and propulsion system will be upgraded to Polar Class 4 level and the vessel will be rated as Arctic Class 2 in Canadian service. Originally she was served by a crew of 23, but this has been reduced to 19 (9 officers and 10 crew) when the vessel was acquired by the Canadian Coast Guard.

CCGS ''Captain Molly Kool'' has four medium-speed diesel engines geared to two controllable pitch propellers in nozzles. She has two eight-cylinder MaK 8M32 and two six-cylinder MaK 6M32 diesel engines rated at and each. With a total propulsion power of , she can achieve a maximum speed of in open water and break ice at a continuous speed of . In addition, she has two bow thrusters (one fixed, one retractable and azimuthing) and one transverse stern thruster for maneuvering and dynamic positioning.

Career

''Vidar Viking'' (2001–2018)

In 2004, ''Vidar Viking'' acted as the drillship for the Arctic Coring Expedition (ACEX) in the high Arctic. The vessel remained on location in the multi-year polar ice pack for nine days while being supported by the Swedish icebreaker ''Oden'' and the Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker '' Sovetskiy Soyuz''. During the expedition, the ship stopped at the North Pole.

In late January 2010, the Swedish Maritime Administration called for ''Vidar Viking'' and ''Tor Viking'' to serve as icebreakers in the Baltic Sea.

The vessels were chartered on a contingency basis — where Trans Viking's parent company, Transatlantic, receives a basic flat fee for the vessels to be available within ten days, without regard to whether they were used. Their previous usage was in 2007. The contract expired in 2015.

In February 2010 ''Balder Viking'', ''Vidar Viking'' and were chartered by Edinburgh-based oil company Cairn Energy for four months, starting in June 2010, for drilling operations in Baffin Bay.

In 2012, the Swedish Maritime Administration agreed to end the charter for ''Vidar Viking'' prematurely for the 2011–2012 Baltic Sea icebreaking season and all subsequent seasons. The vessel then provided icebreaking services for the Estonian Maritime Administration for one winter season before heading to Sakhalin where she provided icebreaking, supply and anchor handling services starting from summer 2012 for Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Limited. After six months, she was reflagged to Russia and her crew changed to Russians. ''Vidar Viking'' was reflagged to Danish International Register of Shipping in 2016 and to Norway in 2017.

CCGS ''Captain Molly Kool'' (2018–present)

In 2016, Chantier Davie Canada began offering ''Vidar Viking'' and her sister ships as a replacement to the ageing Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers under the moniker ''Project Resolute''. In addition to the three Swedish icebreaking offshore vessels, the offer also included a fourth slightly bigger and more powerful vessel, the US-flagged . In August 2018, Chantier Davie Canada was awarded a Can$610 million dollar contract for the acquisition and refitting of the three vessels. On 10 August 2018, Viking Supply Ships announced the sale of its three vessels to Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada for a profit of $274 million. Once retrofitted at Davie Shipbuilding, the vessels are expected to remain in service in the Canadian Coast Guard for 15 to 25 years.

The vessel was the first to be ready to undertake Coast Guard missions. She had been repainted in Coast Guard livery on 13 November 2018. Some of the modifications the Coast Guard plans for the vessel, and her sister ships, were deferred, so that she could be employed ice-breaking in the St Lawrence estuary during the winter of 2019. In particular, one highly visible deferred item will be the addition of a landing pad and hangar for a light utility helicopter.

CCGS ''Captain Molly Kool'' was named after Captain Molly Kool (1916–2009), born in Alma, New Brunswick, who was the first female licensed ship captain in North America. She was also the first female deep sea Captain in North America. At the time, she was only the second woman in the world to hold that achievement. Having grown up spending her summers sailing with her father in waters in and around the Bay of Fundy, Molly learned about life at sea and became an accomplished sailor. After high school, Molly convinced the Merchant Marine School in Saint John, New Brunswick to admit her as a student. She would obtain her Mate's certificate in 1937. In 1939, she obtained her coastal Master's Certificate and graduated from the Merchant Marine Institute in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

On 22 March 2019, ''Captain Molly Kool'' and were dispatched to aid the tanker '' Jana Desgagnes'' which had damaged a rudder in heavy ice southwest of Port-aux-Basques, Newfoundland. ''Captain Molly Kool'' towed the vessel further out to sea to await the arrival of a tugboat, which would take the tanker to Sydney, Nova Scotia for repairs. During the operation, ''Captain Molly Kool'' used her towing notch, a feature not present in other CCG icebreakers currently in service, to escort the stricken tanker through the ice.

CCGS ''Captain Molly Kool'' was officially commissioned into Canadian Coast Guard fleet on 30 May 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Captain Molly Kool
Icebreakers of Sweden
Icebreakers of the Canadian Coast Guard
2000 ships