CCGS ''W.E. Ricker''CCGS stands for Canadian Coast Guard Ship was 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 ...

offshore

fisheries research vessel A research vessel (RV or R/V) is a ship or boat designed, modified, or equipped to carry out research at sea. Research vessels carry out a number of roles. Some of these roles can be combined into a single vessel but others require a dedicated ...

. The ship was originally constructed as the commercial

fishing trawler A fishing trawler is a commercial fishing vessel designed to operate fishing trawls. Trawling is a method of fishing that involves actively dragging or pulling a trawl through the water behind one or more trawlers. Trawls are fishing nets tha ...

''Callistratus'', but was purchased by the

Government of Canada The Government of Canada (), formally His Majesty's Government (), is the body responsible for the federation, federal administration of Canada. The term ''Government of Canada'' refers specifically to the executive, which includes Minister of t ...

in 1984 and converted to a fisheries research vessel and renamed ''W.E. Ricker''. The vessel entered service with the

Department of Fisheries and Oceans Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO; ) is a department of the Government of Canada that is responsible for developing and implementing policies and programs in support of Canada's economic, ecological and scientific interests in oceans and inland ...

in 1986 and was transferred to the Canadian Coast Guard in 1995 after the two fleets were amalgamated. The ship was assigned to the

West Coast of Canada The British Columbia Coast, popularly referred to as the BC Coast or simply the Coast, is a geographic region of the Canadian province of British Columbia. As the entire western continental coastline of Canada along the Pacific Ocean is in the pr ...

and was decommissioned on 14 March 2017.

Design and description

''W.E. Ricker'' was of a commercial stern

design and was

long overall 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, and is also u ...

with a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Radio beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially lo ...

of and a draught of . The ship was propelled by one controllable pitch

propeller A propeller (often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon a working flu ...

driven by one Akasaka AH40 six-cylinder geared diesel engine, creating . ''W.E. Ricker'' also had one Perkins 2430 emergency generator. This gave the vessel a maximum speed of . The research vessel had a fuel capacity of of

diesel fuel Diesel fuel, also called diesel oil, heavy oil (historically) or simply diesel, 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 re ...

, a range of at and could stay at sea for up to 50 days. The ship had a

complement Complement may refer to: The arts * Complement (music), an interval that, when added to another, spans an octave ** Aggregate complementation, the separation of pitch-class collections into complementary sets * Complementary color, in the visu ...

of 20, composed of 9 officers and 11 crew with 17 spare berths.

Service history

The ship was ordered from

Narasaki Senpakukogyo Limited Narasaki Senpakukogyo Limited or Narasaki Shipbuilding or Narasaki Zosen is a small shipbuilder located in Muroran, Hokkaidō, Japan. It was part of the Narasaki Sangyo Company Limited. Although still building vessels, the company is now focused on ...

at their yard in

Muroran is a city and port located in Iburi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. It is the capital city of Iburi Subprefecture. As of January 31, 2024, the city had an estimated population of 76,385, with 43,494 households and a population density of . The ...

, Japan with yard number 922. The vessel was completed in December 1978 as ''Callistratus''. The vessel was used as a factory trawler by the Prince Rupert Fishermen's Co-operative Association participating in emerging North Pacific fisheries (

North Pacific hake The North Pacific hake, Pacific hake, Pacific whiting, or jack salmon (''Merluccius productus'') is a ray-finned fish in the genus '' Merluccius'', found in the northeast Pacific Ocean from northern Vancouver Island to the northern part of the Gu ...

turbot The turbot ( ) ''Scophthalmus maximus'' is a relatively large species of flatfish in the family Scophthalmidae. It is a demersal fish native to marine or brackish waters of the Northeast Atlantic, Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. It is a ...

and

rockfish Rockfish is a common term for several species of fish, referring to their tendency to hide among rocks. The name rockfish is used for many kinds of fish used for food. This common name belongs to several groups that are not closely related, and ca ...

) resulting from the extension of Canada's

exclusive economic zone An exclusive economic zone (EEZ), as prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is an area of the sea in which a sovereign state has exclusive rights regarding the exploration and use of marine natural resource, reso ...

to offshore. The vessel was purchased in 1984 by the

for conversion to a fisheries research vessel in Pacific waters. The ship entered service with the

in 1986, renamed ''W.E. Ricker'', for William Edwin (Bill) Ricker, a former chief scientist of the Fisheries Research Board who developed a mathematical model used for fish population dynamics. In 1995, in an effort to combine tasks, administration and savings in both ships and funds, the Fisheries and Oceans and

fleets were merged under the command of the Canadian Coast Guard. ''W.E. Ricker'' was given the new prefix CCGS as a result. The vessel continued to be used for fisheries research in Pacific waters. In September 2009 the Department of Fisheries and Oceans announced invitations for contracts to replace several of the Coast Guard's research vessels, including ''W.E. Ricker''. The ship was taken out of service on 14 March 2017 due to a lack of seaworthiness. ''W.E. Ricker'' was put up for sale for

scrap Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap can have monetary value, especially recover ...

only due to the vessel's poor condition. On 4 August 2020, a contract was awarded to Canadian Maritime Engineering Ltd. to dispose of ''W.E. Ricker''. The dismantling is being completed at the Canadian Maritime Engineering Ltd Nanaimo B.C. Division. The contract has a completion date of the end of February 2022. During disassembly a worker was seriously injured by a falling beam.

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

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External links

Photos of FV Callistratus in Prince Rupert, 1979 from UNBC Northern BC Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:W.E. Ricker, CCGS Ships of the Canadian Coast Guard Research vessels of Canada Research vessels of Japan Ships built in Japan