Canadian Coast Guard Ship ''Griffon'' is a

Canadian Coast Guard The Canadian Coast Guard (CCG; ) 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 in Canadian waters, such as navigation aids and i ...

(CCG) high endurance multi-tasked vessel and light

icebreaker An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters, and provide safe waterways for other boats and ships. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller ...

stationed in

Prescott Prescott may refer to: People Given name * Prescott E. Bloom, American lawyer and politician * Prescott Bush, American banker and politician * Samuel Prescott Bush, American industrialist * Prescott F. Hall, American lawyer, author and eugenicist ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada. Completed in 1970, ''Griffon'' provides icebreaking services along eastern

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The Canada–United Sta ...

and upriver along the

Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (, ) is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawrenc ...

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Design and description

A Type 1100

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 ...

, ''Griffon'' displaces fully loaded, with a

gross tonnage Gross tonnage (GT, G.T. or gt) is a nonlinear measure of a ship's overall internal volume. Gross tonnage is different from gross register tonnage. Neither gross tonnage nor gross register tonnage should be confused with measures of mass or weig ...

of 2,212 and a

deadweight tonnage Deadweight tonnage (also known as deadweight; abbreviated to DWT, D.W.T., d.w.t., or dwt) or tons deadweight (DWT) is a measure of how much weight a ship can carry. It is the sum of the weights of cargo, fuel, fresh water Fresh water or ...

of 786 tons. The ship is long overall and with a beam of and a draught of .Saunders, p. 96 The ship is propelled by two shafts powered by four Fairbanks-Morse 38D8-1/8 8 cylinder diesel-electric generators that generate sustained driving two motors creating . This gives the ship a maximum speed of and a range of at . The ship is rated as Arctic Class 2, and has an endurance of 90 days. The ship has a crew of 25. The ship has a

flight deck The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is the surface on which its aircraft take off and land, essentially a miniature airfield at sea. On smaller naval ships which do not have aviation as a primary mission, the landing area for helicopters ...

to land

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

s, but unlike larger Canadian Coast Guard vessels she has no

hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

. The ship is capable of operating either the

MBB Bo 105 The Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm Bo 105 is a light, twin-engine, multi-purpose helicopter developed by Bölkow of Ottobrunn, West Germany. It was the first light twin-engine helicopter in the world, and the first rotorcraft that could perform ...

or Bell 206B helicopters.

History

Named after the sailing vessel ''Le Griffon'', the ship's

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element of a watercraft, important for stability. On some sailboats, it may have a fluid dynamics, hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose as well. The keel laying, laying of the keel is often ...

was laid by

Davie Shipbuilding Davie Shipbuilding is a 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 in Lauz ...

in Lauzon, Quebec. The ship was launched on 26 September 1969 and completed in April 1970. ''Griffon'' entered service in December 1970 as the last of the first group of diesel-electric vessels to enter service with the Canadian Coast Guard.Maginley and Collin, p. 174 The ship was deployed to the Great Lakes region, however has sailed as far as

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay, sometimes called Hudson's Bay (usually historically), is a large body of Saline water, saltwater in northeastern Canada with a surface area of . It is located north of Ontario, west of Quebec, northeast of Manitoba, and southeast o ...

. In 1976, the Norwegian merchant vessel ''King Star'' engines failed on the Canadian side of

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( ) is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest avera ...

. With gale force winds blowing the ship was unable to anchor due to frozen

hawser Hawser () is a nautical term for a thick rope used in Mooring (watercraft), mooring or towing a ship. A hawser is not waterproof, as is a Nautical cable, cable. A hawser passes through a hawsehole, also known as a cat hole, located on the wikt: ...

. ''Griffon'' was dispatch and towed the Norwegian merchant vessel to

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

. In February 1977, a late winter Canadian

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...

convoy of three

tankers Tanker may refer to: Transportation * Tanker, a tank crewman (US) * Tanker (ship), a ship designed to carry bulk liquids ** Chemical tanker, a type of tanker designed to transport chemicals in bulk ** Oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanke ...

was created to deliver much-needed fuel oil and chemical supplies to sites on

Lake Superior Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. Lake Michigan–Huron has a larger combined surface area than Superior, but is normally considered tw ...

