It’s spring on the CCGS Samuel Risley and the towering Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker is busy on Lake Huron and Lake Superior breaking out icy harbours and helping the Great Lakes commercial shipping activities get moving for another season.
For the remainder of the year, the ship and its crew will be caring for the navigational aids that are critical for ensuring safe travel for commercial and recreational boaters on the Great Lakes. Ready to respond to many other situations, including rescue missions, whenever and wherever needed, the Risley’s location at any time throughout the year depends on the directions of the Canadian Coast Guard.
But wherever the need for the Risley’s services takes her, she always calls the historic and picturesque base at Parry Sound home. This morning, the Canadian Coast Guard base in Parry Sound is a busy place. The blue light of first dawn is broken by the bright lights of the base and the CCGS Samuel Risley at dock. In spite of the dim light, the 228-foot-long ship dominates the scenes. Painted red and white and with a red maple leaf emblazoned on its side to resemble the Canadian flag, the Risley is a bright figure against the early morning Georgian Bay shoreline.
This morning, dark figures are hurrying about, ensuring readiness of the ship. The crew, many of whom are from the Parry Sound area, are proud of their activities. On the deck, Chief Officer Jason Rimmer, a Kingston man, is sipping a hot coffee and awaiting guests.
Captain David Fowler, a Parry Sound man, is within, preparing for the day’s task which will be to lift buoys in the Big Sound, and out in Georgian Bay and replace them with other buoys for the new season ahead. The ship will be travelling through the Big Sound, past Killbear Park, through the Parry Sound Channel, out past the Red Rock lighthouse to Georgian Bay, and then will turn around and come back to Parry Sound.
The crew of 22, plus Cadet Shane Latimer of Cape Breton, each have specific duties and most are starting their twelve-hour shift. Others, particularly those in the mess hall, have been at work for well over an hour already.
The ship has the capacity to be completely independent from shore services, and may head out from its home port of Parry Sound to any location on Lake Huron, Lake Superior, or the other Canadian Great Lakes or St. Lawrence River, as called upon by the Canadian Coast Guard. The Griffon, based in Prescott, also operates on the Great Lakes for the Canadian Coast Guard.
Among the tasks the Risley might be assigned are search and rescue. Routine tasks are care of navigational aids, including buoys and lighthouses marking the many navigational hazards which go along with the proud distinction of Georgian Bay, which is its many islands. As a light icebreaker, with a one-inch steel hull and 8,800 horsepower, she has the capability of keeping commercial shipping lanes open after they would normally have frozen over, and providing an extra month of shipping. She can also open the shipping lanes earlier in the spring. Ice jams which threaten flooding can also be moved by the Risley.
These capabilities to bring safety to those using the Great Lakes and living along their shores, make it seem suitable that she is named after a nineteenth century steamboat safety inspector who brought safety improvements to steamboat vessels.
Beyond metal, water-tight doors, narrow halls, and steep stairways, the bridge is located high above the rest of the ship. Windows and glassed doorways on all sides of the bridge allow a view of the decks fore and aft, as well as the water’s surface far out from the ship’s location.
The bridge is carpeted and has low ceilings, ensuring voices carry clearly from one side of the space to the other.
Quartermaster Taleh Husseynov, a Hamilton man, is sitting at the wheel, responding carefully to each of the captain’s orders.
Second Officer Chris Everett, also of Parry Sound, and Third Officer Cindy De Ladurantaye of Granby, Quebec, are the deck officers on the bridge for this shift.
A central island lights maps of the area, and surrounding computerized screens each utilize a different technology and data references to show the ship’s location. A radar screen, electronic charts, differential global positioning systems, and dual multi-frequency depth sounding and recording all assist the crew on the bridge in steering the ship through the varied underwater terrain.
But the ship has excellent maneuverability and toughness. “Most of it we can almost go right up to the island,” says Second Officer Everett. “We have a draft of 5.5 meters normally, but today we have a draft of 5.4 meters.”
