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HMCS Corner Brook (SSK–878) Moved in Floating Drydock For Repairs and Maintenance
HMCS Corner Brook in floating dry dock Seaspan Careen while pumping buoyancy tanks is completed. (Murray Polson photo)
A startling view of the damaged bow of HMCS Corner Brook was shown on TV recently. In June 2011 HMCS Corner Brook ran aground during exercises off Vancouver Island and suffered damage to her bow (which is evident in the images) - the pressure hull is reportedly intact. This incident brought forward pre-maintenance work on the submarine, in expectation of a previously planned extended 2.5 year planned maintenance program which has been developed for all the submarines in its class. The RCN states categorically that she will return to active duty status about 2016.
Our Victoria Waterfront Correspondent, Murray Polson, caught some dramatic images of HMCS Corner Brook being docked in the floating Drydock Seaspan Careen. He was mainly interested in the tugs and floating dry dock and was unaware of the drama unfolding in front of him. We thought readers would be interested in the rest of the process of docking the submarine preparatory to carrying out the pre-planned maintenance and repair program.
HMCS Corner Brook as tanks in the dry dock are pumped. (Murray Polson photo)
HMCS Corner Brook as tanks in the dry dock are pumped. (Murray Polson photo)
HMCS Corner Brook as tanks in the dry dock are pumped. (Murray Polson photo)
HMCS Corner Brook (Murray Polson photo)
HMCS Corner Brook moved into position over the submerged floating dry dock Seaspan Careen and secured by cables. (Murray Polson photo)
HMCS Corner Brook in floating dry dock Seaspan Careen while pumping buoyancy tanks is completed. In the background is the naval tug Glendyne, the Seaspan Raven' is at the far end of the floating dry dock. The smallest tug, with her mast down, is the Seaspan Foam. (Murray Polson photo)
HMCS Corner Brook in the fully buoyant Seaspan Careen ready for towing. (Murray Polson photo)
HMCS Corner Brook (SSK-878) is a Victoria-class diesel electric submarine of 2,400 tons displacement. She is 70m x 7.6m carrying a crew of 48. She is capable of 12 knots on the surface and 20 knots submerged. An SSK is a long-range hunter-killer submarine. She is the former Royal Navy Upholder class submarine HMS Ursula (S42), purchased from the British at the end of the Cold War. She is the third ship of the Victoria-class and is named after the city of Corner Brook, Newfoundland. She is covered in anechoic tiles (a sophisticated stealth technology) to reduce her detection by active sonar. She has six torpedo tubes and can carry up to eighteen heavyweight torpedoes for use against surface and sub-surface targets.
Site News: April 17, 2024
The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 92,205 vessel histories (with 15,628 images and 13,173 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters). The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,616 entries (with 4,013 images).
In 2023 the Nauticapedia celebrated the 50th Anniversary of it’s original inception in 1973 (initially it was on 3" x 5" file cards). It has developed, expanded, digitized and enlarged in those ensuing years to what it is now online. If it was printed out it would fill more than 300,000 pages!
My special thanks to our volunteer IT adviser, John Eyre, who (since 2021) has modernized, simplified and improved the update process for the databases into a semi–automated processes. His participation has been vital to keeping the Nauticapedia available to our netizens.
Also my special thanks to my volunteer content accuracy checker, John Spivey of Irvine CA USA, who has proofread thousands of Nauticapedia vessel histories and provided input to improve more than 11,000 entries. His attention to detail has been a huge unexpected bonus in improving and updating the vessel detail content.