Getting ship shape
Naval warship in North Sydney for six-month refit
NORTH SYDNEY — A military warship will be making North Sydney home for the next six months.
The HMCS Kingston is drydocked at the Canadian Maritime Engineering Ltd. shipyard in North Sydney for a total refit but it’s far from the regular maintenance of a standard ship.
“A lot of it's top-secret military stuff and we all needed special security clearance to be able to work on it,” said Dean Mitchell, vice-president of operations for Atlantic Canada.
The ship arrived in North Sydney on June 10.
“It’s a very complex dry docking for the military,” he said.
Mitchell said the ship will be sandblasted and painted from top to bottom, inside and out. All four engines need work and the generators need to be rebuilt.
“A lot of the military equipment on board they use for detecting other ships and stuff needs to be changed out and upgraded,” he said. “It’s getting it ready for another five years of service with no issues.”
Anyone driving on Commercial Street can see the massive ship, which is about 180 feet long and 36 feet wide. Mitchell said soon it will be closed in for painting purposes.
“There will be one big roof put over the whole thing here in the days following.”
Canadian Maritime Engineering Ltd. has seven shipyards across the country, as well as offices and repair shops across the country.
The navy has 12 identical coastal defence vessels, six situated on the West Coast and six in Halifax. Mitchell said they have been doing a lot of work for the military, including on these vessels 12 months a year ever since the ships were built from 1996-1999.
“There are all kinds of equipment prohibited and we have to cover it up if we move it across the yard so the public can’t even see it.”
This is the first time the company has drydocked one of the naval ships in North Sydney. A lot of equipment was removed from the warship before it was towed into the shipyard.
“They’ve taken a lot of that critical stuff off of it because it wasn’t needed for this refit,” Mitchell said.
Employees have to go through security clearance with the military to work on the equipment. Mitchell said when these ships go on military exercises or deployments, there have been occasions they’ve had to send some of their repair crew to Africa and other places around the world.
“They fly us in, escort us to the vessel, we make repairs for them and get them back operational,” he said. “It doesn’t happen all the time but I’d say every two years half a dozen of our guys get put on planes to chase military ships somewhere across the country.”
Meanwhile, Canadian Maritime Engineering Ltd. continues to grow. In 2015, the company purchased the Archibald Wharf property from the Cape Breton Regional Municipality to expand its existing shipyard next door.
In 2019, they announced a $3.16-million expansion to increase its capabilities in the manufacture of steel and aluminum structures and vessels such as fishing boats, tug boats and barges.
At that time it was hoped to get to 60 employed at the shipyard by 2020 but currently they are up to 80.
Mitchell said they keep getting more clients and customers every year.
“It’s slowly getting bigger and bigger as each year goes by,” he said. “We’re keeping all the locals employed and trying to keep producing more work.”
One of their busiest times ever was actually through the pandemic when the country was basically at a standstill.
Mitchell said they are an essential service and many companies took advantage of the downtime to get their ships repaired during the pandemic.
“They got equipment refurbished so they’d have the next five years maintenance-free,” he said. “It made us busier than we would have been through the springtime.”
CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke said the shipyard has made a real impact on our local economy with well-paying jobs while supporting other development and community engagement.
“The process to achieve today’s success involved making difficult choices for the right reasons,” he said. “It is reassuring to know that the commitments made are being honoured, resulting in more positive change.”
Clarke said North Sydney has a long history as a working harbour, from the early days of being a shipping and merchant town with coal, the fisheries, ferry link to Newfoundland and a military presence.
“The spinoffs have been tremendous. Local supply and service companies have realized new business. Hotels, restaurants and stores are all benefitting from the constant turnover of vessels and crew.”