Overhead screens show the deck itself so that those on the bridge can ensure they are fully apprised of the operation below.
Boatswain Perry Buttineau, another Parry Sound man, readies for the first of the buoys to be lifted. “I run the operations on the deck outside, and assign the men to certain positions,” he explains.
It’s an overcast day. There is a bit of rain in the air, stinging cold on face and hands. The smell of fresh fish in the lake air is pervasive, and a gull flies along side the Risley for a way, before it flies back to the islands the Risley is passing.
On the deck, the deckhands are preparing to load the buoys and replace them with alternative buoys for the new season ahead.
The deckhands will work on the deck, in these elements, heat or cold, rain or snow, for 28 days before they return home for a month’s rest. They will then return for another 28 days and brave the elements, no matter what the season or the day or night offers. Their faces are burned the colour of Georgian Bay granite, and polished by the same elements. Their eyes shine with the same dark light as is seen shining up from beneath the surface of the dark water.
Dressed in brightly coloured rain gear, and wearing protective head gear, they are assisted in the operation by a Liebherr deck crane, capable of lifting over 15 tonnes. The crane is being operated from within.
Down below in the engine room, four 4-stroke turbocharged Wartsila 12V22MD diesel engines are also playing their role in this operation. Bow thrusters hum as they hold the ship steady alongside the first of the buoys.
The water hisses as jets of air are spewed into the silky, steel-coloured depths of the Big Sound, turning the now ruffled water a beautiful, pale aquamarine.
Buoys for the summer season are often about four feet wide, and twelve feet long. Winter spars are a different shape, and smaller, and do not have the lanterns atop them, meaning less potential damage if they are pulled under the ice during the winter, explains Third Officer De Ladurantaye.
One of the deckhands hooks the buoy floating in the water above its anchor, and attaches it to the crane’s lines.
The buoy is lifted from the depths, dripping water, its anchor still attached, and gently brought over the side of the ship and placed on the deck floor. A second buoy, suitable for the season ahead, is attached to the crane and placed back in the water, secured to the anchor and ready to do its job of alerting boaters to the presence of a rock or some other underwater obstacle.
All of this operation is being watched carefully from the bridge. The captain speaks calmly to the crew on the bridge, advising of any adjustments needed to ensure the ship stays perfectly still while the buoys are exchanged. “There is a crosswind in the channel,” he comments. “We have to keep the ship very still.”
His voice carries easily across the bridge, and his instructions are repeated back to him to ensure they have been properly heard.
A fair, tall, trim man, he wears a short-sleeved captain’s uniform in spite of the cool weather. He remains focused on the activities on the deck, noting that the most dangerous moment for the deckhands is the point when the buoy is being lifted overhead and across the side of the ship.
Captain Fowler has held the position of captain since 1990, working all but three of those years on one ship or another, including one in Newfoundland. During the three years on land, he worked at Canadian Coast Guard headquarters. “For three years in different periods I worked on shore. I worked in Sarnia at the regional headquarters and also in Ottawa at the national headquarters,” he says.
Like the rest of the crew, he is on duty 28 days, then off 28 days. Captain Darryl Clow, also of the Parry Sound area, takes over the ship’s operations from Captain Fowler at the end of his 28-day shift, and the two alternate back and forth. “We can keep the ships out a lot more doing work because of the crewing system,” explains Captain Fowler.
The month of working on board a ship with the same people, and away from family members, can be stressful, but Second Officer Everett says the crew becomes a second family. For him, this is the end of his career, as he is retiring this spring after 30 years. He speaks to others with affection in his voice, addressing the captain as “Cap,” and speaking with deep admiration for the ship’s builder—Vito Steel Boat and Barge, of Delta, British Columbia.
Built in 1985, the ship cost $35-million at the time, and was then considered state-of-the-art in terms of her communication technologies.