. ''Griffon'' was deployed to break ice for the convoy. However, the ship was not equal to the task as the ice proved thicker than ''Griffon'' was designed to break. While ''en route'' to

Sault Ste. Marie Sault Ste. Marie may refer to: People * Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, a Native American tribe in Michigan Places * Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada ** Sault Ste. Marie (federal electoral district), a Canadian federal electora ...

and

Thunder Bay Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario. Its population i ...

, ''Griffon'' got stuck in the ice at the mouth of

Georgian Bay The Georgian Bay () is a large bay of Lake Huron, in the Laurentia bioregion. It is located entirely within the borders of Ontario, Canada. The main body of the bay lies east of the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island. To its northwest is t ...

. This then required the intervention of the US icebreaker , which took eight hours to free the Canadian ships. In March 1987, the ship was one of six icebreakers deployed from both US and Canadian coast guards in an effort to break the ice damming the

St. Clair River The St. Clair River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed November 7, 2011 river in central North America which flows from Lake Huron into Lake St. Clair, forming part ...

, which drains

Lake Huron Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is shared on the north and east by the Canadian province of Ontario and on the south and west by the U.S. state of Michigan. The name of the lake is derived from early French ex ...

into

Lake St. Clair Lake St. Clair () is a freshwater lake that lies between the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Michigan. It was named in 1679 by French Catholic explorers after Saint Clare of Assisi, on whose feast day they first saw the lake. ...

. The ice had grown thick enough that the river had been closed to all commercial maritime traffic until the operation was completed. In December 1989, ''Griffon'' was deployed to the Great Lakes to aid several vessels that became stuck in ice following an unusually extreme cold period. On 18 March 1991, while operating off

Long Point, Ontario Long Point is a sand spit and medium-sized hamlet on the north shore of Lake Erie, part of Norfolk County in the province of Ontario, Canada. It is about long and is about across at its widest point. Lake Erie lies to the south of Long Po ...

, in Lake Erie, ''Griffon'' collided with the fishing trawler ''Captain K'' of

Port Dover, Ontario Port Dover is an unincorporated community and former town located in Norfolk County, Ontario, Canada, on the north shore of Lake Erie. It is the site of the recurring Friday the 13th motorcycle rally. Prior to the War of 1812, this community ...

. The fishing vessel sank almost immediately, and the three crew aboard died. Their bodies were recovered. In the

Transportation Safety Board of Canada The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB, ), officially the Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board () is the agency of the Government of Canada responsible for advancing transportation safety in Canada. It is acc ...

review of the incident, it was found that both vessels were at fault for the collision. In 2004, ''Griffon'' and were ordered to Lake Erie to search for the remains of a Cessna plane carrying 10 people that crashed into the lake. The search took place off

Pelee Island Pelee may refer to: *Pelee, Ontario, an island in Lake Erie, Canada *Point Pelee National Park, a park in Ontario, Canada *Mount Pelée, a volcano in Martinique *Peleus In Greek mythology, Peleus (; Ancient Greek: Πηλεύς ''Pēleus'') was ...

as the plane was bound for

Windsor, Ontario Windsor ( ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is situated on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from the U.S city of Detroit, Detroit, Michigan. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Esse ...

. On 13 February 2009, the vessel broke ice at the mouth of the Grand River that had caused a flood in the small towns of Dunnville and

Cayuga Cayuga often refers to: * Cayuga people, a native tribe to North America, part of the Iroquois Confederacy * Cayuga language, the language of the Cayuga Cayuga may also refer to: Places Canada *Cayuga, Ontario United States * Cayuga, Illinois ...

. In February 2015, ''Griffon'', working with ''Samuel Risley'', freed the US merchant vessel which had been trapped in ice on Lake Erie for five days near

Conneaut, Ohio Conneaut ( ) is the northeastern most city in Ashtabula County, Ohio, United States, as well as the entire state as a whole. Located in the Greater Cleveland, Cleveland metropolitan area, it is settled along Lake Erie at the mouth of Conneaut Cre ...

. On 15 July 2015, the Government of Canada announced that a contract was awarded to Heddle Marine Service Incorporated for $2.7 million to perform a refit for ''Griffon''. On 26 August 2020, the Government of Canada announced that a contract was awarded to Heddle Marine Service Incorporated for $4 million to perform a refit for ''Griffon''. In February 2023, ''Griffon'' was deployed to Lake Huron to search for debris on an unknown object that was shot down over the Great Lakes by the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

References

Citations

Sources

* *

External links

CCGS Griffon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Griffon 1969 ships Icebreakers of the Canadian Coast Guard Ships built in Lévis