CCGS Amundsen

CCGS "Amundsen" is an Arctic icebreaker and research vessel operated by the Canadian Coast Guard.ref|Ccg

CCGS "Sir John Franklin"

The vessel was built at Burrard Dry Dock, North Vancouver and commissioned into the Canadian Coast Guard as CCGS "Sir John Franklin" in 1979, in honour of Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin.

A 1200-class Arctic icebreaker, she worked out of CCG Base Dartmouth and CCG Base Quebec City for most of the 1980s and 1990s, being tasked to winter icebreaking operations in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and St. Lawrence River and off Newfoundland.

During the summer season, "Sir John Franklin" was often tasked to support the annual Arctic Summer Sealift operation for escorting cargo ships to remote port communities in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

Decommissioning

Following the 1995 transfer of the Canadian Coast Guard from the Department of Transport to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, CCGS "Sir John Franklin" was deemed surplus to the fleet in 1996.

That summer, she was contracted to Newfoundland-based shipping company Canship for use as an accommodations vessel during exploration work at a coastal nickel deposit at Voisey's Bay in northern part of Newfoundland and Labrador.

She was subsequently decommissioned from the CCG in 2000 and placed in non-operational reserve.

CCGS "Amundsen"

CCGS "Sir John Franklin" was given new life in August 2003 after a consortium of Canadian universities and research centres, in partnership with the federal government, received funding for a dedicated Arctic Ocean research vessel.ref|Ccg

The Canada Foundation for Innovation funded the conversion of the "Sir John Franklin" at a shipyard in Les Mechins, Quebec which saw part of the vessel's storage holds transformed into laboratory space. The refit also included the addition of a moon pool, which enables scientists to lower scientific instruments from inside the hull without cutting a hole in the ice.

The vessel was recommissioned into the Canadian Coast Guard as CCGS "Amundsen" in honour of Arctic explorer Roald Amundsen.

As part of the agreement with the educational and research institutions, the vessel is crewed by the Canadian Coast Guard which uses the ship in icebreaking service in the Gulf of St. Lawrence during the winter months, after which she is free for research assignments from May-December.

References

# [http://www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca/vessels-navires/results_details_e.asp?name=AMUNDSEN CCGS "Amundsen" - official CCG webpage] , Canadian Coast Guard
# [http://www.amundsen.quebec-ocean.ulaval.ca/ CCGS "Amundsen" - Research Icebreaker project website] , Université Laval