Captain Fowler says the ship is almost completely double hulled. It has water-tight doors throughout and the engine room is protected by hydraulically operated doors. Inside, the orderly and roaring systems include, along with its diesel engines, two 1,000 kilowatt shaft generators to assist in the ship’s electrical needs, one Detroit 6-71 turbocharged 140-kilowatt generator set, and two main Detroit 16V71 series turbocharged 400-kilowatt generator sets. The ship also has its own sewage treatment system.
“We are totally independent,” Captain Fowler says of the ship’s amenities.
There are enough berths on the ship to sleep 31 people. There are common washrooms, a weight room, libraries of materials relating to the Risley and her operations, and the galley. Tables and comfortable seating help crew members to relax for meals which include plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. The cook staff are up at 6:30 in the morning to begin preparing the day’s meals.
Tough, powerful, fully self-sufficient, and highly maneuverable, the Risley is always at the ready. “We are a resource on the water,” says Captain Fowler. “We can carry out all sorts of missions to help people out.” He adds that, “As a Coast Guard resource, we can be assigned anywhere.” However he says that, “We stick to our region generally.”
One of the tasks the Risley could be called out on at any time is search and rescue. Search and rescue equipment on board includes a 25-foot fast rescue craft, pollution response equipment, fire gear, water cannons, four life rafts which can each seat up to 50 people, a 28-foot work barge with lifting gear and liquid cargo capacity, a high-speed rigid hull inflatable work boat, a general purpose planing hull barge, winches, and safety gear for the people on board or on other crafts.
Successful search and rescue missions are the best memories. The Risley was called out one time to a search and rescue effort in Georgian Bay after two fourteen-year-old girls were accidentally swept away from shore at Wikwemikong Bay one evening in May, 2002. Three girls had been playing with a paddle boat. One girl managed to get back to shore but the other two were pulled out into cold waters and were unable to leave the paddle boat to swim back to shore. Eventually the small craft flipped and the girls crawled back onto its back and huddled together through the night as search and rescue teams including the Risley, the Ontario Provincial Police, and Trenton Search and Rescue looked for them. It was 6:30 in the morning, and searchers were certain they were by then looking for bodies. But the girls were discovered alive, still huddled on top of the overturned paddle boat. It was commented at the time that most people would not have survived the ordeal. That day, Captain Fowler launched a Good Luck balloon which had been left in his cabin by the previous captain. He said it had done its job.
The Risley also participated in the recovery mission of a Cessna Caravan which crashed off Pelee Island in Lake Erie in January, 2004. Ten people and two dogs died in that incident. As an icebreaker, the Risley was able to get close enough to the site, and was able to use its crane to lift the airplane and the victims to the surface in one lift.
Other interesting activities the Risley has been involved in include: responding to medical problems on other ships; helping out with scientific work such as studying fault lines, underwater seismic activity, interesting creatures, or taking freshwater samples; pollution response and helping with the clean-up; Canadian security initiative, and training for the Queen’s Own Rifles.
The lakes themselves offer wonders for the crew from 25-foot-high waves to water spouts or mini-tornadoes.
Working on the Risley, and for the Canadian Coast Guard, is a career that is not obvious to most, especially those that live in inland communities. But there is a four-year college program available for those who are interested. “All the officers are certified according to Transport Canada,” says Captain Fowler. “There is an extensive in-house training program,” he adds. Fire response and rescue are some of the training practices that crew members must participate in. “There are so many different aspects of this job. We are constantly training,” says Captain Fowler. “Safety is the biggest concern. There is a lot of risk involved.” Captain Fowler says that it is possible to be successful in certain operations where there is risk involved, but, “you have to be focused.”
Throughout the day the crew has been picking up and replacing buoys. Their shift comes to an end and the Risley is returning back to its home port. But Captain Fowler says there are always at least four people running the ship through the night, with the crew ready to respond if ice-breaking or search and rescue efforts are required.
Overhead lights on the bridge are kept off. The maps and screens glow as the ship approaches the shore. Parry Sound presents itself to those on the water as tiers of golden lights.
The ship pulls up to the dock at the Canadian Coast Guard base.
The Risley is home.
Risley: The Great Lakes Sentinel
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